I'M A BENEDICTINE!

 ...or I would be if I chose to be a nun!


You know I mentioned Hildegard von Bergen in my last post?  She was a Benedictine nun and I've recently been reading the Rules of St Benedict, a lovely big-hearted Italian who started a monastery somewhere around the year 500.  



I've also been looking at the difference between Augustinian and Benedictine ways of thinking.  Correct me if I'm wrong (visions of an angry monk knocking on my door!) but I believe the Augustine train of thought believes that we were born in sin, we are inherently evil, the world is evil and the best thing to do is to deny ourselves as much as we can and keep away from this fallen, terrible world.


The Benedictine view is that we are all made in the image of God, we all have the divine spark of incredible beauty and life within us (though it can get very buried), that this earth shows the wonderful indescribable beauty and being of its Creator.  That we can see God in our fellow human beings and learn so much about him from communing with nature.


Here are some quotes from our Hildegard...

'Humanity, take a good look at yourself.  Inside you've got heaven and earth - everything is hidden in you'.

'All living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God's brilliance, emerging from God like the rays of the sun'

'Like billowing clouds, like the incessant gurgle of the brook, the longing of the spirit can never be stilled'

'A truly holy person welcomes all that is earthly'

'Everything that is in the heavens, on earth and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness'


I definitely lean toward the Benedictine way of thinking...But don't worry - I'm not going to enter the cloister and take vows - been there, seen it and done it! (but that's another story)...

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