“We therefore urge that during the actual days of Lent the Sisters keep their lives most pure.” Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 49
I have to say that my disciplines for Lent have changed since coming to the Monastery. I no longer have the normal things to “give up,” as some of those things have already been taken from me by the nature of Monastic life. And in the same token, some of the things that I previously added to my life are now a common everyday practice. So the question, “What are you doing for Lent?” now has deeper expressions for me. Through prayer and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, this year for my personal Lenten discipline I decided to focus on Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict – “The Instruments of Good Works.” This chapter spells out, in seventy-two brief and solid phrases, the things that one needs to do (or should refrain from doing) in order to receive “that wage the Lord has promised: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” RB4, 1Cor2:9
I enlarged a copy of the entire chapter, printed it, cut apart the individual statements and put them in a bag. Each morning I pull a slip, post it on my bedroom door and use that as my focus and guidepost for the day. (I repeat the ritual a second time when I come home from work, as there are more “tools of good works” than there are days in Lent.) Each night before falling asleep, I use RB Chapter 4, and in particular the tools for the day, as my nightly examine of conscience. Three weeks into Lent, I have found this practice to be very rewarding. I am, once again, amazed at how the Rule of St. Benedict, a document written over fifteen hundred years ago, is relevant and inspiring to my life today. What a gift to be a Benedictine! So I ask you…What are you doing for Lent?
Sister Lisa Maurer
Sister Lisa Maurer was born and raised in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, before entering the Monastery, Sister Lisa taught and coached in Catholic Schools within the New Ulm Diocese. Sister Lisa made her first Monastic Profession in August 2009. She currently ministers at the parishes of St. Lawrence and St. Joseph in Duluth.
See all of Sister Lisa’s posts.