Always We Begin Again

The Benedictine Way of Living--

...
The First rule is simply this:

live this life
and do whatever is done,
in a spirit of Thanksgiving.

Abandoned attempts to achieve security,
they are futile,

give up the search for wealth,
it is demeaning,

quit the search for salvation,
it is selfish,

and come to comfortable rest
in the certainty that those who
participate in this life
with an attitude of Thanksgiving
will receive its full promise.

I read it again. again. daily again. I effort to read these words into my life, read this spirit into my spirit. read the state of being and world view into this (my?) state of being and world view. Daily the words find new relevance to my existence. "Always we begin again" is itself a daily contemplative effort toward a foreign reality; to "always begin again" makes no sense in the context of the society that has raised me and instilled in me its ways. Intellectually feasible but lacking lacking experiential reference to build meaning for reality. It is a reality which in contemplative discipline, neither lacks a disarming hope, nor blunt challenging of present existence.

Oh God,
Get Egypt out of us.
Take us out of Egypt if you must to do this, as you did with your people before us.

Let our prayer not be for a better world
but for the breaking in of a new world and the transforming of our minds from the old to new--
your Kingdom come
your will be done
on Earth
As it is in Heaven.

(The rule is from St. Benedict's Rule, restated for today's reader by attorney John McQuiston, titled Always We Begin Again. This is only the first rule.
these rules, particularly as stated in this little book simply because it is easier to understand its relevance, has been invaluable to me and many of my close friends and their close friends in our pursuit of daily living a peaceful, full, contemplative life in relationship with God and all of creation.)

...
The First rule is simply this:

live this life
and do whatever is done,
in a spirit of Thanksgiving.

Abandoned attempts to achieve security,
they are futile,

give up the search for wealth,
it is demeaning,

quit the search for salvation,
it is selfish,

and come to comfortable rest
in the certainty that those who
participate in this life
with an attitude of Thanksgiving
will receive its full promise.