Casting Bread: Crumbs for the New Year by debgrant
I am closing in on the end of reading The Monastic Heart by Joan Chittister
I am, like all of us, closing in on the end of another year.
I am intentionally leaning into this season of my life in which the pieces of a long career as a pastor are in my rearview mirror and shaping a season of living the path ahead.
Most recently, I have been thinking about the crumbs that Benedict cast on the path and now thanks to Chittister’s book, I am nibbling upon what he had to say about humility.
A few tasty crumbs on humility from Benedict, a really ancient holy person:
God is here. You don’t have to find God.
God really wants the best for you. Better than you want for yourself.
Like any relationship, pay attention.
Find a confidant. Someone of character, honest, true.
Be honest with yourself.
Stop expecting the universe to meet your demands.
You can accept yourself without tearing others down.
Rejoice in everyone’s gifts. Stop preening and amplifying yourself.
Control your tongue - the speech that destroys some or suppresses others. Refuse to carry lies or spread insults. Keep in mind, silence in the face of sin is its own evil.
Don’t be gross or rude. Be careful with humor.
Speak gently, seriously, and briefly. To demand attention is to smother the ideas of others and is not an act of building community. It’s civil war.
No bullying, ridicule, demeaning, excluding, suppressing, arrogance.
Awareness of God in you forever gives you all the security you need. You don’t have to make up your own importance.
Humility does its job when the world is safe for us all.
Imagine that.
So my resolution for the new year and beyond is a path of humility.
My hope is for a world that is safe for us all.
A Blessed and Holy New Year to you,
deb
A Blessed and Holy New Years to you, also. Thank you for your continued encouraging words. Words are indeed powerful!