St Benedict | Saturday 11 July 2020

This weekend is Saturday the 11 July, the feast of St Benedict, and Sunday the 12 July, beginning the 15th week of Ordinary Time.  

The nuns of Mary, Queen of Apostles, sing the hymn in honour of  St Benedict.: “The death of our great leader, is this day recalled”.  

Today is the feast of St Benedict, whose religious order has given the Church so much over the last 1500 years, especially in education and prayer. His “Rule” is still a model of spiritual common sense, starting with the word “Listen”.  You are now invited to the reading that the Church has chosen for his feast, to listen, and then to reflect on what you have heard from the Book of Proverbs.  

Proverbs 2:1-9

My child, if you accept my words
   and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
   and inclining your heart to understanding;
if you indeed cry out for insight,
   and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver,
   and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
   and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
   from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
   he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
   and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
   and equity, every good path;  

The listener here is told to “make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to wisdom”. Is this something you practise in your day-to-day life? How might you do this today?  

What do you think is meant by “fear of the Lord”? Is it terror before God? Or something else?   If the Lord “gives wisdom”, how would that show in our lives today?  

Now listen once more to the passage and see if you can get a hold of what the future pupil is being offered by the teacher who is speaking. Have you ever had a teacher like that?  

Finally, after all your listening, see if you can put into words what you would now like to say to God.  

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.  Amen.