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'You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge. Rid your heart of all deceit. Never give a, hollow greeting of peace or turn away when somebody needs your love. Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue' (RB, 4: 22-7).

Before we can take a step into the sanctuary, we have to find the doorway and that doorway is virtue. To help you locate this doorway in your own life, 1 suggest that you take that extract from the Rule and use it as an examination of conscience. One way to do this is to take each sentence and put 'I' or 'my' into it. So now it reads: 'I do not act in anger or nurse a grudge. 1 rid my heart of all deceit. 1 never give a hollow greeting of peace and 1 never turn away when somebody needs my love. 1 speak the truth with heart and tongue.' If this personalised version is hard to say, then keep it before you as both a summons each morning and a checklist each night. Review the moments in which you have been true to those words and rejoice in those moments. Admit to yourself those moments of the day when you have failed to live out this ideal. Gradually, day by day, let the words move from your head to your heart until they start to shape your day and its relationships. The doorway to sanctuary is the doorway to your heart.

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There were three earnest men who were friends and became monks. One chose to live out the saying 'BIessed are the peacemakers' and worked to, reconcile enemies. The second chose to visit the sick. But the third stayed in solitude. Now the first worked among many contentious people and found that he could not appease them all, so eventually he was overcome with exhaustion. He sought out his friend who was caring for the sick, only to find that he too was worn out, depressed and unable to carry on. The two of them decided to visit their friend who lived in the desert and they told him all their, troubles. When they asked him how he was, the monk was silent for a while and then poured some water into a bowl. 'Look at the water,' he said and they saw that it was murky. After a while he said, 'Look again and see how clear the water has become.' As they looked, the two monks saw their own faces as in a mirror. And the monk said to his friends: 'Because of the turbulence of life, the one who lives in the midst of activity does not see his sins. But when he is quiet, especially in solitude, then he sees the real state of things.'

Ladder of humility

• The First Step of Humility is 'fear of God', not in the sense of terror but in the sense of awe. pp100
• The Second Step of Humility 'is that a monk does not love his own will or delight in the satisfaction of his own desires'. 101
• In the Third Step of Humility Benedict opens up the soul to those other factors that we can obey when we have learned to slow down our reactions to our cravings. In this step, 'A monk for the love of God submits to his superior in all obedience.' As we saw in the last chapter, this is not the military obedience required for the good functioning of an army, but rather the obedience required for a family or community to be a place of love. This is a concrete way of setting aside our desires and is an expression of freedom. 102
• The Fourth Step of Humility reveals how the previous step benefits not just the family or community but also the one who is obedient: 'In this obedience under difficult, unfavourable, or even unjust conditions, his heart quietly embraces suffering,' this last word being patientiam in the original; so 1 would say 'embraces patience`. 102
• The Fifth Step of Humility is that a man does not conceal from his abbot any evil thoughts entering his heart, or any wrongs committed in secret, but rather confesses them humbly'. This has been called 'radical self-honesty.
• Sixth Step is that the monk is content with eth lowest and most menial treatment and regards himself as a poor and worthless workman in whatever task he is given'. Like ,poor', 'worthless' is a relative term meaning 'less worthy rather than 'of no worth`. The emphasis here, however, should be on contentment: the ability to be content whatever happens to you is the fruit of great self-awareness. Even when status is taken away, the humble person can live fruitfully and happily.
• The Seventh Step is that a man not only admits with his tongue but is also convinced in his heart that he is inferior to all and of less value'. What is significant here is the emphasis on inner conviction.
• The Eith step is that a monk does only what is endorsed by the common rule of the monastery and the example set by his superiors 106

Benedict wants a community where people can express individuality rather than individualism. Individualism is simply doing your own thing in your own way and blanking out the other people. Individuality involves bringing your particular contribution to bear on flic life of the community, even if that is a difficult cotiti-ibtitioii for others to accept; for example, a criticism. 121

Peace is the fruit of justice 167