Holding the place of Christ...

We had another splendid monastic experience here at Clyde the first week in July.  Of course, it also happened to be one of hottest weeks we've had this summer.   When our visitor from Louisiana returned home, it was 10 degrees cooler than it was in Missouri...there is just something NOT right about that!    I guess the heat made me lethargic, I was unable to come up with a blog last week!  

The community did get a chance to taste authentic Cajun style red beans and rice with sausage.  Our Louisiana visitor helped me make some for our weekly free night.  Every time I turned my back she was adding more Cayenne pepper or Creole Seasoning.   "Stop it!", I would yell.   She would just shrug and smile...

It ended up being very good but was right on the edge of what I can tolerate for 'heat.'  What can I say?...I'm from the midwest, we don't make our meat and potatoes fire engine hot.   Our other Louisiana native, Sr. Maria Victoria, thought it was great, of course.  One poor sister (of Irish ancestry) took a sample not realizing it was a bit on the toasty side and only managed one mouthful.   Needless to say, it's good for we Clyde-ians to be exposed to new foods.

It is a busy July for us...we had the monastic experience, we celebrated the Solemnity of St. Benedict last Wednesday, and now we have an election for prioress (our equivalent to an abbot) this week.  St. Benedict says much about the abbot in his famous Rule.  Here is what he says in Chapter 2 - Qualities of the Abbot:

To be worthy of the task of governing a monastery, the abbot must always remember what 
his title signifies and act as superior should.  He is believed to hold the place of Christ in 
the monastery...

Now THAT is a daunting task if ever there was one...HOLDING THE PLACE OF CHRIST.   Who the heck can fit that bill?  Needless to say, not many members of a community readily jump at the chance to 'hold the place of Christ' as superior.   These are some of the qualities St. Benedict lists for a superior:

• Goodness of life and wisdom in teaching,
• learned in divine law, chaste, temperate, merciful
• prudent and one who avoids extremes
• strives to be loved instead of feared
• should not be excitable, anxious, obstinate, jealous and over suspicious
• arrange things so the strong have something to yearn for and the weak nothing to run from

I've never met a superior who had EVERY quality thought necessary for leadership of a monastery.   That person doesn't actually exist.  Well he did exist at one time on earth, Jesus was (and still is) his name.   


As Benedictines we choose to live under a prioress.  We choose to trust that the superior can mediate the will of God for us as she leads our community.  The key word is 'choosing to trust.'   We all want our superiors to be perfect and think like WE do.  One look at the people Jesus chose to hang out with lets us know that God does not pick perfect people or even people who get a long with each other to lead the flock.   They seemed to fight/compete among themselves a fair bit...poor Peter got called 'Satan' by Jesus...the flock has always been unruly and will continue to be so.


Ultimately God IS doing the leading no matter who the superior might be.