My monk book - part 1

Ben laughs that I call this my monk book but he would get confused if I refered to it with its title, and there's lots of interesting things in it to talk about.

My monk book is one I came across in the library, Finding Sanctuary - Monastic Steps for Everyday Life by Abbot Christopher Jamison who was involved in The Monastery programme on BBC a couple of years ago.

The first part is Everyday Life - How did I get this busy? Abbot Jamison talks about the search for real sanctuary and how to build this in the midst of everyday life. 'Sanctuary' means a holy place of refuge. The word has been commercialised in the shape of package holidays, spa breaks etc but those things can only provide a brief refuge, and not a holy one.

Abbot Jamison reckons the entry to true sanctuary is VIRTUE. This is Psalm 15:

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?

He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart

and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,

who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,

who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.

He says: 'You cannot mistreat people one moment and then find sanctuary in the next. Finding the sacred begins with the recognition of the sacred in your daily living... ...Virtue is the recognition of the sacred in daily life.'

The rest of the book talks about parts of the Rule of St Benedict. The first one is silence which I'm having a go at, so I might blog on that soon.