This week Mike talks about getting the balance right between physical fitness and spiritual fitness. With a focus on “immediate family” as the first neighbors we need to love, he pulls in St. Benedict to help us understand how best to love God and neighbor… and issues a challenge for all saints in progress. Finally, he explains the difference between “free gifts of self” and “payments for services rendered,” and explores the dangers and pitfalls of a living with a transactional mindset.
Loving God and Neighbor
Adapted from “The Rule of St. Benedict for Daily Living”
What does “loving God” look like?
In the first place, to love the Lord God with all one’s heart, all one’s soul and all one’s strength.
Deny oneself, in order to follow Christ.
Chastise the body. Do not seek soft living. Love fasting.
Avoid worldly conduct.
Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
Put one’s hope in God.
Attribute to God, and not to self, whatever good one sees in oneself. But to recognize always that the evil is one’s own doing, and to impute it to oneself.
Keep death always before one’s eyes. Fear the day of judgement. Dread Hell.
Know for certain that God sees one everywhere, and so keep constant guard over the actions of one’s life.
Desire eternal life with all spiritual longing.
When evil thoughts come into one’s heart, to dash them at once on the rock of Christ and to manifest them to one’s spiritual advisor, or confessor.
Do not be proud. Do not love to speak, or speak vain words. Shun boastfulness.
Listen gladly to holy reading.
Apply oneself frequently to prayer.
Daily in one’s prayer, with tears and signs, examine one’s conscience, and mend those sins for the future.
Do not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
Hate one’s own will, instead be obedient to those over you.
To be holy for the sake of being holy, not to be seen as being holy.
Love chastity.
Do not be jealous. Do not give way to envy.
Never despair of God’s mercy.
What does “loving your neighbor” look like?
Love one’s neighbor as oneself.
Do not do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not covet.
Honor all men. (In the context of marriage, husbands honor your wives, and wives, honor your husbands.)
Love one’s enemies. Do not render evil for evil. Do not render cursing for cursing, but rather blessing. Pray for one’s enemies in the love of Christ.
Patiently bear wrongs done to oneself. Bear persecution for justice sake.
Make peace with one’s adversary before sundown
Relieve the poor. Clothe the naked. Visit the sick.
Bury the dead. Help the afflicted. Console the sorrowing.
Hate no man. Do not yield to anger. Do not nurse a grudge. Do not hold guile in one’s heart.
Do not make a false show of peace. Do not forsake charity.
Do no wrong to anyone. Utter truth from heart and mouth.
Do not be a habitual drinker or a glutton.
Do not be lethargic or slothful.
Do not be a grumbler, a detractor, or a slanderer.
Keep one’s mouth from evil and depraved talk.
Do not love conflict.
Reverence the old. Love the young.
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