The Rule of Life for the Monastic Community of St. Hild and St. Cuthbert
Chapter I
Purpose and Basis of Common Life *
Before all else, dear sisters and brothers, let us love God and then our neighbor, because these are the chief commandments given to us. *
1. The following are the precepts enjoined on us to observe as the Monastic Community of St. Hild and St. Cuthbert.*
2. The purpose for our entering this way of life is:
To be Available to God and community, embodying the spiritual journey by:
being alone with God in the cell of our own hearts, the practice of hospitality to all we meet, to pray for the world, and to embrace the ministries to which God and community call us with joy.
To be vulnerable to God and community by:
the discipline of prayer, saturation in Sacred Reading, accountability to the community, challenging assumed truths, affirming that relationships matter more than reputation, and creating inclusive community, seeking to live out this manner life as the Monastic Community of St. Hild and St. Cuthbert, openly, in the world. **
3. Let us live this life and do whatever is done in a spirit of Thanksgiving. Abandon attempts to achieve security, they are futile, for In God alone do our souls find rest. Give up the search for wealth but give thanks for the wealth each of us have already been given and come to comfortable rest in the certainty that we who participate in this life with an attitude of thanksgiving will receive its full promise. ***
4. Practice charity from what each of us has in the world. Keep in mind the responsibilities of each of our households and never neglect those responsibilities.**
5.Those of us who own little should not look for those things in the Companions that we are unable to have in the world. Nevertheless, we should not consider ourselves fortunate because we have found the kind of life which we were unable to find in the world. *
6. Practice humility and let us not hold our heads high, because we may associate with people whom we did not dare to approach in the world, but let us rather lift up our hearts and not seek after what is vain. Otherwise, the Companions will come to serve a useful purpose for the rich and not the poor, if the rich are made humble there and the poor are puffed up with pride.*
7. The rich, for our part, who seemed important in the world, must not look down upon our Companions who have come into this holy community from a condition of poverty. We should seek to glory in the companionship of the poor rather than in the reputation of rich relatives. We should neither be elated if we have contributed a part of our wealth to the community, nor take more pride in sharing our riches with the community than if we were to enjoy them in the world. Indeed, pride lurks even in good works in order to destroy them. And what good is it to scatter our wealth abroad by giving to the poor, even to become poor ourselves, when our unhappy soul is thereby more given to pride in despising riches than it had been in possessing them? *
8. Let all of us then live together in oneness of mind and heart, mutually honoring God in ourselves, whose temples we have become. *
Chapter II
Prayer *
1. Let us, throughout the day, return to meet God in the cells of our hearts, as often as our life situation allows, being steadfast in prayer for others and in simple company with God alone.**
2. When we pray to God in Psalms and hymns, let us think over in our hearts the words that come from our lips.*
Chapter III
Humility ****
1. Cultivate humility. To be exalted is to be in danger. False pride warps our existence and establishes our lives on a false foundation. No one can win all the time. Therefore, a life based on bettering others will always be unfulfilled. The first step of humility and the sublime life is to take away more from self-centeredness everyday until we have been freed, even from the desire of perfection.***
2. The second stage of humility is to distrust our own insatiable wants, to weigh carefully our pleasures, needs and wishes against those of others lest we fall into the never ending demands of self interest.***
3. The third stage of humility is to accept our limitations, even to death. Accept that there are always events outside our control, but these events do not have to control our spirit.***
4. The fourth stage of humility is to be patient and to maintain a quiet mind, even in the face of inequity, injury and contradiction, so that we may challenge these with true passion in a spirit of justice and mercy. ***
5. The fifth stage of humility is not to conceal our faults from ourselves but to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves, for to lie to ourselves paves the way to falsifying all other relationships.***
6. The sixth stage of humility is to be content with the work we are given to do in any moment of our day. It is not the work itself but our attitude towards it that confers the value of our experience and the experience others will have of us.***
7. The seventh step of humility is to practice a real sense of our own self in relation to the world, that our greatest triumphs and our smallest actions are of equal weight in the world. ***
8. The eighth stage of humility is that we take no action except that which draws us more in love with God and more in love with our neighbor.**
9. The ninth stage of humility is that we refrain from judgement of others. It is not for us to live the lives others must live or to understand the infinite forces at work in every instance of another’s life. We must restrain not only our criticism but also our advice, offering it only when requested and then only with sincere humility. Do not judge.***
10. The tenth stage of humility is to refrain from taking pleasure in the losses of others. If we have sincere empathy we can never believe we are superior to another, nor take pleasure in another’s shortcomings or misfortunes. Practice empathy.***
11. The eleventh stage of humility is to speak gently and briefly. Practice listening before oration. Participation in any relationship whether in community or the world requires that we must listen to others. Practice accessibility. ***
12. The twelfth step of humility is to observe all these intentions with passion and habit rather than by discipline. Be true and kind to yourself when you fall and do not judge others when they fall. After long practice, we will sometimes accomplish these lofty goals as our natural manner.***
Chapter IV
Safeguarding Relationships. **
1. There should be nothing about the life of the Companions that would take precedence over those who are in relationships to another, be they partners or families. **
2. Remember that for those of us in relationships, it is the primary vocation God has given us. Charity in the home, allows our charity in the world to grow stronger and touch, with more grace, those with whom we minister outside the home. **
3. Those of us who have made life promises or wear a habit are not to consider ourselves superior over those who cannot afford the habit, for our clothing is to be a reminder of our humility and not as a sign for preference.Nor are we to consider those who our are our lay companions as inferior in their spiritual life**
Chapter V
Asking Pardon and Forgiving Offenses *
1.We should either avoid quarrels altogether or else put an end to them as quickly as possible; otherwise, anger may grow into hatred, making a plank out of a splinter, and turn the soul into a murderer. For so we read: Everyone who hates a sister or brother is a murderer. *
2. Whoever of us has injured another by open insult, or by abusive or even incriminating language, must remember to repair the injury as quickly as possible by an apology, and the one who suffered the injury must also forgive, without further wrangling. But if we have offended one another, we must forgive one another's trespasses for the sake of our prayers which should be recited with greater sincerity each time we repeat them. Although a sister or brother is often tempted to anger, yet prompt to ask pardon from one we admit to having offended, such is better than another who, though less given to anger, finds it too hard to ask forgiveness. But one who is never willing to ask pardon, or does not do so from the heart, has no reason to profess this life in the Companions. We must then avoid being too harsh in our words, and should they escape our lips, let those same lips not be ashamed to heal the wounds they have caused. *
Chapter VI
Governance and Obedience *
1. The superior (prior/prioress/abbot/abbess) should be listened to with the respect due as he or she have vowed before God to bear responsibility for us all. *
2. The superior however, must remember to never impose that which is too harsh or burdensome, giving preference for the weak over those who are strong. *
3. The superior must not think himself or herself fortunate in the exercise of authority but as one serving us in love. In our eyes the prior/prioress shall hold the first place among us by the dignity of office, but in fear before God shall be as the least among us.
4. The superior must be seen as an example of good works toward all. Let the prior/prioress admonish the unruly, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, and be patient toward all. Let the prior/prioress strive to be loved by us rather than feared, ever mindful that an account must given to God.*
Chapter VII
Observance of the Rule *
1. Neither slavish adherence to this Rule of Life nor any rule of life, can, on its own, accomplish what is truly necessary. Anything in this Rule that leads away from love of God and neighbor must be at once, ignored and thrown away. This way of life we are given to live must be loved, whatever it brings; the little good that may come from this Rule is solely for the purpose of helping achieve a greater goal. To bring that Life as Light to the world.**
2. Finally, then, may we all learn to prefer nothing to the love of Christ, and may Christ bring us all into everlasting life. Amen. ****
