Start with Ecclesiasticus 24:14-16 with which most of us are not familiar, Wisdom speaking:
14 From the beginning of time, before the worlds as people know them, God made me [Wisdom], unfailing to all eternity; in his . . . dwelling-place I waited on His presence;
15 and now, no less faithfully, I made Sion (Zion) my stronghold, the holy city my resting-place, Jerusalem my throne.
16 My roots spread out among the people that enjoy his favor, my God has granted me a share in his own domain; where his faithful servants are gathered I love to linger.
Thus spoke Wisdom.
Linger? We can call it meditation: Dear God, sweet God, I believe You, I trust You, I respectYou, etc. etc., fill in the gaps with short calls to faith, trust, love sweet love . . .
Same day’s liturgy, something from Luke, 11:27-28, who made the best of not having known the God-man Jesus by interviewing those who had known Him.
As Jesus spoke to the multitudes, a woman . . . lifted up her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that nursed You.”
But He said, “Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”
A line to remember, to say the least . . .
And then . . .
In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet,
and with two they hovered aloft. They cried one to the other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it and said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”
Great story here. Isaiah, the most willing of the prophets and co-author of the biggest of profits’ books, did not have to be talked into the prophet’s role, but was ready to go, confident in his leader’s help. Others were faithful to the Lord, but dreaded taking on the prophet’s role. “Here I am, send me,” Isaiah said.
Benedict, the world’s and history’s greatest when it comes to monasteries, said the same centuries later with fewer dramatics. He didn’t invent monasteries but immensely expanded them, giving monks a task that saved Western Europe, having them copy — by hand, my friend — the works of the Fathers of centuries past, literary giants of the East.
Saint Benedict, pray for us.
Blithe Spirit 