How much is enough? In a culture that encourages acquisitiveness through an advertising industry that tells us we need more, better, and faster products, how can Christian believers make choices free from the compulsion to stockpile things? When obsession with food, diets, and exercise leads to over­ indulgence or abuse of our bodies, what wisdom will enable us to cherish our physical being as a gift from God? As competition drives us in the sports arena, corporate world, job mar­ket, or beauty pageant, how can we recapture a sense of community and mutual respect? If we always rush, achieve, grasp, or fill the hours with mindless busy-ness, how shall we hear the still small voice of our loving Creator who is always inviting us to fullness of life? Saint Benedict's words offer us a remedy for the sickness of soul that results from life lived out of kilter with the natural rhythms of our deepest being. He calls us to embody balance, to bring our being and our doing into harmony as we learn to hear God speak not only through intentional times of stillness but also in the humdrum, ordi­nary events of our days.

Balance, or resonance, characterizes the Rule that Benedict wrote to guide his community living in northern Italy during the mid-sixth century C.E. Unlike some of the extreme ascetics of the desert, Benedict calls for moderation in all things and says that in drawing up the Rule he intends

"nothing harsh, nothing burdensome." (The Rule, Prologue 46).

He deals with so many issues that touch our lives today: attitudes toward work, the need for recreation, appropriate quantities of food and drink, adequate rest, respect for one another, time for silence, the place of study in order to grow as faithful Christians, and a willingness to listen attentively to other members of the community so that shared wis­dom and gifts enrich all. Above all, Benedict dearly believes that God is both the center and the circumference of life together, intimately present yet also beyond and always invit­ing us to stretch and grow more fully into Christ.

My book explores some major themes in the Rule of Saint Benedict, allowing them to address us as we also attempt to follow the Christian way. Most of us are not called to the cloister, yet we find the practical common sense of Saint Bene­dict and his commitment to finding the holy in the ordinary readily accessible to us. Even the three monastic vows, stabil­ity, conversion of life, obedience, translate readily to life in the world. All of us need an anchor, a place of inner security in the midst of a mobile, transitory world, but as we consent to stability, to being where we are instead of escaping to some temporary bolt-hole, we are called to conversion This book will explore some major themes in the Rule of Saint Benedict, allowing them to address us as we also attempt to follow the Christian way. Most of us are not called to the cloister, yet we find the practical common sense of Saint Bene­dict and his commitment to finding the holy in the ordinary readily accessible to us. Even the three monastic vows, stabil­ity, conversion of life, obedience, translate readily to life in the world. All of us need an anchor, a place of inner security in the midst of a mobile, transitory world, but as we consent to stability, to being where we are instead of escaping to some temporary bolt-hole, we are called to conversion.

We may need to change our inclination toward escape, our desire to avoid confrontation, or our readiness to compromise our discipleship. And certainly obedience to the word of God is a promise we need to make again and again as we get pulled aside by the insidious voices that suggest God's way means deprivation instead of gift. The Rule of Saint Benedict embod­ies the conviction that we have all we need—we have enough. Conversely Benedict also tells us that we need all we have, for all our gifts, personal history, and life experience make up the raw material out of which we are formed in God's image and grow together in community.

Excerpt from Heart Whispers: Benedictine Wisdom for Today by Elizabeth J. Canham, Copyright © 1999 by Upper Room Books. Used with permission.