Weekly Word

Commitment is that quality of life that depends more on the ability to wait for something to come to fulfillment—through good days and through bad—than it does on being able to sustain an emotional

“The life of a monastic,” Benedict writes, “ought to be a continuous Lent”—a life in which holy reading, self-control, and reflection on the great questions of life could be of the essence.

The purpose of the monastic life is never to amass wealth for the sake of the self. Instead, Benedict’s definition of the relationship between persons and things is sufficiency—not frugality.

We may all seem to be going in the same direction, but when we get to the crossroads of a world in flux the human parade splits: Some emphasize the need to preserve the values and structures that b