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Theme: Good work is necessary for our personal and community sustenance. Our most effective work flows from an inner receptivity and rest in the creative, redeeming presence and energy of God working through us.
Opening prayer: Creating, redeeming God, give me the faith to let my whole being rest deeply in you, so that my work flows freely and generously from your creative life and glorifies you.
About Benedict
Building and maintaining a monastery, serving one another in a monastic community, receiving guests, and helping poor people required Benedict and his community to work regularly for about six hours every day. Much of their work was manual labor, quite literally, work done by hand.
Water had to be carried in from a well or stream and stored for use. There were meals to be prepared and served with no modern conveniences: two cooked dishes and whatever fresh fruit or vegetables were available from the garden. Grinding grain and baking bread were daily chores, and winemaking a seasonal one. Gardens and fields needed planting, cultivating,…
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