Guests
04/December/2007 Filed in:
JottingsThis is a good time to be reading Benedict's chapter on Guests. All our plans for the beginning of Advent are in disarray. One of the community is very unwell; lots of people, both expected and unexpected, have arrived on our doorstep; and the pile of unanswered mail, both electronic and paper, would give one nightmares if one went in for that sort of thing. Situation excellent: that is exactly what is required — not the ample leisure of monastic myth, but the frazzled "just in timeness" of everyday reality. Benedict reminds us that all guests, even the unexpected, uninvited, perhaps unwelcome guests (such as illness) bring Christ into the monastery. They open us up in a way that perfect conditions of our own choosing never could. Our Advent won't be what we had hoped it would be, what we would have chosen for ourselves. It will be much better, because it will be what God has chosen for us.