Today's section of RB ends with Nihil amori Christi praeponere: to prefer nothing to the love of Christ or to put nothing before the love of Christ. That sums up the whole purpose of monastic life. Those who are not monks and nuns may well ask why we Benedictines make such a fuss about what should be true of any Christian. The answer is, of course, that we don't. Chapter 4 of RB has its origins in a collection of precepts for Christian living which would have been used in adult baptismal catechesis. It is, in highest degree, lay spirituality, a reminder of the centrality of baptism, of our immense dignity as children of God. On a murky Monday morning when a multiplicity of urgent tasks presses upon us it is heartening to recall that this isn't "all there is". For each and every one of us there is something more, a share in the life of God himself.

(Note: this week's podcast will not go up until this evening. Blame those urgent tasks referred to above.)