On Being Human: the body and the soul

The supernatural is humanized and the human is supernaturalized through the Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord. 

The truth of this has been known to the Benedictines for centuries. The great Rule of Benedict takes ordinary, everyday occurrences and puts these into an order which allows a Catholic seeking perfection to find it.

Benedict was the inventor of "time management", which we all need. When I was teaching at the college and university level, the first day, besides introducing and explaining my syllabus for the course, homework was given on time management. The students were given a grid I copied which included each hour of each day in a week. The students had to write down what they were doing in each time slot. The sheet above is what I gave them to use.

In the next class, they shared these with me privately and I found up to seven extra hours of study MINIMUM out of wasted time for study hours.

Those who became disciplined about their time succeeded.

Those who did not care about scheduling simply did not do a well in my class and in others.

Benedict's idea is the same. Organize a day with prayer and work to maximize one's time with God. The Rule covers every detail of a day, a week, a month, a liturgical year.

Why is this important for us busy lay people?

Our lives become wastelands of lost time. Do you have a long commute? Do your lectio divina on the Tube.

Do you have an hour at lunch alone? Go to Mass or Adoration. Schedule God into your time.

Are your married? Give your wife/husband time for prayer daily. Make sure your children are setting aside time for prayer.

This is supernaturalizing the day. The human can be made holy.

The holy can be made human. Ordinary things like dinner time must become times of communication and even teaching.

No grazing...

Think about Benedict's Rule and see if parts of it fit into your family life. 

My mother made us be quiet after our snack when we came home from school. We talked and then we were given quiet time.

We had to be comfortable being with the family and alone. This is the way of humans.

We are all called to perfection in our lives. This is not a dream or an unreal goal.

But, this takes work and scheduling.

For a single person, this should not be a problem at all.

For marrieds, each spouse must help the other develop skills of prayer and the reading of Scripture. For parents, this is a necessity of child formation. Parents, it is your duty to teach your children proper time skills.

In this Eastertide, think of supernaturalizing the natural and naturalizing the supernatural.