Benedictine

 In the movie, “The Sound Of Music,” Mother Abbess seems to be much more patient with the wayward young postulant, Maria, than the other nuns seem to be.  They want her tossed out because she just does not follow the rules.  She is forever late for things.  The Abbess is patient because they are all Benedictine.  Saint Benedict, the founder of the Benedictines, wrote a rule in which he devotes 14 chapters to the handling of the “wayward.”  I lived with the Cistercians who are Benedictine, for several years of my life and was blessed with their patience.  I am “wayward.”  I am a wayward Paulist, full of faults, yet I seem to fail in becoming shamed enough to do better.  I was allowed to live with the Cistercian’s high up in the Rocky Mountains, because of their patience with me.  There, in those mountains, I heard the sound of music, God in all the Silence.  So, be patient with the wayward.