The rule of St. Benedict for a daily life, learning to listen to God with a discerning heart.

I'm Chris McGregor.

Living in Harmony, Episode 36.

St. HeldeGard now speaks about the return of harmony.

Life begins to come back into balance when the soul, the body, and the ordinary work of daily life are brought back into right relation to God.

St. Heldegaard doesn't treat the human person as split apart by design.

She sees body and soul as meant to work together

under God's ordering wisdom. When that order begins to be restored, a person becomes steadier,

stronger, and more fruitful. This fits the Benedictine way very naturally. The Holy Rule gives shape to time, prayer, work, and rest,

so that life doesn't remain scattered.

Healing is given room to reach the whole person.

From St. Hilda God of Bingon, Skivius.

In this, humility and charity are brighter than the other virtues,

since humility and charity are like a soul and body that possess stronger powers

than the other powers of soul and bodily members.

How? Humility is like the soul and charity like the

body. And they cannot be separated from each other, but work together, just as soul and body cannot be

disjoined, but work together as long as a person lives in the body.

St. Hildegard is speaking here about wholeness. We often live as though body and soul

were working against one another. We speak as if the body were only a burden, or as if the

soul would flourish while the rest

of life remains disordered.

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