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

I'm Chris McGregor.

The Book of Special Grace, Being held by God.

Episode 39.

We now turn to St. McDilda of Hacoborne, a Benedictine nun whose whole life was steeped in the

liturgy.

She was formed under the holy rule, which doesn't treat liturgical prayer as something secondary,

but gives it shape, rhythm, and direction at the heart of both

the community's life and the life of each soul. At Haftka, that ordered life bore remarkable fruit.

The community flourished in prayer, sacred learning, music, and holiness, and St. McTelta herself was formed within that rich

Benedictine world of the divine office, the Psalms, and Eucharistic Love. That matters not only for

monastic life, but for us as well. Parish life matters. Worship and community matters. The liturgy doesn't simply gather individuals in the

same place. It forms us together before God. It teaches us to listen, how to praise, to receive,

and to belong to one another in Christ. St. McDilda's life reminds us that when worship is loved and lived deeply, it shapes both the community and the individual soul.

That's why St. McDolda doesn't speak about God from theory or distance.

She speaks from a life lived again and again in his presence, in praise, in listening, and in the ordered rhythms

of worship. Her teaching has a gentle confidence because it rises from a heart that has learned

through long fidelity that God is not far off. He is already near. She bears witness to a soul that has discovered what it means to be held.

St. Mechilda of Hacoborn, the Book of Special Grace.

The Lord said to me,

I have loved you from eternity, and I hold you continually in my heart. Do not fear, for you are never

outside my care. St. McTolda speaks with remarkable tenderness, but that tenderness is not

...