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

I'm Chris McGregor, living in harmony, Episode 36.

St. Heligard now speaks about what healing looks like when it begins to take root.

It's not only easing the wounds, it's 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. Heligard 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. Heligard of Bingen, Skivias.

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

This 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. Heligard is speaking here about wholeness.

We often live as though a 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.

St. Heligard doesn't see things that way.

She sees the human person as created for unity.

This soul gives life and the body is meant to serve that life.

When they begin to move together again through him with him and in him, life becomes more

steady, more ordered and more at peace.

That doesn't mean perfection.

St. Heligard is not describing an ideal life with no weakness, fatigue or struggle.

She is speaking about order.

A person becomes steadier when life is no longer being pulled apart in every direction.

In the Benedictine way, prayer and work are not set against each other.

aura at labora gives a rhythm that helps gather life back together.

The person is not healed by intensity, but by being brought back into right relation.

This is one of the reasons the Benedictine life matters so much here.

The holy rule doesn't leave a person to improvise everything.

It gives a form of life.

Time is ordered.

Prayer returns.

Work is taken up faithfully.

Rest is honored.

The body is not ignored and the soul isn't left to fend for itself.

St. Heligard helps us see the deeper wisdom in that.

This ordering isn't small or merely practical.

It serves wholeness.

And this reaches far beyond monastic life.

In ordinary life, people become worn down when everything is fragmented.

Prayer gets squeezed out.

Work becomes anxious.

Rest becomes restless.

Even the body begins to carry the strain of a divided life.

St. Heligard reminds us that healing often begins when life is brought back under a wiser

order.

There is humility in this too.

We're not self-made creatures, and we can't live well by sheer force.

We need a way of life that teaches us how to receive time, labor, and limitation under

God.

That is part of what the holy rule does.

That teaches a person how to live as one, as well as in community.

Christ stands at the center of this vision as well.

Within him, human life is not cast aside or bypassed.

It is taken up, gild, and brought into perfect union with divine life.

That is why St. Heligard's vision is so hopeful.

Grace doesn't work around our humanity.

It restores it.

So, when Heligard speaks about harmony, she's not speaking about comfort or ease.

She's speaking about the strength that comes when life is rightly ordered in God.

This soul is no longer dragging one way while the rest of life runs another.

A person begins to stand more firmly rooted in the strength God gives.

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.

Before listening to Scripture, allow your body to settle, sit or stand in a way that

feels steady.

Let your posture be natural and unforced.

Remain present.

This posture supports integration rather than separation.

We now turn to the first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 23.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.

And may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.

And may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ.

May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.

And may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus Christ, you unite what has been divided and restore harmony to our lives.

Order our work and our rest and let us live as one before you.

Amen.

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