“Change is inevitable…change is constant,” Disraeli wrote. Well, yes and yes and no. Change is inevitable
because time, life, growth do not stand still. Change is constant because it is of the essence of living
things to grow from one stage into another. But change does not necessarily require that we obliterate
what has gone before. “Change” and “destroy” are not synonyms. What is valuable can be maintained—
even though only differently.
The fact is that the courage to change may be exactly what enables us to remain the same. When we
discover that what once spoke to an entire culture — like carrying popes through the piazza of Vatican
City on a sedia gestatoria, a sedan chair, or failing to recognize “mixed marriages” — now ceases to
speak to a people, to energize them spiritually, to make sense to the present, it’s time to change the
practices in order to save the faith.
Change is what makes a thing different — but, at the same time, it is also, often, what is needed to
make it authentic, realistic, consonant with the changing times. There are, in fact, instances in every
dimension of this ever-dynamic world that do change and change again, but which never go out of
style, never really lose the essence of themselves. Those things are the “classic” elements of life, the
prototypes of the categories they embody, the paradigms of the best in art and architecture, in
painting and statuary, in literature and drama, in culture and religious sensibilities, in governments and
civilization.
These are the models to which the world looks again and again to gauge the quality of what, in their
names, has come after them. They set the standard. They define the principles, the elements, that
make what follows them clearly one thing and not another: great rather than simply good, “a superior
example” of the category rather than just one more of its kind. The classics in every arena last from
age to age, always true, always universal in their appeal and their meaning, always attuned to the best
in the human soul.
The Rule of Benedict, a spiritual document written over 1500 years ago, is one of them. Why? Because
the Rule is about the values it preserves, not about the ways communities seek to preserve them as
time and life go by in all their flavors and places and colors and centuries. It is, indeed, then, a classic
document whose purpose is universal, whose aim is unending, whose human insight is great, and whose
values of community, obedience, humility, conversion of life, hospitality, and stewardship are perennials.
No doubt about it: “Change is inevitable…change is constant,” and change is very Benedictine — which
is obviously why we manage to stay the same.
— from the “Preface” to The Rule of Saint Benedict: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 4, by
Thomas Merton, edited by Patrick F. O’Connell (Cistercian Publications)
If you are interested in the Rule, a way of life for all seekers, we recommend the following books by
Joan Chittister: Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages, The
Illuminated Life, 12 Steps to Inner Freedom
because time, life, growth do not stand still. Change is constant because it is of the essence of living
things to grow from one stage into another. But change does not necessarily require that we obliterate
what has gone before. “Change” and “destroy” are not synonyms. What is valuable can be maintained—
even though only differently.
The fact is that the courage to change may be exactly what enables us to remain the same. When we
discover that what once spoke to an entire culture — like carrying popes through the piazza of Vatican
City on a sedia gestatoria, a sedan chair, or failing to recognize “mixed marriages” — now ceases to
speak to a people, to energize them spiritually, to make sense to the present, it’s time to change the
practices in order to save the faith.
Change is what makes a thing different — but, at the same time, it is also, often, what is needed to
make it authentic, realistic, consonant with the changing times. There are, in fact, instances in every
dimension of this ever-dynamic world that do change and change again, but which never go out of
style, never really lose the essence of themselves. Those things are the “classic” elements of life, the
prototypes of the categories they embody, the paradigms of the best in art and architecture, in
painting and statuary, in literature and drama, in culture and religious sensibilities, in governments and
civilization.
These are the models to which the world looks again and again to gauge the quality of what, in their
names, has come after them. They set the standard. They define the principles, the elements, that
make what follows them clearly one thing and not another: great rather than simply good, “a superior
example” of the category rather than just one more of its kind. The classics in every arena last from
age to age, always true, always universal in their appeal and their meaning, always attuned to the best
in the human soul.
The Rule of Benedict, a spiritual document written over 1500 years ago, is one of them. Why? Because
the Rule is about the values it preserves, not about the ways communities seek to preserve them as
time and life go by in all their flavors and places and colors and centuries. It is, indeed, then, a classic
document whose purpose is universal, whose aim is unending, whose human insight is great, and whose
values of community, obedience, humility, conversion of life, hospitality, and stewardship are perennials.
No doubt about it: “Change is inevitable…change is constant,” and change is very Benedictine — which
is obviously why we manage to stay the same.
— from the “Preface” to The Rule of Saint Benedict: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 4, by
Thomas Merton, edited by Patrick F. O’Connell (Cistercian Publications)
If you are interested in the Rule, a way of life for all seekers, we recommend the following books by
Joan Chittister: Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages, The
Illuminated Life, 12 Steps to Inner Freedom
THE COURAGE TO CHANGE
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