I've continued to ponder and read about personal Rules of Life. On Tuesday I ordered these three books and they have already arrived at my local post office:
At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us, by Margaret Guenther
Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way, by Stephen Macchia
A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul, by Holly Pierlot
I continue to be perplexed by (a) my own deep wish for a personal Rule for my own life; and (b) my resistance to the very idea as soon as I attempt to put any actual rule (however small) in place. What gives?
The problem might lie in my own refusal to acknowledge my actual deepest desires. If a Rule is not authentic to the given person, it cannot succeed. It might be that, in my attempts to craft a Rule for myself, I am trying to use the Rule to force myself into becoming someone other than who I actually am. I suspect that many people turn to the idea of a Rule for this very reason -- because they do not like, and do not accept, who they actually are and want to try, yet again, to become someone else.
In any event, my eye and spirit have been very much drawn to these words of Holly Pierlot, author of the third book above:
When Mother Teresa began writing her Rule, she didn’t begin with the schedule. Instead she began writing out the “principles and spiritual goals” that defined the mission of the Missionary of Charity.
Okay, so it seems that we should focus, from the outset, on our "principles and spiritual goals."
We need to be honest about those, however. For some reason, that can be difficult. (Why?)
Anyway, my hope is to read these three books, use them and report on them!
- - - - -
Note: A substantial excerpt from Holly Pierlot's book is available for download at the Sophia Institute site.
Comments