Friday 25 September 2020
By the end of today’s walking I will just be 80k shy of Wangaratta. I have arranged a virtual welcome from the Dean, the Very Reverend Ken Goodger and this will be posted on next Friday’s blog entry.
I continue to be amazed at the generosity of people and we have passed the $1500 mark this week in donations which is fantastic.
For those who like the facts and figures – here is a screenshot of my phone for the last week of walking. As you can see I have averaged 11k this week. I am really enjoying getting out and walking and have increased my pace up to about 5.8k an hour.
I continue to ponder my reading as I walk and Benedict is never far from my thoughts. Joan Chittister’s reflections in her book on the rule of Benedict are are good way into Benedict’s work. Joan writes the following about a section of chapter four of the Rule – Tools for Good Works –
Nonviolence plunges the monastic into the core of Christianity and allows for no rationalisations. Monastic spirituality is Christianity to the hilt. It calls for national policies that take the poor into first account; it calls for a work life that does not bully underlings or undercut the competition; it calls for families that talk to one another tenderly; it calls for a foreign policy not based on force. Violence has simply no place in the monastic heart.
A little bit later she adds,
Benedict reminds us, too, that physical control and spiritual perspective are linked: pride and gluttony and laziness are of a piece. We expect too much, we consume too much, and we contribute too little. We give ourselves over to ourselves. We become engorged with ourselves and, as a result, there is no room left for the stripped-down, stark, and simple furniture of the soul.
‘the stripped-down, stark, and simple furniture of the soul’ is an image worthy of much pondering!
Next week – Wangaratta.
Father Shane's Observations and Travels 