Memorial of St. Scholastica

Have you ever tried to draw a large circle on a sheet of paper, a perfect circle?  It’s almost impossible with a free but unsteady hand.  But if you have a template to guide your hand and the pencil, then you can draw a perfect circle every time. 

Our rule of life as monks and nuns is like a template that guides us throughout life, making it so much easier to know and do what is pleasing to God.  For this we give thanks today for Saints like Benedict and Scholastica who have guided their disciples in the monastic way of life.

But when I consider the example of our guests who are here with us at the Eucharist, often each day, who have not professed a monastic rule of life, I am amazed and grateful for the steady hands by which they freely draw the circle of their lives so pleasing to God.