Dear Benedict, \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I write to you today\nabout chapter 30 of your Rule, nearly about 1,400 years after your\nwrote it. Some say you were ahead of your time: your Rule is fairer,\nless austere and more balanced than other similar Rules. Times change\nand rules are reinterpreted. During your day, and since, many young\npeople have been admitted to monastic communities for education. Not\neveryone who was admitted to a monastery wanted wholeheartedly to be\nthere. Today\u2019s selection processes will be rather different and due\nto safe guarding concerns there have been moves recently to separate\nthe education of young people in schools attached to monasteries from\nthe monastic community of adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But looking back on\nChapter 30 couldn\u2019t happen on a better day: the day Scotland has\noutlawed physical punishment of children and young people. No more\nsmacking in Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There will be many\ndifferent responses to this. Some with, like me, welcome it, others\nwill see it as unnecessary, a threat to liberty and parental choice.\nI note that chapter 30 begins with the phrase \u2018Every age and level\nof understanding should receive appropriate treatment\u2019. The new\nScottish law does just that. It says that it is no longer appropriate\nto use physical punishment towards children and young people. There\u2019s\nno need to hit them and no justification either. Better and more\npositive options are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You knew that, which\nis why what you wrote was so revolutionary in its time. The purpose\nof such discipline was, you say, to heal people. Unfortunately\nphysical reprimands rarely, if ever, achieve that. They are too often\nadministered in anger, and so get out of control, and they usually\nlead to endless justifications on one side and resentments on the\nother. Wounds fester, mentally and spiritually as much as physically.\nI think you knew that too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever the wounds\nwe each bear, whatever their origins, healing is something we all\nneed. These difficult chapters of the Rule on discipline, show us\nthat again. To make a community out of diverse individuals is\ndifficult. You acknowledged this and we still do today, but we might\ntake a different route, especially with young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We want to\nencourage. At a time when many faith communities have lost their\nmulti-generational aspect those that still do have a cross section of\nages needs to engage positively in active nurture, not just for the\nyoung but for everyone. I\u2019ve visited too many groups in my time\nwhere children get hushed and tutted at and even openly criticised.\nSometimes the excuse is \u2018that wouldn\u2019t have been allowed when we\nwere young\u2019. That\u2019s not a way to heal anything, either yourself\nor those around you. A community that is serious about young people\nwill be serious about everyone, recognising the healing we all need\nso that we grow and develop together. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A community is not a\nmuseum of the old ways, with its relics of ruler and slipper to\nremind us of old discipline. A community gets up in the morning to a\npromise that Christ makes all things new. Christ makes me new and the\nway I experience that is in a Christ centred community, one that\nexplores faith and grows together, never thinking that age is the\nmark of spirituality maturity but that the Spirit fills young and old\nalike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So that\u2019s \u2018No to\nSmacking\u2019 and \u2018Yes to smashing\u2019 the limitations of our\nage-bound understanding. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the remembered\nbible: God says \u2018I will pour out my Spirit on young and old alike\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heal me!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n From a Friend of\nScholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Benedict, I write to you today about chapter 30 of your Rule, nearly about 1,400 years after your wrote it. Some say you were ahead of your time: your Rule is fairer, less austere and more balanced than other similar Rules. Times change and rules are reinterpreted. During your day, and since, many young … Continue reading “Heal me!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}