{"id":27658,"date":"2026-09-15T23:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T22:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=27658"},"modified":"2026-09-16T09:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:59:38","slug":"todays-chapter-entrusting-ourselves-to-our-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/todays-chapter-entrusting-ourselves-to-our-lady\/","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Chapter: Entrusting Ourselves to Our Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 2: What kind of man the Abbot ought to be (vv. 33-40)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Above all let him not, overlooking or under-valuing the salvation of the souls entrusted to him, be too solicitous for fleeting, earthly, and perishable things; but let him ever bear in mind that he hath undertaken the government of souls, of which he shall have to give an account. And that he may not complain for want of worldly substance, let him remember what is written: \u201cSeek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.\u201d And again: \u201cNothing is wanting to them that fear Him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And let him know that he who hath undertaken the government of souls, must prepare himself to render an account of them. And whatever may be the number of the brethren under his care, let him be certainly assured that on the Day of Judgment he will have to give an account to the Lord of all these souls, as well as of his own. And thus, being ever fearful of the coming inquiry which the Shepherd will make into the state of the flock committed to him, while he is careful on other men\u2019s account, he will be solicitous also on his own. And so, while correcting others by his admonitions, he will be himself cured of his own defects.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A week after the birth of our heavenly Abbess, and the feast of her \u2018Transfixion\u2019, as the Preface of today\u2019s Mass describes it, we fittingly hear the conclusion of Saint Benedict\u2019s first chapter on the Abbot, a subject to which he will return in Chapter 64.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s concluding admonition to the Abbot makes two main points: first, that he must value the good of souls over material concerns, and second\u2014once again\u2014that he must bear in mind the account he will have to render for souls at the Judgment. On both counts, the Abbot may well find himself feeling overwhelmed, and on both counts he does well to take very seriously the maternal role that Our Lord has given to Mary in the Church and in the monastery. Mary too would have encountered plenty of moments when she might have complained for want of earthly substance\u2014giving birth to the Son of God in a stable, spending the early years of His life as a refugee in Egypt. In her complete availability to the will of God, she exemplifies the teaching that her Son would later give in His Sermon on the Mount, \u2018Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice\u2019, and she must often have reassured Saint Joseph in times of material scarcity with the words of Psalm 33, \u2018Nothing is wanting to them that fear him.\u2019<\/p>\n

And as the Abbot considers the prospect of the account that he will have to render for souls, he should be inspired all the more to entrust both himself and the community to Our Lady\u2019s care. Among the many reasons that Saint Louis Marie de Montfort gives for total consecration to Our Lady is the fact that of ourselves we are liable to misuse the gifts of God and easily go astray. The Abbot who seeks to be solicitous both for other men\u2019s souls and for his own realises that he needs all the help he can get. If he gives himself and his community into Our Lady\u2019s hands, and truly seeks to live this out in his daily life, then he can be confident she will stand by him at the moment when he has to give an account to the Shepherd for the state of the flock.<\/p>\n

The abbot, of course, is not the only person who is involved in caring for the souls of others. To one degree or another, every monk and every Christian is called to share in Our Lord\u2019s work of salvation. Thus, Madre C\u00e0nopi ends her remarks on this chapter by drawing out its implications for every monk:<\/p>\n

In conclusion, I would like now to reread the chapter with the perspective not of the abbot, but of the monk. It has already been said that he, by his faith and his obedience, renders the abbot\u2019s service fruitful, as Mary with her \u2018yes\u2019 rendered possible the incarnation of the Word and the entire work of redemption. But it should also be said that the monk is for his brethren what the abbot is for the monk: a father, a mother, called to draw all humanity to Christ. Now if this is so he will have to remember always that he has been chosen and called for this humble and hidden service; he will have to recall that only by living the Word will he be a generator of life, only by using mercy will he be able to heal the sorrowful wounds of broken hearts, only by dying for others will he one day be able to rejoice in the communion of the saints.<\/p>\n

And, if one wishes to add a last word, every Christian is chosen for this with regard to those who walk in obscurity, or who find themselves in desolation and in the interior desert. (C\u00e0nopi, Nel ‘Si’ di Maria, <\/em>translation by a Benedictine monk, p.\u00a023)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 2: What kind of man the Abbot ought to be (vv. 33-40) Above all let him not, overlooking or under-valuing the salvation of the souls entrusted to him, be too solicitous for fleeting, earthly, and perishable things; but let him ever bear in mind that he hath undertaken the government of souls, of which <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":591,"featured_media":27668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[498,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-rule-2026","category-rule-of-saint-benedict"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vultuschristi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OurLadyofIreland.jpg?fit=477%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-7c6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/591"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27658"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27667,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27658\/revisions\/27667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}