Benedictine monks and sisters make a vow of stability, staying in one place. Benedict abhorred what he called “gyrovagues,” roving monks who went from place to place depending on the generosity of others to support them in their endless wanderings. Benedict though that a monk had to be stable: fixed to a specific community in a specific place.

Benedict wanted his monks to have everything necessary for life within the monastic enclosure or cloister so that they wouldn’t have to travel outside for anything. You could do that 1500 years ago, but today’s world is much less self-contained. We are a very mobile society–at least we were until covid-19 forced stability on us.

Many  people are angry that they can’t go where they want and do what they want. I understand the frustration, but I wonder if “doing what I want” is healthy for us spiritually. The heart of sin lies in our insistence that “my will be done” rather than “Thy will be done.” Maybe this pandemic will make us reconsider what we think we must have.

Author Kathleen Norris* remarked that the current crisis encourages us to develop a cloister within us. Happiness is not dependent on all the stuff that’s outside us, but on the sacred within. We don’t have to travel anywhere to find it.

Someday the restraints of the virus will be gone. Will we go back to business as usual or will we have learned something about the blessings of the cloister within? I hope it’s the latter.

Read Psalm 91:1-2 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne