Benedictine’s heart = Ecologist’s heart (A Blog Action Day Post)

Here is something from The Rule of Benedict – Insights for the Ages by Joan Chittister that I saved in a pre-publication version of this blog. This morning, I stumbled over it — thank you, Serendipity – while looking for something else.  It seems appropriate to publish it today, on the first annual Blog Action Day:

“Waste is not a Benedictine virtue. Planned obsolescence is not a Benedictine goal. Disposability is not a Benedictine quality. A Benedictine soul is a soul that takes care of things, that polishes wood and scrapes away rust and keeps a room clean and never puts feet on the furniture and mulches the garden and leaves trees standing and ‘treats all utensils and goods of the monastery like the sacred vessels of the altar.’ A Benedictine cares for the earth and all things well. The Benedictine heart practiced ecology before it was a word.”