June 20 – The Honorable Thing to Do

We have mentioned here in Cor Unum that George Washington kept account of certain rules of behavior. They were, for him, his training in character and uprightness, and one could say they took him far.

Today’s L.U.C.I.E. fast verse is another that touches upon our relationship to others: “Give preference to one another in honor.” (Romans 12:10)

Here is one of President Washington’s Rules of Civility: “Every action done in company ought to be done with some sign of respect to those that are present.”

In the close quarters of monastic life, anything less is chaos. As a result, the nuns have prescribed greetings, spoken and silent, that they employ when they so much as pass one another in the corridor. In some Carmelite monasteries, no nun may serve or help herself in the Refectory, as we have seen, but must wait until any lack is noticed by her table partner. In many little ways, honor is woven into cloistered life, that it may endure over the ages.

For today, my very dear Sisters, and those of you Brothers who have taken up a devotional “habit,” let’s observe the abbatial advice of a man who was not supremely well-educated, who lost many more battles than he won, but whose DEVOTION and integrity took him to the highest office in his country, and caused him to hold that office, not as monarchs and potentates had done for all the centuries before him, but as an honorable, honoring, dedicated public servant, setting the tone for those who would come after him.

Just as we aspire to do, here in Cor Unum.




"Will You . . . Love, Honor, and Cherish, As Long As You Both Shall Live?"
photo by Kerry