Not only at the outset but throughout, that life consists in listening to God's voice, that is, in obeying him. Obedience and disobedience, obedience and self-will, obeying or acting as a foul servant, these three pairs mark the great alternataive with which the Christian and the monk constantly find themselves confronted. Disobedience is an accomplished fact in Adam, obedience an accomplished fact in Christ. We must live out this contrast... by going once and for all and day after day from the disobedience of Adam to the obedience of Christ.
This is an immense task; it would be out of proportion with our human strength, if prayer did not not allow us to receive God's help in perfecting it. Christ is not only the king who commands and the guide whom we must attempt to follow. In him we have the grace of baptism, which makes us sons and heirs apparent, destined to share his glory. This gift and this promiseof life demand that we act in a way which is beyond us, but simultaneously they ground the possibility of obtaining everything through prayer.
From Reading Saint Benedict, Reflections on the Rule
by Adalbert de Vogüé
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