Saint John Cassian and the Peace of Mundane Tasks

A recent bulletin at my church featured Saint John Cassian, also know as John the Ascetic or John Cassian the Roman. He was born around 360, and is known for his contributions to the organization and practice of monastic life, and for his later influence on Saint Benedict. John wrote two important manuscripts-- the Institutions, which dealt with the logistical and hierarchical organization of monastic communities and their daily chores and activities, and the Conferences, which dealt with one's inner spiritual life and "perfection of the heart".

Reading the bulletin entry about St. Cassian, I began to reflect on how my little dachshunds provide me with opportunities to organize and structure my life around them. With Payday, Coco, and Honeybun, the Institutions of our household involve the chores of feeding and watering them twice a day, the tasks of gathering up their bedding for the wash each morning, brushing them so their long coats don't tangle, and the like. All of these tasks happen on a relatively narrow schedule, one the pups know well, and one from which they hate to deviate. They are creatures of habit, and they find stability and reassurance in the routines we have in place.

Interestingly, I also find great stability, comfort, and reassurance in those routines and tasks too. Some mornings, the routines of caring for the pups are almost like a dance, so smoothly does one task flow into another. And it's such a simple pleasure to make the puppies happy with bowl of food and clean soft blanket. So when people say to me, 'How can you stand three dogs? So much work!', I always think of those days we 'dance' and do my best to explain that in the mundane aspects of caring for them-- my dachshund Institutions-- I find great satisfaction and so much peace.

Coco, Making Life Right

In Joan Chittister's "The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages", the author notes that a leader promoting monastic spirituality need not be "intent on making things right, but on making life right", or in other words, on promoting the development of life's important qualitative aspects-- those aspects of life that feed our souls. Watching Coco bound through the yard this morning in eager search of lizards to catch, cats to harass, and birds to chase, I was struck by what a clear grasp Coco seems to have making life right- on her "quality of life". She pursues with great joy and enthusiasm those things that interest and engage her. She doesn't worry when her food bowl is empty; she knows food will be provided. She doesn't bemoan the size of the yard, wishing for a more sizable patch of grass, she enjoys what she has. Coco doesn't even seem concerned that she almost never actually catches a lizard, or a cat, or a bird. She just does what she loves, driven by instinct, curiosity, and possibility, and it's the pursuit that matters most, not the getting.

I realize that too often, I don't want to engage in a work, personal, or even spiritual pursuit unless I am assured I'll get a specific outcome, and I sometimes have trouble finding the joy in the quality, not the quantity of things. So the next time I find myself feeling so, I'll go watch Coco chase lizards and let her be my simple leader in making life right.

Coco chasing lizards in the rain, 2015