Review: Humility Rules: Saint Benedict's Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem

Humility Rules: Saint Benedict's Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem by Augustine Wetta
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book because it was mentioned in a podcast on Benedictine spirituality (I can't even remember who the speaker was) and recommended highly. So, on my last online book buying spree, I added it because humility interests me. That seems odd because humility doesn't have the best rap, not unfairly because it is frequently used as a way to silence people or a highly useful tool for self-flagellation. But humlity, real humility, isn't a weapon to be used against oneself or someone else, but, as another speaker I ran into on a monastic site, 'knowing the truth about oneself- one's abilities and gifts, but also one's liabilities and weaknesses. And that is worth exploring for this middle aged guy, amid the competing demands for my attention that the world gives.

Augustine Wetta, a monk at St. Louis, Abbey, Missouri, provides a series of reflection on the well known section on humility in Benedict's Rule. The reflections combine connections to other parts of the Rule, scripture and his own experience. Wetta's writing is engaging and, sometimes, quite funny, but also manages moments of profundity. I used them as nighttime reflections, but that may not always fit. They were good to settled down to in the evening.

This book is worth keeping around (despite the instruction in the conclusion to give it away- I didn't :)) as a book of reflections, so that's what I'm doing. If you are drawn to Benedictine spirituality, this is worth reading.

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