From Joan Chittister’s The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century:
If Benedictine spirituality understands anything about life at all, it understands the corrosive effects of constant complaining. Complaining is the acid that shrivels our souls and the soul of the community around us as well. Complaining is what shapes our mental set…What we see as negative we make negative and feel negative about. What we are willing to think about in a positive way becomes positive. Complaining, in other words, undermines the hope of a community and smothers possibility in a group. The whiner, the constant critic, the armchair complainer, make an office, a family, a department, a community a polluted place to be…Benedictine spirituality tells us to open our hearts and minds and let grace come in from unlikely places, without preplanning and prejudgments.
