Once again, Abbot Austin and I spent some pleasant days in early January at a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) event. Held in Indianapolis, SEEK2019 brought some eighteen thousand souls together to "encounter something more," as this year's theme had it. The "something more" was, is, and ever shall be, Jesus Christ and His Gospel. 

We were blessed this year with some invaluable assistance for our booth, in the persons of Jeanine and John Jelinek, and Dominic Senese. Jeanine is Abbot Austin's Executive Assistant, and she and her husband John were good enough to accompany us; as also was Dominic, a freshman at Benedictine University and an associate member of the Abbey, discerning a possible monastic vocation. We are grateful to all three for their generosity, for while FOCUS gatherings are spiritually enriching, they are hardly restful, with so much youthful enthusiasm everywhere in evidence!

Our own theme for this conference was Benedictine Balance, as represented by the sure-footed pachyderm in the sidebar. While assuredly visibly striking, the ability to hold steady, as this fellow does, might not tell the whole story about balance in a monastic setting. Steadiness is a virtue, but monks are not meant merely to balance oneself in place, but to move forward: individually and communally towards God, individually and communally towards accomplishment of the monastery's mission.

The challenge with balance in a dynamic setting is indeed to move forward while remaining faithful to the integrity of one's life -- and not fall to pieces while doing so! The Jenga game we had available (and much used) at our booth is a demonstration itself of the problem. Blocks of wood, three in a row, maybe ten rows high, are rearranged by removing a block and stacking it on top of the pile. Some truly impressive results come from this, as the structure grows higher and higher, despite the reduction of many rows from three blocks to two and even one. Eventually, however, with Jenga, it all collapses -- one cannot continually maintain equilibrium without adequate support. 

In real life, collapses have effects a bit more serious than in a Jenga game! How do we avoid stagnation on the one hand, falling apart on the other? The ancient Romans had a phrase, "ne quid nimis," not too much of anything. Avoid excess, in other words; attend to soul and body; look to recreate (i.e., re-create) oneself no less than to accomplish. 

Benedictine life seeks balance not only to keep one's blood pressure down (not that health should be discounted), but so that one can accomplish many good things while still remaining faithful to the fundamental human task of seeking God. Do we always succeed? Of course not. But for fifteen centuries -- and this is the message we strove to bring home to the FOCUS participants -- the wise prescriptions of the Rule, summed up in the motto, "Ora et Labora," have assisted untold thousands of men and women to cope better with a perennial human challenge.