Day Twenty-Four – Eloquence and Elegance

Question: Reading the Rule, one has the sense that every word, every comma, every piece of punctuation is there by design. Br. Kevin, as one of the men who was not part of the process that produced the Rule, what stands out to you in either form or substance?

Br. Kevin Hackett: I’m impressed by the flow. Each chapter yields easily to the one that follows, and the whole Rule has a fundamentally cyclical shape. And then there are turns of phrase throughout the Rule, but especially in those chapters on prayer and silence, that are as elegant and eloquent as anything you’ll find in any version of The Book of Common Prayer or the King James Version of the Scriptures. They are at once towering and majestic—and utterly simple and transparent. I think they represent the deepest and most careful thinking—and doing—in the entire Rule.