Benedict of Nursia's Rule of Benedict

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Benedict of Nursia's Rule of Benedict

Benedict of Nursia, a mystic and wisdom thinker, lived 1,500 years ago; but his Rule of Benedict continues to guide monastics and lay people alike to this day. The first paragraph of the Rule of Benedict invites us to “listen carefully to his instructions and to attend to them with the ear of our hearts.”

Careful listening is the key to being fully human and alive. Let nothing go by that could nourish our souls and lend meaning to our lives, Benedict seems to say. I especially like the notion of listening with the “ear of our hearts” – in other words, listening with real feeling, not just intellectual curiosity. In a world of sound bites, we have little practice to listen carefully and with full attention. To do so is to be that much more connected to one another and the world around us at the level of our hearts as well as our minds.

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About Me

Cissy Lewis, an award-winning educator, has been involved in schools all of her life. As an eleven-year-old, she started her first school in Santiago, Chile, teaching reading and writing to children who had no school options. She comes from a line of educators – her mother earned a Ph.D. in political science in an era when few women were earning advanced degrees, and her grandfather taught Greek and Latin.

She started her teaching career at The Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas, where she taught English in both the Upper and Middle Schools. At The Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, Tennessee, she was honored with the Best New Teacher award. At the Castilleja School, she twice received the Distinguished Teacher Award.

Cissy Lewis held leadership positions at The Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and at The Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California. At Baylor, she joined the administrative team, initially as Dean of Girls and then as Assistant Head of School, to help the school implement the transition from an all-boys school to coeducation. At Castilleja, she was academic dean, Head of Upper School, Assistant Head of School, and interim Head of School. Her responsibilities included oversight of the daily academic operations of the school, and coordinating the recruitment and hiring of new faculty. She also oversaw curricular review, the faculty evaluation system, and faculty professional growth.

Ms. Lewis attended Mt. Holyoke College and subsequently received bachelor’s degrees in both biology and English cum laude from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She pursued graduate studies at The Bread Loaf School of English where she received her M.A. and was honored as Class Marshall. She also earned an M.Ed. at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, where she was influenced by Carol Gilligan’s groundbreaking research as reflected in her seminal work In a Different Voice, and focused on the psychology of adolescence and the education of girls.

Ms. Lewis has served on the Board of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California, and The Carey School in San Mateo, California. She enjoys reading, hiking, yoga, and travelling.