"I have not gone after things too great for me," the psalm says. Clarity allows small things to shine with significance. In a culture that worships size and power, this will be a valuable lesson. St. Benedict also knew that what he called the "divinizing light" is best transmitted through an appreciation and reverence for the ordinary rather than by an attempt to create the extraordinary. When we see clearly, we see what we have always seen, but we see it each time with the freshness and virginal wonder of the first time. Small things teach us most.
— Laurence Freeman, Common Ground