May 6 Eadbert d. 698

Thommy and John

good morning, i love you

what's in a name? especially how you spell it?
Eadbert, also known as Edbert....
could be Jack now known as John [since kindergarten, actually]
Thommy, not bill, altho a junior; and not Tommy either [i'd met a Thom Savage in the novitiate, mades sense to me.]

Eadbert, abbot bishop of Lindisfarne, successor of st cuthbert in 687.... i wonder what's with the 'bert'?
must be familial or tribal, ya think?
abbot bishop - those who do are asked to do more; are needed to do more.
are you in the 80 or the 20? how do you get into and stay in the 20?

Eadbert was renowned for his learning and his knowledge of scripture.
and you?
how's with your learning?
you have the talents, grace, and resources to be in the A zone.
anything less would be in the category of the servant who got the 1,000 talents and buried them.
and the scripture part?
we catholics aren't usually known for our scripture knowledge - tho kelly's excursion to a protestant church gave her a leg us on the learing/memorizing parts.
with a theologian pope, scripture and tradition and church history/fathers are all getting more play.
personally, that's one reason i go to mass as close to daily as i can get my carcus outta the bed....
the liturgy of the word - two scripture passages plus the various antiphons
[the sermon during the week, if any good, is lagniappe]
the prayer of the scriptures...

Eadbert also got kudos for his generosity and his obedience to God's commandments.
the generosity for an abbot and a bishop, for a leader with access to great resouces,
well, he wasn't the church mouse giving from his last two pence....
still, our generosity - time, talent, treasure - is measured not by the number on the check or the hours on the clock; instead generosity is our giving beyond our daily bread, giving more 'than we can afford', and giving without expectaton of any return, any recognition, anything at all....
obedience to God's commandments - the foundation of our efforts to do right and good.
i asked a leader at the hospital, a person asking me to tell her what her priorities are,
'upon what do you base your decision about your priorities?'
she was stumped, absolutely clueless of the foundation from which to build one's priorities in our hospital -
we have mission/vision/values
we have Key Result Areas [the dashboard framework for expected results] - for our hospital and our network
we have KRAs for each individual
we have even the job description, the basis for last year's evaluation, which had for her two measurable goals.
[not to mention the circuit breakers like follow the law, comply with regulations, meet accreditaton standards]
for us, the commandments would be a good start in answering the question "what should i be doing?"
if you're not using all ten, the underpinning of your foundation is at great risk of collapsing....
to excel at the basics puts you in line to lead as model as well as teacher/mentor
without excellence in the commandments, well, it's difficult to identify your own priorities, never mind lead others.

how do you prepare yourself to be the abbot bishop of your profession, your class, your self....

i love you
dad