The third step of humility is that for the love of God one should be obedient to a superior in all things imitating the Lord of whom the Apostles says, ‘He was made obedient even unto death.’

The Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 7: Humility, translated by Abbot Parry OSB, Gracewing, 1990.

In recent weeks and months, I have been re-reading The Rule of Saint Benedict, with a view to putting the principles of his rule into practice in my own life.

A couple of Sundays ago I was on a Zoom call with the House of Initia Nova Benedictines and heard a reminder about obedience from Abbot Michael-John Austin OSB. Through the week after he had made those comments, I reflected in my own life that taking the medication prescribed for me by the various doctors who look after me ought to be a matter of obedience in my life.

I cannot say that I have been brilliant at taking all my meds all the time, I usually remember the HIV meds, and the blood pressure tablets, but I am not good at remembering the Calcium Acetate binders that I am meant to take with my meals. With all of the meds in different boxes and containers it is difficult to know instantly by looking what has, and what has not been taken.

A simple but hopefully effective tool in remembering to take all the medications needed to help with my HIV and ongoing kidney failure and dialysis.

Today in the pharmacy as I collected one of the medications that is used in hospital whilst I am on dialysis, I spotted a pill pack that has spaces for each day at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime. So I decided that for €4.99 it was worth getting one of them. This afternoon, I have put the medications in for the next week: all 49 individual tablets of them.

I hope that as with the name of the House of Initia Nova, today is a new beginning.