WCCM Oblate Blog: Reflections from Daily Reading of the Rule of St. Benedict

WCCM Benedictine Oblates are encouraged to read a designated portion of the Rule daily, and to write a brief, personal response. I hope that this blog will support our Oblate community in this practice. Please, keep blog entries brief and in a first-person ("I") voice. Refrain from discussing, offering an opinion, or commenting on other entries. Simply consider how a particular section of the Rule is speaking to you in your present circumstances.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Chapter 38: The weekly reader

Everyone in the community should be attentive to the needs of their neighbours as they eat and drink so that there should be no need for anyone to ask for what they require.
(From Chapter 38 of Saint Benedict's Rule.)

Benedict shows me how, in silence of the heart, I might experience the paradox in which I'm selflessly attentive to the Spirit (the reading), while also being selflessly attentive to the needs of others (the Spirit.)

2 comments:

Roger SessionsJuly 17, 2012 at 12:49 PM
Chapter 38 tells me of the importance of mind-fullness.

Most information we acquire is taken in as background noise that we absorb unconsciously, like a sponge absorbs water. We aren't aware of what we are hearing or how it changes us.

Here Benedict says there are two categories of information. Useless information and useful information. The former should be banished. The latter should be given your full mindful focus.
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val latonaJuly 18, 2012 at 3:35 AM
When I eat a meal with someone am I open to the “voice” of the other? Or am I only concerned with what I am putting into my mouth? Do my attention and my response benefit the other? Everywhere and in everything I do, Benedict reminds me that “only the reader’s voice (only Christ’s voice) should be heard there.”
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