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.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Chapter 57: Members of the community with creative gifts

If there are any in the community with creative gifts, they should use them in their workshops with proper humility, provided that they have the permission of the superior.

(From para. 1 of Ch. 57 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

I think it's safe to say that I have artistic gifts. So I know from first-hand experience that sometimes they can be a source of perplexity (How do I make a living as an artist?) or perfectionistic despair (This will never be good enough!). Meditation has taught me that being creative means working selflessly, not from the ego, but from the heart, for the upbuilding of spirit.

2 comments:

Roger SessionsAugust 10, 2012 at 9:15 PM
Our abilities are gifts from God to all humanity. Meditation helps me appreciate the gifts of others without envy.
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val latonaAugust 12, 2012 at 4:14 AM
To be "puffed up" is asking for just the opposite, to be "popped", and deflated. I would rather that the deflation come from my own honesty about myself,knowing my strengths and weaknesses and from a humility based on the truth-grace gives power to my weakness and channels my strengths.
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