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.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Chapter 29: The readmission of any who leave the monastery

Anyone who is guilty of serious wrong by the personal decision to leave the monastery but then asks to be received back again must first of all promise full reparation for leaving the monastery.

(From Ch. 29 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

I suspect that the full reparation mentioned here is not so much material as it is communal, spiritual. Do I have the humility to see the damage to relationships that I've done, enough forgiveness to forgive myself first, and confidence in the transformative power of the spirit?

2 comments:

val latonaMarch 7, 2013 at 3:16 AM
It is precisely when discouragement sets in and I begin to question my belonging in this or that community for one reason or another that I need to remember by whose choice I am there. It is in solitude and quiet meditation that I learn the patience and humility to see choices from God's perspective and not my own selfish and arrogant desires.
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NonaMarch 7, 2013 at 1:56 PM
Benedict offers time and time again the opportunity to return/belong for the asking. That is consoling to me. Knowing that the door opens more than once.

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