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, March 8, 2013

Chapter 31: The qualities required by the cellarer (paragraph 1)

All the utensils of the monastery and in fact everything that belongs to the monastery should be cared for as though they were the sacred vessels of the altar.

(From para. 1 of Ch. 31 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

This teaching has always delighted and inspired me; I thought it was a good reminder to be grateful and gentle in my handling of things. But more and more, I come to see, somehow, that everything is a sacred vessel of the altar.

2 comments:

val latonaMarch 10, 2013 at 3:27 AM
The life of the cellarer is one of humility, selflessness and hidden service. It exemplifies for me the way of meditation. The mantra calls me to humility and selflessness through a life of prayer hidden in God.
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NonaMarch 10, 2013 at 1:14 PM
Mindfulness and respect for all that I have can strengthen my relationship with the Other. A true reminder that all I have does not belong to me.
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