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.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Chapter 32: The tools and property of the monastery

Anyone who is negligent in dealing with the monastery property or allows it to deteriorate must be corrected with a view to improvement.

(From para. 2 of Ch. 32 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

Benedict seems to be emphasizing the communal nature of property, and everyone's responsibility towards that. But today the words negligence and deterioration speak to me loudly about the spirit -- the spirit that is inherent in matter, and the same spirit that expands in relationships.

2 comments:

NonaMarch 11, 2013 at 10:04 AM
This brings to mind my care and handling of material that I have been entrusted. Do I appreciate and value that which I have been given? Do I encourage others to care for all that we have? Pay attention Nona!
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val latonaMarch 12, 2013 at 4:03 AM
If I were in the monastery, I would be severely rebuked for my carelessness about material things. It shows my carelessness of attention to detail and a laziness of mind. Thus speaking to myself I say, "Remember everything you use is not yours but on loan and a gift. Leave your things in proper order. As you use something remember your mantra with attentiveness and love. Let that energy permeate your material world."
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