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, April 21, 2013

Chapter 65: The prior or prioress of the monastery (paragraph 1)

There have been instances when some of these officials have conceived out of an evil spirit of self-importance that they are also superiors and for that reason have assumed the powers of a tyrant, so that they encourage scandalous divisions in the community.

(From para. 1 of Ch. 65 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

"Scandalous divisions" can occur within my own being. Meditation helps me to bring all parts of myself into harmony, in the heart.

1 comment:

val latonaApril 24, 2013 at 2:39 AM
Whatever is my role in a community, my life is not my own. God has called us to be together in Christ, whether the community is family or parish, or intentional community, or a monastic community or all of them. Words and actions that flow from the heart infect, affect everyone. "We are all guides for one another."(Chittister)
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