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.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraphs 8-9)

It is above all important that monastic superiors should not underrate or think lightly of the salvation of the souls committed to them by giving too much attention to transient affairs of this world which have no lasting value.
(From para. 8 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

Am I in the presence of God as I move throughout my day, or am I in the fabrications of my ego?

2 comments:

val latonaMay 17, 2013 at 4:10 AM
Those are exactly what distract, detract and insert themselves as most important, the transient affairs of this world. The meditation practice is the sieve that lets the unimportant fall through like sand to be washed away by the waves of time.
ReplyDelete
Replies
Bill HullMay 17, 2013 at 4:41 PM
I'm not at all sure that we can ever be free from the glories and delusions of the Ego in this life. Many Saints appear to have well defined and strong egos. Perhaps there is no ultimate conflict between the Ego and Grace. Could it be that Grace re-forms the Ego in the Image of Christ even as the Ego nurtures and Feeds the Quest.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment