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, May 19, 2013

Chapter 4: Guidelines for Christian and monastic good practice (paragraphs 1-2)

The first of all things to aim at is to love the Lord God with your whole heart and soul and strength and then to love your neighbour as much as you do yourself.

(From para. 1 of Ch. 4 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

Benedict's straightforward, practical, Biblical injunctions remind me that everything I need for "Christian and monastic good practice" is right here and right now -- in this moment -- if only I look centerward to God, and outward to those around me.

1 comment:

val latonaMay 21, 2013 at 4:45 AM
"Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ" were the words that jumped out to me in the second paragraph. The meditation practice is about that renunciation which is difficult because the self is always inserting itself. It is like the snail that leaves a trail of sticky, gauzy residue, the "payback" that I secretly am looking for and I see this happening in loving and doing for others. Life needs to be given as a gift, the Pope has said without looking for returns. I take these words to my meditation practice and to my life.
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