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, October 3, 2013

Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 12)

The fifth step of humility is that we should not cover up but humbly confess to our superior or spiritual guide whatever evil thoughts come into our minds and the evil deeds we have done in secret. (From para. 12 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

Saint Benedict encourages me towards transparency, a poverty of spirit. He asks me to recognize what clouds my relationship to myself, to God, to others, to acknowledge these faults to others as appropriate, and to accept forgiveness. This is a practical lesson I learn from letting go of distractions in meditation.

1 comment:

valOctober 11, 2013 at 9:32 AM
When something stays concealed too long, it can congeal; get hard. Throwing light on it; reaching in and pulling it out; releasing it; brings freedom. Freedom opens me to the knowing that God is working in me,with me, helping me, through meditation and my life with Christ.
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