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.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 3)

To disciples who can understand they may teach the way of the Lord with words; but to the less receptive and uneducated they should teach what the Lord commands us by example. (From para. 3 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

For me, the practice of meditation functions as "teaching by example" -- praying with Jesus as he prays to the Father -- and so, example can touch experience.

2 comments:

Wally SaundersJanuary 11, 2014 at 5:38 AM
Or, as St. Francis of Assisi put it: “Preach always, and, when necessary, use words.”
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Melanie CondesJanuary 11, 2014 at 5:57 AM
“Therefore, when anyone receives the name of Abbess, she ought to govern her disciples with a twofold teaching. That is to say, she should show them all that is good and holy by her deeds even more than by her words,…” Each time I am blessed with position of leadership, this part of the Rule reminds me to lead by example. In my personal journey, at all times I should elect to pray and labor in the Lord’s vineyard… and faithfully adhere to “ora et labora.”
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