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.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Chapter 23: Faults which deserve excommunication

If an individual in the community is defiant, disobedient, proud or given to murmuring or in any other way set in opposition to the holy Rule and contemptuous of traditions of the seniors, then we should follow the precepts of the Lord. (From Ch.23 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

In my experience, community may very well be made to bump and bruise my ego. Community can certainly push me way beyond my comfort zone. How does meditation teach me to respond? To find Jesus hidden deep within my heart. This can lead me to new life: an ego tamed to the service of others, and a heart expanding in joyful selflessness.

1 comment:

Melanie CondesJune 28, 2014 at 7:34 AM
Many times I am guilty of these faults. There are even times when 'many noises' make me not notice that I was committing the faults. Thanks to the moments of quiet where I am able to see clearly my faults thus, desire to amend.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment