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, June 7, 2014

Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 17)

The tenth step of humility teaches us that we should not be given to empty laughter on eatery least occasion because: a fool's voice is forever raised in laughter. (From para. 17 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I think that empty laughter has a loud and hollow sound, and points to the isolated ego. Laughter that is full of joy leaps from heart to heart, and creates community.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersJune 7, 2014 at 6:10 AM
“True silence is the absence of thought. . . . The monastic word is that silence is the medium of transcendence and it is natural and possible for people in every walk of life. Monasteries can offer companionship for the journey into silence.” (John Main, “Monastery Without Walls” Kindle loc 511). I can only be a companion on this journey if I am well acquainted with it myself. Help me to be faithful, Abba, to my commitment to this path of meditation and the mantra, to my daily quest for true silence, for You.
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