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, October 31, 2014

Chapter 24: Different degrees of severity in punishment

The severity of excommunication or any other punishment should correspond to the gravity of the fault committed, and it is for the superior to decide about the seriousness of faults. (From Ch. 24 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

What if my reactions to others were always appropriate to the circumstances? Not too dramatic or egotistical, too agitated or withdrawn? I would be living in the present moment, in the reality of God.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersOctober 31, 2014 at 7:21 AM
The first level of punishment Benedict prescribes is separation from the common table, being made to eat alone. Whenever my tendency to arrogance has reared its ugly head I, in effect, have separated myself from the community of recovering sinners, the “common table”. Terminal uniqueness really is terminal, fatal, for me. Abba, help me to stay right-sized, poor, a commoner.
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