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.
The deans of the monastery, “will take care of their groups…, managing all affairs according to the commandments of God and the orders of their abbot.”(verse 2) The key words for me are “according to the commandments of God.” What Benedict is reminding me here, is that all the daily tasks(“all affairs”) are daily acts of love however small or large they may be, no matter where I manage them, office, school,parish or in a household setting. Benedict points me back to Chapter 4, The Tools For Good Works in the Rule. I had to read it over again realizing again that Christ’s words are my guide. The very first words of Chapter 4 are Christ’s summation of the commandments, “To love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” It takes my whole attention to love beyond myself and this all of me can only come from the daily scripture reading, prayer and meditation with the help of Christ, my teacher, guide and most intimate friend.
“Benedictine spirituality uses authority to weld a group, not to fracture it.” (Joan Chittister, “Daily Reading from the Rule of Benedict. Abba, I am such a recovering “know-it-all”. Forgive the innumerable times my arrogance and self-centeredness have served to fracture rather than weld the various communities you have made me part of, including my family and my marriage and my workplaces. Such a bratty, stubborn child I can be. How wonderful to feel your motherly arms hugging me, anyway.
The deans of the monastery, “will take care of their groups…, managing all affairs according to the commandments of God and the orders of their abbot.”(verse 2) The key words for me are “according to the commandments of God.” What Benedict is reminding me here, is that all the daily tasks(“all affairs”) are daily acts of love however small or large they may be, no matter where I manage them, office, school,parish or in a household setting. Benedict points me back to Chapter 4, The Tools For Good Works in the Rule. I had to read it over again realizing again that Christ’s words are my guide. The very first words of Chapter 4 are Christ’s summation of the commandments, “To love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” It takes my whole attention to love beyond myself and this all of me can only come from the daily scripture reading, prayer and meditation with the help of Christ, my teacher, guide and most intimate friend.
ReplyDelete“Benedictine spirituality uses authority to weld a group, not to fracture it.” (Joan Chittister, “Daily Reading from the Rule of Benedict. Abba, I am such a recovering “know-it-all”. Forgive the innumerable times my arrogance and self-centeredness have served to fracture rather than weld the various communities you have made me part of, including my family and my marriage and my workplaces. Such a bratty, stubborn child I can be. How wonderful to feel your motherly arms hugging me, anyway.
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