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, October 31, 2015
Chapter 24: Different degrees of severity in punishment
Reading this chapter and reflecting on it, I can see where the gradual degrees of separation of the person from communal activities brought him/her to gradual degrees of deepening silence. Less involvement in activity, less involvement with people results in facing more solitariness, and the opportunities to be alone with the Alone in silence. “Silence is the language of the Spirit.”(John Main, Daily Readings, October 31)
The silent meditation, I find, can sometimes be fearsome. I face myself. It is also strengthening for me. I can let all that fear go because Christ is in the silence with me helping me to face what I fear. It is also healing because even if the broken parts of me are not fixed, I can accept them because I am loved by the Spirit of God who dwells in my heart in love. It is through the silence that I can, “become more conscious, more alive, more awake, more aware and therefore more compassionate and less ready to take offence or to hold grudges.” (Fr. Laurence, Daily Wisdom, 11/01/15)
Reading this chapter and reflecting on it, I can see where the gradual degrees of separation of the person from communal activities brought him/her to gradual degrees of deepening silence. Less involvement in activity, less involvement with people results in facing more solitariness, and the opportunities to be alone with the Alone in silence. “Silence is the language of the Spirit.”(John Main, Daily Readings, October 31)
ReplyDeleteThe silent meditation, I find, can sometimes be fearsome. I face myself. It is also strengthening for me. I can let all that fear go because Christ is in the silence with me helping me to face what I fear. It is also healing because even if the broken parts of me are not fixed, I can accept them because I am loved by the Spirit of God who dwells in my heart in love. It is through the silence that I can, “become more conscious, more alive, more awake, more aware and therefore more compassionate and less ready to take offence or to hold grudges.” (Fr. Laurence, Daily Wisdom, 11/01/15)