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.
“Goodness of life and wisdom in teaching must be the criteria for choosing the one to be made abbot or prioress even if they are last in community rank”RB 64.2. And I look also today to the Gospel reading about Mary “who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord”(Luke 1:45).
A listening takes place in both situations, that of the Benedictine monk and of Mary. It is a listening that relies on a deep inner belief that does not stay hidden but plays out in life.
Mary was last in community rank probably never to be mentioned if what happened had not happened and if she did not trust in what she had heard and so too the monastic.
My life if it is to be true, and real and simple and good must be based on a heart rooted in listening in the silence to the Word. But it does not end in just the listening. There is the active part-the daily living out the Word in the ordinary with courage and faith. Without the mantra and meditation it would be impossible for me.
“Goodness of life and wisdom in teaching must be the criteria for choosing the one to be made abbot or prioress even if they are last in community rank”RB 64.2. And I look also today to the Gospel reading about Mary “who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord”(Luke 1:45).
ReplyDeleteA listening takes place in both situations, that of the Benedictine monk and of Mary. It is a listening that relies on a deep inner belief that does not stay hidden but plays out in life.
Mary was last in community rank probably never to be mentioned if what happened had not happened and if she did not trust in what she had heard and so too the monastic.
My life if it is to be true, and real and simple and good must be based on a heart rooted in listening in the silence to the Word. But it does not end in just the listening. There is the active part-the daily living out the Word in the ordinary with courage and faith. Without the mantra and meditation it would be impossible for me.
For Benedict, as for Jesus, the best leader is the best foot-washer. Help me, Abba, to embrace your upside-down way of seeing things.
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