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.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Chapter 65: The prior or prioress of the monastery
This chapter describes the ways that a community can descend into a hell on earth when there is “serious contention” caused by “the evil spirit of pride”(RB.2) “envy, quarrels, slander,rivalry, factions”(RB.7), “conceit,… open contempt(RB.18)jealousy”(RB.22). This list becomes a mirror that I can look at and see my reflection cracked and distorted by any one of these “disorders”(RB.7)which ripple beyond my own self and move slowly into the larger community pond causing waves of disruption.
But I can get a different mirror! It’s the mirror that shows me an unbroken image of myself not condemned,or judged but reflecting the love of God. “Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will”(Richard Rohr’s Meditation:Turning Over Our Lives:November 24, 2015).
Every time I meditate, I am relieved of a little more of the bondage of myself and I begin to share more fully in the love of God which can than be reflected back into community, family life. That is the glory of the Christmas season—the gift of God in Jesus, the gift of a tremendous love that we, I , can know and share in and reflect in life.
This chapter describes the ways that a community can descend into a hell on earth when there is “serious contention” caused by “the evil spirit of pride”(RB.2) “envy, quarrels, slander,rivalry, factions”(RB.7), “conceit,… open contempt(RB.18)jealousy”(RB.22). This list becomes a mirror that I can look at and see my reflection cracked and distorted by any one of these “disorders”(RB.7)which ripple beyond my own self and move slowly into the larger community pond causing waves of disruption.
ReplyDeleteBut I can get a different mirror! It’s the mirror that shows me an unbroken image of myself not condemned,or judged but reflecting the love of God. “Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will”(Richard Rohr’s Meditation:Turning Over Our Lives:November 24, 2015).
Every time I meditate, I am relieved of a little more of the bondage of myself and I begin to share more fully in the love of God which can than be reflected back into community, family life. That is the glory of the Christmas season—the gift of God in Jesus, the gift of a tremendous love that we, I , can know and share in and reflect in life.