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.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Chapter 59: Children offered by nobles or by the poor

Poor people may make the offering of a child in the same way. If they have no property at all, they simply write and offer the child with the document in the presence of witnesses. (From para. 3 of Ch. 59 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I am poor, and the child I have to offer is myself, this day. I simply say my mantra in the witness of all creation.

2 comments:

UnknownDecember 12, 2016 at 10:08 PM
Contemplation has altered my relationship with distracting thoughts. Now, I am beginning to see that the contemplative life involves changing my relationship with my possessions.
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valDecember 14, 2016 at 6:24 AM
Chittister describes this Chapter as one "dedicated to the spirituality of the long haul", saying also that "we must learn to complete in faith what we began in enthusiasm".(p.254,The Rule of Benedict). What I began in enthusiasm is offering my soul (like the child offered by parents to God in a monastery) to God in the practice of meditation. The "long haul" that I need to continue in faith and perseverance is my commitment to the meditation practice and the recitation of the mantra.
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