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, July 24, 2017

Chapter 44: The reconciliation of those excommunicated

They should in complete silence simply lay their heads on the ground before the feet of all the community coming out of the oratory and stay there until the superior judges that they have done enough in reparation. (From para. 1 of Ch. 44 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

St Benedict tells me to repent of my mistakes, or to forgive another, by discerning "that I/they have done enough in reparation". How will I know what enough is -- it must be something less than perfection, but that involves my whole being. And, how will I know what reparation is -- it is certainly repairing damage I have done to relationships. But, even more, I think it is letting go of past mistakes and allowing God to create me anew.

1 comment:

Melanie CondesJuly 24, 2017 at 5:12 AM
Lying prostrate on the ground in complete silence... To me is to be in full humility accept my faults and desire to do better next time. This I have to do very and over again each time I fall. Humbly returning to the loving arms of our dear God.
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