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.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Chapter 71: Mutual obedience in the monastery

Obedience is of such value that it should be shown not only to the superior but all members of the community should be obedient to each other in the sure knowledge that this way of obedience is the one that will take them straight to God. (From para. 1 of Ch. 71 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

What happens when relationships are lived out in mutual obedience? It means I have to suspend judgments and labels about another, in order to see "that of God" in that person. And this demands faith and hope, that by seeing "that of God" in the other, the other may be moved to let go of whatever judgments or labels he or she might have of me.

2 comments:

Wally SaundersAugust 29, 2017 at 4:54 AM
Listening again! “Take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth, Wally.”, Benedict tells me again today. He tells me to obey, to “ob-audire”, “listen in the direction of”, whomever I encounter today.
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Melanie CondesAugust 29, 2017 at 5:54 AM
Charitable obedience ... Not only sounds beautifully to the ear but I'm sure resonates well with the heart.
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