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.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Chapter 5: Monastic obedience (paragraphs 1-3)

The first step on the way to humility is to obey an order without delaying for a moment. That is a response which comes easily to those who hold nothing dearer than Christ himself. (From para. 1 of Ch. 3 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

For me, this is a description of utter freedom. If I learn to say the mantra freely in my heart, listen to it resonate freely in my heart, then I learn the freedom of the true disciple. I am free to respond, free to relate, from my best Self -- and free to let others be their best selves.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersSeptember 22, 2017 at 4:57 AM
Obedience without hesitation, not my will but thine be done: you invite me once more to work for you, with you, like you, for one more day. What joy, Abba, to know, as the Twelve-steppers put it, that you are my new Employer who gives me everything I need when I do your work well.
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