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, September 25, 2017

Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraphs 1-3)

The word of God in scripture teaches us in clear and resounding terms that anyone who lays claim to a high position will be brought low and anyone who is modest in self-appraisal will be lifted up. (From Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I understand the modesty Benedict describes as neither self-inflating nor self-denigrating, but as being simply the clear vision of reality. The ego, through puffing up and deflating, can obscure this vision; the ego can thus overshadow anything. Benedict reminds me I will be "lifted up", or liberated, from the shadow of the ego, as I remain true to my practice of selfless attention.

1 comment:

UnknownSeptember 25, 2017 at 7:37 AM
I am always within God's sight, and it is God who lifts the ladder of my life. Even that lifting, I cannot do on my own. I simply open my heart and yield to God.
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