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, October 30, 2018

Chapter 23: Faults which deserve excommunication

If an individual in the community is defiant, disobedient, proud or given to murmuring or in any other way set in opposition to the holy Rule and contemptuous of traditions of the seniors, then we should follow the precept of our Lord. (From Ch. 23 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

By looking at the problems St Benedict identifies (defiance, disobedience, pride, murmuring, opposition, contempt) I can see that the greatest faults I can commit in community are qualities that undermine relationship. I contribute to the well-being of community when I can relate to others from a place of inner peace and harmony.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersOctober 30, 2018 at 4:42 AM
The acronym P-R-I-D-E, I’ve been told, stands for “Please Remember I Decide Everything.” Pride tells me, other words, that “I am large and in charge.” Heal my stony, stubborn heart, Abba. Open me to becoming meek and humble of heart, to your peace that passes all understanding.
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