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, June 17, 2019

Chapter 13: Lauds on ordinary days (paragraph 2)

It is important that the celebration of Lauds and Vespers should never be concluded without the recitation by the superior of the whole of the Lord's prayer so that all may hear and attend to it. This is because of the harm that is often done in a community by the thorns of conflict which can arise. (From para. 2 of Ch. 13 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

As I've grown older, and have experienced forgiveness more, I've also come to realize that sometimes there are healthy boundaries that I need to establish and maintain, that may sound like qualifications on forgiveness. It's long, hard work to transform unhealthy patterns of relationship, and forgiveness may be come before trust.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersJune 18, 2019 at 3:12 AM
Forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness: such a daily repetitive process, Abba. Reminds me of the profound story of the curious man asking the old monk, “What do you guys do all day up there in that monastery?” “Well,” came the reply, “we fall down and we get up, and then we fall down and we get up, and then again we fall down and we get up, all day long.”
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