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.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Chapter 9: The number of psalms at the night office

During this winter season the office of Vigils begins with this verse recited three times; Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. (From para. 1 of Ch. 8 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

The images of night and winter are metaphors, for me, of the experience of silence and stillness in meditation. God "opens my lips" to a silent, interior saying of the mantra, and in this way, the praise of selfless attention can be born.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersJune 12, 2019 at 4:58 AM
Monks and nuns who live a monastic life completely fulfilling the Divine Office witness to you, Abba, and your all-encompassing love. Prioritizing my twice or thrice daily meditation is the very least I can do in my monastic life without walls similarly to respond to you.
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