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, July 31, 2019

Chapter 49: How Lent should be observed in the monastery

Therefore we urge that all in the monastery during these holy days of Lent should look carefully at the integrity of their lives and get rid in this holy season of any thoughtless compromises which may have crept in at other times. (From para. 1 of Ch. 49 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

Where are the gaps? At what points in my day is there a disconnect between who I truly am and what I do? What are the thoughtless compromises in which distraction takes place over attention, ego takes place over love? May I learn to recognize these habits of mind, and allow being truly present to change me.

1 comment:

WallyJuly 31, 2019 at 8:00 AM
In this Chapter 49 Benedict reminds me of ever-growing, blooming, things like me, Abba, Creator of this garden called the Universe and tiny me in it. Life with You IS a yearlong Lent, a never-ending Springtime.
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