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, August 20, 2019

Chapter 64: The election of an abbot or abbess (paragraphs 1-2)

The grounds on which a candidate is elected abbot or abbess must be the quality of their monastic life and the wisdom of their teaching, even if they are the last in order in the community. (From para. 1 of Ch. 64 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

St. Benedict teaches me: Order is not made from rank or attainment. Order comes from qualities of alignment, integrity, harmony in my inner and outer life, and in my life in community with others. Thus, I need an unobstructed openness to the prayer of the Spirit. Everything wise flows from this.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersAugust 20, 2019 at 4:40 AM
Since Your human creatures make up any “Community of Love”, Abba, each will have its good and bad apples, including its politicians of different stripes. Faithfulness to meditation and the mantra can assure that I will the more wisely contribute to whatever role i may play in discerning and/or providing leadership.
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