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.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Chapter 72: The good spirit which should inspire monastic life

It is easy to recognize the bitter spirit of wickedness which creates a barrier to God's grace and opens the way to the evil of hell. But equally there is a good spirit which frees us from evil ways and brings us closer to God and eternal life. (From Ch. 72 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I know that I have both good and evil in myself -- love and alienation, inclusion and exclusion. But the practice of meditation has the power to wipe away even these labels, and to make of me something whole.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersAugust 29, 2019 at 5:54 AM
“Zeal for your house has eaten me up” from Psalm 69 came to your disciples’ mind when you began your public ministry by violently cleansing your Father’s house, Lord Jesus. Now Benedict prescribes and my meditation supports the zeal that enlivens my life with you and my fellows.
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