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, December 11, 2019

Chapter 58: The reception of candidates for the community (paragraphs 4-5)

When the decision is made that novices are to be accepted, then they come before the whole community in the oratory to make solemn promise of stability, fidelity to monastic life and obedience. (From para. 4 of Ch. 58 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

St. Benedict teaches me that the monk is one who seeks God. Through meditation I've come to appreciate the wisdom of the Rule, that this inward seeking also creates community. The solemn promises Benedict names apply to to the totality of my journey inward and outward. Somehow, in this knitting together of the inward and the outward, the monastery without walls is formed.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersDecember 11, 2019 at 5:29 AM
"Everyone has to be open to being formed again. The only thing that can possibly deter the new formation is if we ourselves refuse to let go of what was. If we cling to the past, the future is closed to us." (Joan Chittister, "Rule of Benedict Daily Reading"). Abba, help me to relax my firm grip on the past. Open my heart to the ever-new day and the totally-new adventure you have in store for me today.
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