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 25, 2012

Chapter 45: Mistakes in the Oratory

Anyone who makes a mistake in a psalm, responsory, antiphon or reading must have the humility to make immediate reparation there before all the community in the oratory. A failure to do that so clearly shows lack of the humility to put right a fault which was due to carelessness that it must incur a more severe punishment.

(From Ch. 45 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

As I read this chapter, St. Benedict's point is not about perfectionism nor fear of making an innocent mistake, but rather it's about the humility of selfless attention. Self-absorption leads to carelessness, which can be disruptive to the community. Selfless attention leads to community.

1 comment:

Roger SessionsJuly 25, 2012 at 6:43 PM
"if he does not humble himself there before all by making a satisfaction,let him undergo a greater punishment because he would not correct by humility what he did wrong through carelessness."

I wonder how many outcomes I could have changed for the better by simply saying, "I'm sorry."
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