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.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Chapter 18: The order for reciting the psalms (paragraph 3)

These same psalms are repeated daily until Sunday and the identical arrangement of hymns, lessons and verses is retained everyday. (From para. 3 of Ch. 18 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

It seems to me that a spirit of fidelity to practice pervades Benedict's sense of order -- just as it pervades the tradition of the mantra as taught by John Main.

1 comment:

valFebruary 22, 2014 at 5:06 AM
Benedict wants me to reflect on God's work and wisdom in my daily life from sunup to sundown even though I sometimes think He is so distant. "If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor;"(Ps. 126(127)) which is one of those middle of the day Psalms, brings me back to Benedict's beginning Prologue advice that every time I begin a good work, I must pray to him to bring it to perfection. Truly these mid-day Psalm are filled with learning about God's ways of his law of love food for reflection during the busiest hours of the day.
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