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.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Chapter 44: The reconciliation of those excommunicated

Anyone who is excommunicated from the refectory only for a less serious fault should perform the same act of reparation in the oratory until permitted to cease; the superior brings this penance to an end by giving a blessing and saying 'that is enough'. (From para. 2 of Ch. 44 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I think the power behind the words "that is enough" is that of forgiveness and personal growth, when a time of sorrow must become a time of new life.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersMarch 30, 2014 at 5:45 AM
I can too often excommunicate myself from my fellows, lose my inner peace, through my lack of consideration and unthinking behavior. This passage of the rule reminds me how much I need the poverty of spirit to consistently practice spiritual self-examination.
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