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, November 16, 2015
Chapter 39: The amount of food to be made available
“It is enough to provide all tables with two kinds of cooked food because of individual weaknesses.”
I am grateful to Benedict for acknowledging individual weaknesses. What is the use of dragging myself down because I am spiritually, or physically or morally weak? I become wrapped up in remorse, self-pity, and eventually depression? I then lose the joyful response to being understood and loved by the One who knows me through and through and can do all things helping me to live fruitfully. Here is what Pope Francis says in his Evangelii Gaudium:
“One of the more serious temptations… is a defeatism which turns us into…sourpusses. If we start without confidence, we have already lost half the battle and we bury our talents. While painfully aware of our own frailties, we have to march on without giving in, keeping in mind what the Lord said to St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness”(2 Cor 12:9).
“It is enough to provide all tables with two kinds of cooked food because of individual weaknesses.”
ReplyDeleteI am grateful to Benedict for acknowledging individual weaknesses. What is the use of dragging myself down because I am spiritually, or physically or morally weak? I become wrapped up in remorse, self-pity, and eventually depression? I then lose the joyful response to being understood and loved by the One who knows me through and through and can do all things helping me to live fruitfully. Here is what Pope Francis says in his Evangelii Gaudium:
“One of the more serious temptations… is a defeatism which turns us into…sourpusses. If we start without confidence, we have already lost half the battle and we bury our talents. While painfully aware of our own frailties, we have to march on without giving in, keeping in mind what the Lord said to St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness”(2 Cor 12:9).