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.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Chapter 40: The proper amount of drink to be provided
“Spiritus contra Spiritum”, wrote Carl Jung to Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. “The Spirit against Spirits” goes the literal translation from the Latin Jung was citing. One out of nine of us who drink (one out of five of us who are health care professionals) develops a problem with “spirits”/alcohol or its multiple substitutes, its “powdered” forms: prescription or illegal drugs. Wine gladdens the heart, the scripture says. But St Benedict recognizes that wine can also destroy the heart and all of the rest of my bodily and mental parts, not to speak of my spirituality. The only real alternative, the only real remedy for what ails me, including alcohol, Spiritum, is Spiritus, your Spirit, Lord Jesus. Come. Maranatha.
“Spiritus contra Spiritum”, wrote Carl Jung to Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. “The Spirit against Spirits” goes the literal translation from the Latin Jung was citing. One out of nine of us who drink (one out of five of us who are health care professionals) develops a problem with “spirits”/alcohol or its multiple substitutes, its “powdered” forms: prescription or illegal drugs. Wine gladdens the heart, the scripture says. But St Benedict recognizes that wine can also destroy the heart and all of the rest of my bodily and mental parts, not to speak of my spirituality. The only real alternative, the only real remedy for what ails me, including alcohol, Spiritum, is Spiritus, your Spirit, Lord Jesus. Come. Maranatha.
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