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, November 21, 2015
Chapter 43: Late-comers for the work of God or in the refectory
“Work is love made visible.” ( Kahlil Gibran) For Benedict work begins with the first words of the divine office, the very first Psalm 94. “Nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God,” Benedict explains.
I notice, he does not say work for God. He calls it the work of God. What that means to me, is that it is time for God’s work in the soul. That is why Benedict is so adamant about punctuality for community prayer.
Today, John Main in the Daily Readings points out that, “Nothing must dilute the stream of prayer that is the love of Jesus for His Father”. Into that stream I enter when it is time for meditating and I “must remain undividedly open”(John Main, Daily Readings). There is no time for equivocation, dawdling, “frivolity”(RB 43.2), but rather I need to aside what I have in hand and go with “the utmost speed”(RB 43.1). It is the time for God’s work in me. It is time for love to be made visible in me,
“Work is love made visible.” ( Kahlil Gibran) For Benedict work begins with the first words of the divine office, the very first Psalm 94. “Nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God,” Benedict explains.
ReplyDeleteI notice, he does not say work for God. He calls it the work of God. What that means to me, is that it is time for God’s work in the soul. That is why Benedict is so adamant about punctuality for community prayer.
Today, John Main in the Daily Readings points out that, “Nothing must dilute the stream of prayer that is the love of Jesus for His Father”. Into that stream I enter when it is time for meditating and I “must remain undividedly open”(John Main, Daily Readings). There is no time for equivocation, dawdling, “frivolity”(RB 43.2), but rather I need to aside what I have in hand and go with “the utmost speed”(RB 43.1). It is the time for God’s work in me. It is time for love to be made visible in me,
to me and through me.