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, May 13, 2017

Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 4)

They should not select for special treatment any individual in the monastery. (From para. 4 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

I can't be an authentic leader committed to the welfare of others, and play favorites. But I'll have my favorites, my special friends, and love them in a powerful way that will teeter on the edge of exclusivity. The Dalai Lama and Benedict remind me that true love always sets another free.

1 comment:

WallyMay 15, 2017 at 6:44 AM
Sheep can be such smelly, ungainly creatures, and so can I so often be such a clumsy, ungainly, creature, Lord. Yet you, the Good Shepherd, lay down your life for me! Teach me how to love whomever of your sheep you entrust to me to be “abba” to, today--whomever I meet today.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment