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, August 16, 2014

Chapter 64: The election of an abbot or abbess (paragraphs 3-4)

They must be so well-grounded in the law of God so that they may have the resources to bring forth what is new and what is old in their teaching. (From para. 3 of Ch. 64 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

Bringing forth "what is new and what is old in their teaching" expresses, for me, my own experience of being personally and vitally engaged with the ancient wisdom tradition embodied in Benedict's Rule.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersAugust 18, 2014 at 5:58 AM
“Like a lover, like a gardener, God patiently awaits our response, our growth.” (John Main, “Monastery Without Walls”, Kindle loc 2431). This applies to my “Abbot functions”, as spouse, parent, grandparent, neighbor, citizen, all the places where I exercise more or less authority, the author-ity of love; that is, wherever God places me today in this, His garden.
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