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.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Chapter 2: Gifts needed by an abbot or abbess (paragraph 1)

Far from it, everything he or she commands or teaches should be like a leaven of the holiness that comes from God infused into the minds of their disciples. (From para. 1 of Ch. 2 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

The leavening power of yeast lightens and expands dough; in the same way my relationship with the Teacher Within enlightens my mind. But I believe it enlightens my mind through my heart.

1 comment:

valJanuary 18, 2015 at 4:12 AM
Yeast makes the dough rise and if bread is being made, the dough is "punched" and deflated so it can rise again before being handled into a bread. The yeast is the love of Christ placed within me, the dough, by the Infinite Bread Maker, God (Her?) Himself. And so I do not get inflated with self-importance or ego-consciousness, the Bread Maker punches me down with loving hands kneading, the dough so that the Christ-love within me grows and expands as bread for others.
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