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.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Chapter 18: The order for reciting the psalms (paragraphs 5-6)

After all, we read that our holy Fathers had the energy to fulfil in one single day what we in our lukewarm devotion only aspire to complete in a whole week. (From para. 6 of Ch. 18 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

I don't think that devotion, as St. Benedict speaks of it, is about spiritual athleticism. Rather, I think it's about an expanding experience of divine energy, and its ability to set our lives aflame.

1 comment:

Wally SaundersJune 25, 2015 at 4:35 AM
The Rule challenges me here. "I am such a busy guy!", screams my obsessive-compulsive head. "How can I possibly recite an hour, let alone any more of the seven of them, on top of twice a day 20-30 minute meditations?" Forgive me, Abba, Father. Help me to see the Hours and Lectio less as challenges than your loving invitations to be with you, as imperfectly as you know is the only way I can respond today. I am still your so very little one.
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