In my youth a
year sounded like a long time. I had no
idea at the beginning of my Christian walk that I was in for the long
haul. Now looking back, after having been
a Christian for more than half a century, it seems like a short time.
What I didn’t
understand at the beginning was that the waves of spiritual warfare that
assaulted my youthful and emotional soul were just the leading edge of a lifelong
battle.
St. Benedict
says,
The labor of
obedience will bring you back to him from whom you had drifted through the
sloth of disobedience. This message of
mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for
all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience to do battle for
the true King, Christ the Lord.[i]
Do not be
distressed by this warfare as though it were the specific lot of
Christians. The whole world is at
war. It has always been at war. The Psalmist laments,
Woe to me, that
I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I had my dwelling among those
who hate peace. I am for peace, but when
I speak, they are for war![ii]
Only the dead do not have war, and some of the
dead are still living. They do not know
that they have war, even though many of these dead are walking wounded.
Benedict asks us
if we are ready to give up our own wills “once and for all.” If you read The Rule carefully you will see
that this “once and for all” is merely a starting point. I remind you that Henry Suso said, “No matter
how much one abandons oneself, one repeatedly finds more of oneself to
abandon.”[iii] Once and for all surrender is a way of life,
not a momentary surrender once given and always possessed. But always remember that there is a rhythm to
spiritual life. Even old Screwtape,
looking at humankind, recognized that,
Their nearest
approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level
from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you
would have seen this undulation in every department of his life—his interest in
his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and
down.[iv]
St. Benedict in
his Rule, calls us to both a surrender of our time and of the disorderly nature
of our lives. He does not call us to
obsessive all-encompassing spiritual disciplines but to a life of balance. He advises us that,
Prayer should be
short and pure, unless perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine
grace. In community, however, prayer
should always be brief; and when the superior gives the signal, all should rise
together.[v]
For Benedictines
there is a holy balance of work and prayer.
And we might also add, of holy leisure.
One saint said, “I could not pray because I had not worked.”[vi] It may also be true that both prayer and work
can be dulled by the fact that we have not played. This balance is evident even in simple
things,
For the daily
meals, whether at noon or in the midafternoon, it is enough, we believe, to
provide all tables with two kinds of cooked food because of individual
weaknesses. In this way the person who
may not be able to eat one kind of food may partake of the other. Two kinds of cooked food, therefore, should
suffice for all the brothers, and if fresh fruit or vegetables are available, a
third dish may also be added. A generous
pound of bread is enough for a day whether for only one meal or for both dinner
and supper.[vii]
Given the living conditions of his day
the allowance is generous and the sense of balance without compulsion is kept
even in the matters of the table; not however without a warning about
over-indulgence.
The insistence
on maintaining balance in the ongoing warfare of our lives is a Benedictine
distinctive and a mark of our lives as Oblates.
We are not monks and our call is different as is reflected in our Oblate
Rule of Life.
The
Oblate Rule of Life
The call to make an oblation of their lives in a specific
Benedictine Monastery comes to those who by necessity live their lives in the
midst of the world of family and business.
Oblates are conscious of the principle of St. Benedict that Prayer and
Work must be balanced in their experience.
The Oblates Rule of Life is regarded more as aspiration rather than
obligation, yet it provides a guide that calls us to gentle
accountability.
The Rule of Life
1. To pray at least one Office a day.
2. To attend Eucharist on Sundays and
where possible on Feast Days.
3. To pray daily for the Monastery,
including our fellow Oblates.
4. To spend some time daily, however
short, in Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina
has four steps: Reading Scripture, Reflection, Response in Prayer, and Resting
in the Presence of God.
5. To read the daily reading from the
Rule of St. Benedict.
6. To wear the Medal of St. Benedict.
7. To make, in so far as possible, an
annual retreat at the Monastery.
8. To support the work of the Monastery
financially and in other tangible ways.
9. To be flexible and governed by love
and common sense in the carrying out of the Rule of Life.
Oblates make their oblation, or renew it, at an annual
retreat at St. Scholastica Monastery, or at whatever Benedictine Monastery
where they have made their Oblation, or at our Oblate Chapter Meeting by
arrangement with Director of Oblates.
The oblation, although not a calling to be a monk or nun is nevertheless
made in the context of The Rule of St. Benedict who said, “Let him who is to be
received make before all, in the Oratory, a promise of STABILITY, CONVERSION OF
LIFE, and OBEDIENCE, in the presence of God and of his saints.”[viii] Our call as Oblates equips us to live a
balanced life in the midst of our too often very busy and demanding schedules,
rather than in retirement from the world.[ix]
It is important
to recognize that we are in a state of warfare, but it is important to “take up
the strong weapons of obedience” in the context of a balanced, non-compulsive,
orderly, Benedictine way of living.
[i] The Rule of St. Benedict in English, ed. Timothy Fry,
(Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1982), p. 15
[ii] Psalm 120:5-7
[iii] Henry Suso, Sermon 4, The Exemplar, trans. Frank Tobin, (New York:
Paulist Press, 1989), p. 372
[iv] C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1996), p. 40
[v] The Rule, p. 48
[vi] John Cordelier, but where the reference is I do not know.
[vii] The Rule, p. 61
[viii] D. Oswald Hunter Blair, trans. The Rule of St. Benedict, (Fort
Augustus: The Abbey Press, 1934), p. 155
[ix] The Oblate Rule of Life is unique to our Chapter, St. Anthony of
the Desert.
