There are no words that I can type with these fingers,
or words that I can speak with my tongue and lips, that can remotely express
the deep intrinsic values that I have discovered through listening with the
ear of my heart to the practical and life-changing advice of this father
who loves me.
I was hungering and thirsting for something deeper and
more directive in my life and walk as a follower of Jesus when providence
introduced me to Saint Benedict and to what he referred to as his little
rule for beginners. I think of the introduction as one of what I call
providential accidents in my life – seemingly accidental on my part but with a
much higher origin. I think it is important to realize that God is always at
work in and despite circumstances and within our own stumbling through the
darkness of our own insights and understandings. [Romans 8:28]
Why
do some Christians wish to become Oblates of St. Benedict?
The following answer to this question is taken from a key resource for Oblates published by Saint Vincent’s Archabbey.
“They are attracted to the Oblate Program because they are seeking God in Jesus Christ and have begun to find Him through their acquaintance with a Benedictine community and through the Christian values manifested by the community and its Oblates.
Such people have recognized that those Benedictine values, which are ultimately values of the Gospel, have great significance in their own daily lives and in their own quest for God amidst the ordinary circumstances of their work, prayer, and relationships. They have a humble awareness of their own weaknesses and yet know that the God of love calls them to holiness in an ongoing struggle to overcome their defects. They recognize Christ's presence in the Benedictine community and in the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict, both of which they have come to regard as gifts of God meant to nurture their spiritual lives. They also realize that the grace of God can work in their lives, lived outside the monastery, to make them channels of prayerful support and encouragement to the monastic community.
In all these ways they come to discover that God is calling them to be Oblates so that they may find Him more and more in all people, things, and events, until they themselves are transformed by Christ to the point at which they can say, along with St. Paul, "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20).
In this modern age, Oblation may have particular value because of the decline of family life and community life in our culture, even among Christians.
In the preface to MBO, Archabbot Denis Strittmatter, O.S.B., quoted Archabbot Leander Schnerr, O.S.B., from the 1898 edition of the Manual in stating:
In our day, no less, does the growth of infidelity threaten the world with ruin. The bonds of Christian union are loosening everywhere; in the family as well as in public life their place is being largely taken by a code of unrestraint and license.
May St. Benedict, therefore, now as then, with his Order come to the rescue of society, and through the spreading Institute of Secular Oblates[1] effect that families again return to the Christian principles of faith and obedience. Then may we justly hope that society and the state will follow in their wake. [Italics Mine]
The MBO [Manual for Benedictine Oblates] also states (pp. 3-4):
The need which the modern world has of these Benedictine qualities gives the monk a unique role in this day. The Benedictine Order differs from modern congregations in that it has no specific devotion or apostolic work that modifies and determines its type of spirituality. It is simply the leading of the Christian life to the fullest. [Italics Mine]
This statement can aptly be applied to Oblates just as well as to monks.”[2]
It was because of the infidelity that captivated the time in which Benedict lived that he renounced the world to live in a cave at Subiaco, some thirty miles from Rome. What developed in his life offered definitive direction to a world in need and established an ordered way of life that gave security and stability. Benedict’s ancient Rule is far from irrelevant in these modern times. It offers the same hope to this modern world that is captivated by its own blind infidelity and is imploding around us.In our day, no less, does the growth of infidelity threaten the world with ruin.
Saint John Kronstadt, one of our Eastern brethren, talks about the blindness that moral infidelity creates.
How deeply sin takes root in the heart and entire being of the sinner! It gives the sinner its own perspective of things, quite different from reality, making sin appear in an enticing light! For this reason, we see that sinners often do not think of their own conversion. They do not even consider themselves to be great sinners, because their eyes are blinded by their self-love and pride.[3]
Will we see a great renewal in this modern age of extreme infidelity?
None of us can answer that question. It is not our job to even try. Our responsibility, our job, is to answer the question, “What will I do with myself?” in these terribly deceptive times that are growing more immoral by the day. Benedict reminds us that the Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings. He encourages us to not be daunted immediately by fear or run away from the road that leads to salvation. When we doubt our ability to walk the Benedictine walk, he reminds us that what is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace.[4]
The Oblate Formation Booklet cited above is available online as a pdf document that is easily downloaded to your computer. Whether a new inquirer or a well-seasoned Oblate, the contents of the booklet rightly become a valuable resource to be consulted over and over.
http://www.svaoblates.org/files/OblateFormation.pdf
[1] The word “secular” is used to represent Oblates living in the world outside the monastic enclosure where “cloistered” is a reference to those living within the monastic enclosure.
[2] OBLATE FORMATION BOOKLET for Oblates of Saint Benedict affiliated with Saint Vincent Archabbey, 1995, revised in 2002 and 2013
[3]
Saint John Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
[4]
Holy Rule, Prologue, 35, 41, 48
