Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag Archive for ‘Rule’

Numbering of the Psalms

At the last Oblate meeting a question about the numbering  of the Psalms was raised. This difference is important particularly as you read the Rule of St. Benedict or the commentary on the Psalms that have been posted to the site. The reason for the difference is the Christian numbering of the Psalms, as found [...]

The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is a call to deep inner probing. Without self knowledge, without the inner journey, our sensitivity towards others is severely curtailed. All that is possible is to react on the level of the instinctual, allowing anxiety and fear to fuel anger that is either directed outward or driven deep within. If compassion [...]

Online Video Course

A new online video course, “The Heart of the Rule of Benedict” with S. Joan Chittister OSB, will begin on January 2, 2012, through the Monasteries of the Heart website (www.monasteriesoftheheart.org). In this yearlong course, participants will have access to weekly three to five minute videos on Benedictine spirituality distilled by Sister Joan from the [...]

Trappist Monks and Nuns Revive Interest in Monastic Vocations Online

PEOSTA, IA (Cistercians of the Strict Observance) – For more than nine centuries, Trappist monks and nuns have witnessed to the gospel of Jesus Christ through a cloistered, communal life wholly ordered to contemplation. Cistercians of the Strict Observance, also known as “Trappists” are an order of the Roman Catholic Church who founded their first [...]

Benedictine Spirituality: Peace in the Monastery of the Heart

Turn away from evil and do good; let peace be your quest and aim.” Over the archway of medieval monasteries were commonly carved the words Pax Intrantibus, “Peace to those who enter here.” These words were both a hope and a promise. Benedict’s vision of the peaceable kingdom was a real one. In a society [...]

Saint Benedict’s Advice for Lent

The Season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 9 March 2011. Saint Benedict offers his thinking about the observance of Lent in chapter 49 of his Rule. Besides abstinence from vice, food, and drink, Benedict recommends reading, especially Sacred Scripture. The right kind of Lectio Divina can lead to that “compunction of heart” that is [...]

Prayer should be short and pure (RB 20:4)

Wherefore we ought to pray often but briefly, lest if we are long about it our crafty foe may succeed in implanting something in our heart. For that is the true sacrifice, as “the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit.” This is the salutary offering, these are pure drink offerings, that is the “sacrifice [...]

Seven Reasons You’re Still Hungry

St. Benedict regulated the intake of food and spirits for his monks (see chapters 39-41 of the Rule). It is something for us all to live up to but for most of us dealing with everyday temptation we often fall short of the ideal. The principle reason is we were “craving” a particular food. Perhaps [...]

Being Beloved Children of God (Part 1)

Sons of God. Obsculta, fili or Obsculta, o fili, Saint Benedict says [1]. Most translations mistranslate that. Usually the translations say, “Listen, my son.” That is not what Saint Benedict said. He said “Listen, O son.” He is speaking to us precisely in our dignity and reality as sons. We have been baptized into Christ, [...]

Breakfast with Benedict

Oblates are invited to attend a monthly  “Breakfast with Benedict” being sponsored by Belmont Abbey College. The breakfast will begin at 7:45 AM At each Breakfast with Benedict event, a member of the college or monastic community will provide a 15- or 20-minute reflection on one of the Benedictine hallmarks and the role that hallmark/charism/virtue [...]