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Listening to Our Master
“Listen, O my son, to the teachings of your master, and turn to them with the ear of your heart” (Prologue 1, Benedict’s Rule, Terrence G. Kardong, trans., The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minn., 1996). St. Benedict begins his rule in simplicity by calling us to listen. When we put down what burdens our hands, when…
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“Preferring Absolutely Nothing to Christ”
Introduction St. Mark’s on the Campus Episcopal Church celebrates the Eucharist on Tuesdays. Father Jerry Thompson invited me to lead worship on July 12, 2011. As is the parish’s practice, the service remembers a saint or other figure, transferring an observance if one does not fall on that particular date. Since July 11 is the…
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Blade and Oil and Stone
The Lincoln Chapter of Benedictine Oblates has launched a Facebook page: Nebraska Oblates. Here is my offering for the page’s new discussion section. Blade and Oil and Stone “Are you hastening toward your heavenly home? Then with Christ’s help, keep this little rule that we have written for beginners” (The Rule of St. Benedict, 73:8).…
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Spiritual Balance
I posted the following comment in response to a message, “Be Wise,” by Bishop David deFreese, Nebraska Synod, ELCA, on one of its Web sites in August 2010. Several years ago I spent a weekend at the Benedictine Mission House in Schuyler on a retreat entitled, “Experience the Life of a Monk for a Weekend.”…
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Final Oblation
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over a year since I first started down the path to becoming a Benedictine Oblate. In that time, I have learned a lot about the riches of the Benedictine tradition and how the Rule of St. Benedict helps to shape me so that I have a more peaceful,…
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On the Altar
In the second half of Chapter 58, Saint Benedict describes the liturgy in which a man becomes a monk. The ceremony in which I made a promise to enter a year’s time as a novice oblate contains some of the elements in this liturgy. I signed my name to a written promise and placed it…
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A Time of Testing
Earlier this month I marked the twentieth anniversary of my ordination. Of that time, I spent about five years in parish ministry, half that time in visitation and hospice chaplaincy, just under ten years in communications with a church agency, and the rest of the time on leave from call. My most recent leave from…
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Humble Craftsmanship
Someone taught me that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote “SDG” at the bottom of his musical scores. Those three letters were an acronym for Soli Deo Gloria, meaning “To the only God be glory.” I’m reminded of this by the quotation from 1 Peter 4:11 that Benedictine monks and oblates lift up as a byword for…
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Come to the Table
As I opened The Rule of Benedict this morning, I saw a tiny chapter, and wondered whether its text would elicit any thoughts and guide me to amend my life in any way. On first glance, I wasn’t sure. But the more I pondered the few lines of the text, I began to see how…
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Striving for Sufficiency
When Anne and I were planning our wedding, we selected a non-traditional Gospel text. Non-traditional for weddings, but one that has served as a guide to us, off and on, since that day. It’s a text that reminds me, every time I hear or read it, of God’s generous care for us, and of the…