One of the commitments I have made as a Novice Oblate is to immerse myself in the Rule of St. Benedict. This is a slender book, and my tendency is to read quickly so I can give myself the check-mark for completing the book. But that’s not the spirit that fosters rumination, chewing the wisdom of this little volume like cud to receive the nutrition it offers me. So I had decided to pair up the Rule with a little book, Oblation: Meditations on St. Benedict’s Rule, by Rachel M. Srubas. This book presents meditative poems inspired by the chapters of the Rule.

Today’s reading came from RB 33, “Whether the Monks Should Consider Anything Their Own.” The monastic ideal or standard was to own nothing individually, but to hold basic possessions in common. This is not as an end in itself, but a means to remaining free from the possessive power of possessions and of recognizing one’s dependence upon God. In her poem, Srubas writes, “Remind me what’s ‘mine’ is on loan from you… (p. 37). This leads me to reflect upon how much of my day, my time, my effort, and my worry are focused upon the accumulation, protection, and maintenance of the things filling my life. I am led to realize that so much of my worry comes from perceiving threats to my possessions.

This then leads me to recognize that my things turn my attention away from God and his desires for how I ought to live and toward how I serve my possessions. So, back to square one, the first commandment, and the question of the gods I choose to place ahead of God. It seems to me that even monks are not free of this path of diversion, or else St. Benedict would not have written about the destructive power of personal possessions. As an Oblate, I am searching for how to live according to the spirit of the Rule, reminding myself that I am not a monk, but someone who desires to live more deliberately, thoughtfully, and devotedly.

That’s what makes Srubas’s poem helpful. She reminds me that God lends me the objects in my life. This leads me to see that my role is to care for them and not to see myself as the owner. In fact, even I myself am on loan to me, as St. Benedict writes, “…they have neither their bodies nor their own wills at their own disposal” (RB 33:4). The image that comes to mind is that of the curator of a traveling museum exhibit. The small museum does not own the masterpieces it exhibits, but gladly displays the works on loan from another collection, placing the care for the exhibit in the hands of the curator.

Ut in Omnibus Glorificetur Deus.
(That in all things God may be glorified.)