A year ago this month, I spent a weekend at the Benedictine Retreat Center in Schuyler, Neb., joining with three other men on a retreat called “Experience the Life of a Monk for a Weekend.” It was an eye-opening and life-changing time for me. The monks with whom we prayed, ate, relaxed, and talked all radiated a deep serenity, a sense of balance and calm, an attitude of patience and awareness of the world and people around them, that I found immensely beguiling.
From talking with one of my fellow retreatants while walking from the retreat center to the monastery for one of the observances of the Liturgy of the Hours, I learned about Benedictine Oblates. They are people, both laity and clergy from Roman Catholicism and other traditions, who commit themselves, with God’s help, to live according to the spirit of The Rule of St. Benedict. This brief document, dating to the 500s, captures in its 73 brief chapters the wisdom and guidance of St. Benedict for how to live a monastic life.
From the earliest days, individuals—who were not monks—attached themselves to monasteries and offered themselves to God while continuing to live their daily lives. The key is the term “offering.” This English word and the term “oblate” share the same root. So an Oblate is an individual who makes his or her life an offering to God.
When I returned home from the retreat, I discovered that Lincoln, Nebraska, has a chapter of Benedictine Oblates affiliated with the Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton, South Dakota. Sister Phyllis Hunhoff directs the life of the chapter. I visited with her and decided to follow the path to becoming a Benedictine Oblate. This means that since November 2008 I have been a Novice Oblate, spending this first year exploring life as an Oblate and discerning whether I am called to make a commitment to becoming an Oblate this coming November.
As a way to mark the first anniversary of my journey along this path and as a practice of the disciplines of careful reading and reflection, I plan to spend a little time each day reading, reflecting, praying, and writing about this oblate’s path. I have no outline to guide the month, aside from deciding to spend some time along the way with several books:
- Acedia & Me. Kathleen Norris.
- Bread in the Wilderness. Thomas Merton.
- The Rule of St. Benedict. St. Benedict.
If you’ve chosen to listen in on this conversation, I’m glad you are here.
St. Benedict begins the Prologue to his Rule with these words: “Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart” (RB Pro. 1). My intention is to take this admonition to heart.
Ut in Omnibus Glorificetur Deus. (That in all things God may be glorified.)