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Finding Balance
Benedictine spirituality is well known for its delight in balance. The famous dictum, “Ora et labora,” captures in three words the search for balance between prayer and work. The traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, when adapted for oblates, become sufficiency, stability, and obedience. This balances the ideals of the religious life with the…
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Avoiding Pride
I am basically a shy person, an introvert, so it’s always been a little puzzling to me that I made the decision almost twenty-four years ago to attend seminary and to prepare for a vocation that would place me in front of crowds and call me to speak in public. As I followed that calling,…
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Homo orans
In recent weeks, my thoughts occasionally dwell on my vocation as a pastor. It’s been fifteen years since I served as a parish pastor, and in some ways, I am not the same person I was in 1994. But on the other hand, the man I am today is one in continuity with the man…
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The Ear of My Heart
This morning I read further in Thomas Merton’s Bread in the Wilderness. He writes about the experience of encountering Christ in the praying of the Psalms. I’ve found it to be a meeting that changes me little by little, like the gentle waters of a stream slowly wearing away the rough edges of a rock…
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“The Same Journey”
In his slender volume, Bread in the Wilderness, Thomas Merton works out his theology of the Psalms, explaining their power and mystery as the song- and prayer-book of God’s people, both in Israel and in the Church. His writing is compact and nuanced, not so much because of highly technical language, but because of the…
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Before and Above
One of my friends in college, Mustafah, was a student from Iran who had come to the United States to study. He was “trapped” in this country when the Shah was deposed and the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran in 1979. Because he was cut off from family, he depended upon aid from…
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Chores and Charity
When I attended the retreat at the Benedictine Mission House in Schuyler, Neb., last year, I, along with my fellow retreatants, ate midday and evening meals with monks in the monastery. The meals were served “family-style,” with one of the monks cooking and another serving the food. When I look back on the experience, I’m…
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Murmuring
Right after St. Benedict talks about how possessions can take on the power to possess their owner—me!—he turns to the question of how the community distributes necessities, depending upon need. It’s a stretch for me to listen to this passage and let it shape my thoughts about my life, partly because my daily life is…
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Life on Loan
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…
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An Oblate’s Path
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…