www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology My blessing to be an Oblate novice

Dear Alex,

Congratulations on your investiture. Welcome to the family of the monastic communities that began when the East and West were one.

I pray that God grant you the riches to be found in the study of Holy Rule and in the paractice of Lectio and in the praying of the Hours. He has been surprising me that way for nearly half a century. I'm still at the beginning.

The word Asculta is the first word of the Rule in Latin as I'm sure you know. It means "Listen!" Learning to do that is the hardest lesson of all for me. Trying to surrender to the silence that is needed to do that is a real challenge. Letting God be God is hard work!

My eigth grade teacher was a Benedictine nun with whom I reconnected in her later years. When she died, I went to her wake and funeral.

The community had printed a memorial card that included a portion of the Rule. In the pre Vatican II years when Sister Eleanor was formed in religious life, the superior gave each nun a quotation from the rule on which to focus her spiritual growth in community over her lifetime. On the memorial card was the portion given to Sister Eleanor. It was this:

It is love that impels them to pursue everlasting life; therefore they are eager to take the narrow road of which God says: "Narrow is the road that leads to life." (Rule of Benedict: Chapter 5: 10-11)

Alex, may the Love Who impels you to embrace the Holy Rule bring to completion the work He has begun in you!

Your Brother Listener,

Steve

Dear Brother Steve,

I'm always suspicious of anything that comes out of "Hollywood . . ."

But you are the great exception!

The warm holiness of your soul has always poured forth from your posts, as above.

Thank you for sharing that and I will indeed listen and listen!

I'm already talking and posting less!

Cheers, dear friend in Christ,

Alex

Dear Brother-in-Christ, Alex,

God be praised!

Thanks for your kind words in reply.

You are in my prayers and my heart is filled with "joy" for you!

Amen!

Porter...(see the section of the RB on the "porter" from which in this particular time of my life I draw much inspiration. )

For those who are interested in doing this, there is a daily reading plan of the rule that begins tomorrow, September 1st.

http://www.osb.org/rb/text/rbejms1.html#pro

God's blessing!

Let us begin again...

In Christ,

Gordo

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for your kindness and advice!

It is indeed an exciting journey that is very fulfilling, always surprising and one that makes one look ahead.

It has also put things in a new light for me.

I have come to realize that my life on this forum has been a morally questionable one.

I have sought to call attention to myself by my posts, on controversial topics as well as more tame ones, rather than share my faith or build up the faith of others.

The fact that I have so many thousands of "posts" is no credit to me - it is to my shame that I've wasted so much valuable time on needless chatter, on silly topics and, finally, on controversial matters for the sake of being argumentative.

I thank those here for helping me to finally see this about my involvement on the forum.

The new life I'm experiencing now has brought all this into sharp focus as well.

Perhaps there is egotism even in this post.

In any event, I'm free of that addiction to egotism through posting on this or any chat forum.

I'm at peace and just wanted to say so. I feel terrible about myself because of what I was on the forum and how I rejected the advice of others before to stop posting and go on to other things.

The lesson is finally learned. I thank the Administrator and you all for the "good times" and I believe there were some.

I've apologised for this and that to him and others so many times that my apologies, I know, have become bereft of any credibility whatever.

But if you could all look into my eyes now, I think you would see a real sincerity and purpose that just might surprise.

I'm sorry - to the point of heartache - that I leave here under these circumstances, with those whose friendship I have cherished unable to speak to me. But I brought that upon myself, to be sure.

May God bless you all in your life in Christ! Please keep me in your prayers as I will you!

PAX!

Alex

Alex,

Oops...you did it again.

james

Dear Alex,

I have always told you that the majority of your posts and humor are interesting and enjoyable.

However, if I may so humbly give you one word of advice on something which I often wished you would do here and you didn't: pray for others on the prayer forum...sincerely and without thought to yourself. Feel the pain of God's people as if it were your pain, or the pain of those whom you love. Give in prayer as well as take in prayer. It is a wonderful opportunity for us all to step outside of ourselves for a while, and for that terrible thing which we call 'ego' which weighs us ALL down to temporarily be trampled upon.

Blessings,
Alice

Dear Alice,

Clearly, my ego and the forum don't mesh and that is why the two should be apart.

My ego seems fine now, as is the forum with its many interesting topics and posts.

I apologise for always being so "me-deep" in conversation where the "I's" always had it . . .

If your advice wasn't taken before, it is just because one must always "beware of Greeks bearing gifts"

Seriously though, the oblate experience has shown me the error of my ways even though I've a while yet before overcoming them.

To be a forum poster isn't given to everyone. Heaven knows I should have been permanently removed long before discovering this fact. And "Ukrainian Orthodoxy" is now a thing of the past for me as well.

(This is just to respond to your post above, nothing more).

Ciao,

AR

Alex,

I contacted the Archabbey to inquire about the Oblate program. More just as a way to discern these things...

Do we Byzantines have such a tradition as Oblature? I was told by an Oblate that it is a particularly Latin thing, but I'm welcome to join. I know that there are Byzantine Benedictines...there is a group out in Eagle Harbor, Michigan on the UP ( Holy Transfiguration Skete [societystjohn.com] ) that are part of the UGCC and observe the Rule of St. Benedict with a Byzantine Emphasis. I e-mailed them to find out if they have an Oblate program, but have not heard anything back from either group.

God bless!

Gordo

There are photos of monsteries in Russia showing monasteries with large numbers of lay people who shared in the works of the monks around the monastery.

Oblature as known to Benedictine monasteries has itself changed over time. Thomas Aquinas himself was an oblate of an OSB monastery. It was not for him and he left when he was older. Originally boys left at the monastery to be educated and to stay on to be monks. Later it changed to include lay people who linked themselves to the monastery.

Dear Alex,

Are you no longer Ukrainian Orthodox?

Fondly,
Alice

Dear Alice,

Actually, I'm still UGCC, but I have permanently resigned from the website "Ukrainian Orthodoxy."

The ongoing annoyance of certain (high-ranking) members of the UOC (including others in other Orthodox jurisdictions) of an EC like myself working with such a website was why.

I just didn't feel comfortable about it to the point where I wasn't really contributing anything to the site any longer.

When told my interest in that site indicated a desire within me to become Orthodox, and other nuanced invitations to formally convert, I told them I would NEVER leave communion with Rome.

Ciao,

Alex

Dear Gordo,

Certainly, as Pavel has said, Orthodox laity have and do participate closely in the spirituality of Orthodox monasteries in various ways, including having monastic Elders as their spiritual directors/fathers.

Benedictine spirituality is based on Eastern spirituality in its original form, but I need to study this more.

The Rule of St Benedict is part of the heritage of the undivided Orthodox and Catholic Church of the first millennium as well.

Benedictine Oblates of the Eastern Churches (and oblation is open to any Orthodox Christian who would wish to travel this spiritual path) are, of course, free to enter into the spirit of the Rule via our own traditions.

The 12 chapters of the Rule that set down the Benedictine typikon with respect to the horologion and the psalter is not a "set in stone" thing as St Benedict himself, at the end of his presentation, leaves open the freedom to alter his typikon - so long as the full psalter is prayed each week.

While Benedict insists on eight canonical Hours to be prayed at different times of the day, many RC Benedictines today observe only four hours prayed in common (others do seven or eight).

The Byzantine Horologion today is often arranged so that Nocturns, Matins and the First Hour is done in the morning at one time, Third, Sixth Hours and Typika is celebrated at noon, with the remaining Ninth Hour, Vespers and Compline are done in the evening. Others do the Nocturns as morning prayer and, at 4:30 pm, do a daily all-night Vigil with Vespers and Matins together etc.

One may always include, for example, the three psalms that St Benedict lists for Compline (4, 90, 133) as part of one's evening prayers.

The monasteries that train Oblates will provide you with an abbreviated three-Hour daily horologion as a minimum observance that one may lengthen as one has time.

Again, to be an oblate isn't so much a vocation as it is an acceptance of a form of discipline according to St Benedict's Rule while one is connected to an actual Benedictine monastery, in this case, St Meinrad's Archabbey.

Benedictine monasteries today make room not only for Catholics among their Oblates, but also for any Christian who wishes to follow this path, including Protestants, not a few Protestant ministers and the like who all follow their own traditions with respect to prayer and worship.

There's room enough for Eastern Christians too!

Fr. Meinrad, the Oblate director at St Meinrad's, will be back on Monday to answer your questions.

I encourage you to become an Oblate of St Meinrad's and "taste and see the Goodness of the Lord" from this perspectivie!

PAX,

Alex

I suspect the Byzantine OSBs of Butler may have Oblates.

Dear Pavel,

Not any longer, as I understand.

But there's no reason why Eastern Christians cannot be Oblates connected to a Latin Monastery and still avail themselves of their own Eastern liturgical tradition and also the Eastern Christian monastic tradition.

Alex