Commonweal 16 September 2016 In recent years the term “Benedict Option” has been circulating in certain sectors of the U.S. Catholic Church. For a Benedictine oblate such as myself, this should be a welcome development. After all, the charism of Benedictine monasticism, with its emphasis on faithfulness to flesh-and-blood local communities formed in prayer, liturgy, discernment,…
Tag: stability
The virtue of staying put:
The glamour of evil:
look beyond surface to find authentic joy
America magazine 8 February 2016 In the Roman Catholic rite for the baptism of adults, as well as in the ritual for the renewal of baptismal promises, a striking question confronts us: “Do you reject the glamour of evil?” The question, in a parallel with the rejection of Satan, has ancient roots in early baptismal…
Sed contra (a poem)
I suppose I will always be suspect to you,heir as I am to martyred dissent,beholden to untidy reality no catechism can tame,gripped by loyalty to bishops and creedthrough a second simplicity not simple at all,a good enough Catholic at best,in a time when the “best” of so many is enemy of the good. Still, can…
“As”
A pebble in our shoes, that little word: “Forgive us our sins as …” “as we forgive those who forgive us.” As we forget? No, of course not. And yet I do remember. And remembering I hurt anew, wincing. And wincing I stumble, just a bit, just enough, to bump you, but it feels like…
Unlearning Protestantism:
Sustaining Christian Community in an Unstable Age
This insightful book addresses the “Protestant dilemma” in ecclesiology: how to build lasting Christian community in a world of individualism and transience. Gerald Schlabach, a former Mennonite who is now Catholic, seeks not to encourage readers to abandon Protestant churches but to unlearn lessons that are no longer productive. He explains that what may have…
Stability in the world: an oblate’s reflections
Benedictine oblates are people who are not monks but who dedicate themselves, in communion with a particular monastic community, to the service of God and neighbor according to the Rule of St. Benedict, insofar as their state in life permits.[1] Specific commitments include the practice of lectio divina, praying the Psalms through some portion of…