Inspiring Today’s Laypeople

St. Benedict didn’t realize that he was being watched! In 535, at Monte Cassino south of Rome, the founder of western monasticism wrote his Holy Rule for monks and tapped into his own spiritual gifts. Throughout the centuries, laypeople called Benedictine oblates have watched the monks and have been inspired to seek holiness, even though their vocation was very different.

What attracts the modern-day oblate? First of all, the desire to seek God amid ordinary daily life. The tools St. Benedict offered anyone interested in deepening their spiritual life included:

• Regular daily prayer,
• Love of the Scriptures as God’s Word,
• Humility of mind and heart,
• Appreciation for inner silence
  and genuine hospitality,
• Care for people as well as the
  material world under our care.

As regards God’s Word, Pope Leo wrote in his Lenten letter: “Every path towards conversion begins by allowing the word of God to touch our hearts and welcoming it with a docile spirit. There is a relationship between the word, our acceptance of it, and the transformation it brings about.”

These characteristics flowing from monastic spirituality have generated groups or chapters of oblates around the world, with each group supporting its members in their spiritual search. Current data indicates 25,000 Benedictine oblates worldwide, with about 10,000 oblates in the United States. Each group attached to a particular monastery feels anchored and supported by personally knowing Benedictine monks and sisters who inspire and struggle with similar common strengths and weaknesses of character.

The vitality of the oblates worldwide would indicate that people continue to yearn for the practical wisdom and virtue of St. Benedict. At a time when artificial values and comforts are celebrated as essential for happiness, the monthly gathering of oblates with shared prayer and insights from the Holy Rule and the Holy Spirit provides a more constructive view of the world and our ultimate union and happiness with God.

The oblate community today, made up of Christians from many different backgrounds, including Protestant traditions, demonstrates a common spiritual desire along with a very necessary counter-cultural technique. In the midst of our society filled with noise, St. Benedict continues to urge the potential oblate to “listen with the ear of your heart.” This is a different kind of listening and hearing. At a time when people are often seen as disposable commodities whose basic purpose is to serve an individual good rather than the common good, a desire and effort to “listen with the ear of your heart” is the beginning of true dialogue and mutual respect.

Is it possible that the ancient Benedictine practice of making and maintaining a personal “oblation” could be a light needed today to welcome the true Light of Christ, the hope of the world? Learn more at www.conceptionabbey.org/oblates

—Fr. Daniel Petsche, OSB & Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Oblate Director & Assistant Director

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