Friends,
It’s been a little while since I posted about my formation with the Benedictine Oblates. Going to the Monastery for Thanksgiving was amazing, as I noted; although I will admit that my formation somewhat became side-tracked in the middle of the November. However, once I had came out of that whirlwind of activity around the beginning of December; I got back on with the formation.
Since the Monastery I am forming with is an 8-9 hour drive away, I have to do formation on my own in that I have no set classes that I attend and that my contact with the Oblate Director is through email. I have my copy of the Holy Rule, as well as the Rule with an interpretation built in, and a workbook from the Monastery that takes the Rule part by part, explains it, has a reflection, and then a place for you to write your own reflections.
I still am working on getting the Divine Office (Morning, Evening, and Compline) put into my life, but that’s slow going. I am not that much of a morning person, so I think that the Morning Office may be the most challenging for me to incorporate into my life. However, by reading the Rule daily (although I will admit there’s a couple of days in which I forget and thus must catch up); I am reaping a lot out of it. With the new year starting, I think this starts my fourth read-through of the Rule. And as with all books that I read, the more I re-read them the more I get from them. One of the things that struck me a couple nights ago was the concept of hospitality.
The Monastery is very devoted to hospitality and I received nothing but Christ’s love the entire time I was at the Monastery. I was absolutely blown away and so grateful to Our Lord for places like the Monastery, for His religious people and the good that they do for the Church. For some time, I always extended hospitality to mean when someone comes to visit me at my dorm room, that sort of thing.
However, I came to the conclusion that hospitality can be, and should be; extended to everyone whether they are visiting me at my dorm room or not. Every person that I come in contact with, I should give my hospitality to because they are Children of God, they have Christ within them. And obviously, in the classroom I give different hospitality than if someone does come to visit me in my room (even if it’s a friend from down the hallway); but I should strive to be hospitable to everyone and to treat people with the respect that they deserve.
There is a fine line between being hospitable and being a doormat. It is not my goal nor my intention to be a door-mat. If I feel someone is treating me improperly, or whatnot; I must do something about it. Christ talks about it in the Gospel of St. Matthew:
“If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.” (Matt 18:15-16).
This same principle shows up in the Holy Rule.
However, my humanity is still with me, and it’s easier to read the Rule and the Gospels and to pray and go to Mass than it is to go to another and disclose how I feel that they have sinned against me to that person. But St. Benedict makes clear that falseness is not an option, which is spoken of in Isaiah:
“The Lord said: Since this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me, And their reverence for me has become routine observance of the precepts of men, Therefore I will again deal with this people in surprising and wondrous fashion: The wisdom of its wise men shall perish and the understanding of its prudent men be hid. Woe to those who would hide their plans too deep for the LORD! Who work in the dark, saying, “Who sees us, or who knows us?” Your perversity is as though the potter were taken to be the clay: As though what is made should say of its maker, “He made me not!” Or the vessel should say of the potter, “He does not understand.”" (Isaiah 29:13-16)
With the help of God’s grace, I should make my full Oblation in November of this year. But just like converting into Christ’s Church, it’s a lifelong journey. St. Benedict calls for his monks to have a continual conversion, and the Oblates are also called to have a continuing conversion. I think all Christians are called to a continual conversion — a lifelong, constant vow to God to do His will and no one else’s, even if His will is not what they want or if they suffer because of it.
I need to do a better job of keeping that in my mind and in my heart.
Pax!!
