Oblation Day

Twenty years ago today, I made my final oblation to Saint Martin’s Abbey. For twenty years now, I have been an Oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict, an amateur monk living in the world. As best as I can, I live according the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, adapted to my life in the world.

At my oblation, I solemnly signed my promises on the altar of the abbey church. And what are those promises? Stability, obedience, conversatio morum.

These are the same as a monk or nun would vow, though with the proviso of “to the best of your ability, and according as your state in life permits”.

When we made our Oblation, we promised in the presence of our Abbot or of his delegate ‘the reformation of our life,’ which means a turning away from the world in order to live in Jesus Christ. The Lord appeared to us then as the solid rock on which we wanted to ‘build our house.’ We knew that He alone has the promises of eternal life and that none of those promises is empty….

Let us recall to mind often the promises of our Oblation, in order to maintain or to reestablish the harmony between our actions and the divine will. Dominus exspectat quotidie … ‘The Lord is waiting every day for us to respond by our works to His holy lessons.’

(Commentary for Benedictine Oblates, Prologue)

Among the long list of duties, I am required to live by the Rule, pray “some form of a Divine Office daily”, and practice lectio divina. I’m also supposed to visit the monastery from time to time, though as I have become involved in parish ministry (also on the list), this has proven challenging. It’s a long time indeed since I attended an Oblate conference.

Although my spiritual life is grounded in the Breviary and the Rule, its foundation is the Holy Scriptures and the Sacred Liturgy. Of course, the Breviary is a liturgy in itself, and the Rule is nothing more than Saint Benedict’s guide for living the Scriptures and Tradition.

I am often reminded of the story of Abba Lot , and I’ve repeated it here a number of times, I think because I so often identify with him.

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?”

Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame”.

(Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Abba Joseph of Panephysis)

In today’s reading from the Rule, we hear of the profound responsibilities of the Abbot:

Let the Abbot always bear in mind that he must give an account in the dread judgment of God of both his own teaching and of the obedience of his disciples. And let the Abbot know that whatever lack of profit the master of the house shall find in the sheep, will be laid to the blame of the shepherd. On the other hand he will be blameless, if he gave all a shepherd’s care to his restless and unruly flock, and took all pains to correct their corrupt manners….

(Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter 2)

This is something that everyone who is responsible for the spiritual welfare of another must internalize. You will be called to account. Whether you are an abbot, a bishop, a father or mother, a teacher, you will be called to account.

This is something I think about in my capacities as a catechist and a leader of altar servers. I will be called to account. I am well aware of my many faults, of my pride and prevarication, and I pray that the master of the house has mercy on me.

Of course, Francine and I regarded each of us as abbot for the other. With Francine’s death, our little private priory of Pistachio House has become a sort of hermitage. Only of a sort, though, as there are still plenty of visitors – one of the Benedictine charisms is hospitality, after all! I’ve done my best to carry on with that, though, in this, as in most things, I am still Abba Lot.

In your mercy, pray for me today, and pray for all monastics throughout the world. Pray also for an increase in monastic vocations. Somebody once said to me that we will only know that the Church is flourishing when we find ourselves in a flowering of new monastic vocations.

O holy Father, Saint Benedict,
blessed by God both in grace and in name,
who, while standing in prayer, with hands raised to heaven,
didst most happily yield thy angelic spirit
into the hands of thy Creator,
and hast promised zealously to defend
against all the snares of the enemy
in the last struggle of death,
those who shall daily remind thee
of thy glorious departure and heavenly joys;
protect me, I beseech thee, O glorious Father,
this day and every day, by thy holy blessings,
that I may never be separated
from our dear Lord,
and from the society of thyself,
and of all the blessed.

Through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.