In all the chaos after getting back from my pilgrimage from Rome (exhaustion, allergies, doctors' appointments, procedures, work, etc.) I realized I forgot to mention that I became a Benedictine Novice Lay Oblate attached to the Monastery of Saint Benedict in Norcia, Italy (the brithplace of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica).
(I know what you may be thinking, "how can you forget about becoming an oblate?" Well, I didn't, I have been very excited about it, but it's just been THAT busy.)
A lay oblate is sort of like a "third order" Benedictine. It is a layman who promises to live his life in the spirit of the Rule of Saint Benedict, and I am obligated to say at least one of the canonical hours of the Divine Office each day. I chose this monastery because I used to be a novice monk there. Although after a year of discernment I realized that God was not calling me there, I do still love the Rule of Saint Benedict (I did my undergrad thesis on the Rule) and am still close with the community in Norcia.
The benefits are being able to participate in the spiritual merits of the monks and to be united to their community in a spiritual way. I pray that next year I can return to become a regular lay oblate which allows one to enter more fully into that oblation (with a promise of oblation that is renewed each year).
So, pray for my perseverance in this as well.
RS
3 comments:
Hello young sacristan! I am a young Catholic church musician. happened across your blog from the NLM blog. I just started my own blog this past week, and i hope it also will be of help to some priests as well as just offer some thoughts about music in the church. I am in my last year of college studying music and go to a TLM parish in NJ, but hail from Vermont. also am discerning religious life and like the Benedictine order, so pray for me and check out my blog sometime!
Hey, my email is messed up right now so I had to come here to reply. I didn't transcribe the homily last week because mom is here. Stephen can give you a tape of CD.
I don't know why you can't access the station
ave maria!, the blog looks good. It's good to see more TLM blogs, so I can learn more about that form of the Mass. Part of what I would hope to do is help others (be they TLM Mass goers or even "Novus Ordo" Mass goers) to understand the Novus Ordo better. There's been so much bad catechesis and formation about the Novus Ordo that I think it is often villified unnecessarily (much like the "Tridentine" use has been in certain circles). I really think what the Pope is calling for is a better understanding of both uses so that a true, authentic, and fruitful liturgical reform can happen in the future. Blogs like yours, Fr. Z's, the NLM, and hopefully mine, are going to help that.
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