Monastics: Back is Forward. A Benedictine oblate blog

In the monastic journal “Word and Spirit 17: Monastic On-Going Formation” I am now on page 11 and came across this comment:

“A promising sign in some formation programs has been a
rediscovery of the importance of monastic practices. Many
communities that had too impulsively jettisoned revered monastic customs in the renewal period, began to recognize the importance of these practices in providing for the ongoing formation of community. This has also coincided with a deepened awareness and retrieval of symbol and ritual. What some once considered esoteric or elitist were now deemed as distinctive shapers of monastic identity.”

For the lay person wanting to live a more spiritual and monastic life, I think the same truths apply. Going back to the sources and original ways of living in the ways that became known as the “monastic life” is a good way to move forward in my own spiritual development as a Benedictine oblate.

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Footnotes:

Picture is “Gernhardt on Robot Arm” by NASA.