Becoming an oblate — Six Tips for the Spiritual Seeker. A Benedictine oblate blog

Benedictine oblates are “Christian men and women admitted into spiritual union and affiliation with a Benedictine community of monks, nuns, or sisters so that they may share in the spiritual life, prayers, and good works of the community [monastery].”(1)

Note the words used in the above quote describing how an oblate is related to a monastery:

Spiritual union, affiliation, community, sharing, spiritual life, prayers, and good works

I am constantly aware of the deep yearning for an authentic spiritual life many people express online. Frequently when people identify their interests, spirituality rather than religion is listed in personal profiles.

Part of the purpose of this blog is to help the spiritual seeker know about the ancient practices and deep spirituality of the Benedictines — certainly this life is not for everyone, but it may be for you.

How would a person decide to become a Benedictine oblate? Follow the steps you follow in selecting a career or a group to join — what fits best with your spirit?

But to get you started, here are six tips:

1. Read and Study.

This will often mean you will learn as much as you can about a particular monastery, read materials written by the nuns or monks, read every page of the monastery’s web site.

2. Visit a Monastery.

Pray with a monastic community on a retreat. Visit and experience the monastery often while being guided by prayer and the Holy Spirit. Need to find a monastery to visit? Here’s a searchable database of Order of St. Benedict Confederation monasteries worldwide.

Not interested in Benedictine Order, but like the monastic spirit? Try a more general list here.

3. Meet an Oblate.

Get to know other oblates in person and through e-mail communications, talk with the oblate director at a monastery.

4. Do you like the Oblate Program?

Review the schedule of yearly oblate activities, visit the bookstore if the monastery has one, talk with the people who run the bookstore and other bookstore shoppers.

5. Attend an Oblate Sunday.

Attend oblate novice sessions (usually on the weekends).

6. Follow the Holy Spirit.

You might find that you get a “feeling” about a particular monastery very quickly during a weekend retreat where you can join in the prayers of the community and talk with other guests.

A contemplative spiritual life of a Benedictine oblate may be in your future.

My wife and I knew we had found our spiritual home the day we walked on the St. Leo Abbey grounds for the first time — before we had talked to anyone — in fact, before we even knew anything about Benedictine monks or oblates.

It was later over the course of about 18 months that we learned about St. Benedict, the Rule of St. Benedict, and that there are people called oblates who were not flattened spheroids. The Spirit gave us direction in the first hours of our first visit.

“When I first walked on these grounds, I knew this was the place” is a frequent comment I hear from other oblates at the abbey where we are oblates.

7. An Extra Tip for Free.

You can begin praying the divine office, practicing lectio divina, seeking God in all daily activities, and attending oblate sessions long before you become an oblate. You may find that as you begin living the spiritual life of an oblate-to-be you will find the place for you. In other words, let your own spiritual life in living like an oblate lead you to your spiritual life of seeking God and praying without ceasing.

I know you will find your spiritual home and that it will change your life, making it fuller and closer to God who will bless your path.
______________________

Footnote:

Picture is Plombé ! - Leaden ! by Oh mon héros !

(1) From the 1972 “Guidelines for Oblates of St. Benedict”

Interesting Benedictine Thing of the Day. A Benedictine oblate blog

Oblates do not make a vow when they become oblates, they make a promise. Vows are made by monks, nuns, or sisters.

The oblate promise is often written, signed, and left on the altar in a simple ceremony in the monastery church.

Here is a written example of a final oblation ceremony.

The spiritual association of the oblate with the monastery is life-long.

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The photo is St. Bernard Abbey Church. Although I am not sure, I think this is the one in Cullman, Alabama, USA. The picture was taken by House of Sims.

Starting the Rule. A Benedictine oblate blog

I came across a new blog by James, a Texas blogger, Catholic, who has a blog called “God Kicks Me in the Pants . . . Often”

In his February 9, 2009 blog, James comments that he has read one book about Benedictine oblates and is about to read the Rule of St. Benedict for the first time. I am excited each time I hear about someone who starts to explore whether Benedictine spirituality is right for them.

I have only my and my wife’s experience and what other new oblates have told me at one monastery, but my non-peer reviewed conclusion is that many (maybe I could say majority) of people who become oblates instantly know they have found something of God when they first visit a monastery or see the monks singing the divine office. When my wife and I first prayed with the monks we knew God had called us there.

So, I do not know where James will end up, there are many great charisms in the Catholic Church. He might like one of the other Third Orders, here are just a sampling, I like to post this list to help people who might be surfing around the Internet with a sense that they should be looking for a deeper spirituality in their lives:

Major Third orders are the:

Third Order Lay Franciscans,

Lay Carmelites - Third Order, T.O.C.s or T.O.Carm.s,

Secular Carmelites, Discalced Carmelite Secular Order, O.C.D.s, (1)

Fraternities of St. Dominic,

Carthusian Spirituality, International Fellowship of St. Bruno

Norbertine Lay Associations,

Lay Missionaries of Charity,

The Confraternity of Penitents

and my favorite group of lay associates, Benedictine oblates.

I was so impressed with the James’ new blog about the Catholic faith and another person who has opened St. Benedict’s Rule for the first time. He is following an ancient and deeply spiritual tradition of the Church.

_______________________________

Footnote:

As I find links to Third Orders since the date of this blog, I will add them to a web page on the Oblate Spring web site. For a list of all the links I have found to Third Orders and lay groups, please visit here.

Thanks to blogger Agapelife, I have added a link to the Discalced Carmelite Secular Order. There exist two traditions in the Carmelite community. The differences are described here, scroll down to the FAQs paragraph 7.

Call within 10 minutes & we’ll double your order. A Benedictine oblate blog.

I move between two views about whether I should describe my oblate life to people who know little about this ancient Christian manner of living -- ie praying the Psalms at various times in the day, a practice that goes back about 2,800 years to the Jews in the time of Temple.

On one hand, there’s a part of me that thinks “gosh, everyone will want to be an oblate once they learn about it.”

But on the other, I also know that there are many other charisms (gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit) created by God. These different gifts are essential for the full flowering of the Church and maybe I should just leave people alone to see if they will discover an oblate program somewhere.

I tend to the first view (yes, you too will love being an oblate and with your order you'll receive a set of Ginsu Knives!) because I see many people on the Internet interested in a deeper spirituality.

Further, I sometimes think that people who are not familiar with monasticism in general might have a stereotyped and incorrect view that monasticism is rigid austerity -- when in fact it is a fountain of spirituality.

Oblates are not monks or nuns, but the monastic principles guiding the lives of monks and nuns, are similar to how oblates try to live in the world. Thus, if you have an idea of the monastic gifts lived by monks and nuns, you will have a glimpse into the life of an oblate, but on a much different scale.

Here is the best short video about the monastic life of one group of Benedictine nuns. The video was produced by the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Number of daily offices I pray. A Benedictine oblate blog.

Recently someone asked how many of the hours (vigils, lauds, terce, sect, none, vespers, and compline, see example) do oblates typically pray/read/sing in a day — oblates with full-time jobs, spouses, children, etc?

I thought that I would estimate what I do — I have a full-time job and spouse and additional family responsibilities like many have. The purpose in providing this information is to perhaps correct impressions by those who are just becoming interested in oblate monasticism — “must I pray seven times a day?” Do they go around in monks’ cloaks? Do they live in the monastery? No and No and No.

It is not about numbers or what we wear.

So with that background — what are my numbers? Looking back on the last 100 days, and just estimating the offices I prayed, here is what I think I do:

20% of the days I read one office for the day.
50% of the days I read two offices for the day.
15% of the days I read three offices for the day.
6% of the days I read four offices for the day.
5% of the days I read five offices for the day.
3% of the days I read six offices for the day.
1% of the days I read seven offices for the day.

For most of the days when I read up to three offices it is vigils, lauds, and compline.

Everyone wisely advises that oblates should follow monastic practices as our state in life allows.

We should not to fret when we do not pray 150 Psalms each week.

Developing the monastic spirit and lifestyle — silence, lectio divina (slow prayerful reading of scripture or early church fathers), and simplicity — is what is desired.

For me, I use Benedictine Daily Prayer. And I also read daily from the Rule and frequently from the RB 1980, usually after the divine office. Everyone is so different in finding things that work.

Praying without ceasing is the goal — this means, more than a scorecard, a life centered on God and being at peace in His love during the day, or to paraphrase a quote from Saint Andrews Abbey (in the high desert of southern California):

OBLATES COMMIT THEMSELVES to a never-ending process of integration - a deepening of their awareness of and responsiveness to God through the practice of contemplative prayer. This ongoing process of integration is referred to in the Rule as conversatio morum, fidelity to the monastic lifestyle. It is the oblates' continuous consecration to God of the deepest parts of their selves and their lives.

Br. Joachim October 13, 1916 – May 9, 2007

From the Abbey's web site: "Br. Joachim [October 13, 1916 – May 9, 2007] died at the Pasco Regional Medical Center in Pasco County, Florida [about 30 minutes north of Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida, USA], after a surgical procedure to improve blood circulation to one of his legs."

"Br. Joachim was celebrating his 50th Jubilee of Service this year (Professed: December 15th, 1957)."

In March 2007 Brother Joachim had fallen and broken his hip. Brother Joachim went through rehabilitation and was back at his Abbey in a relatively short time after his fall.

According to monks who knew him, Brother Joachim "is one of the gentlest and humblest people..."

I first saw Brother Joachim on the cover of the Abbey brochure when I first visited the Abbey. The picture shows 22 of the Abbey's monks on the steps of the Church of the Holy Cross. Brother Joachim was in front on his electric scooter. A monk is standing behind Br. Joachim with his hand on the scooter's head rest. It was a hand of: "I will take care of you."

The little story within the picture was one of those little things that caused me to become interested in the Abbey, and the Rule, and that led me to being especially sad when I learned that Brother Joachim had been taken to the hospital and a couple of days later that Brother Joachim had gone home to the Lord.

When I began attending the Divine Offices during my visits to the Abbey, I saw the "elderly monk on the scooter" expertly going in and out of the church. At times I was surprised by how quickly and precisely he could maneuver.

The monks had a special place for Brother Joachim during the Divine Offices. Next to the east choir stall by a column a little table was where his books were kept. He would just roll up and turn his scooter around and be ready.

Before the evening prayers Brother Joachim would be in a chapel praying with a few other monks and then his scooter would hum across the church to take his place before vespers began.

After the Divine Office, I would see Brother Joachim as he went out the back of the church with the other monks.

His 90+ year old face showed a heart at peace and filled with the knowledge of God. I never spoke to Brother Joachim, but that's what seeing him said to me.

Then in March 2007, after visiting the Abbey, I learned that Brother Joachim had been hospitalized after the fall.

The first time I saw Brother Joachim after he returned from the hospital, he looked a little drained, but I actually did not expect to see him back at the Abbey so soon. When he rolled past me in his scooter at the end of vespers, I looked up and smiled at him, he smiled back.

He always looked like the humble, gentle monk described by the monks who knew him.

He was old and his body was failing, but his smile was full of the Holy Spirit. He was certainly one of the memories I took with me on my way home after visiting the Abbey — all the monks and everything that happens is interesting, but a 90- year-old monk scooting around before and after the Divine Offices on his scooter and the care obviously shown to him by the other monks was all very Benedictine to me.

Actually, because I had absolutely no knowledge of being Catholic or Benedictine, it would be more accurate to say that it was seeing Br. Joachim's 50-year dedication to the monastic way of living and the other monks' support for him that helped define in my mind what it means to be Benedictine.

I will probably not have any direct association with any other Abbey. We know of the common ground of the Rule and the Catholic Church, but to some extent, for me, especially because I am not yet a Catholic and have no Catholic background — a particular Abbey is the Rule and is Benedictine life to me.

That is where I saw it lived by a particular group of brothers including that 90-year-old monk who rode on a scooter.

All this will be a topic for thought — the interaction between the Rule as a universal standard and its coming to life and being lived at a specific place by the particular monks. Many things are now different for Br. Joachim, but there is one thing that has remained the same — an outreached hand: "I will take care of you."

I still miss Brother Joachim.

Benedictine Oblate Sunday at the Abbey

I am a new oblate at St. Leo Abbey in Florida, USA.

Oblates attend monthly meetings which are a combination of group discussions/talks led by the abbot, (there are two sessions — one with a novice focus and one with a more general focus — and everyone may attend both sessions), midday prayer with the monks, lunch for fellowship, and usually shopping at the gift/bookstore or plant station. We often have reading assignments between meetings or questions to answer. There will often be guests who hear about the program and come to check it out. They are welcomed as Christ -- part of the Benedictine hospitality.

We have a yearly picnic and an annual weekend retreat which are sources of spiritual renewal.

Some oblates spend the night at the Abbey guest house on the weekends of the monthly meetings — thus giving themselves a mini private retreat.

There seems to be a wide variety of practice among the oblates at home — depending on their circumstances and interests.

So, if you are wondering what might happen at an oblate meeting at a monastery near you, you might expect some form of weekly and/or monthly programs and get-togethers which provide teaching and group discussions, at least one major yearly spiritual retreat, other than that -- the remainder of the time (which is most of you time), how you spend your time is up to you, your life-circumstances, and your internal monk.

“Everyone is different” is my new, first rule of monasticism! ;)

How to become a Benedictine Oblate

If you want to know the typical steps a monastery will request you to follow in first becoming an oblate novice and then -- after a year or two -- an oblate of the monastery, this page on the Oblate Spring web site provides a list of the stages. "How to become an oblate."

What do Benedictine Oblates Do?

This page on the Oblate Spring web site describes the basic practices and expectations of the monastery at which you make your oblation. "What do Oblates do?"

What is a Benedictine oblate?

Here is a link to the Oblate Spring web page on "What is an oblate?"