I’ve kept in the back of my mind the desire to share some of the websites that I check out as an oblate.  Tonight, I want to offer you a bit of my experience.  I believe that the newer oblates who have been coming to meetings might have a certain curiosity about the history and reality of oblates throughout our world.

I started bookmarking and then reading on various sites just before going to the 1st Oblate Congress in Rome some 3 1/2 years ago.  These are the sites that I still consult.  There are a few Benedictine sisters who keep fairly interesting blogs here in the U.S.  but I no longer read them.  I’m sure that there are other interesting websites, including monastery websites out there for oblates and I’d be interested in what you have found and recommend.

Here are my choices:

www.osb.org/obl and www.osb.org/obl/ressources

are the two main places that contain essays and links to all things Benedictine.

I also check out

www.benedictine-oblates.org and www.osb-internaltional.info

Certain Benedictine oblates have gotten involved in the ABA – the American Benedictine Academy which has an excellent newsletter and website.

Though oblates aren’t involved in this directly I have become interested in the Monastic Inter-religious Dialogue which has wonderful documentation of their meetings on their site. This is the place to stay current with Catholic/Buddhist dialogue.

This might be a boring blog tonight, but I think that it doesn’t hurt to know that there are at least 10,889 oblates in the U.S. currently and many of them are starting to connect on the internet.  I haven’t joined any of their discussion groups but I just might!  It is also good for us oblates at St. Mary’s to know that our blog site has been very favorably reviewed by other monasteries who also want to offer their oblates a way to connect.  Thank you to our Sisters who make this blog site possible and to Susan Flansburg.

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