News

February 4, 2013

Benedictine Oblate's Guide to the Internet

Benedictine Oblates tend not to be computer people.  We are not particularly excited by the possibilities of our technological age. We generally prefer books in print.  Prayer in quiet times and places is preferable in the main to surfing the internet.  A walk, in almost any weather, is preferable to sitting at a computer, which too many of us find necessary to our livelihoods. Still, the internet does exercise some allure for the average oblate, however cantankerous and averse to technology. Continue Reading

December 17, 2009

Paul Wilkes, IN DUE SEASON: A CATHOLIC LIFE

Recently, in thanks for a small contribution to “Home of Hope India” (which helps neglected, abused and abandoned girls in Southern India), I received a wonderful gift: a copy of In Due Season: A Catholic Life–autographed, no less, by its author, Paul Wilkes.  (He is also executive director of “Home of Hope India.”)  Continue Reading

April 29, 2009

Wake Reflection for Sister Veronica Shunick, OSB

By Prioress Sr. Phyllis McMurray, OSB

“Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

The story of Jesus’ appearance on the road to Emmaus is not only relevant to this Easter season but also it is so appropriate to the life of Sister Veronica. Sister Veronica loved the scriptures and when she spoke of the scriptures, her heart burned with a passion that was contagious. Continue Reading

November 20, 2008

An Open Letter–to everyone

Over the past few months and weeks I have been alternately thankful and dismayed to read, on the one hand, articles and letters calling for unity of spirit, even when we cannot agree on specific issues, and, on the other hand, writing which underscores, and at times even seems to increase, the deep divisions in our society and in the Church. Continue Reading

October 24, 2008

Prayer and Listening II

Listening to God's voice in the butterfly that alights on the flower

From Chris Kraft’s presentation on Oblate Day:

“LISTEN carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from one who loves you; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice.” This first line of The Rule of Saint Benedict’s prologue is direct and clear.

The second instruction Benedict gives us in his Prologue is to pray. He says every time you begin a good work, you must pray to him most earnestly to bring it to perfection.

Listening and Prayer are finely woven. Prayer is simply talking to God. He speaks to us; we listen. We speak to Him; He listens. A two-way process. speaking and listening. It’s easy to talk to someone when you know they love you unconditionally. Prayer life is to be lived as a faithful response to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Continue Reading

October 13, 2008

A grandbaby and God

I want to introduce you to my new grand daughter, Corinne Madeleine Stocker, born September 16th, almost a month ago. Here’s a picture giving us a foretaste of her many smiles. It was an earth shaking experience to become a grandmother the first time in 2007 with fireworks of wonder and love lighting up all my sky. Now, this time, I’ve held our tiny Corinne with such a glow of happiness and a quiet, still sky above me. I’ve become reflective about God being a sort of eternally joyous Grandma/Grandpa.

First we pass on our “spirits” to our children as we raise them and now I am watching my children pass on their “spirits” . I know so concretely now that God acts in human history, that is, the Eternal Spirit is not just an aloof deity sitting on a throne in the heavens. God is in this beautiful new baby! Just massaging Corinnes’s new body has definitely made me optimistically in love with life.