Instead of lectio this morning, I decided to visit the oblate blog and noticed a theme stretching across both Ric’s account of Abbot General Notker Wolf’s reflections at an international oblate gathering, and Sister Ruth’s reflections on inserting a verse about the whole earth belonging to God into her reading of a psalm. That theme is both challenge and promise: the challenge of living in a world of innumerable sufferings with a regular sense of the presence of God. Continue Reading
Looking back to last year…
This posti
ng is offered in answer to a request for a report on the 2009 address of the Benedictine Abbot Primate to the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates in Rome. on the entire Congress may be found by clicking on this link and visiting postings of the first two weeks in October 2009. The official Congress website is also available and is a much broader picture of the event. Continue Reading
Seeking God … Transforming the World
By Sr. Ruth Ksycki, OSB
“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” (Psalm 33) This line was the responsorial psalm for the first reading from Ephesians 3:14-21 last week. As I was doing lectio, I decided to try Sr. Irene Nowell’s method of interspersing the response in between the verses of the reading. (Sr. Irene was the presenter at our Oblate Day this year, for those who missed our annual – and wonderful – gathering.) Continue Reading
Sr. Genna Hibser 1928-2010
Sr. Genna Hibser, OSB – teacher, liturgist, musician and great friend – died Wednesday morning after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Continue Reading
Sr. Katherine Keogel 1920-2010
AWOL
I’ve been AWOL from this blog for the last few month. I have excuses, but everybody’s as busy as I am. Mostly, I just haven’t had anything much to say…or rather I’ve found myself unable to put into words the continuing, rich experience of the life I live. Continue Reading
Social Justice with a Side of Humble Pie
The topic of discussion yesterday in my Sunday School class was “social justice.” We are reading Ronald Rohlheiser’s book “The Holy Longing.” He makes a point of the difference between charity and justice: charity being how we give from our generosity to those in need, and justice being how we try to change the systems that create poverty and alienation. Continue Reading
Two Kinds of Balance
At an oblate meeting this week, I found myself wondering how we who are oblates often relate to the Benedictine way more as a beacon of light to gaze upon than as something that can take the measure of our own lives. Continue Reading
Chardin's Desert Eucharist
Reading an essay this morning by J. G. Janzen, I learned that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once wrote the following Eucharistic blessing for a time “when he found himself in an Asian desert without bread and wine and had simply invoked all the parts and all the happenings of creation as that day’s Eucharistic elements”: Continue Reading
Watches of the Night
Watches of the night–that’s the old-fashioned name for middle-of-the-night insomnia. The psalmists speak of them as times to commune with God in their hearts, opening their souls to divine judgment, longing for integrity.
Do you think good soul work often goes on in your watches of the night? Or do you think they are times that easily tilt us out of perspective, as if we’re being passed through a gauntlet or gallery of all our fears? Continue Reading
Benedictine Oblate Musings 