Benedictine Oblate #2

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Luigi_Daniele said:
I guess it would be feeling the presence of God. I don’t expect miracles, or locutions or messages…just the Presence. And I get nothing.😦
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Do you have a conscience?

I’m joking here, as you obviously do. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the properly formed conscience is the voice of God. An improperly formed conscience, not so much…

So, if you have taken the time and effort to form yours, which I am sure you have, you are hearing the voice of God all the time!

🙂
 
jwinch2 said:
Do you have a conscience?

I’m joking here, as you obviously do. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the properly formed conscience is the voice of God. An improperly formed conscience, not so much…

So, if you have taken the time and effort to form yours, which I am sure you have, you are hearing the voice of God all the time!

🙂
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😃

This…is…simply…awesome! Thank you very much, Jason.👍
 
Found this fascinating:

realclearscience.com/articles/2012/07/25/did_catholic_monks_cause_western_prosperity_106333.html

Excerpt:
Cistercian Monks Highlighted as a Good Example
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This prompted the researchers to go as far back as to the point that has previously been identified as a possible origin of The Protestant Ethic: when the Roman Catholic order of Cistercians was founded in France in 1098.
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The order was formed by a breakaway group of Benedictines which advocated a stricter obedience to the Rule of Saint Benedict.
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To allow as much time as possible for prayer, the Cistercians streamlined their work and minimised their consumption.
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“Cistercians were known to be extremely diligent and frugal – the exact virtues that Weber ascribed to Protestantism,” says Bentzen. “Weber himself highlighted the Cistercians as early forerunners of the Protestant Ethic.”
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The Monks Left Fundamental Values in Society
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Having looked at statistics covering 40 counties in England, the researchers concluded that regions with many Cistercian monasteries experienced a higher population growth in the period 1377-1801.
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What’s even more striking is that the influence that monasteries had on population density was the same before and after 1600.
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The fact that all monasteries were closed down during the Reformation in the year 1500 also shows that the monasteries had an influence on society several centuries after being closed down.
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So it appears that it wasn’t only the monks’ excellent abilities to e.g. use watermills that have been passed on to posterity. Rather, it was something more inherent and fundamental.
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“We are cementing that the monks passed on their cultural values by showing – based on the European Values Study – that European regions with several Cistercian monasteries still to this day value diligence and moderation more than other regions,” says Bentzen.
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“Our study of monks shows that societies that had a culture where diligence and moderation were highly valued had an advantage when the Industrial Revolution started. All else being equal, countries with high levels of work ethic will, historically speaking, achieve greater prosperity.”
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You heard about the two English monks who cooked traditional British meals for their brethren, right? They were known as the fish friar and the chip monk.
 
Tampa_Dave said:
You heard about the two English monks who cooked traditional British meals for their brethren, right? They were known as the fish friar and the chip monk.
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That was just awful… 😃

If you’re not careful, we are going to start in on the lawyer jokes. 😉
 
Luigi, glad to see you have received both good advice and a joke in need of a rimshot. 😃

If it helps you at all, I can count the times on one hand (if that!) that I have had “an experience” in lectio divina. I’ve been an Oblate since 2008, and spent 2 years in formation before that. I was/am frustrated about the lack of “experiences” in LD, and only just recently have I been able to let that go and just be still. Even if I feel like I’m getting nothing or worse, I fall asleep (a monk friend of mine refers to that as “horizontal lectio”); I know God is working unseen in my soul.

My spiritual director (not a Benedictine) describes it as water dripping onto a sponge. So subtle, you don’t notice it.

I hope I can still keep my Bennie cred with a non-Bennie spiritual director, lol …
 
mylo said:
Luigi, glad to see you have received both good advice and a joke in need of a rimshot. 😃

If it helps you at all, I can count the times on one hand (if that!) that I have had “an experience” in lectio divina. I’ve been an Oblate since 2008, and spent 2 years in formation before that. I was/am frustrated about the lack of “experiences” in LD, and only just recently have I been able to let that go and just be still. Even if I feel like I’m getting nothing or worse, I fall asleep (a monk friend of mine refers to that as “horizontal lectio”); I know God is working unseen in my soul.

My spiritual director (not a Benedictine) describes it as water dripping onto a sponge. So subtle, you don’t notice it.

I hope I can still keep my Bennie cred with a non-Bennie spiritual director, lol …
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Wooooooooohaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:😃
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
Oh my gosh :o:o:o:o

I am deeply sorry :o
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Not a problem! Just something for future reference. 🙂
mylo said:
I hope I can still keep my Bennie cred with a non-Bennie spiritual director, lol …
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My spiritual director is not a Benedictine either. It’s good in a way…there are times when I can educate him a bit or give him some background about something in the Rule.
 
At first, I thought it would be good to have a Benedictine as a spiritual director. He (or she, but I’m picky and prefer a priest to do SD) would have a shared understanding of Benedictine spirituality, like an insider’s view so to speak. But as time marches on, I’m glad that I don’t. He was formed in the Ignatian spirituality, and I find there’s a lot of overlap between Ignatius and Benedict. I ended up discovering that Ignatius spent time at a Benedictine Monastery, so I’m assuming some of the Bennies rubbed off on him. 😉 But, since my SD isn’t a Bennie; he can provide a more objective view of things, of how I am interpreting the Rule to be applied to my life, that sort of thing.
 
If you’re like me, most of the time what you’re talking about isn’t specifically about how to be a better Benedictine, but a better Christian or better person in general. There are times that our conversations start out with “I’m such a terrible Benedictine…” and then I go on to explain why. But if you’re talking more generally about some experience with prayer or with feeling (or not feeling) God’s presence, you need someone holy and wise, no matter what background he may have.
 
jwinch2 said:
That was just awful… 😃

If you’re not careful, we are going to start in on the lawyer jokes. 😉
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Just got back from Eucharistic Adoration and Mass.

Didn’t like the little joke? I know, Bennie Goodman would have done a better job with it. I get the lawyer jokes all the time. We counter with jokes about judges.
 
Prayers needed, please.

The Superior (monastery is too small for him to be called Abbot) is having heart problems
They have had to place a pace-maker.

Prayers deeply appreciated.
 
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