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Jodi Blazek Gehr, Oblate of St. Benedict

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The Way The Wild Flowers Grow

June 2020 Oblate Reflections and Lectio Divina

Topic: Involvement or Detachment?

Sources: Matthew 6: 24-24; Study Guide for The Rule of St. Benedict, pages 119-123, Maria-Thomas Beil, OSB

The focus of our June Oblate Zoom meeting is to explore our attachment to the world. A challenging question: How much are we to involve ourselves in improving our present world, while we are waiting and praying for a better world to come? We consider what St. Benedict teaches us about a balanced approach to the world that he was living in and about our outlook on living with the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic and the worldwide outcry for justice and end of racism.

We begin with morning prayer followed by sharing the challenges and blessings of living in this moment in time. Our challenges are many—because of the pandemic, it is difficult to not see others and we are missing our family and friends (and hugs!), there is uncertainty about how to reach out to others, and some of us suffer from PTSD, paranoia, negative thoughts, or anxiety. It is a time of letting go for many of us—there have been deaths, transitions in relationships and an adjustment of moving from old to new ways of doing things.

Life is different now. We live in uncertainty and some fear, not knowing what precautions to take—what is too much or too little in protecting our health, or what might offend another who responds to social distancing differently. We desire a middle way— to be in the world, carefully, but not looking at other people as a big germ. Finally, it is a challenge during this time of unrest, protest, and anger to see the world as it is, not as I want it to be. It is an opportunity to listen to how I am to respond to systemic racism, to withhold judgement and defensiveness, to educate myself, and to recognize there are things broken in the world. Evaluating how am I to respond and staying hopeful is essential. Continue reading “The Way The Wild Flowers Grow” →

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Sobriety: The Nature of our Need

Fr. Mauritius Wilde, Prior of Sant’ Anselmo in Rome, has a new podcast series on the Benedictine understanding of sobriety.

Can you get caught up in the swirl and chaos of fear, violence, and anger assaulting our world today? Practicing soberness means being detached from emotions, both overly negative or positive feelings. It is not good to be “drunk” on either extreme.

Soberness is taking just what we need. What do I take with me? What do I take in? What do I consume? How much wine, money, noise, whatever? Is it too much? The journey of soberness is to become more aware of whether there was too much.

But soberness is more than an absence of something—there is its own positive quality. The absence of the noise of tv is more than just turning off the tv. We begin to discover how beautiful silence is. Once you taste it, you want to have more of it.

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Listen: HR-Soberness-1 An Introduction – “The Nature of Our Need” – The Holy Rule of St. Benedict with Fr. Mauritius Wilde OSB

 

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2018 Word of the Year….drumroll, please

You know how spiritual gurus encourage you to pick a word of the year, something profound and inspirational to help you navigate a new year? Well, I found mine the other day. I had contemplated some lofty sounding words, but I don’t even remember them now because when this word fell on me, I knew it was the one.

My word for the year is going to be cushion.

When I have a lot of activity then I need to cushion it with some non-activity, some silence and solitude. When I have a lot of sitting, I need to cushion it with more standing and walking around (this I’ve learned from my back injury.) I love the “vorfreude”, the anticipation of travel, but my adventures need to be cushioned with the feeling of contentment when arriving home, sweet home. And the times when I think I can pour just a bit more information into my brain by reading one more article or one more chapter, I shall give myself a cushion, the needed space for new thoughts and ideas to bubble up. Continue reading “2018 Word of the Year….drumroll, please” →

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Our Life is a Balance

January 2017 Oblate Reflections and Lectio Divina–
Balance: Our life is a balance between stability and openness to change

Invitation to Discussion by Fr. Volker Futter: The aim of Benedictine spirituality is the Fr. Volker Futter, OSB Subprior, Benedictine Retreat Center andconversion of the whole person. “Benedictine spirituality wants no sector of life to be isolated from God’s presence; work becomes a means through which we can know and love God more deeply…God is present and accessible in every moment and in every activity.”

Balance, proportion, harmony, moderation are central.  They so underpin everything else in the Rule, that without them the whole Benedictine approach to the individual and to the community loses its keystone. Continue reading “Our Life is a Balance” →

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