http://saintbenedict.org/stboblates.htm

For myself, I feel that I have a great deal to learn from
1500 years of tradition and the followers of The Rule. Any thoughts?

caritas,

michael

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No personal experience with this, michael, except that I do have a spiritual directee who has looked into it and another who has professed. Both have been very much helped by their involvement with the Benedictines and what they describe sounds most attractive.

Are you looking into becoming a member?

I, too, have been looking at the richness of the Benedictine tradition. I have a couple of United Methodist friends (pastors as well) who have become oblates within the Order. In my conversations with them, they find it personally fulfilling and a part of their call to pastoral ministry. The whole process excites me.

Welcome, Pastor Roy

I was having trouble finding anything... well... sexy about Christianity in the Evangelical tradition. Sure, I like Chuck Swindoll. Best selling Christian author 25 years in a row probably (unless
Max Lucado, also a godsend, has surpasssed him.)
There are a few great ones on the radio and television, but they are just a tad bit long in the tooth. What has happened to the Spurgeons, Moodys, Booths and Bounds of yesteryear.
Some of the great ones like Hannah Whitall Smith and A.W. Tozer were quite familiar with the
great saints and mystics of the Catholic tradition, but how was I a Christian for 35 years without knowing about the stigmata, the healings and miracles and raisings from the dead?
The peace, the charisms, the love and devotion of these people. Benedicines, Victorines, Carmelites and Trappists. I've been hooked for five years almost and my faith has been renewed.

newwinefornewwineskins.com <*))))><

Singing psychologists. That's what came to mind. What the evangelical seminary has produced in the last 30 years is alot of music and psychology majors. Alot of good worship music in the last 30 years, especially from the charismatics. If there is a christian psychology book from the last 30 years, I probably have read it. They have improved through the 70's, 80's and 90's

Still, the Benedictines have this all built in. What if western medicine were to discover the healing power of Gregorian chant? I heard a story about how the monastaries in France stopped chanting. The monks became very ill and physicians were called in to determine the source of the problem. No solution was found. The communities that resumed chanting survived and the others closed down

As far as psychology, they got along fine without psychology for centuries. They had a modus vivendi and the Rule of Saint Benedict

One encouraging and hopeful sign is that Kathleen Norris' book about her experience as an oblate, The Cloister Walk, was for weeks a New York times bestseller...

caritas,

michael


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I came accross some references to the Rule of St Benedict in the writings of John Michael Talbot and have read some of Basil Pennington's stuff. I entertained the idea of becoming an oblate at one time but the nearest monastery was to far away. I love the Benedictine emphasis on balance and all work being sacred.