Steps Toward Oblation: Lesson One
Here is lesson one:
1. How might Benedictine discipline positively influence my life? How might it challenge me?
By commitment to prayer, the Scriptures, and learning and living by the Holy Rule, I hope my life will be positively influenced by being placed within this framework that is designed to help me “prefer nothing to Christ.” Being a “family man” in the world, I pray that any advancement God would grant would radiate out from me and enrich the lives of those around me, as Saint Saraphim famously said; “Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” I hope to acquire that Spirit of Peace that God might use me to encourage others; my family, coworkers, and everyone I meet.
How might it challenge me? Three to six hours of football, or several episodes of TV doesn’t seem like too much in one day, but adding Lectio Divina and the Rule to my day could be “a lot” some days. My hypocrisy and sloth are nearly boundless. I will need to be on guard against my passions and pray that God strengthen my desire for those things that are beneficial. Right now, in these first days of my novitiate, that’s all I can see as possibly challenging. It may come to pass that I find something in the Rule that is challenging, but being so new, I don’t know what that might be. Fortunately, I have been appointed a mentor, and between him and the Abbot, I hope to be able to receive guidance through any challenging demands of the Rule and general application of it to my life.
2. What is the role of community in the Christian life? What benefits do I hope to gain – or share with others – by embracing a common discipline of prayer and reflection?
No one is saved alone, says Alexi Khomiakov. God is a Triune Communion. God invites us into Communion with Him, and with that Communion, into Communion with the others who are also “the Body of Christ and individually members of it.” We must be in community, in Communion, because we are weak and need the help of those around us. We need friends to open the roof and lower us down to Jesus when we have fallen upon our own lameness, and we need to be the friends to bring the others along, to pray for, support, encourage and love our fellows. To offer ourselves as Christ did for us. To receive our brothers’ and sisters’ sacrifice humbly with love. These things, like exercise, build strength in the Body of which we are a part. These things I hope to gain and share with my family, my fellow Benedictines, as well as my brothers and sisters in my parish.
3. What in my life impairs my ability to “prefer nothing to Christ” in my everyday experiences? What can I do to change or lessen these circumstances?
Saint Isaac of Syria wrote that "Ease and idleness are the destruction of the soul and they can injure her more than the demons." Every night in Small Compline of the Eastern Rite I pray admitting to the Theotokos that “with the heartsease of life's pleasures [I] am become a thrall in mind.” A full pantry of delicious foods, hot water, a million choices of places to eat and a million other choices of mind-numbing “entertainment,” and, generally, the ease and pleasure of life in today’s “first world” is probably the biggest impairment. We have it easy, and we can forget that we must rely on God for everything. Coasting along with the rest of the world, paying no mind to avarice, lust, gluttony, and sloth, that is a huge temptation. Working out our salvation is hard because we can get used to the ease of life, and to turn away from it is sometimes embarrassing and always more work that coasting along. We don’t want our friends and neighbors to think we are “weird.” Yet these traps are all around us and pose a serious threat. I must be wary, and willing to bear the uncomfortable feelings of keeping my focus on Christ. I must watch my tongue, I must control my thoughts and appetites, I must diligently place myself in the care of the only Lover of Mankind every moment of every day and ask His help to take the narrow way.
4. As the novitiate year progresses, what might I do to help myself remain steadfast in my pilgrimage of faith, as guided by the Holy Rule?
I hope to make at least a few trips to the monastery this year. Quarterly would be great, but I don’t know exactly how often I will be able to make it. I also will join the Monday evening phone calls as much as possible. Additionally, this series of lessons with the questions should serve well to keep my focus on the things I have committed to do with the help of God. My spiritual father and I have talked about regularly meeting to talk about it, and most importantly, I believe, keeping my prayer rule is absolutely essential. Through times of sweetness and times of drought or trial, the ordering of time through the prayers of the Church remain a solid and dependable framework built upon The Rock. Time in prayer is time spent with God, and it is only with His help that I’ll be able to do anything. My prayer is that He’ll grant me success.
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