I. GENERAL STATEMENT CONCERNING BENEDICTINE LIFE AND OBLATE LIFE

A. Why People Become Oblates

Why do some Christians wish to become Oblates of St. Benedict? They are attracted to the Oblate Program because they are seeking God in Jesus Christ and have begun to find Him through their acquaintance with a Benedictine community and through the Christian values manifested by the community and its Oblates. Such people have recognized that those Benedictine values, which are ultimately values of the Gospel, have great significance in their own daily lives and in their own quest for God amidst the ordinary circumstances of their work, prayer, and relationships. They have a humble awareness of their own weaknesses and yet know that the God of love calls them to holiness in an ongoing struggle to overcome their defects. They recognize Christ's presence in the Benedictine community and in the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict, both of which they have come to regard as gifts of God meant to nurture their spiritual lives. They also realize that the grace of God can work in their lives, lived outside the monastery, to make them channels of prayerful support and encouragement to the monastic community. In all these ways they come to discover that God is calling them to be Oblates so that they may find Him more and more in all people, things, and events, until they themselves are transformed by Christ to the point at which they can say, along with St. Paul, "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20).

In this modern age Oblation may have particular value because of the decline of family life and community life in our culture, even among Christians. In the preface to MBO, Archabbot Denis Strittmatter, O.S.B., quoted Archabbot Leander Schnerr, O.S.B., from the 1898 edition of the Manual in stating:

In our day, no less, does the growth of infidelity threaten the world with ruin. The bonds of Christian union are loosening everywhere; in the family as well as in public life their place is being largely taken by a code of unrestraint and license.

May St. Benedict, therefore, now as then, with his Order come to the rescue of society, and through the spreading Institute of Secular Oblates effect that families again return to the Christian principles of faith and obedience. Then may we justly hope that society and the state will follow in their wake.

The need which the modern world has of these Benedictine qualities gives the monk a unique role in this day. The Benedictine Order differs from modern congregations in that it has no specific devotion or apostolic work that modifies and determines its type of spirituality. It is simply the leading of the Christian life to the fullest.

B. The Meaning of Oblate Life

"Oblate life" may be described as a Christian's affiliation with a Benedictine religious community to enrich and reshape one's life by the Gospel of Christ as interpreted by the Rule of St. Benedict. Oblates neither live in a religious community nor take religious vows. Instead they seek God by striving to become holy in their chosen way of life as married people, single celibates, or secular clergy. Through their commitment to Benedictine values, Oblates bring the light of Christ into the world and, by their witness to Gospel values, encourage humanity to respond to God's ongoing call of love. Especially in this age of secularization and widespread loss of religious values in Western culture, Oblates can provide a powerful witness to the real possibility of intensive Christian life, even amidst the environment of a largely non-Christian society. The Rule provides a significant foundation for such a witness by its thrust to encourage extraordinary holiness in the lives of ordinary, fallible people living among other ordinary, fallible people, whether they be monks or lay people. It is by their good zeal, which brings forth mutual respect, patience with others' weaknesses, and obedience to others out of love of Christ, that such people make room for the grace of God and call upon Him to "bring us all together to everlasting life" (RB 72:12). This vision of mutual support for the sake of spiritual growth is embodied particularly in Chapter 72 of the Rule.

At St. Vincent Archabbey the Oblate movement was officially begun by Abbot Boniface Wimmer in 1865. In more recent years Oblates have been drawn from those seeking personal renewal through the Retreat Program and those in Benedictine parishes seeking a share in the spirituality of the Benedictines who staff their parishes. A growing number of individuals in locations throughout the United States have also sought Oblate affiliation with the Archabbey out of a deep thirst for spiritual renewal, according to the varied paths by which God has led them to contact with St. Vincent and its monks and Oblates.

The Oblate Program of St. Vincent Archabbey welcomes all Christian women and men who are truly seeking God and who have discerned a desire for affiliation with the Archabbey to contact the Director of Oblates about novice Oblation, as specified in II. below. The period of a year or more as an Oblate novice gives the person time to become acquainted with the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict and to let its values have a transforming effect on one's Christian life. At the end of this period, if the Oblate novice discerns an ongoing call to follow the Benedictine way, he or she may apply for Oblation. It is the Act of Oblation that formally makes one an Oblate. The Oblate then continues to share in the prayers and works of the monastic community, to grow in communion with other Oblates, and to live out the promise of ongoing conversion in Christ, with an ever more persistent turning to Christ in the daily decisions of one's life. This growth in Christ, achieved by God's grace, comes about as monks and Oblates, who belong to the extended family of the Archabbey, offer mutual encouragement to one another to seek God by embracing the values proclaimed in the Rule of St. Benedict.

C. Oblates as "Monasticism's Gift to the World"

(edited from a reflection by Fr. Bede Classick, O.S.B., Director of Oblates
at St. Paul's Abbey, Newton, New Jersey)

Oblates are monasticism's gift to the world. I hope that through this statement all Oblates will come to appreciate who they are. The Oblates are indeed a gift and have much to give to the world, a world which is seeking and searching for its ultimate salvation. The Oblate stands between monasticism and the world as a mediator, linking the two, drawing them together, bringing to the world the values which monasticism holds up as important for the Christian way of life.

Monasticism has done much throughout history to shape life in the world; but monasticism has not influenced the world simply on its own. It has been able to shape Christian life in the world in its day-to-day activities only because those who live in the world have sought to carry out its program of spiritual growth and commitment to Christ.

Oblates especially have understood the close relationship between monastic life as envisioned by St. Benedict and the ordinary Christian life in the world. Affiliating themselves with monastery and convent, they provide a vital link with the world as they reach out to bring hope and inspiration to those struggling to find Christ in the midst of a sinful world.

It is through the Oblates that monasticism opens its heart to the world; and the gift that monasticism offers through Oblates is hospitality, a "cosmic hospitality," a reaching out to embrace the whole universe. It is only in this way that the brokenness of our human lives and of our world can be healed. Oblates will reach out into all areas of life to bring forgiveness and healing, peace and consolation, springing from their affiliation with the monks. As Oblates listen to those in need in order to help them, they will realize that peace and justice are not just causes for which we wave banners, but forms of Gospel proclamation. Such is the work of redemption. Hospitality finds its meaning in the Cross. In stretching out His arms on the Cross, Christ opened Himself to the world. He excluded no one, but forgave even His enemies. He embraced all so as to redeem all.

The Oblate of today must be ready to walk in the steps of Jesus Christ. The Oblate must be ready to embrace the world in order to forgive and heal and reconcile. Such a welcoming gesture will give others the courage to turn to Christ. Through the hospitality of the Oblate, the monastic values of prayer, humility, obedience, peace, patience, charity, and reverence will be brought to bear on the world and guide it in the way of salvation.

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