Holy Rule for April 1
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St. Mary's Monastery
Mar 31, 2026, 5:00:41 PM (4 days ago) Mar 31
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 1, August 1, December 1
Chapter 50: On Sisters Who are Working Far From the Oratory or Are on a Journey
Those sisters who are working at a great distance and cannot get to the oratory at the proper time - the Abbess judging that such is the case - shall perform the Work of God in the place where they are working, bending their knees in reverence before God.
Likewise those who have been sent on a journey shall not let the appointed Hours pass by, but shall say the Office by themselves as well as they can and not neglect to render the task of their service.
REFLECTION
Here's a chapter that speaks loud and clear to Oblates in the world. We must carry our monastery and, to a certain extent, even its choir, in our hearts. It is a fact that we are away from the monastery most of the time. We may wish it were otherwise, God, for His own reasons, may not.
Hence, we need to study with special attention the means to carry not just the monastery and choir, but the entire Holy Rule and all of our Order in our hearts. There must our cloisters be built. The reins of obedience for Oblates come not from walls and stones, nor from the constant presence of a community to help us, but from our free will and loving gift, from the mindful vigilance of our hearts. This cloister of the heart, if nurtured, can become in truth a "paradisus claustralis", a cloistered paradise! But it does take time!
A perennial concern of Oblates is how to say the Office in the world, or how much of it to say. Actually, that concern is SO perennial that one can easily get bogged down in it, spinning one's wheels! Satan doesn't care whether you get caught by temptations to murder or by other temptations, so long as you get caught!
The answer here is loud and clear, both terribly simple and (like the perfection of so many simple things,) not a little daunting: "as well as they can." Now look at this precept, really look at it. That may mean that you will never be able to solemnly intone the Hours in many, if not most of the places you live and work. Which also means that God, of all the most merciful and loving, clearly understands the limits of your life.
I hesitate to mention depression too often, but because it is my personal experience and I know that it has tremendous connections to the spiritual life for good or ill, I'll risk it! Ever hear about one of the symptoms of depression being trouble concentrating? Let me tell you, beloveds, when I can deny any other sign, I can never deny that one.
Twenty minutes of memorized prayers and Psalms takes an hour or more. And certainly NOT because one is swept up into the seventh heaven! Quite the reverse! One's mind jumps everywhere, like an agile monkey on speed leaping from tree to tree in the canopy of an endlessly confusing jungle. The words are just repeated, with so little attention, feeling or meaning. And even that is a crushing effort at times. Sigh...
If you are at all like me, you will feel badly about that: "Oh, no! I've been distracted at prayer again..." Don't make it any worse than it already is: God fully knows WHY we are distracted, why we are limited by anything within or without. So long as you didn't deliberately intend and set out to pray mindlessly, don't worry. God may actually permit those distractions to humble us. Just calm down and do the best you can.
I have long since resigned myself to ruefully chuckling that often I am no better at all than a mindless, mechanical prayer wheel, like those spun in Tibet. I hope God accepts all our prayer wheel days and I really think He does! So long as we are not deliberately slovenly or careless about prayer, it delights God, and, as one of the Fathers observed, even distracted prayer makes the devil mad!
A quick suggestion as a way to bring monastery and choir into our busy day. This is one of my favorites, one of two prayers proper to the morning hour of Prime. It is easily memorized and therefore VERY portable! It can sneak into the tiniest of places in a busy day and carry the heart right to God and its cloister of peace and truth. Enjoy!!
" O Lord God, King of heaven and earth, be pleased this day to direct and sanctify, to rule and govern our hearts and bodies, our thoughts, words and deeds according to Your law and in obedience to Your commandments. Now and forever may we attain salvation and freedom by Your help, O Savior of the world, Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen."
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 1, August 1, December 1
Chapter 50: On Sisters Who are Working Far From the Oratory or Are on a Journey
Those sisters who are working at a great distance and cannot get to the oratory at the proper time - the Abbess judging that such is the case - shall perform the Work of God in the place where they are working, bending their knees in reverence before God.
Likewise those who have been sent on a journey shall not let the appointed Hours pass by, but shall say the Office by themselves as well as they can and not neglect to render the task of their service.
REFLECTION
Here's a chapter that speaks loud and clear to Oblates in the world. We must carry our monastery and, to a certain extent, even its choir, in our hearts. It is a fact that we are away from the monastery most of the time. We may wish it were otherwise, God, for His own reasons, may not.
Hence, we need to study with special attention the means to carry not just the monastery and choir, but the entire Holy Rule and all of our Order in our hearts. There must our cloisters be built. The reins of obedience for Oblates come not from walls and stones, nor from the constant presence of a community to help us, but from our free will and loving gift, from the mindful vigilance of our hearts. This cloister of the heart, if nurtured, can become in truth a "paradisus claustralis", a cloistered paradise! But it does take time!
A perennial concern of Oblates is how to say the Office in the world, or how much of it to say. Actually, that concern is SO perennial that one can easily get bogged down in it, spinning one's wheels! Satan doesn't care whether you get caught by temptations to murder or by other temptations, so long as you get caught!
The answer here is loud and clear, both terribly simple and (like the perfection of so many simple things,) not a little daunting: "as well as they can." Now look at this precept, really look at it. That may mean that you will never be able to solemnly intone the Hours in many, if not most of the places you live and work. Which also means that God, of all the most merciful and loving, clearly understands the limits of your life.
I hesitate to mention depression too often, but because it is my personal experience and I know that it has tremendous connections to the spiritual life for good or ill, I'll risk it! Ever hear about one of the symptoms of depression being trouble concentrating? Let me tell you, beloveds, when I can deny any other sign, I can never deny that one.
Twenty minutes of memorized prayers and Psalms takes an hour or more. And certainly NOT because one is swept up into the seventh heaven! Quite the reverse! One's mind jumps everywhere, like an agile monkey on speed leaping from tree to tree in the canopy of an endlessly confusing jungle. The words are just repeated, with so little attention, feeling or meaning. And even that is a crushing effort at times. Sigh...
If you are at all like me, you will feel badly about that: "Oh, no! I've been distracted at prayer again..." Don't make it any worse than it already is: God fully knows WHY we are distracted, why we are limited by anything within or without. So long as you didn't deliberately intend and set out to pray mindlessly, don't worry. God may actually permit those distractions to humble us. Just calm down and do the best you can.
I have long since resigned myself to ruefully chuckling that often I am no better at all than a mindless, mechanical prayer wheel, like those spun in Tibet. I hope God accepts all our prayer wheel days and I really think He does! So long as we are not deliberately slovenly or careless about prayer, it delights God, and, as one of the Fathers observed, even distracted prayer makes the devil mad!
A quick suggestion as a way to bring monastery and choir into our busy day. This is one of my favorites, one of two prayers proper to the morning hour of Prime. It is easily memorized and therefore VERY portable! It can sneak into the tiniest of places in a busy day and carry the heart right to God and its cloister of peace and truth. Enjoy!!
" O Lord God, King of heaven and earth, be pleased this day to direct and sanctify, to rule and govern our hearts and bodies, our thoughts, words and deeds according to Your law and in obedience to Your commandments. Now and forever may we attain salvation and freedom by Your help, O Savior of the world, Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen."
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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