Holy Rule for April 13
11 views
Skip to first unread message
St. Mary's Monastery
Apr 12, 2026, 6:25:42 PMApr 12
to holyrule
+PAX
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 13, August 13, December 13
Chapter 59: On the Sons of Nobles and of the Poor Who Are Offered
If anyone of the nobility offers his son to God in the monastery and the boy is very young, let his parents draw up the document which we mentioned above; and at the oblation let them wrap the document itself and the boy's hand in the altar cloth. That is how they offer him. As regards their property, they shall promise in the same petition under oath that they will never of themselves, or through an intermediary, or in any way whatever, give him anything or provide him with the opportunity of owning anything. Or else, if they are unwilling to do this, and if they want to offer something as an alms to the monastery for their advantage, let them make a donation of the property they wish to give to the monastery, reserving the income to themselves if they wish. And in this way let everything be barred, so that the boy may have no expectations whereby (which God forbid) he might be deceived and ruined, as we have learned by experience. Let those who are less well-to-do make a similar offering. But those who have nothing at all shall simply draw up the document and offer their son before witnesses at the oblation.
REFLECTION
It's always nice to read Chapter 59, because it is the source of our having Oblates today. Thanks be to God for the myriad blessings and graces that have come to the Benedictine family through Oblates and for the graces they have received from their bonds to the Order! It is hard for me to imagine where we would be without Oblates.
Those who are seen help us with labors and goods, and those who are unseen, help us with a treasure of prayers whose vastness we dare not even guess until we finally see clearly in heaven. In most cases, by numbers, Oblates outnumber the professed of the community, so God must have known how badly we needed them. It is most likely their prayers that kept us going all these years.
The living and the dead, the strugglers on earth, those in Purgatory, and those already in heaven help us move the great throng of our Order forward through history. What heaven must be like! The Oblates there are united to God, already freely conversant with St. Benedict, with heroes and heroines we can only read about. How delighted they must have been to be welcomed by a family far more numerous than they ever imagined.
They were not strangers to those Benedictines of centuries past. Why? Because the saints of the past hold us dear throughout our time of trial. They already know us, they have been praying for us all along, even if we have not met them yet in person. When I read Anglo-Saxon Benedictine history, a favorite hobby of mine, I am just learning their names. They already know my name: they have prayed for me for years before I even opened a book.
When an Oblate joins our ranks, becoming a member of this great family, there are graces beyond counting in store. Ours is a family of saints, of great holiness. It is also a family of strugglers, the mediocre, the halt and lame and the beginning. The communion of saints is replicated in miniature in our own Order. All that great sanctity, past and present, comes, in the eternal now of heaven, to our aid. The weak are carried by the strong. It is easy to forget the miracle that signing one little Oblation chart on the altar effects.
If I could (and did!) write a love song for the habit, I could write one as great for Oblates. How much they have changed and enriched my life, how deeply I find my days entwined around Oblates from all over the world. Prayers and insights shared back and forth, friendships that have sprung up in cyberspace, the wonderful gift of having others spread far and wide who share the journey with me, these are all gifts of grace to me, inestimable gifts! My life would be so much diminished without the gifts of light and joy, love and edification that you bring to me. Thanks so very, very much!!
Thanks be to God for our Oblates. May we all thank God for the chance He led St. Benedict to give to them and to ourselves!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 13, August 13, December 13
Chapter 59: On the Sons of Nobles and of the Poor Who Are Offered
If anyone of the nobility offers his son to God in the monastery and the boy is very young, let his parents draw up the document which we mentioned above; and at the oblation let them wrap the document itself and the boy's hand in the altar cloth. That is how they offer him. As regards their property, they shall promise in the same petition under oath that they will never of themselves, or through an intermediary, or in any way whatever, give him anything or provide him with the opportunity of owning anything. Or else, if they are unwilling to do this, and if they want to offer something as an alms to the monastery for their advantage, let them make a donation of the property they wish to give to the monastery, reserving the income to themselves if they wish. And in this way let everything be barred, so that the boy may have no expectations whereby (which God forbid) he might be deceived and ruined, as we have learned by experience. Let those who are less well-to-do make a similar offering. But those who have nothing at all shall simply draw up the document and offer their son before witnesses at the oblation.
REFLECTION
It's always nice to read Chapter 59, because it is the source of our having Oblates today. Thanks be to God for the myriad blessings and graces that have come to the Benedictine family through Oblates and for the graces they have received from their bonds to the Order! It is hard for me to imagine where we would be without Oblates.
Those who are seen help us with labors and goods, and those who are unseen, help us with a treasure of prayers whose vastness we dare not even guess until we finally see clearly in heaven. In most cases, by numbers, Oblates outnumber the professed of the community, so God must have known how badly we needed them. It is most likely their prayers that kept us going all these years.
The living and the dead, the strugglers on earth, those in Purgatory, and those already in heaven help us move the great throng of our Order forward through history. What heaven must be like! The Oblates there are united to God, already freely conversant with St. Benedict, with heroes and heroines we can only read about. How delighted they must have been to be welcomed by a family far more numerous than they ever imagined.
They were not strangers to those Benedictines of centuries past. Why? Because the saints of the past hold us dear throughout our time of trial. They already know us, they have been praying for us all along, even if we have not met them yet in person. When I read Anglo-Saxon Benedictine history, a favorite hobby of mine, I am just learning their names. They already know my name: they have prayed for me for years before I even opened a book.
When an Oblate joins our ranks, becoming a member of this great family, there are graces beyond counting in store. Ours is a family of saints, of great holiness. It is also a family of strugglers, the mediocre, the halt and lame and the beginning. The communion of saints is replicated in miniature in our own Order. All that great sanctity, past and present, comes, in the eternal now of heaven, to our aid. The weak are carried by the strong. It is easy to forget the miracle that signing one little Oblation chart on the altar effects.
If I could (and did!) write a love song for the habit, I could write one as great for Oblates. How much they have changed and enriched my life, how deeply I find my days entwined around Oblates from all over the world. Prayers and insights shared back and forth, friendships that have sprung up in cyberspace, the wonderful gift of having others spread far and wide who share the journey with me, these are all gifts of grace to me, inestimable gifts! My life would be so much diminished without the gifts of light and joy, love and edification that you bring to me. Thanks so very, very much!!
Thanks be to God for our Oblates. May we all thank God for the chance He led St. Benedict to give to them and to ourselves!
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages