Oblate Formation 
Posts concerning Oblate and Novice formation. These include articles which are also applicable to most Christians, whether Oblate or not. Additional articles on instruction of various parts of the Rule can be found under that category.
Keeping Our Minds Open to Alternatives
The dread of being open to the ideas of others generally comes from our hidden insecurity about our own convictions. We fear that we may be “converted” – or perverted – by a pernicious doctrine. On the other hand, if we are mature and objective in our open-mindedness, we may find that viewing things from… Read More ›
We honor the spirit in other people when we listen to them
God’s messages surround us. The 24 hours before us are special, never to be repeated. The people we share the day with carry our lessons within their words and actions. Let’s be vigilant in our attempts to listen. We have so much to learn, and that’s why we’re here. Our lives have purpose, even though… Read More ›
What has always been
I think most people get a jump start when little, projecting them out of the Garden of Eden, and suddenly finding themselves naked and vulnerable. An event happens that colors the rest of life, either for good or ill. Perhaps it is the first time we really wake up to the unfairness and cruelty that… Read More ›
Unity Is Seeking Out Differences
Unity is more than solidarity and more than uniformity. Unity, ironically, is a commitment to becoming one people who speak in a thousand voices. Rather than one message repeated by a thousand voices, unity is one message shaped by a thousand minds. In times of great social change, as now, in times when the very… Read More ›
The Loss of the Sense of Sin (part 3)
The loss of the sense of sin is thus a form or consequence of the denial of God: not only in the form of atheism but also in the form of secularism. If sin is the breaking, off of one’s filial relationship to God in order to situate one’s life outside of obedience to him,… Read More ›
The Loss of the Sense of Sin (part 2)
Why has this [loss of the sense of sin] happened in our time. A glance at certain aspects of contemporary culture can help us to understand the progressive weakening of the sense of sin, precisely because of the crisis of conscience and crisis of the sense of God already mentioned. “Secularism” is by nature and… Read More ›
The Loss of the Sense of Sin
18 Over the course of generations, the Christian mind has gained from the Gospel as it is read in the ecclesial community a fine sensitivity and an acute perception of the seeds of death contained in sin, as well as a sensitivity and an acuteness of perception for identifying them in the thousand guises under… Read More ›
Be Doers of the Word
Saint James tells us: “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those… Read More ›
Pentecost
“And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak.” (Acts 2:3-4) Meditation The Holy Spirit appeared under the… Read More ›
Savour in fullness the joy that is born of truth
… Love the word of God and love the Church, and this will give you access to a treasure of very great value and will teach you how to appreciate its richness. Love and follow the Church, for it has received from its Founder the mission of showing people the way to true happiness. It… Read More ›