Instruction 
Instruction on the Rule by noteworthy modern day monastics or oblates
God’s providence is present in every situation
In the mind of Saint John Cassian, anger and sadness are two principal preventatives of prayer: “The disturbance caused by anger or sadness is, above all things, to be eliminated at its sources.”‘ The reason for such emphasis is simple. Both anger and sadness represent a refusal on our part to accept a situation that… Read More ›
Remain at every moment in contact with God
The life of contemplation in action and purity of heart is, then, a life of great simplicity and inner liberty. One is not seeking anything special or demanding any particular satisfaction. One is content with what is. One does what is to be done, and the more concrete it is, the better. One is not… Read More ›
How to become Free
No matter how much we like the word “freedom” the reality can be a little frightening. “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” To become free we have to allow all binding attachments to be loosed. Freedom is nakedness, according to the ancient maxim, “Naked to follow the naked Christ.” For much… Read More ›
There Must be a Time …
There must be a time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plans at all. There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silent. And his mind forms no more propositions, and he asks himself: Did… Read More ›
We are Worthy of Love
What we are asked to do is to love; and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy if anything can. Indeed, that is one of the most significant things about the power of love. There is no way under the sun to make a man worthy of love except by loving… Read More ›
Conversion
Each Oblates makes a promise to a life of continual conversion. The following is a brief examination of conscience that could be followed each evening before bed. “Concretely, my examen might include the following steps: — I begin with a moment of grateful remembrance of God’s gifts to me this day and ask for divine… Read More ›
The Problem of Individualism
We have to recognize that a spirit of individualism and confusion has reduced us to an ethic of ‘every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This ethic, unfortunately sometimes consecrated by Christian formulas, is nothing but the secular ethic of the affluent society, based on the false assumption that if everyone is… Read More ›
Christ’s Love for Us
One of the qualities we find emphasized in the ancient accounts of the martyrs was their joy. There is no question of finding pleasure in pain. Rather it is the joy that comes when everything is lost but love perdures. We always suspect that love attaches itself to our good qualities and we fear that… Read More ›
All-embracing Love of Mankind
Where there is a deep, simple, all-embracing love of man, of the created world of living and inanimate things, then there will be respect for life, for freedom, for truth, for justice and there will be humble love of God. But where there is no love of man, no love of life, then make all… Read More ›
The Dangers of Avoiding Regular Times for Prayer
When you have given over the practice of stated prayer, you gradually become weaker without knowing it … Men first leave off private prayer; then they neglect the due observance of the Lord’s day (which is a stated service of the same kind); then they gradually let slip from their minds the very idea of… Read More ›