Oblation
On September 10th, I made my final oblation to Saint Martin’s Abbey in Lacey. I am an Oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict. It is quite an indescribable thing to be a monk in the world.
As at confirmation, one is expected to take on a new name. I chose Bede, as he is a Benedictine Saint (always a plus), as well as an historian and writer.
Already, the images of Saints Benedict and Scholastica have faded from my scapular and it has become, like my Benedictine medal, a thing faded and worn and well-loved. Decay and ruin, after all, are as much part of this world as creation and construction. Old things are a spiritual comfort to me. My spirit soars at the sight of those ancient ruined abbey walls rising from fields in Britain.
Yes, those abbeys were destroyed by a wicked king and the monks sent out into the world or to their graves. But though the works of that king are, by and large, the history with which we bore our students, those magnificent ruins rise as a testament to both the ephemeral works of man and the eternal works of God.
Congratulations!
I stumbled over here from your comments on the Carthusian movie posted at the New Liturgical Movement blog. I wanted to read your review. I’ve been fascinated w/ those guys since I returned to the Church 5 years ago.
Kemetic Orthodoxy, huh? I had no idea, though I understand there’s a bit of a pagan resurgence throughout the world, even in places like Lithuania and Ukraine.
Are you familiar w/ the blog
http://www.expagan.info/
The author was the techie behind Yahoo’s pagan chat rooms. His conversion story is on his site. He’s a convert to the Byzantine Catholic Church.
I ended up back in the Church via Gurdjieff and some gnostic nuttiness.
Funny how it all works out, huh?
I made my way here, too, after seeing your comment at Shawn Tribe’s site. (I found IGS/DGS at the San Francisco IFF site but not at the Seattle IFF site, by the way: silly film people–or, perhaps, they added it in at the last minute and never get around to putting it on the site?) Congratulations on becoming a Benedictine oblate! I was a Carthusian for several years; am looking forward to seeing Gröning’s work.