We have a monthly meeting to support those who are involved in the Benedictine life, including oblates from  the two Anglican Benedictine Communities in Australia. the meetings are usually held at St George’s. We try and meet once a month to provide a support for those who are called to follow the Benedictine way whilst living in the world.

Our next meeting of our Benedictine oblates will be on Thursday 19 March, 2026.

This is a good little clip about oblates from PBS in the USA.

Extract from the Guidelines for Oblates

In June 1971, a group of Directors of Oblates came together at St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, Illinois, to consider how Benedictine Oblates might best be served in the light of Vatican II. One year later a second meeting was held, this time at St. Mary’s Abbey, Morristown, New Jersey, to review papers that had been written in the interim and to exchange ideas pertinent to Benedictine Oblates.

The second meeting resulted in a document of Guidelines for Oblates of St. Benedict, and this document has since been generally endorsed by a considerable number of Directors of Oblates in North America. It is intended to serve as both Constitution and Guidelines for the spiritual life of Oblates, and it is hoped that its availability will assist all Directors of Oblates in their efforts to interest men and women who, while retaining their position in the world, wish somehow to identify with a given Benedictine monastery or convent.

Constitution

1. Oblates of St Benedict are Christian men and women admitted into spiritual union and affiliation with a Benedictine community of monks, nuns, or sisters so that they may share in the spiritual life, prayers, and good works of the community.

2. Oblates do not usually live in the monastic house of the community, yet they remain one with the community while they continue faithfully to carry out the duties of their particular state in life and occupation, wherever they may be. We are therefore not concerned here about those who wish to live as Oblates with the community in the abbey or convent itself. Such cloistered Oblates must qualify for community life, be accepted by the vote of the community, and be ready to work and pray under the same conditions as the monks, sisters, and nuns themselves.

3. Within the framework of their daily lives in the world, Oblates strive to lead full Christian lives enlightened by personal efforts to understand Christ’s teaching in the Scriptures as interpreted by St Benedict in his Rule for monks. Oblates are guided and inspired by their continued spiritual association with the monastic community.

4. Oblates are a “spiritual arm” of the Benedictine community, reaching out into all areas of life, seeking to share with others what they themselves gain as Oblates of St. Benedict. Their affiliation with a community of monks or Benedictine women is not therefore for their own personal good alone. It is chiefly by their Christian example, even by their very presence among others, that they hope to bring St Benedict’s ideal of service to God and man into the world where they live and work.

5. Since Oblates of St. Benedict primarily offer themselves for the service of God and others, they will therefore strive for God’s honour and glory before all else, keeping in mind the Benedictine motto: “That in all things God may be glorified.”

Oblates New sheet for July

The Benedictine GROUP

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Daily Rule, Daily Office, Sacramental Life

In so far as our state of life allows

Octave of the Feast of St Benedict, 16 July, 2026

ST GEORGE IS SOMEONE I have always loved. When I was a child, I wanted a horse and a suit of shiny armour with a big red cross. Dragons were fun to kill. Then when I was a teenager when Star Wars came out, and I immediately recognised that this was just St George and the dragon dressed up in Sci-Fi, so I was hooked on that as well, exchanging a sword for a light sabre.

After all, who doesn’t like the great heroic figures like St George, galloping around on horses, slaying dragons and rescuing damsels in distress?

S Benedict had his St George moment as well. The story of his life was that Norcia he founded a series of communities which he ruled. It did not go down well; in fact, it was so bad the monks tried to poison him. Now, most monastics are reasonably mild so he really must have been difficult. After that he left them, became a hermit, and eventually others drifted to him again.

This time he wrote the Rule. We are not sure what rule he used before, but the Rule that he wrote this time is full of balance. He had learnt a lot from the failed communities at Norcia, and he emphasised humility as the path of a monastic. He taught that the three vows of a monastic are stability, obedience, and conversion of life. Through these vows he taught that humility was the way to achieve these goals. The Rule has humility, in so many places his gentleness shines through, allowing flexibility in a humane understanding that rules bend with human weakness.

I like to think of this as the moment when St Benedict climbed off the horse and discarded the armour – he stopped being St George.

But of course, that still leaves the dragon.

Now dragons are very important. I have always liked the line of G K Chesterton, the writer of the Fr Brown stories and many other great pieces, that “the objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed.”

Dragons still need to be killed. St Benedict did not minimalize the role of evil, but he taught that it was in humility that learn to slay our dragons, not by charging around on a large horse. Saint Moses the Black was wise when he taught that the only dimension with which you can outperform Satan is by acquiring humility, for Satan has no humility. Dragons are defeated by our humility, and our daily reading of the Rule, and our efforts to keep it in our lives, mark us as Benedictines slaying our dragons in the slow course of our lives. We don’t need to ride around on horses with shiny armour, but we do need to deal with dragons.

It was a joy on last Saturday to welcome Sylvia as a full oblate in our life, as she took on the name of Francis to follow another humble saint. The oblates present also renewed their vows for another year, continuing the stability of their lives following the Rule insofar as their state of life allows. We were joined by friends and also parishioners from St Agnes Grange for the occasion which was followed by a shared lunch with hot soup in the Rectory.

Our next meeting is postponed for a week as I will be away for part of August in PNG visiting the Diocese of Aipo Rongo – the parish regularly supports this diocese with our Lenten Offerings every year. So, we will meet next on Thursday 27 August for mass at 12 noon followed by lunch in the Rectory. It is our plan to visit Goolwa in September to support the oblates in the south of Adelaide.

God bless,

Fr Scott.