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 November, 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

Feast of the Translation of Our Lady of Walsingham &

St Teresa of Avila, 15 October, 2026

ST TERESA OF AVILA was always one of Mother Rita Mary’s favourites. She is one of the famous Spanish saints of the 16^th C and although Fr David Robarts used to joke it was her Spanish blood coming out, Mother readily identified with this strong woman who was determined to establish a monastic life run on clear guidelines that were God’s and not the world’s. I enjoyed reading her life today at mass, especially the bit about the dunking in the river:

Soaked, muddy, and frustrated after tumbling from her mount (or out of a wagon) into the water, she complained to God about the hardship. According to tradition, she said: “Lord, you couldn’t have picked a worse time for this to happen. Why would you let this happen?” She reportedly heard an interior response from God saying: “That is how I treat my friends,” to which she famously retorted: “And that is why you have so few of them!”

Active during the Counter-Reformation, Teresa became the central figure of a movement of spiritual and monastic renewal, reforming the Carmelite orders of both women and men. The movement was later joined by the younger Carmelite friar and mystic Saint John of the Cross, with whom she established the Discalced Carmelites. 

Teresa’s autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and her books The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection are prominent works on Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practice. In her autobiography, written as a defence of her ecstatic mystical experiences, she discerns four stages in the ascent of the soul to God: mental prayer and meditation; the prayer of quiet; absorption-in-God; ecstatic consciousness. The Interior Castle, written as a spiritual guide for her Carmelite sisters, uses the illustration of seven mansions within the castle of the soul to describe the different states one’s soul can be in during life.

Forty years after her death, in 1622, Teresa was canonized by Pope Gregory XV. On 27 September 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed Teresa the first female Doctor of the Church in recognition of her centuries-long spiritual legacy to the Catholic Church.

An odd curiosity about her life that she died over night before the morning of the 15 October – but that took ten days. The reason is that this was the night that the new Gregorian Calendar came into use in Spain, so ten days were added to the calendar that night. So, her death is often shown as either 4 October or 15 October

We had a rather mechanical section of the Rule today, chapter 12, about the office on Sunday mornings. It was the custom at CCK for these sections to be omitted and there were double readings of the earlier sections to re-enforce the harder parts such as the steps of humility. But Benedict was pointing out to his community that there should be a clear structure how the psalms and offices were organised – chaotic or unprepared worship is not helpful to the development of the spiritual life.

We had eight at mass, six at Sext and seven at lunch today, with our lunch in the sunny spring garden. It was good to hear that our chapter in Victoria had had a meeting recently and news from our scattered oblates.

A reminder that our next meeting is on Thursday 19 November with mass at 12 noon. We will adjoin after Sext to the Goodwood Park Hotel for lunch at 1 pm.

God bless,

Fr Scott.