Meditation creates community. Meditators who experience personal transformation through a daily practice seek to express this in ways suitable to their own path. Oblation is one of these.
The World Community is ecumenical and the Oblate community specially reflects this. However, the WCCM as a whole acknowledges a special relationship to the Benedictine tradition which was the first in the western Church to form a stable form of inclusive religious life and, in succeeding generations, has always adapted to the needs and circumstances of the age. Oblates live out their oblation in a spirit of obedience, stability and conversion and promise to share always in the life and work of our Community.
To read on, please take a look at the Oblate Path Booklet which can be found as a download or read online at //wccm.org/become-an-oblate or go onto our oblate website //oblates.wccm.org
You may also find helpful a website //theruleofbenedict.com which contains reflections on the chapters of the Rule written by Christian meditators. The site was created by the Meditatio House community of WCCM in London which closed in March 2019 to make way for Bonnevaux. All who are drawn to the Benedictine spirit, and all who practice Christianity in this spirit are warmly welcomed.
Our UK Benedictine Oblate Community
The basic element of our Oblate Community, is the ‘cell’. This word has a long monastic tradition referring originally to the monk’s cave or room. With us it is used to describe presence not only physical space. The cells meet with regularity, to meditate, to share the Word, to consider their ways of sharing in the work of the wider community and where time allows share a meal together. All are welcome.
For more information about our oblate cells and national and local meetings, please contact oblates@wccm.uk
‘Meditation is the journey to the centre – to one’s own centre and the Centre which is God. Christian meditation is the path into this centre through the heart and mind of Christ by a way that gives priority to silence, simplicity and stillness in a spirit of love and service. Becoming an oblate in the WCCM is an expression of all this and a way to realise it. It is a beautiful and challenging way to raise the human journey into transformation in the love of Christ and the wisdom of Benedict, one of his great disciples.’
Father Laurence Freeman – from The Oblate Path