Director of Oblates: Brother Edmund Ebbers, O.S.B.
Editor: Wally McClure and Patricia McClure, Obl.S.B.

A U G U S T  2 0 0 8

Volume: 92
p u b l i s h e d  q u a r t e r l y

 

   This Newsletter is coming to you a bit earlier than usual because I plan to take a vacation in Idaho to see family very soon. For those of you who have taken a respite or are yet to take one I wish you a peace filled time to rejuvenate your mind, body and spirits.
   The older I get the more I hear about or personally witness situations which give me cause to stop and think and reevaluate our response to God's call. Recently, the monks heard a short explanation of why St. Peter denied Christ. If I understand it correctly, the denial was a lesson for Peter teaching him that he was human and imperfect and only with God’s help could he grow stronger and be able to face the challenges to come. I tend to believe this explanation. I hope we never have to face the challenges that Peter had to face but within our lives we experience events that shake us up. A sudden death or serious accident or illness, the loss of our home or job, most of the time these are events that cause us to wonder if we have done something to offend God. In truth God is not punishing us but rather looking to see what our response will be. Will we be Peter and falter or Job and stand strong? Within our response is time to learn and better ourselves.
   St. Benedict constantly tells us to listen and pray. In whatever crisis big or small that comes up we should first embrace the moment as an opportunity to exercise our faith and truth in God. The Lord may be trying to lead us on a different spiritual path, one that we are reluctant to go on. Just as Peter realized and cursed and then wept with remorse, we too sometimes fail to use crisis as a teacher. We curse instead of soul search, listen and accept the truth of God’s will for us. In the end the whole will of God will be revealed to us and we will better understand the bumps and pot hole on the way to everlasting life.