How to Join Our Community

Who Are Oblates?

Oblates are lay people of all ages and of any Christian religious persuasion who desire a deeper relationship with God. They seek to live out their baptismal commitment to die and rise with Christ by following the Rule of Benedict, allowing the focus of the Rule to serve as a guide to a deeper Christian life. They do this by using the Rule’s emphasis on prayer, community living, silence, obedience, and humility.

To grow in the understanding of the Rule of St. Benedict, Oblates affiliate with a particular Benedictine monastery to learn and to share with other Oblates their efforts to live faithfully and mindfully, always listening to the voice of God calling them to union and giving example by their lives of Gods’s grace.

Oblates make a commitment at the time of oblation to put a priority on daily prayer — especially some portion of the Liturgy of the Hours — to lectio divina, and to the monthly Oblate meetings. They then bring the values of Benedictine spirituality into the wider world where they live and work.

The Oblate Director, Sister Freida Horak, provides spiritual guidance through monthly group meetings and keeps in contact with the Oblates through newsletters and e-mail. All Benedictine Oblates are welcome and invited to join the monastic community of St. Scholastica for the Liturgy of the Hours and daily Eucharist.