OBLATES
Vocation to oblate life
Christ calls all of us to follow him. Through our Baptism, we became members of His Body, and his Church in the Holy Spirit. But because of our little faith we live fragmentally the Gospel. It is necessary to listen to the teachers of spiritual life, who show us a practical path in which we stand a chance to approach the Kingdom of God. Humankind could reach that experience in many ways, one of which is marked by Our Father St. Benedict. According to the Benedict Rule, monks live in monasteries and their charismatic witnesses attracts people mostly, resulting in giving them a way to live better their lives. It is called Oblate someone who is invited by God to shape his life according to the guidance of the Rule. The vocation of the oblate is the life of the Gospel as well as that of all Christians, but their life is made unique by adhering to the teachings of St. Benedict. Leaving the everyday framework of his life, he joins monastery life through his oblation and strives to live according to Benedict’s Rule. He is not a Monastic monk, but he belongs to the monastery’s spiritual family, he is not under the jurisdiction of the Abbot, but he accepts his spiritual authority.
The concept of oblation
Oblation is a promise given to God and accepted by the Church to fulfill our vocation as a result of Baptism with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, based on the Regula and the early Monastic tradition, as part of the monastery.
More about Benedictine oblate communities: https://osboblatus.hu/
S. Günter Decany
Members of the Saint Günter Decany within its wider catchment area from Bakonybél attend a meeting and Liturgy of the Hours at our monastery on a monthly basis. Despite the physical proximity, it is the latest decany. During the course of 2013 the group of interested members met for the first time, from which the Decany itself was created by the devotion of Father Abel. Currently there are nine oblates, and a novice member. At the moment the decany hasn’t got a special task nor charisma, but despite the rises and falls of the first phase of the Benedictine community life offered to God they have helped forging together our community. We are trying to focus on the opportunity, with an eye to create physical closeness, to increase more often as possible to pray with them the Liturgy of Hours and celebrate Eucharist, together with meetings.
S. Luke Decany
The Decany of The Ecumenical Spiritual Care of Saint Luke (also known as The Decany of Saint Luke) is an official association of Christ believers, with the approval of the Father Abbot of Pannonhalma. Its members are Christians of different denominations and states of life, its rules are of ecumenic approach, and their activities focus on spiritual care of callings, professions and mental health-minded recreation. The Decany is connected to the universal Church through the Order of St. Benedict, which was raised before any ruptures could occur beneath, so that the Decany could participate entirely in the service of reconciliation with life-giving strength of the Christian tradition beyond all denominations.
St. Mór Decany
Five members of the Decany at the beginning joined the re-organised Oblate movement in Pannonhalma in the early 1990s and took vows. Their 1community lifeway research led to Bakonybél, and after that they began their lives there with the community of monks. The monastery and its living monks has significantly attracted them and as a consequence has spurred more people to take this Benedictine spiritual path and offer themselves to God in his own state of life. In the Decany there are currently (2017) seven oblates, an oblata and three novices. On Thursdays, at 7 p.m., they gather together in the Church of all Saints in Pécs as an open program for all citizens. Last but not least, they have built step by step their own fraternitarian community at their own meetings in prayer, conversations related to spiritual reading, agape and excursions.