For more information about the Oblate Program, contact:
Sister Teresa Jackson or
Jeannette Kelley, OblSB 
oblates@stgertrudes.org

We believe that being connected as Oblates with the Benedictine Way through association with the monastic community of St. Gertrude's means:

• making a deep faith response to God's invitation to become a fully human person;
• freely entering into the mystery which Christ wishes to reveal in the process of being formed into the body of Christ;
• committing ourselves to live the Gospel as it speaks to us in our life situations in light of the Rule of Benedict, the Benedictine tradition as lived by the Sisters of St. Gertrude's, and discernment with the cenobitic monastic community and the Oblate community;
• integrating all our experiences into a way-of-being which makes us truly people for others;
• expressing our global consciousness, especially concerning hospitality, simplicity and peace, through liturgical worship and ministry; and
• creating a connectedness with St. Gertrude's and one another in which we can experience a change of heart from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness by sharing in the dynamics of community interaction.

Connections for the Journey

Listen (The Constitutions for St. Gertrude's Monastery) clarifies the Benedictine call in light of the Gospel for today:

"American Benedictine sisters live the Christian life in accord with the Rule of Benedict, a dynamic monastic tradition, and the specific charism of their individual monasteries. ...The charism entrusted to Benedictines is, in essence, to seek God in cenobitic community, to praise God through prayer and work, and to listen with eagerness to the Spirit's call into the unknown future."

We believe that being associated with the Monastery of St. Gertrude as Oblates is a life-giving way in which God leads certain men and women to discern and live out the Spirit's call to them. The essence of the Spirit's call to live the Gospel is conversion, and we believe that the Benedictine monastic way can facilitate this ongoing conversion process.

The initiation process then, becomes the way in which Inquirers and Candidates in the Oblate Process explore the way of monastic living. By experiencing this way of life and reflecting with members of the cenobitic and oblate communities on its meaning in relation to their search for God, these Inquirers and Candidates are enabled to discover whether or not living as Oblates is an authentic way for them to seek God.