Benedictine Oblates are people who take inspiration from the spirituality of the Rule of St Benedict and have a special connection with a particular monastery. The daily prayer of Oblates of Glenstal Abbey is freely nourished by some form of daily office of Morning and Evening prayer (for example the Glenstal Book of Daily Prayer) and/or by the traditional form of meditation on Sacred Scripture known to Benedictines as Lectio Divina.
After a year of discernment those who aspire to becoming Oblates attend a number of meetings, arranged for their convenience, during which the core values of Benedictine life are explored. Further meetings are arranged each year so that Oblates may have an opportunity to further deepen their Benedictine spirituality.
Associates are friends of the monastery whose connection with Glenstal Abbey is less structured. They wish to maintain a link with Glenstal and its monastic community, support monastery projects, and are kept up-to-date of our latest news and events. Associates often visit the monastery and are invited to attend retreat days which normally take place during Advent, Lent and in the summer.
Fr Henry O’Shea OSB
Director of Oblates and Associates
Glenstal Abbey, Murroe, Co. Limerick
Email: oblates@glenstal.org
Glenstal Abbey is home to a community of Benedictine monks in County Limerick, Ireland, and is a place of prayer, work, education and hospitality. The monastery sits alongside a popular guesthouse and a boarding school for boys, housed within a 19th century Normanesque castle amidst five hundred magnificent acres of farmland, forest, lakes and streams. more
