Last year sometime, we got a DVD in the mail from the monks at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma, northeast of Tulsa. It shows them going through their days: praying, singing, and working. “Ora et Labora” is one of their mottos: Pray and work.

We have no idea why we were sent this. We probably got on their mailing list through another Catholic organization we support or something. And they were probably hoping to elicit a donation from us.

Frankly, I thought the video was a little boring, although it was interesting in its way. Kevin, on the other hand, was fascinated by it. He watched it over and over, usually while he was doing other things.

Fast forward to February of this year, Friday the 18th to be exact (according to Kevin).

For a couple of months around that time, there was a table in the commons of our church with used religious items and a box for donations. Kevin saw a Benedictine medal on the table. Two inches in diameter, the medal is pretty heavy and made of some kind of metal. It commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Benedictine sisters’ coming to America.

He paid a dollar for it, but that medal has become immeasurably valuable to him.

That very day, he put it on a chain and started wearing it, and it inspired him to research all of the inscriptions on it, which led him to research the Benedictine order.

Then, on July 3, our new priest Father Tony blessed the medal, and he’s worn it ever since.

At that point, Kevin says he began to officially live his life as a spiritual Benedictine oblate.

The word oblate means “to offer.” An oblate in the Benedictine order is a lay person, meaning someone out “in the world” as opposed to in a monastery, who follows the Rule of St. Benedict, while possibly also being fathers and husbands (or mothers and wives, since women can be oblates, as well).

On July 15, Kevin emailed Father Joseph Mary Lukyamuzi, director of oblate formation at Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, who encouraged him to continue on his path, offering his assistance along the way.

And then, today, Kevin’s journey came full-circle: The Clear Creek Abbey rosary we ordered earlier this week came in the mail.

All that time Kevin watched the Clear Creek video, he didn’t realize that the monks he was watching were Benedictine monks. At that time, he hadn’t studied anything about the Benedictines (or any of the many orders), and the video doesn’t spend a lot of time on the distinction. It wasn’t until he’d begun researching the order that it hit him.

God does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t He? :)