Benedictine Oblates are an original part of the Rule of St. Benedict, although they have changed over the years. St. Thomas Aquinas was a Benedictine Oblate as a child. Dorothy Day and Pope Benedict XVI were Benedictine Oblates. Typically, each Benedictine Monastery has them, and a person is an oblate of a particular monastery. I am an Oblate of St. Meinrad in Indiana, about 2 hours from where I live. Oblates live an adapted lifestyle of the Rule of St. Benedict. At St. Meinrad, that is making solemn promises (not vows) to live within our ordinary lay lives a fidelity to prayer (including Lauds and Vespers of the Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, and attendance at daily mass when we can), stability of heart (which means we actively live our faith in our daily lives, committed to use of our gifts in the circumstances of our lives), and obedience to the will of God (including God’s standards in Scripture and the teachings of the Church. You do not have to be Catholic to be an Oblate. If you are not Catholic, then I think obedience to the will of God would be within one’s own faith tradition.)
If you would like to know more, you can contact me at mary@skillswork.org.
Mary Ortwein