Fratelli tutti,
Brotherhood in Monastic Life

Lectio divina

Dom Olivier-Marie Sarr, OSB

Abbot of Keur-Moussa (Senegal)

‘You have only one Father

and you are all brothers and sisters’

(Matthew 23.8-9)

You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master, and you are all brothers and sisters. You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. (Matthew 23.8-9)

Reading these two verses of Matthew 23 one could easily be struck by the restrictive character of this text expressed in two sentences, (‘You must not allow… you must call no one’), each followed by an explanation (‘since you…’). So there are two prohibitions, do not give the title of Master or that of Father, between which a lapidary affirmation is subtlely slipped in, extremely positive and explicit, ‘for you are all brothers and sisters’.

In addition, these two verses are clarified by a reading and re-reading of chapter 23.1-12. Jesus is there reprimanding the scribes and Pharisees who have occupied the chair of Moses, and presenting them as negative models. They do not practise what they teach, they show off with regard to their clothing and they like to have grand titles and places of honour in the liturgy and in social gatherings.

Of course the conditions for universal brotherhood must surpass those of the relationship of master and disciple, son and Father. These do not fit into the logic of titles, honours and privileges, for brotherhood admits of no price, no calculation, no pretence. In this perspective the good news imparted by these verses gives full value to that universal brotherhood which becomes an honour and a unique privilege. To be all  brothers and sisters together and brothers and sisters of Jesus means rediscovering this dignity of sons of the Father and co-heirs of Christ. In fact, ‘since we are his children we are also his heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ’ (Romans 8.17). Consequently, there is no more Jew and gentile, no more slave and free. If you belong to Christ you are descendants of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3.28-29, cf. Galatians 4.7; Philemon 16). God’s purpose is to conform us ‘to the image of his Son, so that the Son may be the eldest-born in a multitude of brothers and sisters’ (Romans 8.29). This is at the same time our vocation and our mission, to build a community of brothers and sisters, who welcome and care for one another (Fratelli Tutti, 95). Jesus is the master who reveals to us this call to live and spread the universal brotherhood, which has the value of being revealed. We are in fact all brothers and sisters and in each of my brothers and sisters is found the face of Christ, our one Master, the reflection of the love of the heavenly Father, ‘Amen, I say to you, whenever you do it to one of these little ones, you do it to me’ (Matthew 25.40).

Therefore, as Father Abbot, am I a father who is responsible for guaranteeing brotherhood? However, ‘no one is born a father, a person becomes a father. He becomes a father not only because he has engendered a child, but because he takes care of a child with full responsibility. Anyone who takes responsibility for the life of another exercises fatherhood in this respect’ (Patris Corde, 7). According to this logic there is a certain fatherhood in brotherhood. Whenever someone accepts oversight (cf. FT 222) with regard to our brothers and sisters, by giving time to them, by attending to their needs and contributing to their human development, moral and spiritual, when someone plays an active part in the cohesion of a group by avoiding dissension (cf. Galatians 5.15) provoked by false brothers or sisters (cf. Galatians 2.4ff; 2 Corinthians 11.26), by practising fraternal correction, encouraging mutual support (cf. Romans 15.1), with great delicacy (cf. 1 Corinthians 8.12), leaving room for liberty, choice and departure (cf. Patris Corde 7). In short, whenever I act in a responsible manner with regard to the life of my brothers and sisters, then I am at once brother and sister and father. One sentence of Jesus to Simon Peter sums this up perfectly, ‘Strengthen your brothers’ (Luke 22.32). That is how the exercise of brotherhood demands a presence and constitutes it. This is the firm conviction of the psalmist, ‘How good and pleasant it is when kindred live in unity’ (Psalm 132.1).

‘Lord and Father of humanity, who created all human beings to have the same dignity, breathe into our hearts a spirit of brotherhood’ (FT 287).

Amen !

Perspectives

Dom Jean-Pierre Longeat, OSB

President of AIM

Brothers according to the Rule of St Benedict

If there is one single dimension which is important to St Benedict it is fraternity. In his Rule he gives the title of ‘brother’ a special position to describe the members of the monastic community. By comparison the designation ‘monk’ is much less frequently employed. In this connection it is useful to recall the conclusion of Christine Mohrmann who in her time pointed out this frequency in relation to the ideal of the first Christian community for Christian ascetics, under the leadership of the Gospel, as the Prologue to the Rule so well expresses.

Every time St Benedict uses the title ‘brother’ it is full of meaning. It does not have a merely functional role but marks an ideal. The monastic community is described as a fraternal army in which exercises are carried out and where a fierce war against the wicked spirit is waged (RB 1.5). This characterisation of the courageous nature of cenobites is not without its significance. It must be taken with extreme seriousness, no less than the image of the school of the Lord’s service or that of the workshop where the tools of good works are put to use. By speaking of the fraternal army St Benedict stresses the importance of learning to escape the snares of the enemy and for this to rely on the experience of those in whose company the combat is fought.

Fraternal commitment in the community

After the novice has made his profession he is to prostrate himself at the feet of the brothers because the immediate consequence of this commitment is membership of the fraternal body where he is going to continue the struggle against everything opposed to the commandment of love (RB 58.23).

This dimension is recalled also as a major factor at the beginning and the end of the Rule. In his first paragraph St Benedict addresses himself to the brothers, ‘What can be sweeter, my very dear brothers, than this voice of the Lord which invites us’ (Prologue 19), and in chapter 72, which can be considered the real conclusion of the Rule, ‘They should chastely perform to one another the duties of fraternal charity’ (RB 72.8). It is because a fraternal voice has spoken to us with all the gentleness of love that we embarked upon a journey to a community in order to work out there with others the dynamic of love.

Between these two mentions one could say that the whole Rule consists in responding very concretely to the call received from the most attractive voice of the Lord, and from the chaste practice of the duties of fraternal love.

The Prologue itself makes use of the interplay between this listening  and the practice of the commandment of love, ‘My brothers, when the Lord asked us “Who is there who wants life and wishes to know joyful days?” (Psalm 33) or again, “Who wants to live within your house, Lord?”’ (Psalm 14). St Benedict insists, ‘My brothers, let us listen to the voice of the Lord.’ The voice of the One who speaks to us invites us to start off on the road and act effectively. There is room, in order to encourage this process, to speak to the monks as very dear brothers, as St Benedict does.

But what sort of brotherhood makes up monastic life?

A Community of Brothers

In the first place, the community consists of a council of brothers which the abbot consults regularly. This is one of the features of the common life. It happens at different levels: either the whole community is gathered together or a council of ‘wise men’ around the abbot. As the Rule stresses, it is good to do everything with advice, to avoid later regrets.

Once the brothers have assembled, the advice of each one is asked. This is both a right and a duty which none can avoid. ‘The brothers should give their opinion with all humility and respect’ (RB 3.8). This provides a quality of listening and attention, and awareness that each person’s individual opinion is worth less than that of the whole. ‘Everything is interconnected, and the whole is more valuable than the part.’  This is of course the issue with fraternal consultation. If this dimension does not occur sufficiently regularly then danger is certainly on the horizon.

A humble fraternity

It is therefore appropriate to keep in mind the need for humility to encourage a true community of brothers. In Chapter 7 on humility we are told that the wise brother (literally the one who wants to be useful) should repeat again and again in his heart in order to direct his thinking, ‘I shall be faultless before the Lord if I keep myself from sin’ (7.18). The essence of sin is turning one’s back on God and acting purely for oneself. St Benedict insists, ‘Let us conclude, my brothers, that we must be vigilant at all times.’ At the end of Chapter 7 he concludes, ’The brothers support false-brothers and bless those who curse them’ (7.93). In the same way in the Prologue and in the Rule as a whole the basic invitation is to a listening, a vigilance to which the members of the community are called in complete brotherhood. Similarly, at the end they should be capable of loving their enemies, of supporting false brothers, of blessing those who hate them – in other words to put into practice the commandment of love. Otherwise it is impossible to advance. Humility puts a person in a disposition of listening, of attention, of vigilance, of control of the heart in order to follow Christ on his paschal path and to live in true fraternal communion  as he did.

The basic value of the fine witness of a monastic community in the heart of society is especially that capacity of brotherhood which brings the grace of peace, unity and love.

Under the Guidance of Christ

The abbot whose function is to manifest the presence of Christ in the midst of the community must himself ensure that fraternal hostility does not slip into the group. He will keep a special watch on his own actions, which speak as loud as, and sometimes louder than, his words. This is especially true of his relationship to the brothers, which he approaches with humility, ‘You who see a speck in the eye of your brother do not see the plank in your own’ (RB 2.15).

The responsibility of the abbot is the same however many the brothers of whom he has charge (RB 2.38). He will have to answer for the advance or regress of each one by the vigilance which is required of him. Chapter 64 translates this into the powerful formula, ‘The abbot will hate vices and love the brothers’ (64,11).

Normally the collaborators of the abbot are chosen on the advice of the brothers, as for example the prior (65.15). Deans will be appointed among the brothers who have a good reputation and a holy life (21.1). In the chapter on the cellarer St Benedict outlines the fraternal attitude required of the person responsible for the material organisation of the monastery, ‘Let the cellarer not upset the brothers’ (31.6). ‘He should be capable of giving a good word to a brother who asks of him something unreasonable’ (31.7), and ‘he should be wary that each one should receive the portion which belongs to him, according to his needs’ (31.16).

Fraternal Service

It may be said that this is a concern of the whole community. ‘The brothers will serve one another’ (35.1). Those who begin their service each week should wash the feet of their brothers, imitating Christ on the eve of his Passion. The meal and the service which it implies are conceived as eucharistic moments. They make reference to those agapes which the first generation of Christians celebrated after the eucharistic sharing.

Particular care should be taken of the sick, who represent Christ in a special way: ‘I was sick and you visited me’, said Christ, and ‘What you did to one of these little ones you did to me’ (RB 35.2-3).

But St Benedict is also particularly concerned that fraternal service should not disturb the community, ‘Let the brothers accomplish their task without murmuring’ (41.5). For this reason the organisation must be well oiled. There is a time for everything, for work, for liturgy, for spiritual reading, for social life. A whole chapter

is devoted to the use of time, and finally (48) the whole of life is consecrated to an activity of conversion with mutual encouragement.

If ever there is a brother who suffers from discouragement (acidy) it will be good to prop him up, be at his side and help him to get through this stage (48,18). On the other hand, it is important also that there should be personal times where fraternal relationships do not act as a distraction (48.21). If there are fragile brothers special care will be taken of them and a proportionate activity will be found in which they can take part, without being overwhelmed or moved to flee from their task altogether.

It is important to be sure that the tasks are not too heavy, in the kitchen, the workshops, the infirmary, the guesthouse, the portery. If the porter needs help he should be given a younger brother (66.5). This may seem banal, but it is a dimension which strongly affects the quality of daily life. Someone who is harassed by his work cannot serve the brothers satisfactorily. Just as the cellarer will consider the material of the monastery with the same care as the sacred vessels of the altar, so the abbot will entrust all this material to reliable brothers, and will take care each week that nothing goes missing, so that the brothers whose turn it is should not be taken unawares but should be able to count on the trustworthiness of others.

A Life of Searching

The rule emphasizes that brotherhood is rooted in the search for an interior disposition which can be found in prayer and meditation. Apart from the fact that nothing should come before the Work of God, that is, prayer in common, St Benedict requires that time should be devoted to study of the psalter and the lessons. It is well-known that the ancient monks spent time at learning by heart the psalms which are the primary material of the office. Hence the brothers who need it should be told to spend time at this between Vigils and Morning Prayer (8.3). Reading in choir deserves special care. It is important that it should not be frayed by someone who lacks the skill of reading (9). There again a sense of fraternity, which touches the roots of revelation, comes into play.

Fraternal correction

The Rule is based on fraternal confidence. The community is organised like a sporting team in which everyone plays their part and expects others to do the same. It is up to the abbot to play the game of fraternal confidence, knowing for certain what he can expect of others. For example, in the matter of oversight he can trust it to brothers on whom he can rely (32,1) and he will check that there are no crossed wires from day to day, especially in the passing on of responsibilities. However, it is important not to be naïve: in the monastery as in all societies there are cheats, and there is room for correction and checking any temptations to usurp power.

There can be no harmonious fraternity without regulations. That is why St Benedict foresees measures to promote personal reflection on one’s conduct and allow some adjustment. This occurs principally in the daily meetings of the community (at the liturgy and meals). A brother who has committed some fault may find himself excluded from the common table or from the common prayer (24-29). This segregation is intended to show that failure in fraternity is more important than the variety and disorder of each individual’s own desires. Nowadays there is a worrying phenomenon which induces brothers or sisters to cut themselves off without this being considered a difficulty or a trial. They are happy to cultivate their own differences without care for the common good in the conviction that they have this right. So pronounced is this that  ways of regulation adapted to contemporary mentalities are so difficult to find that one can end up by accepting that they practically do not exist. It seems to me that this is something to be explored in our community life in order to find a good solution.

The End of the Rule

At the end of his Rule St Benedict puts great stress on the dimension of fraternal relationships. He thinks of brothers who go on journeys, whether long or short. He lays down that they should be blessed at their departure and that they should be prayed for at their return. He takes the trouble to examine how to treat the question of orders which seem to exceed the powers of the brother who receives the order. The process of the debate is remarkable (cf. 68). He lays down that no one should strike or punish another brother deliberately, but that fraternal correction should be regulated by the abbot and the community. He asks above all that the brothers should obey one another (71). There should be in the monastery a desire to listen to one another and put what one has heard into practice. If a brother has annoyed another he should immediately admit his fault and ask forgiveness (71.6).

St Benedict sums up this attention to horizontal fraternity in the powerful formula, ‘They should chastely fulfil the duties of fraternal charity’ (72.8), that is, that no one should be too close to another nor lay hands on anyone else.

Advice for living out fraternity

We would like to highlight certain pieces of advice in the Rule which put fraternal relationships in concrete form.

The most important thing for living out fraternity freely is to detach oneself from everything and not to feel ownership of anything, while still being alert to the needs, bodily and spiritual, or every individual. Integrated into fraternal life will be a necessary dialogue on the interpretation of orders received which will make their execution more apt, even when it is a question of things which at first sight seem impossible (68). The brothers will learn to put the shared purpose into practice in such a way that it is rooted in the divine will. Of course any personal arrangements which would make the law of the strongest prevail must be avoided at all costs: no one may make a subjective and radical decision about other brothers. That must be left to superiors (70). But by contrast any undesirable collusion between brothers must be avoided.

In matters of clothing monks should not be preoccupied by their appearance. They should receive their habits from the community without worry about their style or colour, but with a measured sense, that is, without excessive expense (55). There is no place for a shower of presents either from outside or from inside, but each should accept what is useful for them. A permanent interior disposition should be adopted which marks the day of solemn profession where the new brother prostrates at the feet of all the others and asks their prayers to be fully received into the brotherhood of the community. He will keep this rank of his entry in such a way that social markers are erased, and anything else which else would outweigh communion.

When brothers pass one another they should be aware of each other and give a fraternal greeting. The young should honour the elders and the elder love the young. They will address them affectionately as ‘brother’ and ‘father’ (nonnus). This will typify the relationship within the monastery, a relationship with reference to the commandment of love.

The young should not be left always on their own, but should intermingle with the elders so that their standards may be balanced and they may avoid the temptation of a superficial opposition or a divergence on basic values (22).

The brothers serve one another in turn at table and take care that no one lacks anything (38.6). There should be two cooked dishes so that no brother should be deprived if he cannot eat one or other. The brothers should provide reading at table from week to week, and to avoid excessive strain they should be able to eat before their service, especially if they have been fasting all morning (38.6,10). It is important that the brothers should do everything they have to do without being tempted to interior or exterior murmuring. St Benedict is most insistent on this for the quality of fraternal life. He is also insistent that everything should occur on time. He lays down that the abbot himself should ring the bell for the liturgy or else that he should entrust this task to a brother so punctual that the office is never delayed (47). At the conclusion of the office all the brothers should leave the church in total silence (52). St Benedict expects that some brothers should be able to stay in the oratory after the office. In this case they should be discrete, without making audible the sighs they may send up to God

Fraternal Welcome

The brothers are invited to share their prayer and one part of their life with those who come to stay in the guesthouse of the monastery. This is a strong point of monastic life for St Benedict. The brothers are not vowed to turn in on themselves. They are required to be witnesses of fraternal communion to those whom they receive (53). St Benedict explains that every guest should be received as Christ, so that at the arrival of a guest the brothers hasten to him, showing all the marks of charity (53.3). They will pray together and the abbot will wash their feet after the example of Christ to his disciples. The abbot shall eat with the guests and will break his fast for them; he may invite other monks to his table (56.2), while the community of brothers will observe the fast according to the Rule (53.10). If the guests are numerous it is important that everything should be organised so that the life of the brothers should not be troubled in its essentials (53.16). This is why the office of guestmaster demands great spiritual qualities, especially the awareness of the permanent presence of God which gives meaning to all relationships and acts of life. (53.21).

According to the Rule of St Benedict the monks are not totally enclosed. They go on journeys and are in frequent contact with people outside. A whole chapter is devoted to brothers who go on journeys (66). When the brothers need to leave the monastery for a time they ask for the prayers of the community when they leave and when they return, and they remain linked to the prayer of the community as far as possible by keeping to the hours of prayer.

Conclusion

Finally the Rule of St Benedict is not a treatise on brotherhood as a generous idea to which it is good to be attached, but it is rather a practical invitation to put it into practice in the framework of a permanent community. This brotherhood is extended to guests welcomed by the monastery and to all those who, from near or afar, are linked to the community. Finally, as may be seen in all human history, fraternal witness is an element which stimulates the construction of the whole of a society. In fact monastic communities show that brotherhood is possible; they live it in the long term with stability. The time factor is basic to the monastic ideal even if – unfortunately – the factor of space has sometimes seemed more important. On occasion structure has taken priority, although this can become rigid and incapable of adaptation.

As the Life written by Gregory the Great makes clear, Benedict loved the essential role of fraternity in social life. Even in this day and age he invites us to be true witnesses of it who give our lives in love at the heart of a community of brothers.

Opening onto the world

Sister Patricia Murray, IBVM

Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (USA)

Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General

The consequences of the present crisis

linked with Covid 19, in the life of the religious community here and there in the world

In August 2019 I was incited to speak at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Scottsdale Arizona. That seems like a very long time ago from where we are today, where travel is almost impossible. Many of the elements of that talk have taken on a new meaning when I ponder them through the lens of the present Covid-19 crisis. During the talk in Scottsdale I quoted the poem TRASNA written by a Sr. Raphael Considine, a Presentation Sister. TRASNA in the Irish language means Crossing and I’ll begin this afternoon by sharing it again with you – for I believe these lines sum up the Covid Journey that we religious are undertaking during these long months. Sr Raphael wrote:

The pilgrims paused on the ancient stones,

 In the mountain gap, Behind them

      stretched the roadway they had travelled,

Ahead, mist hid the track.

Unspoken the question hovered:

Why go on? Is life not short enough?

Why seek to pierce its mystery?

Why venture further on strange paths risking all?

Surely that is a gamble for fools… or lovers?

Why not return quietly by the known road?

Why be a pilgrim still?

A voice they knew called to them, saying:

This is Trasna, the crossing place.

Choose. Go back if you must,

You will find your way easily by yesterday’s road,

You can pitch your tent by yesterday’s fires.

There may be fire in the embers yet.

If that is not your deep desire,

Stand still. Lay down your load.

Take your life in your two hands,

(you are trusted with something precious)

While you search your heart’s yearnings:

What am I seeking? What is my quest?

When your star rises within,

Trust yourself to its leading.

You will have light for your first steps.

This is TRASNA, the crossing place.

Choose!

This is TRASNA, the crossing place.

Come![1]

These lines reflect many of the conversations that are happening today among religious worldwide. At UISG we have been holding Zoom conversations involving female and male religious from different continents, imagining the future of religious life together. Again and again participants are saying “we are being called to something new”; “we can’t go back, we must move forward”; “we are part of suffering humanity and we are all experiencing our fragility and our vulnerability.” “Let us read the signs of these times are saying to us today.”

During that same presentation in Arizona I offered a series of calls which I hoped would speak to their reality as leaders. Today I want to revisit a few of those images again in the context of Covid and the question you posed about the consequences of Covid in the life of religious in different parts of the world. I’m obviously drawing largely on my experience with religious sisters but I am sure you will find echoes in your own lives and the lives of your brothers.

The first call is Widen the tent of our hearts.

The prophet Isaiah said: “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”(Is 54:2) This image when applied to religious life or indeed to any life speaks of both flexibility and rootedness, unbounded hospitality and secure identity. We are invited not to hold back, to stretch wide but at the same time to “strengthen our stakes,” by ensuring that what holds the tent in place needs to go down deep. This verse invites us to make space in our hearts, for Christ and for those among us who are struggling. This is the vision that inspired founders and foundresses and was central to their vowed life as “a concrete expression of (their) passionate love.”[2] Our founders translated their response into a particular way of life which responded to the needs of their times. Today particularly during this Covid Time as religious we see our charisms are being stretched and enlarged. But how to create this space when in some parts of the world our physical spaces are being controlled and we may feel limited. In other parts religious are seen as people on the front-line and can move freely. However no matter what the context I see religious drawing on the inspiration of their charisms to find new ways ro widen their tents.

Today perhaps all of us are being given the opportunity to move closer to one another than ever before, sharing our anxieties and our fear as we face the implications of this pandemic together. We also share together the goodness, the generosity, the sense of community and solidarity when we join with many others who as individuals and groups reach out to those in need. We can do that when and if we meet someone face to face. We can do that out of windows, by telephone or twitter, or facebook or Zoom. The possibilities for creativity are enormous. I am thinking of the baskets lowered from apartment windows in Italy and elsewhere or the singing from balconies or choirs on line to raise people’s spirits – simple ways of sharing with those in need. The basket is a powerful symbol because anyone can take from the basket or can add to the basket. It is such a wonderful symbol of community, togetherness and solidarity.

I am particularly aware of the ways in which many congregations have quickly “widened their tents” and moved to respond to local needs in different and creative ways:

- Getting the whole community involved in preparing food for local families; going out on the street to share food and other supplies as is happening in different parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

- Sharing food and their own tables with those who have lost jobs and travelled back to their rural homes from big cities in India and Brazil .

- Travelling to remote places to tell people about the disease and how it can affect local communities and how best to prepare – sisters are traveling in groups down the Amazon to reach remote communities.

- Working with local communities to develop creative ways of making masks, managing social distancing in slums where people live on top of one another or finding ways of providing enough water for regular handwashing in places far from wells or bore holes – things we can often take for granted.

- Setting up a Zoom counselling line in India, where people can phone if they are anxious or fearful which has now been extended into Africa.

- Using the radio to reach those in the rural areas – to educate them about how to recognize and to protect themselves against Covid.

- Establishing temporary accommodation for those who have lost their jobs .

- Using modern technology so that people can pray and worship together, can engage in Lectio Divina.

- Developing rituals for death and dying and for kindling hope and compassion.

The responses needed today are more often not in the big initiatives but in the tiny mustard seeds - a word of hope, a listening heart, a compassionate presence, a healing glance. This mysticism of encounter is happening everywhere – it is “far reaching, personal and outgoing.”[3] We are seeing this mysticism in action in our communities at sick beds, on city streets with homeless people, on the borders with separated families, in refugee camps, in hospitals and parishes with people who are struggling.

This Covid time is showing us that it is these small, hidden, unknown acts of kindness and love that will transform our world. It is the quality of our presence individually and in our community that matters above all. While we can’t touch one another, shake a hand or give someone a hug, we are being called on to find other ways of conveying our love and care. Pope Francis has often spoken about a revolution of tenderness reminding us that “God’s tenderness brings us to the understanding that “love is the meaning of life.”[4] Through this revolution of tenderness and love, the pope is proposing a humble way to move continents and mountains.[5] Religious are asking themselves more and more “when people pass by or come to ask for sustenance or just for a moment touch our lives, “what do we have to offer them?” “what is the nourishment that we can give?” “what is the unbounded generosity and (tender)love that is an essential part of our witness.”[6] We must provide the many practical things needed at that moment but we feel that we are called to give more – a radical prophetic presence and witness, of having a global heart; “of being a pilgrim and prayer presence” ever watchful, “making intercession, firm in faith,” with God on behalf of the whole suffering world.[7]

The second call is to Be Present at the Borderlands

Pope Francis speaks about an outgoing Church, a Church “in uscita,” which needs to move out onto wounded landscapes, to the borderlands. This time of physical distancing and lockdowns challenges us in this regard. Gloria Anzaldua used the metaphor “borderlands” or “la frontera” to refer to different types of crossings – between geopolitical boundaries, between places of social dislocations and the crossings which exist in multiple linguistic and cultural contexts.[8] Borderlands are everywhere: in our local neighborhoods, at national and international levels and very close to home within our religious communities. Perhaps this pandemic has exacerbated the borders that have always existed on the basis of race, religion, class and caste. Many religious men and women speak about the growing community tensions as the demands of dealing with Covid increase in local and national communities.

I have heard several in religious communities noticing the physical borders that have had to be established within their communities for health and safety reasons: between those who were infected with Covid and those who tested negative; between those who are front line workers going out to work and those staying home – who were often more frail and elderly, between those in gowns and masks meeting the sick and those who need protection. They have also reflected on the courage of those thousands of lay people who choose to come to work in aged care home, hospitals and clinics and the many who provide essential – garbage collectors, those delivering food and different products, those providing public transport, cleaners and cooks – the list is endless. However these and many others risk their own lives and families to provide services within religious houses and institutions.

We have to cultivate a “borderlands” heart and mind. Seeing through “the eyes of others” is essential to gain a deeper understanding, an empathy and compassion, than is deeper that what can be achieved by staying within one’s own social milieu. I was deeply moved to hear of sisters and brothers working as doctors and nurses in a hospital India who donated all of their salaries to those who provided essential services in the hospital and who are not well paid. In other cases those in charge of facilities for men and women religious have told their workers to stay at home and have found other ways to find essential staff in some instance bringing in members of the congregation from other countries and continents.

“Borderlands” is indeed a rich metaphor. It can represent the multitude of places and opportunities where people from different cultures and contexts can cross over to one another and where the possibility to learn and grow together exists. We are living in borderlands. I believe in this time of the Covid pandemic – this kind of crossing over is happening at personal and communal level, both through presence and even virtually. On UISG Zoom webinars religious men and women are meeting across languages to share, to reflect and to pray together on a multitude of topics. When this happens relationships are built that gift one another and lead to mutual transformation. This is not merely about surviving side by side but it is a process of building deep connections, celebrating and appreciating difference, committing to collaborate together.

Some men and women religious are working at geographic borders where refugees and migrants are still arriving with hopes for a better life in the midst of this pandemic? They still long to fulfil their hopes and dreams in the Global North even though they risk being affected by the virus. The Spanish theologian Mercedes Navarro reminds us that the Christian God is “a frontier God” and that “to survive at the frontiers one must live without frontiers and be a crossroads.[9] So in our contemplation, in our prayers, in our outreach, we need to constantly inhabit frontiers and borderlands; we need to live prophetically in the in-between space and to find ways where we can carry people across the divide of culture, religious, gender, race and ethnicity. We need to be people who stand at crossroads physically and spiritually, watching and waiting. The concern of our hearts, the power of our prayers and our advocacy can support those brothers and sisters who are at physical frontiers in different parts of the world. Can we ask ourselves: “What does it mean to live without frontiers and be a crossroads today? How can we be present physically and spiritually in today’s borderlands?”

Finally we are being called to Embrace Vulnerability:

Perhaps one of the images that captured vulnerability was that of Pope Francis praying alone in St. Peter’s Square. Before the pandemic looking at developments within religious congregations’ worldwide one could notice a life cycle moving through the stages of birth, maturity, loss and diminishment, leading in some cases to conclusion. We are living the cycle of passion, death and resurrection at personal and organizational levels. Now with the impact of Covid this sense of living the paschal mystery has been deepened further. So many congregations have lost members due to the effects of the virus – some have lost few and others large numbers especially at the early stages when we were unaware of how contagious this virus was. Obviously Italy and then Spain was very badly affected at diocesan level and within congregations. Many priests, sisters and brothers died. This pattern was repeated in other countries, especially in the USA. At UISG we were deeply affected by Covid – as a personal level when Sr. Elisabetta Flick who had served as Assistant Executive Secretary died just three months after her retirement in the north of Italy just three days after falling ill. We all I’m sure have had similar experiences. Then at UISG we were hearing on a regular basis about the many congregations that had been affected and infected. Then congregations were mourning their sisters and brothers and unable to bury them with the usual congregational rituals and liturgies.

As religious we were and are experiencing a greater fragility and vulnerability. In a profound way, this makes us more relevant than ever; it places us in communion with the people of our time and place who are coping with the death of loved ones and the inability to say goodbye. We are all living in a kind of liminal places. The Scriptures remind us that such liminal places are often desert or mountain wildernesses. The people seem to be continually forced out into the desert – “to take the harder, more onerous and hazardous route – as an exacting exercise in radical faith.”[10] It is here in the desert, that people are fed, five thousand at a time and a new community takes shape. We are constantly reminded that “the place of scarcity, even death, is revealed by Jesus, as a place of hope and new life.”[11] Richard Rohr describes “liminal space” as “the crucial in-between time when everything actually happens and yet nothing appears to be happening.”[12] It is the waiting time. We religious at this time seem to be in this waiting time where we are being called to be patient, to allow time and space for the new to break through. In this liminal place we can share our insights with one another and listen deeply as we share how we feel that God is calling us; these conversations can reveal the whispers of the Spirit.

The spiritual writer Belden Lane, reflecting on the death of his mother writes that the “starting point for many things is grief, at the very place where endings seem so absolute.”[13] Our faith reminds us that that “the pain of closing” is often “the antecedent to every new opening in our lives.”[14] We know that our experience of weakness, confusion and searching, places us among the men and women of our day. What we have to offer to people today is above all our experience of vulnerability, fragility and weakness and our profound belief that God’s grace seldom comes in the way that we might expect? It often demands “the abandonment of every security” and it is only in accepting the vulnerability that grace demands that we find ourselves invited to wholeness.”[15] It is through our own limitation and weaknesses as human beings that we are called to live as Christ lived. The profession of the evangelical counsel of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience is “a radical witness to the power of the Paschal Mystery” as we surrender everything to the one who offers eternal life. Can we lead conversations about fragility and vulnerability among ourselves and with others? Do we believe that God is preparing the way for something new in our own lives? In the life of the world?

Conclusion

A few summers ago, I participated in a seminar on Creative Leadership in the Burren School of Art in the West of Ireland. The Burren itself is an extraordinary geographical landscape. One of the important karst/limestone regions in the world, there is a certain mystical quality about the place. We were a very varied group of people from different walks of life and from all over the world. We had many good conversations about leadership. At the end of each session, a poet, or a musician or an artist responded capturing the essence of each conversation with a poem, a symbol or a musical response... because the leader is truly an artist. At the end of one session Martin Hayes, a traditional Irish fiddle player played a piece which ended with a long-extended note. I realized that as religious, we have to learn to hear and identify these long notes which play out in daily life and which point us to what is happening at a deeper level, calling us to discern how to respond.

St. Ignatius of Loyola asks us to imagine the Trinity looking down on the world and to place ourselves there contemplating what is happening to humankind. We can almost hear the Trinity saying “let us work at the transformation of the whole human race; let us respond to the groaning of all creation.”[16] The meditation invites us “to descend into the reality of the world and become involved in it, in order to transform it.”[17] Going deeper touches the mystical-prophetic depths of our lives from which all our action flows. The answers lie in being open to engaging in simple acts of encounter and communion with those who are near and those who are far away. We have seen that we can do this in many different and creative ways in these times. Encountering the other and being in communion with others is at the heart of our vocation, even as we find new and creative ways to do so.

Living the mysticism of encounter calls for “the ability to hear, to listen to other people; the ability to seek ways and means” of building the Reign of God together at this particular time. Across the world religious see themselves anew as missionary disciples, seeking to move forward, boldly taking the initiative, going out to others, searching for those who are lost and lonely, fearful and forgotten. We feel called above all to be a contemplative presence in the world, discerning how to respond to these changing landscapes; telling one another what is happening wherever we find ourselves, how we feel called to respond and inviting support from one another. I am truly amazed in these times how religious men and women are networking and collaborating sharing what they have for the sake of those most in need. They often demonstrate “courage in the face of the unknown- a courage that understands fidelity as “a change, a blossoming and a growth.” Ultimately, as religious witness “faithfully to the ongoing and unending quest for God in this changing place and time.”

[1] Sr. Raphael Consideine, Presentation Sister.

[2] Pope Francis, Witnesses of Joy: Apostolic Letter to all Consecrated Persons on the Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life, #2.

[3] Pope Francis, Witness of Joy, # 2.

[4] Pope Francis, Theology of Tenderness, September 13, 2013.

[5] Mt 17,19; 21,21.

[6] Patricia Jordan FSM, Shifting Sands and Solid Rock (Herefordshire: Gracewing Publication, 2015), 14.

[7] CICLSAL, Keep Watch, To Consecrated Men and Women, Journeying in the Footsteps of God, 8th September, 2014.

[8] Introduction to the Fourth Edition by Norma E. Cańtu and Aida Hurtado in Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands: La Frontiera – The New Mestiza, 4th Edition (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012), 6.

[9] Anzaldua, Borderlands: La Frontiera – The New Mestiza, 6.

[10]    Beldon C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality, London: Oxford University Press; 8th edition, February 26, 2007, 44.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation for Holy Saturday..

[13] Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes, 25.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid, 30.

[16] Fr. Daniel Ruff, SJ, Bulletin of Old St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia, Advent 2008.

[17] Josep M. Lozano, “Leadership: The Being Component” in J. Business Ethics, Published online 23 March 2016.

Great figures for Monastic Life

John W. de Gruchy

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and monastic life

Some Reflections of a Reformed theologian[1]

The seeds of Bonhoeffer’s[1] interest in monasticism were already planted when, in 1924, as a young student in Tübingen, he visited Rome for the first time. and was profoundly moved, especially by what he experienced there during Holy Week.[2] A few years later he wrote his dissertation, Sanctorum Communio, in which he re-imagined the Protestant Church as ecclesia, a community of love distinct from its sociological character as an institution. And he did so with the striking thesis, that the church is “Christ existing as a community of persons.”[3] But the catalyst that finally turned Bonhoeffer the “scholastic” into the “monastic” theologian, happened during his year of study at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1930-1 when he “discovered the Bible”, and realized that while he had often preached, he had “not yet become a Christian.”[4] It then became clear, he writes, “that the life of a servant of Jesus Christ must belong to the church, and step by step it became plainer to me how far that must go.”[5] This was the beginning of Bonhoeffer’s journey into “the Desert” and his discovery of “costly discipleship” that informed his participation in the German Church Struggle, led to his “monastic turn” at Finkenwalde, and finally resulted in his martyrdom.

Although already deeply influenced by Barth, Bonhoeffer only met him for the first time in the summer of 1931 in Bonn when he had heard Barth lecture early in the morning. Later in the day he was invited to participate in a discussion at Barth’s house and, somewhat surprisingly, he there met monks from the nearby Benedictine monastery of Maria Laach. He then visited the monastery with the monks, and they developed a good relationship.[6] But events overtook developing that relationship and soon Bonhoeffer, following Barth’s lead, was deeply involved in the church struggle against Nazism. However, in October 1933, to Barth’s dismay, Bonhoeffer went to London to two German expatriate congregations. But it was there that he began to think more seriously about monasticism and wrote to his brother Karl-Friedrich saying that the “restoration of the church must surely depend on a new kind of monasticism, which has nothing in common with the old but a life of uncompromising discipleship, following Christ according to the Sermon on the Mount.”[7]

In 1935 Bonhoeffer was asked to return to Germany to establish a Confessing church seminary at Finkenwalde in East Prussia. Before he went, he visited several monastic style seminaries in England to guide him in his new task of equipping already university-trained ordinands to become more faithful pastors at that time of national crisis. But as they only stayed there for a semester or two, Bonhoeffer also established a House of Brethren, comprised of some ordinands who would stay for a longer period and commit themselves to a common life together.[8] His intention was for them to provide stability and continuity. Bonhoeffer’s book, Life Together[9], which has inspired many monastics and others involved in building intentional communities, was based on that experience. It was also around that time that he wrote his classic book Discipleship in which he contrasted “cheap” and “costly grace” and asserted that the cheapening of grace that had occurred in the churches of the Reformation had been avoided in the Catholic Church because of monasticism. People, he wrote, “left everything they had for the sake of Christ and tried to follow Jesus’ strict commandments through daily exercise. Monastic life thus became a living protest against the secularization of Christianity, against the cheapening of grace.”[10] Which is precisely how the first monastics understood their retreat into the Desert.

Bonhoeffer shared Luther’s reservations about monasticism.[11] But he insisted that Luther’s return to the world was not to avoid costly discipleship, nor was his own “monastic turn” an attempt to escape the world. In fact, Bonhoeffer, was working for the Resistance when he wrote to his parents from the Benedictine monastery in Ettal in 1941 and said “This form of life is naturally not foreign to me, and I experience its regularity and silence as extremely beneficial for my work.” He continued, saying that it “would certainly be a loss (and was indeed a loss in the Reformation!) if this form of communal life preserved for fifteen hundred years were destroyed.”[12]

Over the years, Bonhoeffer became disillusioned with but never gave up on the church. Instead, his vision of a “new kind of monasticism” was about enabling the church to be “conformed to the unique form of the one who became human, was crucified, and is risen.”[13] That is, Christ taking form in this place and at this time. What could be more monastic than to say, with Bonhoeffer, that “we live in the midst of death; we are righteous in the midst of sin; we are new in the midst of the old.” Indeed, our “mystery remains hidden from the world. We live because Christ lives, and in Christ alone.”[14] Those who are becoming conformed to Christ in this way, Bonhoeffer says further, “are not concerned to promote themselves, but to lift up Christ for the sake of their brothers and sisters…they show themselves as those who have received the Holy Spirit and are united with Jesus Christ in incomparable love and community.”[15]

In a letter he later wrote from prison to his friend Bethge, Bonhoeffer recounts a conversation he had with a French pastor and fellow student at Union Seminary in 1930 who told him he wanted to become a saint. Bonhoeffer replied that he would rather “learn to have faith”. Indeed, he had stopped trying to make something of himself and instead of trying to be religious, he believed Christ demands of us a “mature worldliness.” This-worldliness meant “living fully in the midst of life’s tasks, questions, successes and failures, experiences, and perplexities”, and no longer taking seriously “one’s own sufferings but rather the suffering of God in the world.” This, he said, “is faith; this is μετάνοια (metanoia). And this is how one becomes a human being, a Christian. (Cf. Jer. 45!)”[16]

So Bonhoeffer’s “this-worldliness” certainly did not “mean the shallow and banal this-worldliness of the enlightened, the bustling, the comfortable, or the lascivious, but the profound this-worldliness that shows discipline and includes the ever-present knowledge of death and resurrection.”[17] Merton concurred with Bonhoeffer.[18] True Christian worldliness, he would write, “is an affirmation of life and humanity, of confidence and hope amid struggle, suffering and death.”[19] Indeed, true Christian asceticism is a way of exercising Christian responsibility for the world, in ways that are loving, creative, redemptive, hopeful, and life-giving, and educating and disciplining our desires accordingly.

In his “Outline for a Book” which Bonhoeffer sketched in prison, he outlined what it would means to be the church and a Christian in a post-Christendom world. In doing so he gave substance to the new kind of monasticism he had in mind. If monasticism began in reaction to Christendom, to the values of the empire and an increasingly worldly church then, a new kind of monasticism was needed as Christendom collapsed to ensure that the church remains faithful to its witness to Christ as the one in whom the reality of God and the world are brought together.[20]

Firstly, Bonhoeffer says that the church is only the church “when it is there for others”, because Jesus exists “only for others.”[21] Monasteries may be enclosed but for Benedict they existed as much for the outsider as they did for those within. Indeed, who followed his Rule had to treat all who came knocking at the door as though they were Christ himself. Being in solidarity with the victims of society is therefore a mark of the church, and failure to do so excludes Christ.[22]

Secondly, says Bonhoeffer, the “church for others” must give “away all its property to those in need.” The monastic vision of sharing all things in common challenges the way in which the church understands and uses its resources. This speaks most directly to the church, as in Bonhoeffer’s context, when it is a state-supported institution. But it also challenges Christians, congregations, and monasteries that are more wealthy than others to share their resources and raises the question of the just distribution of wealth across society more generally.

Thirdly, Bonhoeffer continues, the church must be self-sustaining, and engage in daily work that makes this possible, as well as participating “in the worldly tasks of life in the community—not dominating but helping and serving.” In this way, the church sets an example to “people in every calling”, demonstrating “what a life with Christ is”, that is, “to be there for others.”[23] The fact that monasteries historically became centers of caring for the sick and infirm, as well as places of learning and education, is an extension of this ministry.

Fourthly, Bonhoeffer discusses the monastic struggle against personal vices in terms of the church itself. For life “with Christ” and “for others” requires not only that monastics or individual Christians, but also that the church itself confront and overcome “the vices of hubris, the worship of power, envy, and illusionism as the roots of all evil.” By the same token, the church must pursue the contrary virtues: “moderation, authenticity, trust, faithfulness, steadfastness, patience, discipline, humility, modesty, contentment.” In doing so, the church will discover that its “word gains weight and power not through concepts but by example.”[24]

Finally, Bonhoeffer relates the liturgical life of the church to its participation in the struggle for justice in the world. As he wrote in a baptismal sermon while in prison: “we can be Christians today in only two ways, through prayer and in doing justice among human beings. All Christian thinking, talking, and organizing must be born anew, out of that prayer and action.”[25] But how does the church, monastery, or congregation exist “for others” engaged in serving the world in its struggles for justice, without losing its identity as ecclesia? As Bonhoeffer asked Bethge:

How can we be ecclesia, those who are called out, without understanding ourselves religiously as privileged (i.e., as part of Christendom), but instead seeing ourselves as belonging wholly to the world? Christ would then no longer be the object of religion, but something else entirely, truly lord of the world.[26]

Just as Bonhoeffer insisted that his “this-worldly” understanding of discipleship was neither banal or superficial, so he is equally insistent that when the church opens itself up to the world, whether through its embracing hospitality, its solidarity with social victims, or in seeking to interpret the gospel, it should neither surrender its identity nor compromise the mysteries of faith. To this end, Bonhoeffer proposes that we recover the monastic disciplina arcani or “arcane (hidden) discipline.”[27] This described the practice adopted in the fourth century church to protect the “inner mysteries of the church, particularly the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist” by keeping them “hidden” from the world.[28] So, Bonhoeffer proposes that the monastic arcane disciplina must be re-established, for in this way the mysteries of the Christian faith are “sheltered against profanation”, while, and this is the critical point, at the same time the church becomes more involved in the life of the world.[29] Openness to the world and being hidden in the mystery of faith belong inseparably together for both are inseparably part of its essential identity. This monastic moment, then, is not a time for Christians to flee the world, but rather for us to love the world with the love of God, never lose hope in the world as God’s world, and so participate together more actively in its life as we participate more fully in the life of God.

[1] Editor’s Note: John W. de Gruchy, born in 1939, is a Christian theologian of South Africa, emeritus professor of Cape Town University and extraordinary professor at the University of Stellenbosch. Some of his early works were written during the apartheid era, opposing the legislation and dependent on the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in favour of liberation of the oppressed. After the abolition of apartheid in 1991 de Gruchy wrote a number of works discussing the theological role of art in society and in favour of a theology of reconciliation.

Extract of the article: Rediscovering Monasticism.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, born 4th February, 1906, at Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland) and executed by hanging on 9th April, 1945, in the concentration camp of Flossenburg in Bavaria, was a Lutheran pastor, theologian and essayist, opposed to Nazism and an influential member of the Confessing Church.

[2] Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress, 2000), 59-62.

[3] Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio, A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church, DBWE vol. 1, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress, 1998),134-141; 189-192.

[4] Quoted in Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2000), 205.

[5] Quoted in Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 205.

[6] See Bonhoeffer, Ecumenical, Academic and Pastoral Work, 34, n.2, 36.

[7] Bonhoeffer, London: 1933-1935, DBWE, vol. 13, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress, 2007), 284-5.

[8] See Introduction to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together; Prayerbook of the Bible, DBWE 5, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1996), 17-20.

[9] Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible. DBWE vol 5, (Minnesota: Fortress, 1996).

[10] Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, DBWE vol. 4, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress 2001), 47.

[11] Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 47.

[12] Bonhoeffer, Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940–1945, DBWE vol. 16 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress), 87.

[13] Bonhoeffer, Ethics, DBWE vol. 6, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress, 2005), 93.

[14] Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 95.

[15] Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 94-5.

[16] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, DBWE 8, (Minneapolis: Fortress, Press, 2010), 485-86.

[17] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 541.

[18] Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 253.

[19] Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 156-7.

[20] Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 54.

[21] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 501.

[22] See Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 105.

[23] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 503.

[24] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 503-4.

[25] See Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 389.

[26] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 364-65.

[27] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 373.

[28] J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds (London: Longmans, 1950), 168.

[29] Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 373.

News

Secretariat of AIM

Iwuru, foundation of the monastery

of Ewu-Ishan (Nigeria)

Nigeria is a country of West Africa situated in the Gulf of Guinea. With more than 186 million inhabitants in 2014, Nigeria is the most highly populated country of Africa and the seventh in the world by the number of inhabitants. The economic and demographic weight of Nigeria has earned it the title of ‘Giant of Africa’.

The subsoil is rich in natural resources (oil and gas) and constitutes the principal source of revenue of the country. The country is the main producer of black gold in Africa. Nigeria produces also a certain number of metals (bronze, iron, lead, zinc) as well as coal.

Nevertheless the country remains relatively poor, notably because of a high level of corruption (export of capital). Thus Nigeria is the only country in the world to dispose of important oil resources but to have a budget deficit. In 2015 more than half the population lived on less than $1.25 a day. Hardly a quarter of the population derives any benefit from the oil revenues.

The country is part of the economic community of States of West Africa. It has sent soldiers to Liberia and Sierra Leone and has offered help to solve a number of crises.

The two principal religions are Christianity and Islam. The North of the country has a Muslim majority, while the South has a Christian majority. Three-quarters of Nigerian Christians are evangelical Protestants and one quarter Catholic. Since 2009 incursions of the Boko Haram movement, which aims to control the population of the North East of the country and set up sharia-law in the other States, has been active in an armed conflict with the Nigerian army. The attacks of Boko Haram have had human and economic repercussions (13,000 dead in Nigeria and more than 1.5 million displaced persons), of which a shortage of food is the most obvious.

The Community

At the request of the bishop, a friend of the community, the monks of Ewu-Ishan adopted a little foundation in the extreme East of the country. This foundation was the project of a diocesan priest who had done a noviciate at Ewu-Ishan, but the foundation had not succeeded in developing. Five monks of Ewu-Ishan were sent to Iwuru, which in 2018 became a cell of the monastery. In 2020 there were already four novices and four aspirants. The foundation at Iwuru owns 150 hectares of farmland. There is a vast plantation of palm-trees, plantains, bananas and cocoa. The brothers have started to produce palm-oil and have a small piggery.

On the property there are already two small houses intended for guests, one consisting of five rooms, and other of four. A great deal of renovation is required to improve the rooms and the sanitary arrangements.

News

Secretariat of AIM on the basis of information received

from the Congregation of the Annunciation

and the Sisters of Zhytomyr

Solonka, a foundation in the Ukraine

Until recently Zhytomyr was the only Benedictine Abbey in the Ukraine. For some years the nuns had been preparing a new foundation at Solonka, near Lviv. In 2016 the Archbishop of Lviv, Mgr Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, proposed to the sisters to undertake Benedictine life in a monastery founded by a Swiss family, whose construction was beginning. In October 2019, on the occasion of the canonical visitation of the Abbey of Zhytomyr, conducted by Abbot President Makzymilian Nawara and the Prior of Lubin, Izaak Kapala, the construction was approaching an end and the departure of the sisters for the new monastery was fast approaching. Nevertheless, the sisters feared that without real help to shape Benedictine life at Lviv this would be a task too difficult. Abbot Maksymilian then contacted Archbishop Mokrzycki to confirm his support for the creation of the foundation at Lviv.

At the meeting in Lubin in August 2020 Mgr Mokrzyclo invited the Polish Benedictine monks to co-create the monastery of Lviv, with the perspective of installing themselves elsewhere later. The archbishop guaranteed his help and in fact wholly made over to the brothers the newly-constructed Chaplaincy.

Nevertheless, none of the Polish monasteries had yet envisaged the question of a foundation in the Ukraine. It was also obvious than none of them was sufficiently strong to do this alone. There were two options: either abandon the project, using the classic argument of not being sufficiently numerous, or co-operation. For the first time in the modern history of the Benedictines in Poland the Abbot President invited all the superiors of the Benedictine monasteries of Poland to Biskupow to discuss the possibilities of co-operation in a real and practical manner. The fruit of the first ‘Synod of Polish abbots’ was a unanimous decision to attempt the project of a shared foundation  in the Ukraine. This was a novelty in the Benedictine tradition. Normally a monastery – the Mother House – founds another monastery for which it takes responsibility. On this occasion the brothers were obliged to work out new rules, which they spelt out in the ‘Declaration of co-operation, the Chaplaincy of Benedictine nuns of Lviv’.

The brothers went to Lviv mainly to support the sisters of the monastery of St Joseph newly created and exercise their ministry in the church of St Benedict of the new monastery. The brothers set themselves up in the building of the Chaplaincy in the hope of finding from there a position for a male monastery, while still keeping the apostolate of the Chaplaincy.

Four brothers were sent: from Lubin Abbot Maksymilian (who remains the moderator of the whole project) and Br Efrem Michalski. From Tyniec Fr Leopold Rudzinski, the first Benedictine of Ukrainian origin to be ordained priest in the new church on 20th March, and Br Borys Kotowki. The first three sisters of Zhytomyr are Sr Bernadeta Venglovska, Sr Rita Linenko and Sr Augustyna Tichon.

The first essential was to work out a common rhythm of prayer: the brothers and sisters of three monasteries, each having their own traditions and customs, each needed to learn to take part in the liturgy, abandoning their own familiar forms of their monasteries of origin. The liturgy is celebrated in Ukrainian and Latin. The Sunday Eucharist begins with a shared procession of sisters and brothers. The faithful take part each evening in eucharistic adoration. Each morning the brothers and sisters meet in the chapter-room  for a commentary on the Rule by Fr Maksymilian. This is also the moment to speak of practicalities, sharing of work, etc.

Each day brings new challenges. Two months ago the brothers and sisters were living the major part of the day with workers who were finished the building and correcting faults. The region of Lviv is very humid and it rains almost every day. So it is necessary to find means of reducing the humidity. The monastery is not yet connected to the gas-mains. The guesthouse is now furnished and people are presenting themselves: friends from Poland, brothers from Slovakia. The first priests are arriving for individual retreats.

Catholic faithful of the Latin or Greek tradition as well as Orthodox faithful are warmly welcoming this new foundation. Every day the community makes new acquaintances among the clergy of the archdiocese of Lviv and with the religious communities of the district. As yet they have no sources of income. Therefore every help is welcome.

On 4th June 2020 Mgr Mokrzycki blessed the cross which had been installed over the church of St Benedict. On 19th March the church of St Benedict with the bell and the monastery of St Joseph, were consecrated, in the presence of the Swiss family which built the monastery. On 24th July 2021 Sr Lyudmila Kukharyk made her solemn vows in the new community. This was the first profession of the foundation.

News

Secretariat of AIM

The Benedictine Monks of Shantivanam

(Tamil Nadu, Inde)

Tamil Nadu (literally ‘country of Tamils’) is a State of southern India. It comprises about 72 million inhabitants in a little more than 139,000 square km. Tamil Nadu is richer and more urbanised than the national average. The capital of the State is Chennai (formerly Madras). Tamil Nadu was created according to linguistic criteria in 1956; it corresponds more or less to the parts of India where Tamil is spoken.

Tamil Nadu is distinguished from other Indian States by the richness of its religious architecture. Its official language, Tamil, is one of the most ancient languages of the world. Situated on the South East of the peninsula, Tamil Nadu has a great cultural heritage. It was the first producer of jasmin. 55% of the wind-energy produced in East India comes from Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu the sand of the beaches is rich in minerals, such as garnet, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, silicon, leucoxene or monazite. For years real mafias have laid down the law in this sector.

The Community

The monastery of Shantivanam was founded in 1950 by two Frenchmen, Fr Jules Monchanin (a diocesan priest) and Fr Henri Le Saux (monk of Kergonan). Their objective was to integrate Benedictine monachism with the traditional life of the Indian Ashram. In 1953 Fr Francis Mahieu (monk of Scourmont, Belgium), who later became known as Francis Acharya, joined the ashram, followed a little later by Fr Bede Griffiths (monk of Prinknash, England). These two last, more drawn to the cenobitical life, founded the monastery of Kurisumala in 1958.

Fr Monchaninn died in 1957 and Henri Le Saux, more and more attracted by solitude, set himself up in a hermitage at the source of the Ganges. Only Bede Griffiths returned to Shantivanam in 1968, where he became prior. In 1982 Bede Griffiths obtained the affiliation of the monastery to the Benedictine Congregation of the Camaldolese, a Congregation which favours  the eremitical life.

The chapel of the monastery is built on the pattern of Hindhu temples in the South of India. Today the community consists of fourteen monks, or whom four are in temporary vows.

Because of the renown of the Christian mysticism of Bede Griffiths many people came from Europe to spend time at Shantivanam, and the monastery received many gifts. Bede Griffiths encouraged the monks to use these gifts not for the monastery but for the poor of the surrounding countryside (education, guesthouse, various gifts). The monastery possesses only a little farm and a few fields. After the death of Bede Griffiths the gifts lessened. The monks supplied their needs by their farming activities.

Today the resources are less: the yield of agriculture is less than its costs, such as the salary of the workers. The situation is the same for all the small farmers of the country. The community want to augment their herd with twenty more milk cows in order to produce enough milk to be sold. The part of AIM is to repair a building for this project.

The influence of he monastery is important in India and even at the international level. The perspective of interreligious dialogue is always well to the fore.

News

Sister Emérence

This article has not been published in English. See the article in French.

Session des Monastères d’Afrique Centrale (MAC)

Juillet 2021 à Goma

Après la session de l’association MAC tenue au Rwanda – session qui a connu la participation des supérieures et supérieurs en 2019 –, celle de février 2021 pour les jeunes en formation de Lubumbashi et de kinshasa, une autre s’est organisée en juillet dernier au centre de formation des pères pallotins à Goma, à l’est de la République Démocratique du Congo du 1er au 07 juillet.

Cette dernière a réuni quinze supérieur/es et leurs économes des différents monastères de l’association MAC : la communauté hôte de Goma, nos frères cisterciens de Mokoto, lieu initialement prévu pour les réunions ; deux monastères bénédictins de Kinshasa – Arbre de vie et Mambré ; la communauté cistercienne de Mvanda, et enfin les deux monastères bénédictins de Lubumbashi – Saint Sauveur et N.-D. des Sources/Kiswishi.

Nous avons regretté l’absence des autres communautés. La communauté des sœurs bernardines de Goma ne pouvait pas prendre part aux réunions, suite à la maladie de sœur Marie-Rémi qui a fini par succomber. Nous avons présenté nos condoléances à la communauté, les mesures sanitaires et l’horaire nous ayant empêché d’être présents aux obsèques. Pour les mêmes raisons, les communautés  monastiques du Rwanda ne pouvaient malheureusement pas se joindre à nous pour la session. Suite aux célébrations des professions monastiques et des ordinations sacerdotales, nos frères cisterciens de Kasanza, dans la région de Kikwit, étaient aussi dans l’impossibilité d’être là. Toutefois nous étions de cœurs avec eux tous.

Grâce à l’amour et à la tendresse de notre Dieu, la session s’est déroulée dans un climat de paix et de joie. Le superbe centre d’accueil des pères pallotins, situé au bord du lac Kivu, était tout indiqué pour ce genre de rencontres. Pour nous qui venons du sud-est et de l’ouest de la République Démocratique du Congo, cette session a été aussi une occasion pour manifester notre soutien et notre proximité à nos frères et sœurs accablés par de nombreux événements malheureux, telle l’éruption volcanique en mai dernier et d’autres multiples affres qui ont secoué la région Est.

Nous exprimons notre gratitude à l’AIM pour avoir soutenu cette session. Ce qui contribue à l’enracinement de la vie monastique sur le sol africain.

Nous avons apprécié la communication du père Martin Neyt qui nous a aidé à recadrer l’esprit de l’économie dans la vie monastique. Le père Martin a placé l’économie au monastère dans une perspective prophétique. Il nous a mis en garde, martelant que l’économie d’un monastère ne vise pas le seulement le gain, mais qu’elle doit apparaître comme un témoignage de solidarité avec ceux qui entourent le monastère. Même nos œuvres, comme nos écoles, nos centres de santé... doivent s’inscrire dans cette logique.

Notre gratitude se tourne vers l’abbé Jean-Marie Vianney Sebunoti, prêtre du diocèse de Goma, qui, avec compétence et dévouement, a réussi en un temps réduit à nous initier aux notions de bilan, avec des exercices à l’appui, nous faisant saisir nos devoirs et nos droits envers nos ouvriers et envers l’État. Nous le félicitons. Il a été à la hauteur de sa tâche. Il revient à chaque communauté de mettre en pratique les éléments essentiels de son intervention.

Après l’intervention de l’abbé Jean-Marie Vianney, frère Simon Madeko, nouveau prieur du monastère de Mambré, nous a parlé de la spiritualité de cellérier du monastère. Pour saisir la spiritualité du cellérier il faut comprendre ce qui est dit de la tâche du Père Abbé, gestionnaire de la maison de Dieu qu’est le monastère pensé par saint Benoît. L’économe collabore avec l’abbé pour que ce dernier accomplisse sa mission de permettre à chacun de naître et de renaître en enfants de Dieu. La spiritualité de l’économe est en relation avec celle du supérieur. Il nous a mis en garde contre la mentalité du moment qui voit dans la personne de l’économe un « boss, grand bienfaiteur » plutôt qu’un serviteur.

Outre les conférences, nous avons connu des moments de partage du vécu de chaque communauté présente. De ces partages est né le souhait d’approfondir la possibilité de faire du monastère N.-D. des Sources (Kiswishi), un centre d’études théologiques et monastiques pour les monastères de la région de l’association MAC. La question reste ouverte.

En conclusion, la session a été d’un grand profit pour les participants. Nous avons touché du doigt les exigences de la comptabilité, nous avons découvert des richesses et avons aussi découvert certaines de nos limites dans l’exercice de nos droits et devoirs.

L’assemblée a émis le souhait de voir la session 2023 se tenir à Kikwit, chez nos sœurs cisterciennes de Mvanda. Ceux qui seront concernés sont tous les formateurs ; l’animateur présenti – si Dieu nous prête vie – est le père Amedeo Cencini, prêtre canossien italien, expert mondialement reconnu dans le domaine de la formation à la vie religieuse.

Nous terminons ce rapport en saluant, une fois de plus, nos frères cisterciens de Mokoto pour leur dévouement. Dieu soit glorifié en ses œuvres !

Reading notes

This article has not been published in English. See the article in French.