By Jeremias Schröder, Abbot Primate
Dear Confreres and Sisters,
Greetings from Rome! Today we are sending you the first installment of NEXUS, a news bulletin from the abbot primate for the Benedictine family. This is not a circular letter, and is probably not suitable for reading in the refectory. Rather, NEXUS wants to be a tool which brings our monasteries closer together by sharing news and information. It will be distributed via the abbot presidents to the monasteries. If you can, please share this with all members of your communities so that those who are interested can follow the different links and explore the many topics. We hope to produce NEXUS roughly once a month.
One feature of NEXUS will be the necrology. Once a month we want to list all those confreres who have died since the last issue came out, so that their memory remains alive and prayers can be said for those you knew. Please help us to keep this necrology complete by sending your obituaries and death notices also to necrologium@anselmianum.com.
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Here in Rome, the last month was dominated by the Synod on Synodality. The final document of the synod has been accepted by the Pope Francis as part of his ordinary magisterium, and it will be exciting to see how this gradually begins to transform attitudes and our way of being church. Benedictines could be heard quite often saying that there is not much that is new for us. After all, synodality is part of our heritage and it is the way we have made decisions in the monastery since the time of Saint Benedict. While there is truth in this, it sounds a bit complacent. I believe that the way we live the traditional elements of synodality in our communities can probably be improved with the help of these more-recent insights, for example with the method of spiritual conversation.
There is now also an attempt to strengthen synodal structures on the level of the Benedictine Confederation. Recently, we have established a regular joint meeting between the leadership of the Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum, the organisation of Benedictine women, and the Benedictine Confederation of monks. The moderator of the CIB and her vicaress come together with Abbot President Christopher Jamison at regular intervals to disuss issues that concern us all. The AIM, almost 60 years old now, is also being reviewed. During a meeting of its council at Poblet Abbey in late November, a number of proposals we elaborated may help us strengthen an organisation that provides a unique link between Benedictines, Cistercians and Trappists across the continents.
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I am writing this on the first Sunday of Advent. The Gregorian melody of the antiphon Iucundare with its drawn-out melisma still resonates with me. It is a sigh, but a sigh of hope. Hope is also the topic Pope Francis has given us for the Holy Year that will begin in a month’s time. May this Advent season find you hopeful, and may our houses be beacons of hope for those who look to us for inspiration!
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