Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Laity and New Monasticism

One should never forget that the history of monasticism and its original rules calling for asceticism and a life of prayer were for the laity. Those men and women called to a consecrated life of the heart. A heart set apart for God to do God's work in the world. A life of ora et labora, lived simply and in community with one another. The tenets of the beauty of this life were adopted by the Christian Church at large after seeing how successful a life lived in Gospel truth could be; having a profound effect on the community at large that surrounded these men and women of prayer and stillness. When reflecting on the words below of consecrated life, let us not forget that this is a state of the heart, mind and soul oriented to God. It is a life for everyone. We are all called to be monks at heart. It will lead to harmony of the heart and peace in the world. It is a life for you and for me.

Vita Consecrata (Consecrated Life) Pope John Paul II, 1996.

[Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata of the Holy Father John Paul II to the Bishops and Clergy Religious Orders and Congregations Societies of Apostolic Life Secular Institutes and All the Faithful on the Consecrated Life and its Mission in the Church and in the World. Rome, March 25, 1996]

"Monastic life in the East and the West

"6. The Synod Fathers from the Eastern Catholic Churches and the representatives of the other Churches of the East emphasized the evangelical values of monastic life, which appeared at the dawn of Christianity and which still flourishes in their territories, especially in the Orthodox Churches.

"From the first centuries of the Church, men and women have felt called to imitate the Incarnate Word who took on the condition of a servant. They have sought to follow him by living in a particularly radical way, through monastic profession, the demands flowing from baptismal participation in the Paschal Mystery of his Death and Resurrection.

"In this way, by becoming bearers of the Cross (staurophoroi), they have striven to become bearers of the Spirit (pneumatophoroi), authentically spiritual men and women, capable of endowing history with hidden fruitfulness by unceasing praise and intercession, by spiritual counsels and works of charity. In its desire to transfigure the world and life itself in expectation of the definitive vision of God's countenance, Eastern monasticism gives pride of place to conversion, self-renunciation and compunction of heart, the quest for hesychia or interior peace, ceaseless prayer, fasting and vigils, spiritual combat and silence, Paschal joy in the presence of the Lord and the expectation of his definitive coming, and the oblation of self and personal possessions, lived in the holy communion of the monastery or in the solitude of the hermitage.

"The West too from the first centuries of the Church has practiced the monastic life and has experienced a great variety of expressions of it, both cenobitic and eremetical. In its present form, inspired above all by Saint Benedict, Western monasticism is the heir of the great number of men and women who, leaving behind life in the world, sought God and dedicated themselves to him, "preferring nothing to the love of Christ".

"The monks of today likewise strive to create a harmonious balance between the interior life and work in the evangelical commitment to conversion of life, obedience and stability, and in persevering dedication to meditation on God's word (lectio divina), the celebration of the Liturgy and prayer.

"In the heart of the Church and the world, monasteries have been and continue to be eloquent signs of communion, welcoming abodes for those seeking God and the things of the spirit, schools of faith and true places of study, dialogue and culture for the building up of the life of the Church and of the earthly city itself, in expectation of the heavenly city."

---- Pope John Paul II, 1996
Vita Consecrata (Consecrated Life)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Study of Liturgy

The study of liturgy is like an enormous umbrella that integrates every aspect of prayer and worship: a thorough grounding in the Scriptures along with familiarity of the Fathers, a sense of rite and ritual and esthetics and all that goes into the beauty of holiness. We are so fortunate as Benedictines that we have liturgical prayer throughout the day shaping and forming our lives. And to be actively engaged in liturgical prayer does require an intimate presence of the Holy One and the revealer of the Mysterium, Jesus the Lord, the Paschal Mystery. Knowing the Real Presence, it is a knowledge, a gnosis, that is almost ineffable. Still, we have to pursue the many ways that Christ is present in the liturgy, all liturgy, not just the Mass, and that is why ecumenical liturgies are so important. This is where we can communicate with one another, bonded by the Word, Incarnate, proclaimed, and lived, without being entrapped by a myopic understanding of Eucharist that divides and separates. Returning to the early Church Fathers, liturgy was the primary locus of theology. It was in liturgical, sacramental celebrations that the real theological UNDERSTANDING of God, Christ, Mary, the angels and saints took pace, as it still does in the Eastern rite liturgical traditions. In the West, it is the letter, the law, that has been allowed to dominate: the mystery has been pushed aside. The liturgy is also the primary locus for mystical prayer, the hot plate and spring board for personal mystical prayer and experience. In this regard, the word mysterical prayer should be substituted for liturgical prayer. Mystical emphasizes what is latent, hidden in light inaccessible; mysterical emphasizes what has been revealed and then, experienced in a truly salvific way.

Paraphrased from Fr. Gabriel Coless, OSB, PhD, St. Mary's Abbey