Sisters talk for Year of Consecrated life
Sisters Talk.
The year for Consecrated life.
Am going to start with a story.
Once a great order, a decaying monastery had only
five monks left. The order was dying. In the surrounding deep woods, there was
a little hut that a Rabbi from a nearby town used from time to time.
The monks
always knew the Rabbi was home when they saw the smoke from his fire rise above
the treetops. As the Abbot agonized over the imminent death of his order, it
occurred to him to ask the Rabbi if he could offer any advice that might save
the monastery.
The Rabbi
welcomed the Abbot at his hut. When the Abbot explained the reason for his
visit, the Rabbi could only commiserate with him. “I
know how it is,” he exclaimed. “The
spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no one
comes to the synagogue anymore.” So the
Abbot and the Rabbi sat together discussing the Bible and their faiths.
The time
came when the Abbot had to leave. “It has been a
wonderful visit,” said the Abbot, “but
I have failed in my purpose. Is there nothing you can tell me to help save my
dying order?”
“The only thing I
can tell you,” said the Rabbi, “is
that the Messiah is among you.”
When the
Abbot returned to the monastery, his fellow monks gathered around him and
asked, “What did the Rabbi say?” “He couldn’t help,” the Abbot answered. “The only thing he
did say, as I was leaving was that the Messiah is among us. Though I do not
know what these words mean.”
In the
months that followed, the monks pondered this and wondered whether there was
any possible significance to the Rabbi’s words: The Messiah is among us? Could
he possibly have meant that the Messiah is one of us monks here at the
monastery? If that’s the case, which one of us is the Messiah? Do you suppose
he meant the Abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant Father Abbot.
Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elred! Elred gets crotchety at times.
But come to think of it, even so, Elred is virtually always right. Maybe the
rabbi did mean Brother Elred. Of course the Rabbi didn’t mean me.
He couldn’t
possibly have meant me. I’m just an ordinary person. Yet supposing he did?
Suppose I am the Messiah?
As they
contemplated in this manner, the monks began to treat each other with
extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the
Messiah and in turn, each monk began to treat himself with extraordinary
respect.
It so
happened that people still occasionally came to visit the beautiful forest and
monastery. Without even being conscious of it, visitors began to sense a
powerful spiritual aura. They were sensing the extraordinary respect that now
filled the monastery.
Hardly
knowing why, people began to come to the monastery frequently to picnic, to
play, and to pray. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought
their friends. Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit
the monastery started to talk more and more with the older monks. After a
while, one asked if he could join them. Then, another and another asked if they
too could join the abbot and older monks. Within a few years, the monastery
once again became a thriving order, a vibrant centre of light and spirituality
in the realm.
I love this story. It so perfectly illustrates for me a few
things. It suggests to me that we are all made in the image of God even those
whom we find it difficult and also that by loving each other and seeing Christ
in others we can learn to build community people are attracted to our way of
life. In a world where the Church and especially its leaders and “professional”
religious are under attack for me it brings back to the heart of what we are
about. In the Acts of the Apostles this is what we hear:
“The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul;
no one claimed for his own use anything that he had, as everything they owned
was held in common. The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus with great power, and they were all given great respect. None of
their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would
sell them, and bring the money from them, to present it to the apostles, it was
then disrupted to any members who might be in need.” (Acts 4: 32-34)
This is rather an idyllic picture of the early Christian
community I think it was possibly a hope rather than a reality. Because in the
next chapter we get the story of the fraud of two of the community who kept
back some of the money for their own needs. What both the fable and the Acts of
the Apostles teach us something very important about Religious life. They teach
us that God calls fallen human beings to follow him “You did not choose me no I
chose you” and St John tells us in his Gospel. The Church is made up of both
Saints and Sinners and both teach us something about what it means to be
Christian. In the old Eucharistic prayer for Martyrs it states “You choose the
weak and make them holy in bearing witness to you”
If this is true of the martyrs how much more true is it in
community. The least expected can be our greatest teachers the ones who annoy
us the most can be the ones who show us what our Vocation actually means. St
Benedict in his rule recognizes this by telling us always to listen to the
youngest member of the community and also listen to those wise heads of the
more mature members.
So let us now look at the nature of a Christian community.
The How as it were of stories we have listened too.
Prayer:
Our primary Vocation is prayer. But, is our prayer built on
solid foundations or on sand. St Benedict knew that prayer had to be done all
through the day. The Divine office is a good lynch pin. For me it is a good
method to remind ourselves that every moment is for praise for God. With the
regular prayer of the office we can then build our foundation on solid ground.
But it must go deeper than this. Imagine a conversation with a close friend and
all you do is what is expected of you.
So the conversation
might go:
“How are you?”
“Fine thank you.
What are you up too
This and that.
You see in this sipit of a conversation that you are only
getting the standard answers there is no real depth. Imagine a conversation
where you ask the same questions but there is a deeper answer. There is a
quality to the conversation. Often this
is like our Conversations in prayer it bounces on the formal prayer and nothing
else. I am reading a book at the moment called Falling Upwards by Richard
Rohar. He describes that this formal prayer is OK but we must always go deeper.
We must enter into the Mystery of God’s love for us we must move from what has
given us foundations to a deeper union with Christ. May writers have described
this St Teresa of Avila describes it as going through the Mansions.
Now I am not saying that we dispense with the Office or
Mass no infact as we go deeper these foundation prayers goes deeper. For
example if you meditate on one psalm or one phrase sticks with you then use it
in your private prayer. Psalm 139 always does this for me. “Oh Lord you search
me and you know me, you know my resting and rising, you discern my purpose from
afar.” That in the stages of life that we are on that God has a plan for me. I
may not know it in this life as Cardinal Newman says but God is always with me.
By private prayer and silence is to become important then
we must practice it daily. Only through silence and private prayer can we
actually enter into the mystery of God and loose ourselves in his selfless love
and life. Often many of us only enter into the first stage of prayer which is
just the office and rosary then we are only in the first stages of prayer.
Going deeper means that we have to offer ourselves totally to God.
There is also a good rule of thumb that I learnt from St
Benedict in a direct way from a friend of mine who was a monk for a while. When
I used to visit my friend Br David he always came and saw me on the dot of on
the hour or past the hour and always for just 30 munities. After a while I
asked him why he only came for 30 minutes. Oh he said that is easy we only ever
pray in thirty minute bursts. After thinking about it made sense. 30 minutes is
perfect time for prayer. Too long and our mind gets seriously distracted too
short and we are only opening our hearts to God before we have to finish. This
does not mean off course that if we are mid flow that we suddenly stop.
Witness
One Sunday a family decided that they were going to start
going to Church. They did some research and decided that they were going to
come the local Catholic Church. It was Easter Sunday. This particular Easter
Sunday the congregation was full and there was lots of Children. It was
tradition at that Mass that Easter eggs were given to the Children at the end
of Mass. The Children all ran up to Father to receive their eggs including the
Children from this family that was their first Sunday. There was not enough to
go round and so one Child gave away her egg to another child. The family saw
this simple act of Christian love and decided there and then this was the
Church that they would make their home.
This story illustrates an important point. It is not the
rhetoric of great Saints or theologians that brings people into the Church but
simple Christian Witness. The things that we do without thinking. It is the
witness of the saints not generally their words that first attracts people.
They are attracted by what they are doing. Look at St Benedict or indeed any of
the saints they are attractive because by the way he lived out the Christian
faith.
We live in and work in a Church that needs new witnesses
for the 21st Century. We are aware that there are many in the Church
who have not for many reasons not been as strong witnesses that they should be.
What people I think do not realise is that we are all fragile and broken human
beings we are not Saints. The Witness that I think people want is to try our
best to be authentic and to live those Christian values in our interaction with
others and especially with those whom we live with. Just remember the story
that I told you about at the beginning. Treating everyone as Christ is a start
with doing Christian witness well. One of the criticisms of the Church is that
we do not practice what we preach. I have to say that this has been going on
throughout all of history. It is not a new problem. The struggle for
authenticity is something that we all go through. We all preach the Gospel but
sometimes struggle to put it into practice. We need to acknowledge those parts
of our lives that are not authentic in witness and learn from them and with the
help of God change. .
When I was a Child we used to Sing a hymn which said “They
know we are Christians by our Love” This is a good starting point as the story
in the beginning illustrates it is about love of others and recognizing Christ
in them.
Service
and Prayer
I was talking to someone the other day who said
that he does not have time for personal prayer because he is too busy in his
parish. He used the modern day heresy that I suspect that we have all used
sometimes “I am praying all the time especially when I am with those whom I am
sent too” As we have seen it is vital that we spend time in personal private
prayer. Out of our prayer comes what we are asked to do. Our service comes from
our prayer. Both go hand in hand we are not one without the other. Sometimes we
can concentrate so hard on the service that we do not see the prayer. It is a
mistake to say that when we are working we are praying therefore we do not need
private prayer. If we do not pray then we become underpaid and over worked
social workers. Our service must flow from the Lord.
If we try and serve without prayer we can be on the brink
of burn out this is something that as professional Christians we can be in
danger off. Just think of those times when we want to say No because we are too
tired and yet because we don’t like to say No we say Yes. This is a lesson that
we need to learn to “Say Yes when we mean yes and No when we mean No.” Now I can hear a But coming. And yes you are
right. You can say “No not at the moment” or can I give it some thought. IF we
are always ready with a Yes then we are always available and never give
ourselves the time to re charge the batteries or even worse no time for prayer
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