J
JReducation
Guest
I sometimes feel that some people, not all, look at religious men as if we are the enemy of the tradition. Many do not understand the role of the religious in the Church, especially religious men.
The are many kinds of institutes: The only thing that we have in common is that we all profess the evangelical counsels of poverty, obedience and chastity.
Religious orders were never meant to run parishes. We were founded as mendicants, hermits or monks. Our charism is a life of contemplation, fraternity, silence, and obedience to our founder, our rule, our general chapter and our superiors. Our missions vary from total enclosure and isolation from the laity to preaching, serving the poor, being a presence in a neighborhood, and missionary work. Parish work was never part of the mission of religious orders.
Religious congregations were founded for very specific ministries such as teaching, healthcare, service to the poor, preaching, studying, writing, and other social ministries. Parish work was not on the agenda of the founders.
Societies of apostolic life and priestly societies were usually founded to run parishes according to the spirit of the founder.
Secular Orders were founded to be contemplatives, apostolic, and to live the common life. Again, parish ministry was not on the mind of the founders, even if the members are deacons and priests.
In the USA the religious that came 500 years ago: We were asked to take on parishes. The bishops did not have a pool of secular priests to built a diocesan clergy. The idea was short-term aide to the bishops. It became a long-term commitment.
Today, these religious communities are faced with recovering their charism and their mission or dying. They have taken on so many parishes that they are no longer different from diocesan priests. Young men who are looking for the religious life: can’t see it. When they look all they see are parish priests or brothers. We even started ordaining men in large numbers forgetting that the ordianed brothers were to be for the benefit of the community, not the parishes or the laity around us.
What has happened is a reawakening among religious orders. We are recovering our roots. Therefore, you will see less of us in parishes, because the number of men in parishes are being allowed to die by attrition and as they dwindle down we return the parishes to the bishops. We have to recover our time with the community: community recreation, prayer, meals, silence, lectio divina, Liturgy of the Hours together, community retreats, community chapter, community vacations, serving our own brothers in community, reducing the number of priests and recovering our spirit of brotherhood, returning to silence, contemplation, hermitages, the enclosed life. We have to recover the mission of our founders. For many mendicants that means that we have to go back to the streets to walk among the people, live among the homeless, serving in respect life, working among the lost youth in our cities, going to the foreign missions and living and working among the poorest of the poor, living in neighborhoods as a presence without doing anything in particular, just being there where we can be seen.
But we take a beating from many lay people who feel that we’re not interested in the liturgy, the EF, the return to tradition. What people may not realize is that this is our return to tradition. We are returning to our tradition. This may mean that we cannot meet the needs of the laity in the structured parish, because we do not belong there. That is not where God called us to be. That was an act of charity that we did for the bishops and it turned into a disaster for us. We lost many good men that way.
When you assign a man to a parish for many years and then you ask him to return to the community house it can be very hard for this religious. He has to give up his freedom, his car, his cell phone, his control over his time, control over money, put on a habit again, give up being called Father and return to being Brother, start doing household chores that were done by the housekeeper in the parish, follow a schedule of prayer and daily activities with is brothers. He can no longer excuse himself because there is a parish activity or a special mass or confessions. That does not fly in a friary or a monastery. The soul purpose for joining a religious order is for the salvation of your soul. You save your soul by living according to the rule and constitutions of your order and by serving in the ministries of your order. That may be total recollection in prayer all day long or a combination of prayer and a few hours of ministry a day, but not a full day in a parish, hospital or school.
We are not the enemy of the laity. We are called to earn graces for the Church, which includes the laity. We earn those graces by a life totally consecrated to Christ away from the world without getting involved in the issues of the world or of the Church, except to the extent that our founders would allow it.
A good example are the Franciscan Friars of the Eternal Word. These friars came together to live the Franciscan life behind the scenes. They work in the media, but they never go out into the secular world. The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal work on the streets. They never set foot in a parish, except to help a diocesan priest who may need help with a mass on Sunday or confessions on a special day. Their work is totally among the poor on the street. The Franciscans of the Immaculate follow Francis by their total contemplation of Mary’s life and by promoting a Franciscan understanding of Mary and how she leads to Christ. They do not do parish work. The Franciscans of the Primitive Observance live in a neighborhood and walk the streets as Francis did. My own community, the Franciscans of Life devote ourselves to total poverty, total obedience, total silence on any issue that is not respect life. We serve parents of the unborn, those who have had abortions, and those who perform abortions. Our life is dedicated to proclaiming the theology of St. Francis as he wrote it in the Canticle of the Creatures and doing penance for the destruction of human life. Like these there are many other orders that are recovering the charism and mission of their founders.
If we do not seem excited about the EF and Latin in the liturgy, it’s not because we have any less love for it. It is because we do not work in parish ministry as much as we once did. We will always have a presence in parishes, because it is necessary ministry and the bishops need our help. But we have to be careful not to do so at the expense of losing our identity and becoming so involved with the parish, the laity and the craziness in the Church that we lose our inner silence and our inner call to the consecrated life.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
The are many kinds of institutes: The only thing that we have in common is that we all profess the evangelical counsels of poverty, obedience and chastity.
Religious orders were never meant to run parishes. We were founded as mendicants, hermits or monks. Our charism is a life of contemplation, fraternity, silence, and obedience to our founder, our rule, our general chapter and our superiors. Our missions vary from total enclosure and isolation from the laity to preaching, serving the poor, being a presence in a neighborhood, and missionary work. Parish work was never part of the mission of religious orders.
Religious congregations were founded for very specific ministries such as teaching, healthcare, service to the poor, preaching, studying, writing, and other social ministries. Parish work was not on the agenda of the founders.
Societies of apostolic life and priestly societies were usually founded to run parishes according to the spirit of the founder.
Secular Orders were founded to be contemplatives, apostolic, and to live the common life. Again, parish ministry was not on the mind of the founders, even if the members are deacons and priests.
In the USA the religious that came 500 years ago: We were asked to take on parishes. The bishops did not have a pool of secular priests to built a diocesan clergy. The idea was short-term aide to the bishops. It became a long-term commitment.
Today, these religious communities are faced with recovering their charism and their mission or dying. They have taken on so many parishes that they are no longer different from diocesan priests. Young men who are looking for the religious life: can’t see it. When they look all they see are parish priests or brothers. We even started ordaining men in large numbers forgetting that the ordianed brothers were to be for the benefit of the community, not the parishes or the laity around us.
What has happened is a reawakening among religious orders. We are recovering our roots. Therefore, you will see less of us in parishes, because the number of men in parishes are being allowed to die by attrition and as they dwindle down we return the parishes to the bishops. We have to recover our time with the community: community recreation, prayer, meals, silence, lectio divina, Liturgy of the Hours together, community retreats, community chapter, community vacations, serving our own brothers in community, reducing the number of priests and recovering our spirit of brotherhood, returning to silence, contemplation, hermitages, the enclosed life. We have to recover the mission of our founders. For many mendicants that means that we have to go back to the streets to walk among the people, live among the homeless, serving in respect life, working among the lost youth in our cities, going to the foreign missions and living and working among the poorest of the poor, living in neighborhoods as a presence without doing anything in particular, just being there where we can be seen.
But we take a beating from many lay people who feel that we’re not interested in the liturgy, the EF, the return to tradition. What people may not realize is that this is our return to tradition. We are returning to our tradition. This may mean that we cannot meet the needs of the laity in the structured parish, because we do not belong there. That is not where God called us to be. That was an act of charity that we did for the bishops and it turned into a disaster for us. We lost many good men that way.
When you assign a man to a parish for many years and then you ask him to return to the community house it can be very hard for this religious. He has to give up his freedom, his car, his cell phone, his control over his time, control over money, put on a habit again, give up being called Father and return to being Brother, start doing household chores that were done by the housekeeper in the parish, follow a schedule of prayer and daily activities with is brothers. He can no longer excuse himself because there is a parish activity or a special mass or confessions. That does not fly in a friary or a monastery. The soul purpose for joining a religious order is for the salvation of your soul. You save your soul by living according to the rule and constitutions of your order and by serving in the ministries of your order. That may be total recollection in prayer all day long or a combination of prayer and a few hours of ministry a day, but not a full day in a parish, hospital or school.
We are not the enemy of the laity. We are called to earn graces for the Church, which includes the laity. We earn those graces by a life totally consecrated to Christ away from the world without getting involved in the issues of the world or of the Church, except to the extent that our founders would allow it.
A good example are the Franciscan Friars of the Eternal Word. These friars came together to live the Franciscan life behind the scenes. They work in the media, but they never go out into the secular world. The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal work on the streets. They never set foot in a parish, except to help a diocesan priest who may need help with a mass on Sunday or confessions on a special day. Their work is totally among the poor on the street. The Franciscans of the Immaculate follow Francis by their total contemplation of Mary’s life and by promoting a Franciscan understanding of Mary and how she leads to Christ. They do not do parish work. The Franciscans of the Primitive Observance live in a neighborhood and walk the streets as Francis did. My own community, the Franciscans of Life devote ourselves to total poverty, total obedience, total silence on any issue that is not respect life. We serve parents of the unborn, those who have had abortions, and those who perform abortions. Our life is dedicated to proclaiming the theology of St. Francis as he wrote it in the Canticle of the Creatures and doing penance for the destruction of human life. Like these there are many other orders that are recovering the charism and mission of their founders.
If we do not seem excited about the EF and Latin in the liturgy, it’s not because we have any less love for it. It is because we do not work in parish ministry as much as we once did. We will always have a presence in parishes, because it is necessary ministry and the bishops need our help. But we have to be careful not to do so at the expense of losing our identity and becoming so involved with the parish, the laity and the craziness in the Church that we lose our inner silence and our inner call to the consecrated life.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF