B
benedictgal
Guest
JReduction, I can understand your quickness to defend religious communitise; howver, not all of its members, nor communities, are equal. There are many of us who have heard less than doctrinally correct things coming from these houses. Furthermore, there are some folks, like the Jesuits, who have been taken to task for issues relating to orthodoxy and laxity in their fidelity to the Holy Father.Everything in your post can be accepted as a valid point for dialogue except the above.
I’m not sure if you meant it to come across this way or not. But you may want to rethink the way this sounds.
First, you’re saying that you know better than a religious in a monastic community, particulargy a community who gave us the liturgical tradition that we call the Tridentine form. Don’t forget that the Tridentine form is rooted in Benedictine spirituality and practices in their monasteries long before it became the form for the universal Church. These monks have been the preservers, teachers, protectors and major liturgists in the Church for almost 1800 years.
You ask about credibility, I would have to give a great deal of credibility to a Benedictine monk. If anyone knows good liturgy it’s them. This is their entire life. That’s what they do for the Church. They celebrate liturgy around the clock, 24/7 for more than 1800 years.
Second, you’re insinuating that this man is looking for loopholes and not giving credit that he belongs to one of the most educated orders of religioius in the Church and that they understand these documents better than the average lay person. So it’s really up to you to prove that you have more knowledge than their collective knowledge of the centuries and as a community. Monastic communities do not have to prove themselves to us. They have more than proven their value to the Church. They preserved culture, liturgy, spirituality, scripture, language, science, art, education, healthcare, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, they even organized the canon of the scriptures that you and I follow.
Third, you say “This is just a monk.” Do you realize that the Church theology teaches that monastic life (monks and cloistered nuns) live the most perfect form of the Gospel. To say this is just a monk, sounds like what Henry VIII said when he wanted to justify taking their property and their influence in the English Church. By reducing them before the eyes of the laity, Henry managed to do what he wanted without much resistence.
I would never dare say that someone who lives what the Church calls the highest expression of the Gospel is just a monk.
A monk has a very special place in among the faithful, much higher than that of any secular man or woman, even a secular priest. He is a religious in solemn vows, which is a very special form of consecrated life. Why do you think that the Holy Father is having a special mass only with monastic religious? He recognizes their special place in the msytical body.
Please reconsider your statement.
As to the rest of what you said, it’s good material for discussion, as it is not offensive or minimize a way of life that is essential to the life of the Church. Yes, the Church says that monastic life is a special and essential gift to its life.
JR
Others have taken excessive liberties with the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with their particular charisms. I have had many personal experiences with religious priests who have committed some serious liturgical abuses that are not mistakenly attributed to their orders’ particular charisms. You should realize that not all of us have the same experience that you seem to enjoy.
Before you start taking people to task for challenging the viewpoints of the religious, you might want to step back and consider that perhaps they are facing situations radically different than yours. Not all Benedictines are the same. Not all Paulsts are the same.
Perhaps when the Holy Father comes, he will give these religious orders both encouragment and a strong exhortation to be faithful to the Church.
By the way, all of the Holy Father’s foreign trips are called Apostolic Journeys, as referenced by the Vaitcan website. And, this is both a pastoral and diplomatic visit. He is head of state, so, it is a diplomatic visit; however, he is also the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, and, as Peter, he is visiting hs flock, so this is also a pastoral visit. You cannot have one without the other.