1
New Vision – New Mission?
Order Spirituality after the General Chapter 2006
1 Goal of our canonical life
In an interview I was asked to give one word that expressed the nature of the Premonstratensians. Off hand I could not express it in one word. Forty years ago, at the chapter of renewal in Wilten (Innsbruck, Austria 1968/70) “communio” was found as virtually the only key word. For us Premonstratensians life in community, life in the monastery and working out from the community is fundamental and important.
1.1 Communio
The Constitutions describe this in a number of ways.[1] For me one of the most important passages in the Constitutions is where the ministry of building up an ecclesial and human community in love is spoken of.
“This unity in Christ which must be fostered both within and outside our churches is their primary apostolic mission. We are taught by St. Augustine that the unity of our communities should overflow into a charity which embraces everyone.” (Nr. 68)
Precisely in this passage it is neither a matter of community for itself nor of community alone. With the words “community in love” it is a question of more, first of all to live this love interiorly with each other and on the way to God, and then let this love overflow to others outwardly in our pastoral fields. Communio is not a goal in itself; it is rather a “goal in order to”. The Augustinians have expressed this under the title “Community and Mission”. I once chose the two terms “Reflection and Action”:[2] being together in community, being at home (reflecting, returning home, going within) and an outward involvement for the people. For us this is mostly pastoral involvement. More radically expressed one could say: the community is our first pastoral ministry. From this living out of community people outside of the community benefit from our care and love. The fact that we live both of these aspects with great commitment, and the fact that we do not dismiss or give up the tension between the inside and the outside, distinguishes us from diocesan priests, from secular canons, but also from monks. We can see this in the life of Jesus: “He prayed on the mountains and healed in the villages!” Jesus lived from the completely intimate and exclusive union with his Father, in his frequent nightlong prayer, in his “being one with the Father”, but during the day he worked among the people tirelessly as an itinerant preacher proclaiming and healing. As a prophet he stirred them up and made demands on them. As a teacher he taught and accompanied them.
1.2 Primum propter quod
After my election as abbot general in 2003 I tried, in a sort of fundamental program,[3] to express our identity in the words:
“Community needs communication, competent leadership and generativity.”
- Communication is everything in the community that works toward interaction, exchange, correction and information, conversation and working together.
- Leadership and guidance – always safeguarded for us by the control and co-responsibility of the community by means of the council[4] and canonry chapter[5] – is the ministry of holding the community together, urging it on repeatedly toward its common goal, refocusing and uniting the often divergent energies, in short, strengthening the centripetal energies.
- “Generativity” could be described as the ability, as an individual and as a community, to be fruitful, to attract people and inspire them. It is the ability to lead them to believe and to incite them to a life based on that belief; to lead them, each to their own life-vocation, even to a religious life as a member of an order and/or as a priest.
As a result, four thematic areas are touched on. I would like to emphasize them. However, they are also constitutive for our Order life. They are the building up of community (communio), and the unity in a community and in the order (communicatio), the right guidance and accompaniment (leadership, auctoritas) and the care for vocational ministry and training (formatio). Finally, everything revolves around community life, around the safeguarding of the structures and competencies, around the qualification of the various duties and future security through a well-educated new generation. At the beginning of the Rule even Augustine is unsurpassed and precise in his expression of this:
“The first purpose for which you have come together is to live in unity in the house[6] and to be of one mind and one heart on the way to God.”[7]
Life in the monastery is life in community with the twofold (Augustinian) goal, the building up of a fraternal form of life (communio) and the common striving for God (contemplatio). Canonical monastery life adds to this the third (Norbertine) goal, the building up of an ecclesial community ad extra, among the people, in parishes, at mission stations or in other ministerial projects (actio). Our life is played out in this equilateral triangle of “communio – contemplatio – actio” and we may not give up or shorten any of these sides without running the danger of losing what is proper to us or weakening our identity.
2 Vision – Mission – Statement[8]
Finally, let us refer to a new and important impetus, which took form slowly in the Spirituality Commission of our Order.[9] This was accepted by a great majority at the General Chapter 2006 in Freising. It concerns the “Vision-Mission-Statement”, the attempt to describe and to condense in a short, concise, almost lyrical form the nature of our Order. You could also compare it with a model,[10] a brief informative piece for people who want to know about our Order. Just as in the business world the goal and nature of a firm or a group of companies is described with a “corporate identity” so this statement should describe and express the goal and nature of our Order. When this statement was introduced during the General Chapter there was a rather long discussion about concrete phrasing and the stressing of certain points. The individual canonries and circaries of the Order had already spent a full year forming their opinion and dialoguing regarding the content of this statement. Finally a vote was taken and the statement was accepted by a great majority of the chapter fathers. Consequently the result of this vote in the Order is able to find its way into all publications, websites, advertising material, brochures, wherever our Order should be represented or depicted. It can serve as a basis for discussion for house chapters and for days of recollection and be used as a theme for those interested in the monastery and for monastery contact days (“come and see weekends”). Now we can and should work with this “Vision-Mission-Statement”.
“Drawn by our merciful and Triune God,
we are called as baptized
to follow the poor and risen Christ
in a radical and apostolic way of life
according to the Gospel, the Rule of Saint Augustine
and the charism of Saint Norbert,
the founder of our Premonstratensian Order.
Our way of life is marked by:
a lifelong seeking after God through fraternal community,
a never-ending conversion by giving ourselves to the church
of our profession in communion with the self-emptying of Christ,
in imitation of Mary pondering God’s Word,
and in ceaseless prayer and service at the altar.
From the choir and altar we go to serve the human family
in a spirit of simplicity, hospitality, reconciliation and peace
for the benefit of the Church and the world,
especially where Christ is found among the poor, the suffering,
and among those who do not know him.
We pray that what God’s Spirit has begun in us
may be made perfect in the day of Christ Jesus.”
It could be beneficial to speak about this statement in detail. Some clarification should be attempted for each section.
2.1 Vocation
Fundamental to our vocation as Premonstratensians, as with each Christian vocation, is baptism. The choosing and adoption on the part of God, as well as being received into this interior divine community, precedes all our seeking, yearning and responding. “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (Jn 15: 16). We celebrate this adoption by God in the baptism of a newborn child. It is God’s love that calls us into life. It is God’s love that calls us into his faith community, the Church. It is God’s love that summons us finally to a more radical following in the life of an order. Our life is a response, an echo, a reaction to a divine initiative. However, for that reason it is not less original and authentic, but unique and free from the bottom of one’s heart. Our life as Premonstratensians[11] stands and falls with our close union with Jesus Christ, the “poor and risen Christ”, as does the life of every Christian and every consecrated religious worldwide. However, we want something of the radical spirit of the early Church to be sensed in our communities. It was in the early Church where people noticed in amazement: “See how they love one another!”[12]
As Premonstratensians we have our own history and tradition beginning with this early Church spirit as Augustine understood it and described it in his Rule. We continue through the interpretation, the charism and the way of life of an aggressive and radical itinerant preacher Norbert who could inspire people and attract followers. Finally we move on to the concrete shaping of a house in a definite place and time. Our houses are not only characterized by history and tradition but also by always setting out with fresh innovation. Likewise we are personally formed and influenced by particular confreres and their “creative fidelity”. All that together goes to make up our human, ecclesial, consecrated religious and finally our Premonstratensian vocation. And this in turn is colored by the shading of the individual canonry. Our vocation is first of all a call, a challenge and an acceptance by the “merciful and triune God”. Then, thanks to his grace, we want to respond generously to him with our life as Christians and consecrated religious and acknowledge him throughout our life.
2.2 Vision
From our call by God and our resultant response of entering a religious community it is now necessary to translate our vision of a religious vocation, our specific view of regular-canonical life, into a concrete way of living. We must do this both as an individual as well as a community. Four practices mark this “fraternal (or sisterly) community”. These have developed out of our Order’s tradition. They are: 1) lifelong seeking after God, 2) never-ending conversion of our life, 3) reflection on the Word of God as Mary could fulfill it, and 4) ceaseless prayer and service at the altar. We could also say that these are the four milestones for our contemplative life in community.
2.2.1 The lifelong seeking after God paraphrases once again this dialogic process that begins with baptism and, we hope, continues until our death. It is the dialogic process of being called and answering. It is the seeking after him who calls us by name, who knows and loves us. It is the seeking after him who gives himself in a way that is not under our control and who then withdraws again. It is the seeking after him who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves and who, being unobtainable, surpasses everything and us in his transcendence. Here lies the greatest happiness and the deepest mystery of our life and our vocation, with which we never come to an end and with which we will never be complete. God is the total other whose splendor not even the heavens know how to praise, and who at the same time is the one deeply dwelling within us. “For in him we live, we move and we exist” (Acts 17: 28). Here we touch on the contemplative-mystical dimension of our being Christian, which Paul could only express in a stammering way: “It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2: 14). It is seeking and finding, finding and seeking anew, as Augustine says it. It is never possessing and holding, rather maturing and starting over from the beginning.
2.2.2 The never-ending conversion is already touched on in this search movement. In our formula of profession this ministry almost has the character of a fourth vow, the “conversio morum”.[13] You could also use this process of conversion as a heading above the three vows. This never-ending conversion and renewal process should play itself out in the three areas of: a poor simple lifestyle (poverty); listening, individually and communally to the call from God (obedience); and, finally, a fraternal form of life that renounces partnership, marriage and children (celibacy dedicated to God, castitas). Here too we never reach the top of the ladder.[14] Often enough we must begin anew from below and work upwards again. In the Constitutions this “conversion of life”[15] is described by preparedness to forgive a confrere from whom we have distanced ourselves. The confrere is the touchstone, the community the practice field, our relationship to God the destination point of all ascetical, moral and contemplative effort. The strongest expression of this preparedness for conversion is the prostration during profession, this complete handing over to God (trado meipsum), this complete offering to God and to this concrete community (offerens) and this permanent conversion of my personal life and our community way of life (conversio). Here is expressed in a symbolic and liturgical way our approximation to the “self-divesting and kenotic Christ”.[16] It is only about the imitation of Jesus and about the humble agreement to follow his path, the outline of his life, therefore becoming more and more like the poor, obedient, chaste Lord.
2.2.3 As a model for this seeking and drawing closer Mary is placed before our eyes. She is always presented to us as a listening, reading, reflecting woman who also seems to call to us: “Whatever he tells you, do it” (Jn 2: 5). The life of Mary centers around the Word of God, so much so that it is assumed in her image: “And the Word was made flesh” (Jn 1:14) through Mary who has opened herself completely to this call, this love, this grace and thus becomes the gateway of the divine reality in this world. That is the virginal and motherly side of this unique woman. Can we emulate or imitate this? However, don’t we know the phrase: “And if Christ were born a thousand times but not in you, the world would remain miserably lost”. Mary is mother of the faith and mother of the Church. She is the model for any birth of God in us and from us. We may allow ourselves confidently to be led and directed by her. There is no other way than to reflect on God’s Word as she did and to ponder it in our heart again and again.
2.2.4 It is precisely in this contemplative-meditative dimension that our prayer takes place and deepens. It is not the abundance of words, but rather the joining together in the never-ending praise of God, which Mary has already intoned in her Magnificat. It is here that our festive choral prayer has its deepest source, in the joyful cry of Mary “My soul praises the greatness of the Lord” (Lk 1: 46), in the cheerful cry of the Lord “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Lk 10: 21), and in the grateful cry of the Apostles, that they were allowed to suffer injustice for the Lord. And from this grateful song of praise there also grows a solemn liturgy constituted by the Lord: “Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22: 19), which expands to the cosmic and heavenly liturgy of the never-ending worship and glorification of God. Service at the altar in all purity, cleanliness, honor and splendor is a direct “inheritance and ministry” of our Father Norbert. According to St. Benedict nothing should be preferred to this “divine office”.
2.3 Mission
So that the vision not slip into the visionary, it is necessary that from this encounter there be a mission. “Contemplata aliis tradere”, “to pass on to others what is reflected on in contemplation” is the motto of the Dominicans. There is no encounter with the divine that would not become mission. All biblical reports about experiences of God indicate this. Whoever falls under God’s influence receives a task, a mandate, a responsibility, a mission: “Go to my brothers and announce to them: I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jn 20: 17b). That is the mandate to Mary Magdalene after her encounter with the Risen One. Mary Magdalene, a woman, becomes the first messenger of the resurrection. That remains the basic mission for us as Christians who were baptized into the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. As Premonstratensians in the white habit, which recalls the angel of the resurrection in the Gospel, we feel especially obligated to this mission.
The Statement presents us with four mission areas: our service for reconciliation and peace, our service for the building up of the church and community, our service for the poor, suffering and our mission to those who do not yet know God – four milestones for our pastoral, missionary and active work
2.3.1 Our service for reconciliation and peace is oriented toward St. Norbert, whom our American confreres like to refer to as “minister of peace and concord”. His work was noted for the ability to reconcile people, to establish peace where groups were divided, to take up once again the threads of dialogue and to come to workable solutions. Following the footsteps of our founder would give us here even today a broad field of action – beginning in one’s own monastery – where in this regard there is a good grounding of conflict and reconciliation to be built up and nourished. This is also the case in parishes where we consistently encounter competitive groups or divergent interests, in schools where violence and riots multiply. However, peace work could also be an essential content of our parish ministry in order to assist people toward a reconciled inwardness, toward a life in peace with oneself and the world, but above all in peace with God, the God of peace and reconciliation. We should not leave the field of “inner healing” to therapists but, taking up the angels’ message of peace, “and on earth peace with those in his grace” (Lk 2: 14), we should much more announce true peace to people: “Peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you”.