Handing on the Life We Have Received: Synthesis of the Conferences on Formation

It is useful to remember the background to the choice of the theme of formation as transmission of life for the General Chapter. As in other areas of our monastic life (father immediate, role of the abbot), we are rightly convinced of the great value of what we possess and what we have to hand on. In the area of formation, the difficulty we experience of forming candidates that persevere with joy in the monastic life forces us to a reexamination of our practice of transmission.

The central value that has emerged in the conferences given at the Chapter, whether implicitly or explicitly, as the necessary foundation for the transmission of life in formation, is that of truth.

The primacy of truth manifests itself immediately in the process of evaluation of candidates. Despite our eagerness to receive candidates and to be merciful in our response to their desire to enter, it is clear that objective discernment of the candidates’ capacity to fully live our life is indispensable. Lasting harm is done  to the community by admitting candidates that have no aptitude – and eo ipso no vocation – to our monastic way of life. It is likewise potentially harmful to persons who are admitted without the requisite qualities.

This same honesty should mark our presentation of the monastic project to the young. We are not a university, offering a program of higher studies; we are not a media center, offering unlimited access to internet and telephones; we are not the guarantee of a comfortable lifestyle or the fulfillment of the desire for power. We are a school of the Lord’s service and the Lord’s praise, a school of self-transcendence in which we aim to attain a common will – common among ourselves and common with Christ. Far from shocking the young, this honesty will attract them. They have not come to the monastery for the easy satisfaction of their desire – the outside world can give them more in this sense than we can – but to recuperate their identity as sons and daughters of God in Jesus Christ. This Jesus is often unknown to them at the time of their entrance – the whole scope of his power and love. We need to participate in the transmission to them of the “truth that is in Jesus”, not so much by catechesis as by evangelization.

In this initial formation, young monks and nuns must be helped to come to the truth of themselves. This saving self-knowledge comes through regular spiritual direction and through an ever growing gift of self to the one who is Lord of their lives. In order for spiritual direction to be fruitful, a relationship of mutual trust must be slowly and patiently constructed. With regard to self-donation, we must not be afraid of asking from those in formation everything that the Lord is asking of them. This will be ultimately experienced by them not as a crushing weight but as an honor and a call to correspond to the fullness of their spiritual identity. Here it will be important for us formators not to impose a sacrifice but to come to see the particular greatness of soul that the Lord is asking of each person and to call him to that greatness.

The community’s commitment to truth expresses itself in its efforts towards ever greater unity. We are well aware that only the unified community is formative. A united vision is built and maintained by the teaching of the superior, the work of ongoing community dialogue and the living out of a coherent behavior on the part of all the brothers and sisters. Failures are inevitable in this process, but these in themselves can be productive as they stimulate us to gestures of pardon, to recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation and  a renewed experience of ourselves as saved – again and again – by God’s mercy. When this happens, the young will experience the monastery as “the house of peace, dialogue and mutual assistance” that they have a right to expect.

The abbot’s contribution to all this is the faithfulness he manifests in corresponding to the common monastic vocation. He is an exemplar of truthful living – his relationship to Creative and created reality. He is permeated by a deep reverence for God, a spirit of honor extended to all his fellow human beings and a loving respect and delight in God’s creation. This ever deeper “fear of the Lord”, based on the truth of who God is and who he is, will get him beyond such obstacles as favoritism and pride, and will enable him to overcome the tendency to discouragement and self-pity. It will also enable him to take difficult but necessary decisions with compassionated objectivity. It is advisable that he himself find a spiritual advisor, inside or outside the community, in whose company and friendship he can increasingly discover and accept the truth of his own self.

All these aspects of truth should lead us to liturgical living – to the constant praise of God who has made us and daily remakes us, more and more according to the form of the truly human and divine man, Jesus Christ. We gather together daily in the liturgy to declare: In Him, we have known the truth and the truth has set us free.

Bernardo Bonowitz, OCSO

Novo Mundo

From Unity in Disobedience To Unity in Obedience in Joy

”Mira la Estrella, invoca Maria…Mira la Estrella, invoca Maria.”  

You could hear people continue singing St.Bernard’s invocations to Mary as we left our chapel heading for the refectory for breakfast this morning. You can recognize a dear song even in a foreign language and with a different melody. The music of the Spanish/Portuguese liturgy brought out the joy of a new Sunday, a new celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord.

Joy was also a point in the homily of Dom Bernardo of Novo Mundo, as he spoke about the two brothers in the Gospel parable this morning, both of them being disobedient, and we being like both of them – in the lack of joy in our obedience:

• Wherever life and their individual decisions may lead these two, they will always remain brothers, their father’s offspring and the dearest object of his love, the mirror and the completion of one another.  Both of them are disobedient, even if each one disobeys in his particular way. The first brother has what we in our mixed commission called “un temperament fort” – a difficult character. When his father asks him to go to work in the vineyard, he immediately responds, “No, I’m not going.” It’s a primordial disobedience, it’s his standard response to authority, his “no” to the call to self-transcendence. “Grow, my son!” says the father. “Forget it”, answers the son.

•  The second is also disobedient. He says yes, without having any intention of doing what he promised. Or maybe through cowardice and a lazy desire to please: he knows that life with father will be easier if he says yes than if he says no, and later he decides that his father should be satisfied with his good intentions, even if they are never carried out. Or he habitually acts out of mediocrity: Sometimes he goes to work in the vineyard, sometimes not. It depends on his mood, - or the phase of the moon. Or maybe this brother says yes and indeed goes to work every day, but without joy, without any good-heartedness or love or wisdom – all the things that make a human act truly human and that really are the heart of obedience. This I know from experience: I’m still lacking what I most want – to be perfect in just this way, as the heavenly father is perfect.

So, the father is stuck with two disobedient sons. But God has a third Son up in his sleeve, said Dom Bernardo:

• And this son really is different. He says yes and does yes. He says, “My delight is to do your will” and he really means it. And he says something else that is truly awe-inspiring: “Father, let me take upon myself the disobedience of these other two sons. Let me be obedient in their place, and bear the consequences of their sinfulness. And little by little I will draw them to my way of obeying, my way of relating to you, my way of being a son. By the time I have finished, we will all be so alike that you won’t be able to tell the difference between me and them. Because we will all be one, just as you and I are one.

This unity that overcomes differences continued to be evident in the plenary session this morning, dealing with votes and preparation of votes. This work demands a lot of clear thinking and experience and language skills – to present a vote clearly and correctly so it is easily understood by all. To help this clarity the formulation of one vote had been changed from one day to the next, but the result of the vote showed a great confusion in a question that seemed very clear. “No, No, No” was heard from all parts of the aula. The moderator wisely said we would come back to the matter, and after the break there was a new vote that annulled the vote, and the new vote taken was as clear as the text, showing the unity of the assembly.

The foundation of Valserena in Syria, Beata Maria Fons Pacis, was approved this morning.

To the great joy of all we finished the afternoon session early, so we can enjoy a little open time before the work of the last few days.

Sr. Hanne-Maria of Tautra

”Thank you very much”

The spirit of thankfulness and praise has been evident in today’s plenary session, although we have dealt with many difficult matters. The work of the commissions of abbots and those of abbesses has been completed, and their reports are being presented to the whole Chapter. Many of these reports are confidential, as they deal with delicate matters.

What I can report on is the spirit in which we deal with these questions, and the refrain from the moderator, Dom Daniel of Zundert: “Thank you very much for this thorough work on a very difficult situation. “ – “Thank for a very a very clear report.” And: “Thank you very much, Dom Juan Javier, for this very concise report”. Big applaud followed: The report was the shortest of this General Chapter this far – one single sentence:

• The 8^th Commission of the General Chapter of Abbots examined the acts of the Abbot General and his Council and declares its agreement with and gratitude for the work accomplished.

I can give some general impressions from our work this morning: Some matters deal with the request of abbesses or abbots to resign as they have reached 75 years of age. The considerations made are about the situation of the community, the possibility of eligible candidates for an election, and the health and situation of the abbot or abbess. No votes have been made this far, only the reports from the commissions who have studied the matter. Sometimes they suggest granting the request, other times not to do so, but to wait a year or two or three, in view of somebody who may be eligible to become superior then. 

More painful are the questions concerning communities in great difficulties where there seem to be no viable future. One community of old monks has unanimously asked that their monastery be suppressed. Before coming this far there has been a long road to go, accompanied by a commission of aid from the Order, and the voting of another community who is willing to receive them as part of their own. This community is willing to make them an annex house, so they can continue to live where they have spent their whole monastic life, and can continue to be a presence of prayer at that particular place.

Another community faces openly its fragile situation and has made a decision to stay where they are as long as they can, with their Father Immediate supporting them.

In a situation when more monasteries has not received stable vocations for many years and seem to be dying, the question of Father Immediate also has to be resolved – finding new communities who can take on the paternity when the Mother House (the community of the Father Immediate) no longer can exercise its paternity. I will quote from a report dealing with such a situation:

• In spite of the aging of the community asked, they have accepted paternity because it seemed to the brothers that they could not refuse to pass on life to a young community. After this generous act of faith, six candidates presented themselves to this community, who already has a large filiation.

• One cannot rejoice over the death of a father, but the community of the younger house has accepted the change of paternity after the good experience of the delegation of paternity to the abbot who is willing to be the new Father Immediate.

It is not easy to let go of the dream about transmitting our life to new generations, and it is painful for everybody when a community is getting too weak, and especially when they cannot face the situation. In the spirit of thankfulness and loving care we see how much patience, listening, trying to find solutions, giving help from other monasteries and keeping an open dialogue with the community that is given into each situation. But there may come a point when the General Chapter has to say stop, we have done this and this and that, and now we don’t see any other solution. 

Often the first radical action is to suspend the right to receive aspirants into the Novitiate. It is like a woman reaching menu pause without having children: The dream of bearing a child was only a dream. Some communities can see their situation clearly enough and do not need this act imposed. Seen from the Order at large there is a great concern for the responsibility for candidates that they can really receive a good formation and are formed to a living community, not a community that may have died out by the time the newcomer is able to make solemn profession. Suspension of the right to receive novices may help a community to face reality and to prepare its future in a peaceful way.

We do start to see the end of the General Chapter: There is a list up about when who is leaving, so travels to the airport can be coordinated. All travel expenses are evened out so everybody pays the same, no matter how short or how long a journey they have to make. The general booklets don’t look new anymore. We have got our second service of our laundry, the next will be at home. Every day there are more faces and names you know than the day before, but you come to a point when you hardly have the energy to meet somebody you haven’t already met. Yet, if you change your steps and your route through the aula or the refectory a bit, you always see new faces. At the same time you have to hurry up a bit to get time to see those you have to see…

The regions are on the second round in responsibility for the liturgy of the Mass, and yet there are new surprises. This morning it was the Region of Central Europe, and we heard the Gospel read in the Check language. Still – with the Latin of our common tradition we can all sing familiar songs and sense the strength of thankfulness and praise.

This afternoon several votes were taken, and the following communities were raised to the rank of an abbey: Matatum, Miraflores and Novo Dvur. These communities were raised to the rank of major priory: Abakaliki and Boschi. Great applause for these communities.

Dom Armand was elected as liaison between the Order and the Coordinating Committee of the International Lay Cistercian Association.

The report of the ad hoc Finance Committee was full of praise, including this: 

• We wish to thank all who work with the finances of the Order and the different Commissions. These monks and nuns are doing a very vital and worthwhile ministry and we are deeply grateful to them. Thank you.

Sr. Hanne-Maria of Tautra

Something new and something old

Today we woke up to the new reality of being one single General Chapter, not the Mixed General Chapters of former times. The immediate experience was that of simplification and unity, although there is work ahead with adjustments and changes of the Constitutions.

Because the abbot general had a vote both in the former Chapter of Abbots and that of Abbesses, we had to retake the vote on Statute on Foundations in regard to how many professed monks or nuns should be a minimum for a foundation to be raised to an autonomous simple priory. The vote taken on Tuesday resulted in the nuns requiring 8 professed, the monks requiring only 6. Both results were with one or two votes’ difference.

By the time a new vote was taken, things had already changed: To the suggestion of minimum eight only 68 of the capitulants said yes, 81 said no and 8 abstained. So it remains that 6 professed is enough for autonomy. What a joy it was with the simple procedure of voting together! This will save us a lot of time in the future.

Something new and something old also applies to the liturgy. The familiar sound of the Gregorian chant “Mihi autem” mixed with tunes you never heard and languages unfamiliar. The last few days have given a great variety in the Masses, we have heard Latin, Italian, Dutch, English, French, Irish and Norwegian in our celebrations. 

Sr. Hanne-Maria of Tautra

The treasure of filiation and Father Immediate

The MGM of 2008 looked at some structures of our Order. Not questioning having a Father Immediate, there was still a wish to have a closer look at how this structure – that is particular to our Order (going back to the Charter of Charity of the 12^th century) is functioning. All the mixed commissions have discussed this, and the 14 reports were presented in the plenary session this morning.

Father Immediate is for the monks the abbot of the founding house, for the nuns the abbot of the monastery who takes responsibility of fatherhood when the community reaches autonomy. The Father Immediate makes a Visitation every 2 years – or more often in extraordinary circumstances. There is a link of responsibility and pastoral care in relation to each community. For nuns the Visitation can be delegated every six years. An abbess can be assistant Visitor for the monks and Regular Visitor for nuns. There is detailed legislation for when the Father Immediate needs to be consulted outside the Visitations.

It is interesting to see how fruitful the discussions in the small commissions are, how there is room for everybody to have their say and being heard. The report of the fifth commission is reflecting this:

“In view of the complex question of the role and function, efficacy and inadequacies of the Father Immediate, one member felt that this structure no longer responds to the needs of the Order, because of the sheer lack of monasteries able to provide fully for this service. It was suggested that there could be regional visitors. Others feel that the Father Immediate is an integral part of our charism and attempts already made to give daughter houses of large filiations to other monasteries have not always worked because it is not the natural family tree. Others felt that some changes of filiation had and could work well. But there is a scarcity of communities/abbots able to handle the responsibilities involved, cases of houses closing, or renouncing their father immediateship, others wanting to change for reasons of personality clashes, repeated indications of the visitation repeatedly ignored with no enforcement.”

“We can use the structures we have more creatively, giving women the possibility of visitation in houses of monks, delegating visitation rather than the role of father immediate, using friendly visits, etc.”

“A suggestion about shared authority calls for more collaboration for the good of each community, personal conversion and reconciliation, and return to paternity that gives life and helps things grow. Problems lying beneath the surface are the crisis of authority, power, and fears that see the Regular Visitation as threatening.”

Listening to the different reports, I am reminded of the theme heard in the question of formation and the situation of young people of today: The importance of the father and the consequences of the lack of a father:

Through all the reports you will find a great esteem for the role of a Father Immediate and the important link between a community and its Mother house, both through the regular visitation and friendly contact that builds up trust.

• The Regular Visitation strengthens our vocation by forcing us to look at the most important values we live by. Preparation for the visitation is a beneficial examination of community life. The Visitations often help heal relationships, bringing the concerned parties to see that the source of the problem is not just on one side. Visitations give communities a sense of direction and guidelines for future work.

The differences in culture and language and geographical distance can be a great challenge. In some cultures it takes a long time to build up relationships to a level of openness and trust, and it is not always easy for a person coming in a few weeks from the outside to reach this level and get a realistic picture of the situation in a community. What is a challenge can also be a fruitful opportunity:   

• The fact that the visitor comes from a different culture and requires translators has not been experienced as a major obstacle. This different – and sometimes more objective – point of view is beneficial. Visitations give communities a sense of belonging to a large family, and assure them that various sources of help are available.

The experience of the Father Immediate himself may be discouraging in situations when he is unable to meet the needs of the daughter house, or when the community does not follow up on the Visitation. Some reports suggested a more clear distinctions for what a Visitor may suggest, what he may recommend and what he may decree, and also that the house visited should make a report on their follow-up on the Visitation after six months.

There was also a suggestion of the role of the Father Immediate not being dependent on the Mother House’s ability to make financial contributions to the Daughter House achieving autonomy. This would allow for a poorer house to be a Mother House. 

• The ministry of the Father Immediate must be exercised in faith, both on the part of the Father Immediate who sees himself as the representative of Christ, and faith on the part of the community who receives him as Christ. His ministry is one of aid and assistance, not that of a policeman. A visit by the Father Immediate is a time of grace, a time for the community to look at and reflect on its life and how it may grow in its surrender to God.

The Father Immediate is described as a fellow pilgrim and a poor man:

• He must be conscious of his powerlessness, owning it in prayer. He must be capable of patience and humility, for time is required in order to know and in order to be accepted. Good judgement and good sense is fundamental, and the possibility to listen with empathy, accepting diversity. The primary purpose of the Visitation is to ensure support for the local Superior.

While most commissions advise opening up for an abbess as Regular Visitor, not only for nuns but also for monks, as delegated Visitor, a few commissions showed a different view:

• The possibility of having an abbess as Regular Visitor in houses of monks does not really excite enthusiasm.

There were some stronger statements in this regard, and it seems clear that there are cultural differences in view of the question of having an abbess as regular visitor of monks. The experience of an abbess as assistant visitor was reflected in this report:

• The play of complementarities causes monks to accept more readily what is said by a woman, and vice versa.

Sr. Hanne-Maria of Tautra

No more Mixed General Chapters

We knew something was up, but had no idea what. My mixed commission was waiting to see the abbot general in the afternoon on Sept. 14^th, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, but we waited in vain. We only knew that he was saying good bye to the Cardinal, the new Prefect of the Congregation of Religious life. (See the blog for Sept. 14) It shouldn’t take more than an hour to say good bye?

This morning we learned the answer. Right after Tierce – which we pray in the aula – the word was given to the abbot general, who asked Dom Timothy, the procurator general, to come up for an announcement. The good news came slowly after a very brief history: As of September 14 this year we have been granted our request of the MGMs of 2005 and 2008 to have ONE general chapter.

A long and happy applaud. The other two requests that have been given to the Congregation of Religious Life was for non priest superiors and the interpretation of enclosure for nuns. The answer there is that the first of these is not possible because of the authority structure in the Church. The second question we can reintroduce after we have made the necessary changes of our Constitutions for the one general chapter.

The immediate question in the aula was what to do with the ongoing work in the separate chapters for abbots and abbesses. The Law Commission and the Central Commission have decided that we will continue the work in separate commissions, but make the votes in one Chapter.

Another question will be the vote about simple priories from Tuesday (see yesterday’s blog about the Statute on Foundations). If you just add the abbots’ votes to the abbesses’ votes, the result will be that there will be a request for at least 8 professed monks or nuns in a foundation before it can be raised to a simple priory.

Sr. Hanne-Maria of Tautra

When the earthquake and tsunami hit

We are again on the theme on formation. This far we have listened to voices from Rome/Ireland, The Democratic Republic of Congo, The Philippines, France, Brazil and Japan. Formation as transmission of life was the theme today:

Mother Cecilia of Tenshien used the experience of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, March 11, as basis for her reflections, and how the radio immediately gave instructions to people about what to do and what was happening: “Within ten minutes there will be a giant tsunami; escape to high ground as quickly as possible.”

• My talk on “protecting and transmitting life” will be a modest sharing on what I felt and what I learned during the course of that time when Japan was particularly desperate to “protect life and to transmit life”: What is this life that we transmit? The life we pass on is the life of Christ. Beyond our limitations, weakness and misery, the pure grace of God dwells within us, i.e. the deathless and imperishable life of a child of God. It is the life of God dwelling within the body of clay of the human person made in the image of God, and this is the life that we protect, nurture and pass on.
• During the last disaster I learned that there is nothing that can destroy the truth that man has been created in the image of God, and as such, is protected by the hand of God. 

She talked about how this reaffirmed the pure grace of God, and also about the excellence of human beings in the experience of how people cared and supported one another. Mutual trust is necessary for obedience, so the person can be able to listen and obey. The superior is the first one who must listen to God: 

• To nurture life means to search for God’s will, and to repeatedly listen to Him and follow His will. We reaffirm the latent energy within the redeemed person, however distorted by sin: The solemn presence of God’s image, the supernatural power inherent in a child of God is released. This is the conviction we are to transmit.

Dom Bernardo of Novo Mundo in Brazil talked about handing on what he himself has received, as St. Paul says to the Corinthians:

• The absolute that the monastery possesses and passes on is the unsearchable riches of Christ, to know Christ as the living Son of the living God. This is what the monastery said to me from the first moment when I entered the guesthouse door: “Christ is God.”
• The monastery by being itself gave me the Kingdom of God on earth. It revealed itself as the locus of beauty, holiness, struggle for fidelity, and an environment of human love.

He spoke about how everything was demanded of him in his formation, and how this was the central experience of his novitiate, having reached the end of his strength, he was asked to keep going:

• In one interview with the abbot, I was asked, “What is the greatest sacrifice God could ask of you?” When I told him “My intellect”, he answered: “After we finish talking, go before the Blessed Sacrament and offer your intellect to God.” I did not experience this as inhumanity, but rather as an immense honor. I was being asked to be a man, and a Christian. At the same time, I was constantly aware by discrete words, gestures, silence of the monks that to the extent I couldn’t carry myself, I was being carried by the community.

Dom Bernardo talked about honesty in letting doubt be doubt, and in the doing before the understanding. This is a way that the vocation reveals itself:

• My doubt was the way that brought me to peace and faith. When I felt my theological world was collapsing, and elder monk said to me.” Well, you’re a theologian, aren’t you? Every five years, it’s all going to come apart, and God will build it up again.”

Dom Vedaste of Mokoto in The Democratic Republic of Congo touched in his conference Tuesday on the challenge of modern culture in monastic formation:

• For a long time, one spoke in Africa about adaptation and enculturation of the Gospel message, and the enculturation of monasticism. At the time there was a sense of the necessity of deepening our faith by trying to make the Gospel take on certain traditional values. At present many people are fearful of being left behind if they refuse to play the game. We are currently living in a pluralistic, multicultural world. In the name of secularity a certain form of ideologically dominant globalization is about to level humanity down to the lowest common denominator: We should like everyone to be like everyone else and to live like everyone else.

Dom Vedaste warned about what he called the information highway running around the world, calling monks and nuns to great discernment in use of modern communication:

• The young people we recruit today are products of this environment, fascinated by a new global culture, a culture that develops a dizzying speed.  What kind of formation may we offer these young people while remaining faithful to our Cistercian charism? Faced with the steamroller of a new global ethics, tending towards secularism, are we sufficiently well armed to safeguard our Cistercian identity?

Dom Patrick of Sept Fonts in France made a point of a clear vision in a community as an important basis for formation:

• A community must know what it is and what it wants in order to form its members, and this must express itself in a practice. There must be a clear sense of priorities, so the brothers will develop a capacity for judgment which distinguishes the persons from their views.

He talked about the importance of having a team of formators, so not only the abbot, novice master and sub master work in unity, but also the teachers, so there is a unity of thought and action. Spiritual formation is mainly in contact with an “elder”. The intellectual formation should not be disconnected from real life:

• The human formation is more necessary and more delicate today than in the past. The young brothers are more marked by the absence of framework outside the monastery, often because they come from a chaotic family life. The discernment must take time. 
• By giving the brothers professional formation and means of acquiring competence, one assist at the birth of a solid general equilibrium of the personality.

Dom Patrick emphasized that the formation depends a lot on our relationship to memory and to its transmission. Many of the young brothers who present themselves at the monastery today do not know what they are because they do not know where they come from, he said.

Sr. Hanne-Maria of Tautra