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HUMILITY
and FORMATION
of
THE
VULNERABLE
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IN Chapters 58-61 of his Rule Saint Benedict describes the reception of new members to the monastery (c. 58), including the reception of child-oblates (c. 59), priests, (c. 60) and visiting monks (c. 61). THE process of entry entails progress from entrance to guesthouse, then to novitiate. Then responsibility for formation lies with a senior skilled in winning souls, who watches for the four signs of a vocation. The novitiate is of three periods, testing stability, patience, and obedience. IMPLICITLY linked to the eucharistic celebration, the vows are made at the altar: obedientia, stabilitas, conversatio morum suorum. The emphases on stability and obedience make it clear that the conversatio to which the monks commits himself is the way of life of a particular monastery RECENT authors such as Lassus have stressed the importance of formation in freedom [c.6; c.9!], and freedom in opening the heart, as well as avoiding prophetic assurance by the formator that a candidate has a vocation.
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HUMILITY
as WILLINGNESS
to CHANGE
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1920. The Founders
of the Belgian Congregation of the Annunciation |
THE existence of a General Chapter and of Benedictine congregations reflects a willingness on the part of Benedicines of the fifteenth century to learn from the experience and the success of others: most notably in this instance from the successful structures of organization and leadership manifested by the friars from the thirteenth century onwards. Innovations pioneered by the friars, such as regular visitations, general chapters, and superiors elected for terms, were incorporated into monastic structures.
NEW monasteries continue to be founded, and the identification and manifestation of new monastic charisms is an ongoing task - sometimes, indeed, a source of concern. The apostolates and charisms of the monasteries that make up the congregations undergo subtle, sometimes barely perceptible transformation as the communities seek to discern the Will of God for them and their future.
PERHAPS in this context it may be helpful to remind ourselves of the need for continuing, even lifetime formation in the virtue of humility according to several aspect of this virtue the we particularly noted in our last conference:
(Adapted from A Handbook of Positive Psychology by June Tangney, (Oxford, 2000)
· an accurate assessment of one’s abilities and achievements (not low self-esteem, self-deprecation)
[What are our strengths and genuine capabilities - what are we actually able to do NOW - not only what have we traditionally done in the past?]
· an ability to acknowledge one’s mistakes, imperfections, gaps in knowledge, and limitations (often vis-a-vis a “higher power”)
[What have we learned from our mistakes as a community?]
· openness to new ideas, contradictory information, and advice
[Are we willing to consider new approaches, listening carefully and openly to those who have experience, and who desire our good?]
· keeping one’s abilities and accomplishments— one’s place in the world—in perspective (e.g., seeing oneself as just one person in the larger scheme of things)
[Can we be both grateful for what we have contributed in the past and attentive to what we can become now?]
· a relatively low self-focus, a “forgetting of the self,” while recognizing that one is but part of the larger universe:
[How can we best respond to the needs of the Annunciation Congregation, the Benedictine Confederation and the Church?]
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This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 2003
