My first notion about monks was too broad, generalized and really a different idea from what we have now. Monks were the people who live in the forest alone and secluded. The cloisters they have do not accept visitors openly and they lived as farmers and beggars. Yet it is common for them as simple people, living their vows with austerity. They were tagged as ascetics, hermits, old people to mendicants, beggars, who can also be found in the cities. I met the founder of a newly established local congregation under a Bishop, and he said that they are the modern mendicants. Being a monk follows with the world’s trend, from old to modern, and they exist at the edge of the society. When the world is getting modernized, globalized and chaotic, where is the simplicity and how they can live the challenges of the modern lifestyle?

Religious life is a 24/7 life, and a monk lives a unified and well-integrated life. He is not being disturbed nor affected with the world’s change, faithful and is calm; he is being in contemplation, having a constant attitude of being a religious monk whatever their professions or works. This should not be misinterpreted with the activities of being a monk will make a monk. The identity is being changed from “practices” to “being” not for showing only. Like the virtues of the vows, give way to a constant intimate communion with God in every events of everyday dealings. This is greatly demanding and yet a privilege to a monk to be wholly and well-integrated being. Monks continually exist in spite of having nothing, a realization that even without any securities and social identities, continue to evolved and seek transformation and conversion in Christ, whom we always find our identity; it is spirituality.

Every Christian is called to follow Christ, this is religious life; since everybody is consecrated to God by virtue of being adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus. Thus we are always the “people of God” and that encompasses everything. This gives life to a new way of monasticism in our modern time, being integrated with every individual and communities; from our families of our own to our professional career, on how the values of the monks are lived. The new communities of Christians are gift to everybody and it is being welcomed gradually. We can see the changes of Christian life in our local churches being re-energized with the challenges presented by religious life in the modernized and more secularized world. It started from people’s need, local churches as how the early monastic life was born, spread all over the land.

n.b. Random personal reflection, unedited nor grammar checked.

We just celebrated our foundation day. We had the thanksgiving Eucharist this afternoon. It was another year of fruitfulness in the Church and faithfulness to God. We thank the founding people and his contemporary brothers.

Today, in 1817, in La Valla, France, Marcellin Champagnat founded the Institute of Teaching Brothers. He started with two young men, Brothers Jean Marie and Louis.

Marcellin’s inspiration in founding the congregation was rooted in the need of his contemporary time. He became aware of the extreme difficulty of the people especially the young in learning how to read and write, and the urgent need of creating a society to cope with those hardships. Moreover, His experience with the Montagne boy reinforced his desire to teach them in a Christian way of education. His dream, to send the Brothers to all dioceses in the world is now becoming a reality in our contemporary times.

With our theme in today’s commemoration, “Built Wisely, Living Today!” is the realization of our foundation as congregation of teaching Brothers. But indeed, “If the Lord does not build a house, in vain do the builders labour,” A wise man builds his house on the rock, so Champagnat too, our wise Father priest, inspired us to be here today to celebrate with him in thanking God for the graciousness in finding our own giftedness in the institute.

We pray for all the Brothers in the whole Institute, all those who have gone before us, and those who, in many ways, shared their lives as Marists in spirit.

With the spirit of Champagnat and with Mary our Good Mother, our first Superior, let us begin the celebration with joyful hearts and minds.

by Br. Vince, FMS

This is in response to the question, “Is it possible to do mission without dialogue of life?”

My reflections about living a life of being a religious in modern days as a young brother.

“Why don’t you join priesthood rather than just a religious brother? Same, you can’t marry, anyway” Same questions and statements I heard from my own parents and friends when I expressed my desire to join the brotherhood. My family was not ready to understand what religious life means. Even myself, I didn’t really understand the differences of being a lay religious and ordinary layman. It was difficult for me to weigh my intentions since I have always the option to help others as a lay man, same with what lay religious are doing; serving our neighbors in the same way a religious does. Being confronted with the realities of life; poverty, injustice, problems with society in general, I was asked if I was just trying to escape from these, and joining the group of people gathered together inside the intentional communities is one way of running away from these realities. I had the notion of being secured in life inside while enjoying the social structure, but attraction to religious life is more than these.

The earlier belief of security is also confronting young religious like me in general. Maybe this is the reason why we are always send to study more and even outside our seminaries, just like other students do. If before, the young religious were staying in their own cloisters to live the vows, my contemporary time is getting different and more open to change. Somehow there is the gradual change in formation. There are instances in my community to compare the formation between elder brothers and younger brothers when issue of differences and generation gap are raised. As if there is something wrong with the new generation of religious yet at the same time, wrongly understood that there is also something wrong with old formation. Indeed life is getting more difficult as the society changes too fast also. Technology now determine most of the peoples movement and there are difficulty with the Church people to “get in” to it. It seems that its more difficult to live a simple lifestyle just like before the second Vatican Council. Few years back, I was phoned by a nun in a monastery to fix their printer. I was honored to enter in a monastery of nuns, which I’m thinking, no man can ordinarily enter their cloister, I was wrong. Inside their parlor, I saw laptop, desktop and mobile gadgets used for communication. At least, the paradigm I had was getting clearer that spirituality in religious life doesn’t just mean a small life but a very real and challenging life but simple and liberating.