The Itinerant's Path » Brotherhood http://www.vinceleste.com/blog Listening, Discerning, Responding. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:35:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Monk and the modern world http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2007/monk-and-the-modern-world/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2007/monk-and-the-modern-world/#comments Wed, 10 Jan 2007 08:12:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/monk-and-the-modern-world/ 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.

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2007/monk-and-the-modern-world/feed/ 5 Thanksgiving day: 190th Year of God's Faithfulness http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2007/thanksgiving-day-190th-year-of-gods-faithfulness/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2007/thanksgiving-day-190th-year-of-gods-faithfulness/#comments Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:37:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2007/01/02/thanksgiving-day-190th-year-of-gods-faithfulness/ 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

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2007/thanksgiving-day-190th-year-of-gods-faithfulness/feed/ 0 Mission and Dialogue of Life http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/mission-and-dialogue-of-life/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/mission-and-dialogue-of-life/#comments Thu, 14 Dec 2006 02:18:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2006/12/14/mission-and-dialogue-of-life/ This is in response to the question, “Is it possible to do mission without dialogue of life?”
For me, it is impossible to do mission without dialogue of life. Understanding about life itself, it is dynamic and towards an end goal or purpose. The question about the purpose of life or the question of existence is always present to very individual. Doing mission is the solidarity of every person to others; it is dynamic, moving and thus, a journey. Mission is in tandem with dialogue, how much more when it is about life? The experience of being with one another, or the presence of every person in the light of Christ’s teaching is always seen as a missionary activity: witnessing Christ to others. Doing justice and giving every people the opportunity to live with dignity is making Christ present, and is already a dialogue of life. Thus, there can be no real sense of mission if there is no dialogue of life.

Image done with Oil Pastel in a page of my journal notebook last Holy week. It depicts a person’s passion, burning with zeal and ready to burst out for others. The blue outline is the serenity of the person, while holding the compassionate heart for others.

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/mission-and-dialogue-of-life/feed/ 3 Life as Religious in a Contempory Time http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/life-as-religious-in-a-contempory-time/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/life-as-religious-in-a-contempory-time/#comments Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:22:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2006/12/12/life-as-religious-in-a-contempory-time/ 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.

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/life-as-religious-in-a-contempory-time/feed/ 5 Aloneness: A State of Life http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/aloneness-a-state-of-life/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/aloneness-a-state-of-life/#comments Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:34:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2006/12/09/aloneness-a-state-of-life/ One example of experience of aloneness I can give is being in relationship with God in contemplation at all times. I was taught that every individual longs to be in a higher state, and that state is not necessarily to be an ecstatic life but having a simple joy in the heart that also gives meaning in life. Childhood stage is a “self-centered” world, followed by an adult’s “seeking-others” relationship; but more than that, there is a self, seeking for a greater realm of life: transcendence. Moreover, we were taught that longing for God alone and having an intimate relationship with God is through aloneness. Aloneness is a state of life with honesty, faithfulness, and simplicity… is already a God-seeking life without human mediation. I don’t see it as an individualistic attitude of a person who vowed to be alone in life for it is also a life that seeks transcendence through other people since aloneness is an inner structure of life. But unlike married people who share a mutual relationship with each other, and which is a very common state of life, a celibate person responds to the immediate call to be at the liminal, who lives at the edge of the society. Although everybody is called to a holy life, being a religious is linked to every community where he or she belongs. Through other people, aloneness is more appreciated for what it is rather than what it does. This is a new insight for me.

In the blogging community and circle of friends, I find hard times to explain the state of life I am engaged with since being a religious brother who vowed not to marry and possesses property is a vague idea for many who do not understand what a “religious” means. But being part of the society, aloneness is giving a contrast and let the curious people seek what it means to be alone yet happy and lesser hang ups in life. While the technology is getting complicated and makes life easier, there is also a difficulty at the same time to live a simple and joyful life. Many of the youth today according to a survey about how happy and contended the new generations, are having much questions even in terms of relationship and identity. The world is getting more noisy, in and out of every individual. Yet being in the state of life that seeks for God without human interventions, the monks, nuns and people who vowed to be religious more or less, finds consolation to their experiences with the transcendent as they constantly seek for their significance in the community in the world, not separated from the local communities where they belong. One moment of aloneness with the Lord I have at this moment is sitting in contentment in the balcony while sipping a mug of tea, contemplating the end of the day, giving thanks for all the experiences I had today.

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/aloneness-a-state-of-life/feed/ 8 Why Should Religious Get Up in the Morning? http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/why-should-religious-get-up-in-the-morning/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/why-should-religious-get-up-in-the-morning/#comments Wed, 06 Dec 2006 05:14:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2006/12/06/why-should-religious-get-up-in-the-morning/ A Reflection of a Consecrated Brother

It is seems to be a difficult question for me if I try to understand what it really means. It is simply answered as, we need to get up to do our duties for the day by starting it with morning prayer and at the end of the day, we end by evening prayer, and the next day, we get up again. A routine. But I am sure that it means something about the existence of religious life in the modern contemporary time and its future.

When I was still in the novitiate, I learned that a religious congregation needs to evolve with time so that it will not die or being left behind. There is a cycle that sometimes, it is able to cope with the challenges of time and sometimes, questions the effectiveness of the charism which the founder adopted to answer the needs of his time. I have read couple of books about my own congregation from the start of its existence up to the latest circular of our Superior General and I found out that there are so many changes happened in the whole institute as time passes by. Soon as the Brothers started to become a congregation, they taught small schools in rural areas but these days, a lot of lay mission partners are being involved with the brothers’ works in big schools whether in rural or urban places and in mission places, as well. But the existence of religious life is still there as it is founded strongly and willingly evolved with time without losing its own charism. The Brothers still gather together as a sacred community and sustained its existence.

For me, re-envisioning religious life itself is important to every congregation as they locate themselves in the midst of new changes in the society, its structure and its needs. The challenge to evaluate the dreams of the founder and the first community is there, whether there is a dynamism and consciousness for the modern time. Attentiveness is needed and not only by sending missions. Even before I joined the formation, I asked myself of what would be my role in my own institute, and what can I share to my own community as I longed to live the religious life. It looked like, two sides or parts of me. Me, inside the congregation and me, outside the congregation. Inside the congregation, I am part of the intentional community that longed to pray together, work together and be with together. Outside the congregation, I am part of the whole church as I willingly vowed publicly to serve others. But the question I am trying to answer is, “As the Church continue to move on with time, up to what extent can I see myself in the religious life living my vows faithfully?” It is still the happiness to get up in the morning sharing the faith with the whole Church in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/why-should-religious-get-up-in-the-morning/feed/ 5 Challenge Accepted and Responsibilities http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/challenge-accepted-and-responsibilities/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/challenge-accepted-and-responsibilities/#comments Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:58:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2006/12/01/challenge-accepted-and-responsibilities/ Yesterday afternoon, I was called by the Rector to report in his office, and obediently I went and asked him what it was all about. He asked me about a responsibility of a moderator and what is moderatorship. I answered him that it is a tough responsibility and a very challenging one. Then I paused and asked, “Are you really asking me about moderatorship or something? We had our secret election the other day and I guessed what he meant: that I am consulted to take the office as a moderator for Chanel Fraternity.

Our fraternity is compose of 12 brothers including the animator superior, and next to his office/position is the moderator followed by a bursar/treasurer procurator. I’ve been into bursarship and t’was pretty tough! Procuring the different needs of the brothers in the fraternity is confusing, and that differ mostly because of different cultures; from India of Asia as far as Kiribati in Pacific.

He told me that he was really consulting me for that post but I quickly declined and will not become the moderator of my fraternity. I’m experiencing the difficulty with my relationship with a brother in my own house and have to settle and process it for a while in my own way, one of the reasons why I’m hesitant to become one. Then he started persuading me. I was chosen by secret election and that means I am trusted by the other members, and they believe that I have the capacity to gather and have the leadership skills needed by a moderator. Still, I was not convinced. “Am I the first choice? I asked. he said, “Yes” So I asked for an overnight to discern well about it. I prayed over it and reflected about my own capacity and giftedness.

I asked ate Sash and quickly she said, “No, don’t accept it” I laughed and told her that she may not understand what it means to be one. So the night passed by smoothly…

The next day, Friday, I organized the afternoon manual work as part of my present responsibility as one of the councilors of our whole community. It’s another resposbility which is higher than the moderator actually, since it is for the whole community. In the middle of the work, I was called again by the Rector (I was trying to avoid him but he looked for me). He was waiting for my decision I promised to give him today. After a long silence I said, “Yes, I accept the responsibility to be in the service of my brothers. Though I’m hesitant, I am considering it.”

It’s more than playing a game, it’s more than my plans but it is all about service. It has advantages in my formation. Difficult it is but how about the mutual trust. They trusted me, therefore I also trust them, that we can make a better and united fraternity from the diversity.

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/challenge-accepted-and-responsibilities/feed/ 10 My Family Portrait http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/my-family-portrait/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/my-family-portrait/#comments Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:32:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2006/11/26/my-family-portrait/
This is my family. We are all 12 including our animator (fraternity Superior). We came from 8 different countries; Samoa, Papua New Guinea, India, Korea, Kiribati, Pakistan, Solomon Islands, and Philippines…

]]> http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/my-family-portrait/feed/ 11 Year Ender: Redefining BLOG and Why Do I Blog http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/year-ender-redefining-blog-and-why-do-i-blog/ http://www.vinceleste.com/blog/2006/year-ender-redefining-blog-and-why-do-i-blog/#comments Sun, 05 Nov 2006 11:19:00 +0000 brVince http://iretreat.wordpress.com/2006/11/05/year-ender-redefining-blog-and-why-do-i-blog/ It was October of 2005 when I started to write a blog. Unknown to me what is the standard defination of blog, I just started to write whatever I wanted to write that comes to my mind. It’s been a year that I always changed my blog address for many reasons. Now that I finally understand what does it mean to blog, I finally decided to collect once again all the thoughts I had since I started.

The first weblog I had was entilted “Skeptic*” which means, “a person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.” It was powered by Calliope. The first article “Invitation” is a reprint from an unknown paper that I just copied and posted as my first item. This was followed by my original compostion about my own understanding of my own Vows of Obedience, on how I live it as part of my daily ramblings that somehow affects my Growth of Fatih in the life I have chosen to follow. Part of my experience here in Manila is being invited to attend a National Convention of all Religious Brothers from the whole country. I was Looking forward to it. In many instances, I had always a feeling of being happy and sometimes, I caught myself thinking, giving reason to my simple joy, I’m Thinking Aloud. As part of my blogging, somebody asked about myself but somehow I can’t just tell my identity as a Brother unless I introduce first my own congregation. I wrote about us The Brothers. finally, I reached the final end of 2005 and celebrated my first Christmas here in Manila. And part of our activity was a recollection. I blogged my Year-end Recolection in an analogy: The Empty jar, that represents myself at the end of 2005. Two days after that was the foundation day of our Institute/congregation and I made the Introduction as I was tasked as a Commentator during the thanksgiving Day. For three months, I blogged with Skeptic’s.

Unsatisfied of my first weblog and I decided to study the basic way of blogging yet I considered myself as unfortunate in terms of studying new things especially that I was preoccupied of my studies and I was in transition from rural to urban setting. I just came from a “silent” place and came here to expose myself and be challenged in an outside world. But the availability of internet gave me a lot of opportunities. 24 hours of broadband connection and computer gave me the idea to make use of it to according to what is right and helpful to me. Once again, I was motivated to try again but with Blogger while I was still blogging with Calliope on that same year 2005, December. Not being to far from the first idea, I gave a second blog a title called Touchstones, (polisher)I just added “minds” that always remind me of being a thinker according to the result of my enneagram test as typical number 5 since when I was still a novice. I reposted the first article I had from my previous blog, Skeptic; the first article I had. I wrote an article about the success of the Global Visionaries, a group of young professionals from Metro Manila and abroad, who gathered themselves through Filipino Friend Finder. I became part of the group and was able to convince them to visit my own area of Apostolate, working with the children in a settlement area in Marikina City. Indeed it was a Christmas celebration with the kids that made us happy and with the children as well. Another article was about Going to Heaven. It was a cracked joke, a conversation between an adult an children on how we reach heaven. The kid was right that left the adult wonder how to reach heaven in a real sense. Next article was about Saying Yes - about the meaning of our lives in terms of commitment and self surrender. Once again, As I stated above, during the month of December, I gradually moved to Blogger, and again I reposted my Year-end Recollection Reflection. Sometimes, my life is not always at top, and there were instances of being down. I was given my my spiritual director a formula prayer of discernment and I posted it, too. This was followed with some feelings of Agony and left me thinking, being provoked and finally, I was able to determine why, because of a departure of a close friend of mine. After some experiences of feeling down, there were events that made me feeling up, too. That was the day of Consecration; once again. And there was silence. I even posted my abstract drawing using a pastel and oslo as my medium, it depicted how abstract life is sometimes, actually it was all about me. Indeed life is just like a cycle, when melancholy and serenity come then followed by renewed experiences where realization comes that God is always present; Life’s color. As I continued blogging, I also reflected about being a light to others. Somehow, my blogging was getting clearer to me, why do I blog and how useful it is to blog. It was becoming a purpose of sharing what I have, the experienceswith the kids, with my self and with others by letting God works in all things. I started to write about what are related to my formation, about what I have learned about the spirituality of living, how joyful it is to live in spite of pain sometimes, they give meaning actually. These made me sings and inspired to post lyrics of singers like Kym. One of my experiences in my apostolate affected me and it questioned who I am to the kids, and yet it became a challenge for me to look at my own self as a Brother, though this gives me inspiration sometimes. Before I shifted to WordPress. I was still able to post my own reflection about my sexuality and my struggle listening to my Theology teacher
about the experience of Wilderness in our lives.

I stopped blogging for a while and made infrequent visits but I felt the need of expressing myself in a way that I will enjoy and I thought, I found it by using WP. So I started blogging again. Month of September and still gradually ending my WP blogging this November.

These were the blogs I have posted with WP. Thanks to WP for the experience of blogging and being with the community of bloggers. As of now, I’m still blogging but with Blogger: Recedo (L): I retreat…; it’s being at Blogger once again. Thanks to the frequent visitors and readers who shared their comments with me, reacting and clarifying things, blogging with me. I salute you all; you came first before me.

Definitions from Dictionary.Com
Skeptic - a person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.
Touchstone
s - A hard black stone, such as jasper or basalt, formerly used to test the quality of gold or silver by comparing the streak left on the stone by one of these metals with that of a standard alloy.
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