| ADVANCED PRIORSHIP
TRAINING SCHOOL | Summer 1973
July 28, 1973 | |
| I. OVERALL Existential Objective | The existential objective of the Advanced Priorship Training School is four-fold: 1) to develop in men the self--conscious awareness, embracement and revelation of the mystery at every moment such that their struggle is focused on the depth spirit issues of priorship and the one responsibility to God for the entire world, 2) to develop disciplined men who are to begin the journey of continually deciding to be the prior demanded in every situation, 3) to raise up en who stand totally present their own journeys as reflective ones in order to be missionally single--minded, anticipating situations and enacting the responses required by them, 4) to enable priors to be that spirit presence and to embody those skills which entice the development of priorship in others. | |
| Rational Aim | The rational aim of the Advanced Priorship Training School is fourfold: 1) to give men the means by which to articulate the stages and accompanying struggles of a prior's journey through knowing and doing to being the warrior, trainer and guardian that the twentieth century requires; 2) to deepen within the prior the knowledge and use of all intellectual, social and spirit methods, and the guru style of articulating the mystery and significance of every moment such that others are released to do the same toward comprehensive care for the world. 3) to develop solitary/corporate giants who stand alone in the desert when all others have fallen, by giving men the spirit methods which such gianthood demands, 4) to embody the self--conscious use of all methodologies, especially spirit methodologies and tools which release others to assume the pain and joy of total responsibility for the world as the prior which the Lord requires. | |
| The Advanced Priorship Training School is out to create a sense of awe at the profound depth of the heritage and tradition of Historical Christianity Every participant needs to be confronted with the necessity of being a spirit theologian grounded in the whole tradition of the church and a self able to speak back to the tradition from his own ground. An expansive active meditative council must be created by disciplined engagement in the journey of "impact,
address, dialogue and communion" with the theological giants of the past. The necessity to awaken the awe--filling drive of intellectual wonder and theological insight in other movemental colleagues in a way which calls the colleagues beyond their knowing into the unknown is a subsidiary aim. | ||
| Rational Aim | The Advanced Priorship Training School is intended to give the prior a clear picture of the practical steps involved in his knowledge journey within the order/movement. Advanced and special studies and recent research clarified as to their roles in creating a competent and corporate trailer. The depth rationale behind the movement curriculum is grounded in life and the prior is equipped with methods which allow him to continually recreate his theological education. The practical repertoire of re of tools, instruments and methods are created, used and embodied for future theological training of himself and all others he encounters as pedagogue. |
| III. VISIONARY
CREATOR/
GROUNDER Existential Objective | The existential aim of the Advanced Priorship Training School is to have the participant experience the awe and mystery as the essence of style in being the visionary leader; to redecide to be that visionary; to have that awe and mystery so authentically grounded in his own life, that he may ground it in the life of others, thus enabling the continued creation of their individual journey. |
| Rational Aim | The rational aim of the Advanced Priorship Training School is to enable the participants to gain clarity on the steps in grounding and creating the vision in others; to give them practical approaches to meet each arena with creative vision; to know methods by which he grounds and creates the visionary stance in others; to have available aids to maintain and ground his own visionary leadership. |
| IV. SPIRITUAL MOTIVATOR/ MAINTAINER
Existential Objective | The Advanced Priorship Training School is out to further the creation of a Religious by enabling him to appropriate his experience and intellectual clarity on the deeps and mystery of life and respond by molding the new forms of humanness by each epoch; in so doing and the patterning of is life, he becomes the vehicle through which the mystery is continually revealed. A heightened self-consciousness of the decisional relationship to the life understanding, is to be fostered and made into concrete forms of engagement. Also, to be further understood, is the journey one takes as a result of this life understanding in the experiencing, knowing, doing, and being. Finally, the Advanced Priorship Training School will develop the kind of prior through whom the religious life understanding will be revealed and secured for all men. |
| Rational Aim | The Advanced Priorship Training School, in terms of the profound role of priorship which is enabling the spiritual struggle of every man, will develop both the experience of, understanding of, and ways for dealing with the life drama. This will be done through the grounding of spirit deeps and through rational methods developed for releasing the spirit. Thus, as the participant of the Advanced Priorship Training School undergoes this, he gains clarity, and ways for dealing with the profound human deeps of not only his, but of all mankind. |
| V. SELFSUSTAINED CONQUEROR/RISKER Existential Objective | To recall to awareness the awful ambiguity of the given, calls man into mission and to the demands, he becomes creatively and responsibly engaged. To reaffirm his decision to build models which give form and direction to his life and create the future. To deepen his self--consciousness of his journey as one beginning with "mission" and leading into "venture" and "election" and finally, "exaltation." To sense the self sustained stance which entices and enables others to forge the new. |
| Rational Aim | To develop clarity on the steps in leading workshopping, model building, PSU's, and other practical methodologies. To practice and apply the model-building dynamic to each and every arena of solitary and corporate life. To acquire and practice the diversity of sensitivities, styles, and tools for doing effective model building To work out the concrete methods for journeying others in becoming the prior-pastors who are called in turn to lead others to decide the future. |
| VI. DISCIPLINED ACTOR/ENABLER
Existential Objective | Existentially, the Advanced Priorship Training School aims to enable the prior to better fill his actor--warrior role by allowing increased spirit expenditure. This comes from deepening his relationship to the mystery. On he other side of his closeness to the mystery, he must make a decision to set out on a journey that will carry him through the burden, the passion, the involvement, and finally to the total expenditure. His utter surrender to the priorship task; on behalf of the final reality, then, he needs to transmit his appropriation of the mystery to his colleagues profoundly, clearly, and powerfully. |
| Rational Aim | Rationally, the Advanced Priorship Training School seeks to endow the participant with a more comprehensive idea of how he needs to act to affectively be the tactictioner, that is the fiercely active prior. It first pushes him to grasp the arena of his task more thoroughly. Then, it allows him to begin a solitary journey in order for him to act out priorship. Second, it will provide him with clear concepts of how he must use roles, skills and methods in order to achieve complete priorship. |
| ADVANCED PRIORSHIP
TRAINING SCHOOL | Summer 1973
July 28, 1973 | |
| ||
| WORSHIP
5:30 BREAKFAST
6:00 CONTEXTUAL SPIN 8:00 | Daily Office
Conversation Gifts of Universal and Movemental Heritage Today's three spins should focus on catalyzing a discussion on what a prior needs to KNOW, DO, and BE in the broadest, yet practical terms of what we are out to have happen in the houses. The workshops that follow are to pick up on this discussion and focus it to tactics methodologies which will create priors. | |
| MORNING WORKSHOP
9:00 | Intent: to lay out a practical methodology that will create priors by focusing on what a prior needs to know.
1. Scan THE RELIGIOUS HOUSE: TRANSFORMING THE FOUNDATIONAL PIETY (R25) and GENERAL STAFF SCHOOL PSU (R28) and concentrate on images and arenas which speak to what a prior needs to know. 2. Brainstorm a quick list from each document on the board.
3. Where are the obvious relationships between the two lists that elicit practical manifestations of priorship knowing?
4. List 5 practical ways that priorship might be accelerated in this arena of knowing. 5. Pick the most relevant and helpful methodology in the list relative to the next 12 months in the religious houses. Develop this into a practical step by step disciplined description of how this might be brought off in a typical house. | |
| LUNCH
12:00 AFTERNOON WORKSHOP 2:00 | Conversation Intent: to lay out a practical methodology that will create priors by focusing on what a prior needs to DO. Use the same materials and methodology as the morning, focusing on the going dimension of priorship. | |
| DINNER
6:00 | Conversation | |
| EVENING
WORKSHOP 7:30 | Intent: to lay out a practical methodology that will create priors by focusing on what a prior needs to BE. Use the same materials and methodology as the morning, focusing on the being dimension of priorhood. | |
| ADVANCED PRIORSHIP
TRAINING SCHOOL | Summer 1973
July 28, 1973 | |
| ||
| WORSHIP
5:30 BREAKFAST
6:00 CONTEXTUAL SPIN 8:00 | Daily Office
Priorship Conversation This conversation is to enable the participant to see priorship as a journey and to begin to sense the levels or steps in priorship. Begin the conversation with a spin on priorship as an everyday journey with steps and dimensions. Sample Questions: -When have you shown up being in charge of a situation? -What is your earliest memory of being a prior? -What kind of decision was involved? What were you out to have happen? What brought about your being prior in that situation; What is it like to experience a jump, or step in priorship? What have you learned about the journey of priorship?
Instruct groups to be assembled at 8:00 in their assigned areas and to bring a copy of "The Ronin" with them. Announce that the bookstore will be opened. Announce clean-up team. Close. THE RONIN This spin should mention the way priorship is a life dynamic, and how we need to be able to know our own journey as well as how we can enable others to journey as priors. Point out the need for the secularreligious illustrations we need to have as we begin to move the guild. Explain overall goal for the day as a document on the journey of priorship using the RONIN, the movie, "The Gospel According l to St. Matthew," and some saints of the church for the arenas of study. Explain that 2 hours are given to read and chart the RONIN and fill in beneath the line data relative to the priorship of the three principal characters: The Ronin, the Old Man, and the Prince, i.e. the decisions, the shifts, and situations involved in the book relative to each character. Individual Study Begin study, participants may study elsewhere if they wish but return by 11:00 with data filled in and charted. A preliminary teacher's study chart is attached. Check on progress of the group periodically. At 11:00, meet together and get up a rough overall chart of the RONIN by journey of characters. | |
| LUNCH
12:00 AFTERNOON WORKSHOP
2:00 CLOSING 5:30 | Spin on the journey of a prior and the demand to raise up new priors in light of the next 20 years. Touch lightly on "The Ronin," using it to illustrate the task ahead, i.e. cut wood and carry water, and how one somehow manages to do it joyously.
Context movie-"The Gospel According to Saint Matthew" as an art form and priorship style and enable participants to see some steps, decisions, and priorship enabling that taking place in the movie. Encourage the taking of notes. Assembly in smaller groups. Context for WorkshopWe are out to get a handle on the journey of a prior so that we can be more effective as enablers of priors. Using the categories present in "The Ronin, " 'The Gospel According to St. . Matthew, " and from the life of one of the saints of the church, write a document on this journey. Assign the group one of the 10 readings as previously a reed upon with the other pedagogues. Allow 5 minutes to read. Appoint a scribe to record data for duplicating. Get out list of steps in each journey as a prior. Interweave a composite list of as many steps as possible and put the composite list on the board. What steps did the Ronin take? the Old Man? The Prince? Jesus? The Saint? Get up a list of 30 or more steps. Chart in terms of what are the levels or categories of these steps? (get 2 to 10 steps), each group's approach to these may be different. Push for categories that point to a change in the journey. With these categories (labeled steps) listed in a row as the functional categories, build a 4 level chart using the categories of: 1) What decision characterizes this step? 2) External Sign: What indicates this step has been taken? 3) Internal Sign: What does one experience when this step is taken? 4) Catalytic Action: How can we enable such a decision in
others that we are developing as priors? Dismiss for Dinner and preparation for the Sanctification Course. | |
| WAKE UP
5:00 AM BREAKFAST 6:00 | Wake up: Praise the Lord
Sanctification Course Session 5 |
DISCONTINUITY | Discontinuity in this instance is not meant to be a "do your own thing" time, but a time of activity that is different, i.e. discontinuous, from that which the participants have been previously engaged. The activity to be engaged in is dependent upon the decision made relative to the Cabaret (see below).
If the participants are to put on the Cabaret, the afternoon and early evening should be spent in preparing for it. If they are going "out" and no preparation is necessary, a sophistication laboratory (e.g. clothes purchasing, trip into downtown, etc. see R 28 for additional data) is suggested. This period is intended to allow the participants to "wind down" and do solitary reflection. |
| CABARET | It is recommended that the participants obtain practical
experience in the dynamics, forms and techniques of putting on a Cabaret as a sign of resurgence. They should experience the demand of physical expenditure as a change of pace and as a subtle lead into the next session. The evening should be healing and therefore releasing them to the task ahead while at the same the dealing with the general theme of sophistication. The mood should be light yet serious like the ball before the big battle. There are three major decisions to be made about the cabaret: 1) Whether the Cabaret will fulfill the necessary function; 2) If there is to be a cabaret, do the participants put it on themselves or go "out" to one. In the latter case, going out may mean going to a local cabaret such as at the Holiday Inn in Chicago. 3) Should it be cabaret put on for the priors by base or the Chicago Area House? If priors are to put on the Cabaret themselves, acts and scripts must be written, certain participants may need to
be pulled from the course in order to enable a well-prepared intentional Cabaret. Recommend that priors create own Cabaret. That work begins in August regarding scripts. Chicago Area House can be called in to advise. |
WORSHIP:
5:30 BREAKFAST 6:00 | Daily Office
Conversation Intent: to get out initial reflections, insights and ideas on the Cabaret and Sanctification. This will be discussed in depth later in the morning. (Note: Push especially question #8) 1. what happened during the past 2 ½ days? 2. What happened during the sanctification course? 3. What happened to us in the sanctification course? 4. What did we learn about sanctification? 5. What happened last night? 6. That happened to us? 7. What do we know about the cabaret? 8. How would you talk about the relationship between sanctification and cabaret? |
| DAY'S
CONTEXT | The practical aim of the day is to research the practical implications of Cabaret and Sanctification to the external mission of Penetration, Formulation and Permeation.
Assign three groups: one to penetration, one to formulation and one to permeation. |
| MORNING
WORKSHOP 8:00 | Meet in 3 assigned groups in order to push deeper into Sanctification and Cabaret: and to get out paragraphs on each (to be published). Have each person take good notes when brainstorming.
1. Push further on sanctification (1) What have we said thus far about sanctification? (2) What is the journey of sanctification? (3) How do you grasp the dynamics of Universal Benevolence, Radical Integrity, and Endless Felicity? (4) What are sociological signs or illustration of these? (5) What are the decisional signal arenas in the struggle with sanctification? (6) How is the struggle with sanctification motivating rather the collapsing? 2. Have each person write a paragraph on sanctification. Take 10 minutes. Have several read and reflect briefly. 3. Move to reflection on Cabaret Use attached chart for questions (2)(8) (1) What have we said so far about the Cabaret? (2) What are some operating principles of the Cabaret? |
| |
| 3) What are some essential characteristics of the Cabaret? (that without which you just couldn't have one).
4) What are some dangers or perversions to avoid when having a Cabaret? 5) Where do you see the Cabaret taking place in society today? 6) What is the sociological function of the Cabaret? 7) What are the essential practics of the Cabaret? 8) What form would the Cabaret take in a local community? 4.Take a look at the data and choose the key 5 in each column. Assign the scribe to fill in the Holding Chart with only the selected items for publication. 5.Have each individual write a brief statement on the Cabaret. Read several statements aloud and reflect briefly. | |
| LUNCH
12:00 | TIMES CONVERSATION
Intent: to enable the priors to get a better grasp on where society is today as a context for the brainstorm this afternoon on implications of Cabaret and Sanctification for permeation, penetration and formulation. 1. What were the key news events in the world in the past year? 2. What trends do you see developing in society today? 3. Where do you see collapse? 4. What fundamental human image shifts are beneath these collapses and trends? 5. How are these signs of resurgence? |
| AFTERNOON
WORKSHOP 2:00 | Gather back in the three groups to focus on trends taking
place in the particular arena of the external mission to which your group has been assigned, (penetration, formulation permeation) and how it would be different as a result of sanctification and cabaret. Then produce a practical document relative to the particular arena along with a 4x4x4 chart or a possible lecture on the new form of each of the three strategies. 1. What shifts are occurring in Penetration? 2. That are the "hot spots" in Penetration? 3. What are contradictions or blocks in Penetration? 4. What are the practical implications of Cabaret and Sanctification to penetration? (re: style, etc.) |
| |
| 5. How could you use sanctification as a tool in Penetration?
6. What are the practical implications of Cabaret and Sanctification that would deal with the contradiction of Penetration? Gestalt all implications of Cabaret and Sanctification for Penetration (or Formulation or Permeation) into 4 Holding Categories. Divide into four groups and give each group one of the four gestalted categories. Under the assigned category determine the four second level and the 16 third level implications. | |
| DINNER
6:00 | SONG CONVERSATION
Use Summer '73 format. |
| EVENING
WORKSHOP 7:30 | 1. Gather back in small groups. Write paragraphs on the four first level implications. Write four sentences on the secondary level categories using the data of the third
level.
2. Read the paragraphs to the larger group. Reflect and note suggestions. Return to sub groups, rewrite and polish. 3. Move to a plenary of the total School. Reflect and celebrate the week's journey. |
| SEND OUT
10:30 | |
| OVERALL
CONTEXT Session I | The context is a catalyst to stimulate reflection on methods in training priors, not a theoretical rationale.
Summary: This spin explores the gifts of the universal and movemental heritage, as appropriated in the present and projected into the future. Questions to be raised: What does a prior need to know? What do we need to know in order to enable a prior to know? Background Material: R 25 "The Religious House Transforming the Foundational Piety" Para. 15 Signifying the Unseen Hope P 18 Envisioning the Promised Future 31 Articulating the Movement Mythology 33 Signaling the Future Openness 34 Discerning the Indicative 43 Creating Releasing Mythology 44 Naming Major Contradiction 54 Particularizing the Missional Vision 71 Grounding the Traditional Symbols 72 Transforming the WordBearing Forms 73 Recapturing the Foundational Wisdom 75 Illuminating the Symbolic Functions 77 Recapturing the Historical Journey 82 Recalling the Authentic Catholicity 84 Requiring the Heritage Embracement 87 Re-imaging the Holy Calling R 28 "General Staff School PSU" Para. 03 Resurgence in History 10 Trusting Your Experiences 1l Depth Mythological Screen 12 Practics of Historical Change 13 Day-to-day Operations 14 Being the Transestablishment 15 Style of Sophistication 16 Embodying Missional Care |
| Session II | Summary: This spin serves to explore the roles of the prior
in terms of the religious, the pastor, the prior, the rabbi, and the warrior. Questions to be asked: What does a prior need to do? What do we need to know in order to enable a prior to do? Background Material: R 25 "The Religious House Transforming the Foundational Piety" Para. 5 Actualizing the Sociological Rebirth 7 Exemplifying Representational Heroism |
| Session II
Cont'd | Background material Cont'd
Para. 09 Rehearsing long Social Dynamics 12 Disclosing Struggle as Meaning 15 Signifying the Unseen Hope 16 Embodying Repentant Creatureliness 18 Envisioning the Promised Future 20 Conquering the Historical Tyranny 21 0beying Within Humiliation 22 Calling Forth Victory 24 Releasing Cocreation 44 Occasioning the Vocational Resolve 50 Objectifying Depth Struggle 51 Enabling Human Journey 52 Eliciting Vocational Passion 53 Interior Discipline of Radical Obedience 55 Re-establishing Global Relatedness 56 Embodying Global Care 57 Demonstrating Revolutionary Expenditure 58 Restoring Spiritual Resources 59 Refurbishing the Fellowhood Wellsprings 60 Deepening Solitary Corporateness 63 Ordering Interior Urgency 64 Celebrating the Painful Expenditure 67 Congregating Solitary Warriors 74 Empowering the Traditional Roles 76 Rendering the Obedient Servant 78 Affirming the Present Forms 8O Serving the Local Establishment 81 Regenerating the Catalytic Role 83 Revitalizing the Missiological Leadership 84 Occasioning the Transestablishment Stance 86 Demonstrating the Futuric Forms 88 Refurbishing the Foundational Structures 89 Healing the Spirit Malaise 95 Transforming the Corporate Structure 98 Structuring the Spiritual Nurture 99 Enabling he Disciplined Engagement 100 Dramatizing the Symbolic Work 101 Birthing the Spiritual Indicative 102 Eliciting the Disciplined Creativity 103 Enacting the Representational Discipline 105 Evoking the Awe-filled Awareness 107 Radicalizing the Vocational Thrust 108 Contacting the Glorious Creaturehood 109 Rehearsing the Salvation Drama 111 Recreating, the Time/Space
112 Sign fling the Human Journey R 28 General Staff School PSU Para. 2-Authentic Priorship Role 8-Dramatizing Common Mission Para. 09--Disciplined Life Style 64-Interiorization and Social Manifestation of going Global 65-Globality |
| Session III | Summary: This spin on the stance of the prior seeks to explore the relation of the prior to the Mystery in terms of his experience of the deeps, his decisions, his journey, and embracement of the religious life style.
Questions to be asked: What does a prior need to be? What do we need to known order to enable a prior to be? Background Material: R 25 "Religious House-Transforming the Foundational Piety" Para. 06 Embodying Life's Banquet 08 Embodying Transforming Method 10 Embracing the Everlasting Suffering 11 Covenanting With Struggle 13 Embodying Comprehensive Care l4 Loving Painful Existence 16 Embodying Repentant Creatureliness 17 Awe-filling Never-the-less Stance 23 Disclosing the Mystery 32 Being the Cruciform Style 37 Injecting the Radical Discontinuity 41 Eliciting Endless Repentance 58 Restoring Spiritual Resources 61 Authenticating Servanthood Style 62 Eternalizing Temporal Journey 68 Disclosing Awe-filled Mundane 79 Reclaiming the Religious Vocation 90 Providing the Hope-filled Signs 93 Incarnating the Authentic Existence 96 Embodying the Resurgent Style 97 Demonstrating the Spiritized Existence 104 Embodying the Honoring Posture 106 Intensifying the Internal Discipline 110 Symbolizing the Recreated Selfhood R28 "General Staff School PSU" Para. 04 Transparent Interior Space 07 Embodying Final Word 17 Intensifying Solitary Journey l8 Trust in the Lord 19 Spirit Posture Exercises 20 Road to Glory 21 Stance of the Guru 15 Style of Sophistication 16 Embodying Missional Care |
| St. Ignatius of Loyola | The most varied persons found themselves under the spell of Ignatius's Christian radiance. And he, in his turn, was prepared to do the most astonishing things for his sons. Ribadenaira? another of the early Jesuits, says that there was never a mother more concerned about her children than Ignatius about his sons, particularly the sick and weak. The story is told that once, when one of his friends was suffering from depression, Ignatius, after considering for a moment how he might help him, sprang to the middle of the floor and began to dance a Basque folk dance. A ridiculous performance? Far from it, but rather proof of the great heartedness of this inspired fisher of men. Needless to say, the remedy was immediately effective. Ignatius's actions all stemmed from his wonderful gift-of being ''all things to al] men", few Christians have given such substance to that Pauline maxim. |
| St. Benedict | For Benedict, the abbot is the cornerstone of the monastery; he is at the summit of the monastic hierarchy, the pillar that supports the entire edifice; he is the representative of Christ. He will have to give an account to God of the souls entrusted to him, and he must never regard his function as purely administrative. "He ought to rule his disciples with a twofold teaching; displaying all goodness and holiness by deeds and by words, but by deeds rather than by words." So that the monks may faithfully follow the rule, he must be kind as well as stern, not closing his eyes to insidious faults, yet seeking "rather to profit his brethren than to preside over them," and to be loved by them more than feared. As the name "abbot" implies, his role is that of a father, not of a military leader or other impersonal authority. His is a holy fatherhood that must prompt him ever to concern himself with the spiritual welfare of his monks and to give them due counsel. |
| St. Francis | One experience which gave shape and content to Francis's life was the irreparable public break with his infuriated father, concerning which Francis later confessed had been the hardest of all. Francis took all the money he himself had, and he sold goods of his father's and gave the proceeds to the poor and the restoration of the little church of St. Damian. Pietro Bernadone, Francis's father was outraged. He came in violent anger to drag Francis home, and found him begging in the streets for material to repair the church. For Pietro matters had gone beyond the limit of his endurance. He tried to take Francis before the magistrate to accuse him but instead did take him to the bishop. There he made his angry denunciation of his son. But Francis' boldness was more startling than his father's anger. His father wanted him to pay back what he had taken, and to renounce his right to an inheritance. Or reform and come |
| St. Francis cont. | back home. Going aside from the bishop's audience hall to another room, Francis reappeared presently naked, holding in his hands a bundle in which he had rolled his clothes and a little money which he laid down before the bishop. "Listen all of you." he said "and understand it well; until this time I have called Pietro Bernadone my father, but now I desire to serve God. This is why I return to him this money for which he has given himself so much trouble, as well as my clothing, and all that have had from him, for from henceforth I desire to say nothing else than "Our father who art in heaven." The bishop sent out hastily for a castoff piece of clothing that ad belonged to one of his laborers and put it around Francis; and Francis went out from the bishop's palace in an exaltation of release and joy. As one of his biographers had written, Francis's
gesture had been dramatic, but it was also symbolic. "It marked a complete break with the past. . . if he had come naked into the world, he would go out of it naked, into a new world, a world where worldly standards would mean nothing, a world where love alone reigned. By this sudden action he had irrevocably declared his purpose. There could be no turning back. |
| St. Theresa
First Reading | The following incident is indicative of the passions aroused by the issue of reform of the order. A provincial of the order, in the course of a visitation, appointed Teresa prioress of the convent of the Incarnation without the consent of the community. Pandemonium broke out. The nuns jumped up from their seats, weeping and gesticulating in their indignation at this violation of their voting rights. The provincial could not even make himself heard; the uproar was such that several of the nuns fainted. Only Teresa remained calm and collected. She neither defended herself nor played the part of outraged dignity. Instead, at
the first opportunity she escaped to the chapel threw herself down at the altar steps, and prayed: 'Lord, I beseech you, give this house peace. Send them another superior who will be less burdensome to them, or else bend the wills to obedience." The provincial was adamant, and Teresa had to assume the office of prioress. At the next chapter meeting she set a statue of the Virgin on the raised chair reserved for the prioress, placed the keys of the convent in Mary's hands and herself took the next seat. Then, without so much as referring to the previous disturbances, she said. "My ladies, mother and sisters: Our Lord has sent me to this house, by virtue of obedience, to hold this office, which I had never thought of and which I am far from deserving. Have no misgivings as to how I shall serve you. I know well how very weak we are; but if we cannot attain in desire. For the Lord is compassionate and will see to it that gradually our deeds become commensurate with our desires and intentions." |
| St. Teresa
Second Reading | Clearly, Teresa had the situation well in hand. The scene was Avila in the dark hours before dawn of November, 1535.
A veiled figure was hurriedly making her way through the streets, evidently anxious to avoid discovery. It was Teresa, the twentyyear old, who was leaving her father's house without his consent in order to become a nun at the convent of the Incarnation. |
| She was trembling in every nerve as she pulled the bellrope at the convent door. She had had to do utter violence to herself to make this fateful decision, and the strength to carry it out, she believed, could have come to her only from God. She must it seems, even then have had some premonition of what her step was to entail. Later Teresa described
her feelings at that moment. "I remember--and I really believe this is true--that when I left my father's house, my distress was so great that I do not think it will be greater when I die. It seemed to me as if every bone in my body was being wrenched asunder."
But the convent of the Incarnation at Avila cultivated an atmosphere of agreeable domesticity, and was more like a boardingschool for the daughter of the well-to-do than a convent. It was only to be expected that the young novice in a community that cherished ease and cultivated gossip should develop into but a mediocre nun. The sisters recited only those prayers which were of obligation; they preferred to spend hours on end in the parlors chatting with gossiploving friends. And so she strove with might and main to reconcile two irreconcilables the spirit life and a life of agreeable leisure. For twenty years she remained bound in the toils of mediocrity, and she could not make good her escape. The victory, however, took place only in the second phase of Teresa's religious life, when her soul was pierced, as she herself relates, by an angel's spear. The transformation is staggering; here was a nun who had almost come to terms with a life of spiritual dichotomy, who seemed forever barred from crossing the threshold of the absolute, anal who now was suddenly swept up by angelic powers into the supernatural. This eruption of the divine into her life took place without warning. Upon coming into the chapel one day, she found there a new picture representing Christ at the Pillar. The Lord seemed to be looking into her very soul, and with such power that suddenly her hesitations ceased, her lukewarmness was banished forever. What Teresa had not achieved in years of struggle, God had done for her in an instant. This, then, and not the hour of her impetuous flight from her father's house, was the climactic hour of her life. | |
| St. Anthony | Anthony did not wait for Satan to come to him; he sought the enemy out on his own territory. It was in order to seize the offensive himself that he had moved into the tomb, which was completely dark and, as the Egyptians believe, haunted by demons. He entered alone into the mortuary chamber and locked the door behind him, as his biographer takes care to note, thereby emphasizing his complete separation from the world.
No sooner was he in the tomb than he began to experience the Devil's presence physically. Because the hermit was pressing the enemy so hard and so defiantly, the Devil took up the challenge. It was no learned debate that these two adversaries engaged in, peacefully seated upon a bench. What the doughty ascetic undertook was a veritable duel with Satan, a fight to the death. |
| St. Bruno | To be lost to the worldthat men should know as little of him as if he were already dead! However, Bruno never sought emptiness for its own sake, but rather the opportunity to remain in close, undisturbed communion with God. The exterior journey to the mountainous desert symbolizes his interior ascent to God. Kierkegaard's words in a different context aptly describe Bruno's ultimate aim in founding his Chartreuse in the mountains: "To exist in the realm of the mental is not easy, especially on the plane of religion. The believer is constantly suspended over the deep, with seventy thousand fathoms of water beneath him. No matter how long he may lie there, never will he eventually get to the point here he will be resting on dry land and where he will be able to stretch himself. He can become more calm, more experienced, can reach such see security that he will learn to delight in a joke and a gay spirit but to the very end he will remain suspended over a depth of seventy thousand fathoms of water." |
| St. Augustine
| Now the heavenly Father has His hunting hounds everywhere in convents and monasteries, in our homes and in cities and in the forest; and you may be certain that all chosen friends of God are going to be sorely hunted by all created things. As the hart is driven by the hunters, tormented with thirst, so must thou be driven on till thou findest thy refuge in God. To make us thirst for God alone in time and in eternity-that is the divine purpose in allowing us men to be thus hunted, each one according to his special circumstances of life. Go forward, then, in all humility, patience, and mildness, for without doubt thou shalt at last come to our Saviour's sweet fountains, which will refresh thee beyond the power of words to describe." |
| St. Augustine (continued) | These words of Johannes Tauler's strike the keynote of Augustine's life: he was a man hunted by God. His own analysis of himself reveals a man pursued, always driven onward and seldom granted a breathingspace. "And you sent your hand from above," he writes, to indicate who was responsible for the ceaseless movement that filled his life. God was the cause of is restlessness. |
| St. Augustine Second reading | His disciples soon became much soughtafter priests, many of them rising to the rank of bishop, but without abandoning their monastic way of life. The union of priesthood and monasticism, already discernible under Basil. reached its peak under Augustine. The clerical monastery in Hippo thus represents a turningpoint in the history of monasticism. Until then, monks had sought to flee the world; but in the bishop's monastery the order of the day was "The Church needs us: Preach for it, save the souls of its members: We may not shirk its tasks. It is our duty to serve the Church." By applying these principles, Augustine brought about a radical change: the monastery turned its face to the world. This was a new development that had untold consequences of immense benefit to the church. |
| St. Bernard | The obstacles were almost insuperable. Everything had to be begun from scratch. The first step was to clear some of the wild vegetation and cut timber, and during the first few months the monks hardly ever laid down their axes. They suffered much from cold and hunger before they were able to erect even the barest shelter. Their principal foods were black barley bread and millet gruel; they made soup of cooked leaves, and often had only acorns to eat. The hardship was such that the monks finally implored their abbot to lead them out of this vale of bitterness back to Citeaux. But Bernard would not hear of it; he was not the man to lose heart and retreat in the face of difficulties-on the contrary, they stimulated him to further endeavor. And so the monks labored on, but it was many years before Clairvaux was firmly established as a
monastery. |
| 1. Decide/clarify existential aim of spin 2. Choose rational objectives in terms of stimulating breakloose in participants creative thought process.
3. Scan background material R25, R28, and other material
4. Select dominant images
5. Fill own past experience for possible incorporation
6. Clarify Participants present point in journey
7. Review illustrative material
8. Decide the mood of the spin
9. Plot the steps hat will carry your listeners from their present point to your existential/rational aim
10. Anticipate kinds of questions that will be raised
11. Formulate questions to push group's creativity | |
| The scope of this course was limited to the spirit journey of priorship with the emphasis on the Being pole. For a Galaxy prior, and additional day should be spent on the Local Church Project study while a Religious House Prior should have an additional day to cover the topics shown below: Local Church Project Religious House Practics Stipend Conference RH 13 Trioka dynamic Development RH/Region Regional Celebrations Transportation Models Missional Discontinuity In-Kind Donations Ecclestical Relations |