Why Community: Community of Saint Ita and Saint Fillan

WHY COMMUNITY ?

So why would people who value independence, solitude, separate lives, want a community as well?

Isn't this really like trying to fast while eating cake?

It is in community that we come to see God in the other. It is in community that we see our own emptiness filled up. It is community that calls me beyond the pinched horizons of my own life, my own country, my own race, and gives me the gifts I do not have within me.- Joan Chittister

I was quite young when I first realized that solitary people, even especially gifted and private individual Christians (perhaps especially such people) could become quite odd, very quickly. Sometimes, of course, this is a good thing. But this is far from always the case. Sometimes such Christians are a real witness and a challenge to the way society takes some great evils for granted. But even then, the cost to the Witness is atrocious. (Remember that the word 'martyr' means 'witness.) We human beings are emotional, mental and physical creatures, we have the spirit of creativity and the Soul of immortal children of God. When we are cut off from society we run great risks. Even when we are called to a solitary vocation we are never quite outside the city walls. At the very least we are called to live our spiritual lives for God, for the Church, and for the world.

Even those called to be hermits, or staretz, or wanderers, though at least they are initially fleeing the world, the flesh, and the devil which so entwined in most societies, must spend some time in 'formation' - that is, as part of a community. In this way they imbibe the habits of regular prayer, regular engagement with the Holy Scriptures, regular habits of meditation, and of self care. In other words, they are to be taught, as it were, ways of life which are healthy in all respects, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and soul fully. Without these habits and without continuing Spiritual Direction and Soul Friendship, it is woefully too easy to fall into traps, to become unwell or unbalanced, and to be altogether too fanciful or too easily depressed.

One of the most striking aspects of the 'successful' solitary is the way people begin to stream out into the desert place, the forest or the hermitage, in order to ask for advice, prayers, and direction or simply to be with the solitary. The further out the hermit goes, the further people walk to be with them.

If you have begun to wonder if you may have a vocation, if you are becoming more and more involved in a life of prayer, and feel called toward service then you need to consider several things.

Have you a relationship with the triune God? A sense of humour? Someone with whom you are able to talk about spiritual things? Good balance? A reasonable sense of natural morality? You will need to be fairly healthy, have the beginnings of centred and grounded spirituality, and an ability to take, not only a long term view, but one that is able to see context, to have empathy for those around you, and concern for the wider world, our environment, and our Politics.

It is immediately apparent, I imagine, that we need that healing ministry ourselves,
not just before we begin, but, like as not, for the remainder of our lives.

One of the most important healing tools for the Christian soul is the Christian Community.
Does it seem to you that we have travelled in a circle?
I am sure that you are right.

But this is not just a circle. This is the beginning of a spiral into the heart of the Living God. It is the beginning of our poor human response to the yearning of the Triune and Loving God, who desires for us to share His Spirit, and His Life, and to become part of the body of Christ, his son.

All of which considered, may be at least part of the rationale for a Spiritual Community of Christians who feel set apart from 'the world', who feel a deep sense of communion and commitment to each other, but who are nevertheless sent back into the world, who find their true obedience, their true cross, their true vigilance, life of discipline and peace living the life of the yeast, hidden in the world which God made, living the life that God ordains consecrated and hidden in plain sight.

We cannot, for one reason or another, 'go it alone'
And we cannot, for one reason or another, step outside our lives in order to train, to be dedicated, to live for God, and to love and serve our neighbour.
Let's face it. Christian life, dedicated, consecrated Christian life, is the ultimate 'in service training'!

"I sense in myself the vocation of Warrior, Priest, Apostle, Doctor, and Martyr. In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love". —St. Thérèse of Lisieux