Category: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Renunciation of Ownership pt.2: The Spiritual Benefits (adaptations)

7/12/2016

Live according to the Way of obedience, chastity and the renunciation of ownership.

The renunciation of ownership teaches us humility by placing the needs of others ahead of our own. If we no longer claim ownership of things, then it is harder to grow prideful and believe that we deserve them more than others. It teaches us patience. It is hard to grow angry over things that we do not see as “our own,” or rather, it is far too easy to be hurt and upset over things that we have laid claimed to. If someone criticizes our job, our opinions, or even our clothing, it can truly hurt deeply and more quickly motivate us to anger. Yet we also know that these things are not who we are—I am not the sum of either my wardrobe or my latest joke which no one laughed at. By renouncing ownership, we acknowledge this and are less hurt. If I no longer take possession of my job, or of my time writing, then I become more patient with interruptions and more attentive to other things that may need my attention. We learn patience too because there will be times when we want, or think that we need something, and it is not available to us—and so also we progress in the detachment from things and become less dependent on them. We grow in solidarity as we see things less often as mine, we are forced to work in cooperation with others more often and we gain the first hand experience and understanding of what it is like to have to go without at times. The renunciation of ownership increases our compassion, contentment and our faith; that we have more compassion for those who are in need, we are more content with fewer things and that we live more and more by the faith that God will always provide and less according to our individual need to accumulate and provide for ourselves.

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Chapter 4: Renunciation of Ownership pt. 1 (adaptations)

7/6/2016

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Live according to the Way of obedience, chastity and the renunciation of ownership.

Although it is a common perception, the renunciation of ownership should not be confused with a vow of poverty; the renunciation of ownership is not the commitment to live a life of simplicity, to go hungry, to wear a lower quality of clothing, to live without money in savings or to use broken-down, second-hand things. The renunciation of ownership does not require one to live on the edge of financial security; it is not the voluntary decision to go without meeting one’s daily needs; it is not to be homeless, to have access to lower education or less access to basic health care. The renunciation of ownership is not a condition of life that for some is involuntary, brought on by the environment of a surrounding neighborhood, sudden and unplanned unemployment, serious medical conditions, or debilitating family situations. Rather, the renunciation of ownership, like the other vows, is a disposition of the heart: to renounce pressing an exclusive claim of use, of authority, or of belonging over any thing. By renouncing the ownership of things, we do not deprive ourselves of wants and needs, but transform and shape ourselves so that we want and need fewer things; that we don’t simply become more satisfied with less, but have our eyes trained toward the love of others and the truly valuable things in heaven.

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Chapter 4: A Chaste Love (adaptations)

6/25/2016

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Chastity is not celibacy. To be sure, brothers and sisters in the Order do profess a vow of celibacy, this is according to Church law and the nature of their consecrated life, married to Christ. However, it is equally important to note that the Rule calls one to a life of chastity and a chaste way of love that all of us, whether married, single, adult or child, can live.

In the shortest terms possible, to love chastely is to love as God Loves and this is the Way of Perfection, the Way that leads us to love more perfectly and to be in love perfectly. If obedience is the beginning and the first step in this life, then chastity is its end, that we are not yet capable of loving so perfectly, but by fasting, prayer and alms giving we are transformed and grow in our ability to love others. Chastity, to love as God Loves, without any self-interest or gain, is our purpose and our goal.

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Chapter 4: Obedience pt. 2 (adaptations)

6/19/2016

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In the last post, we began looking at the place that the traditional vows of the Religious (obedience, chastity and the renunciation of ownership) have in the daily life of our Christian faith. These dispositions, as many are tempted to believe, are not vows reserved for men and women in religious orders, but are the cornerstones of the Christian life and anyone who longs to live a life in allegiance to Christ. I began by looking first at the place and importance of Obedience. Below is the second part to this article, exploring a little more into what this disposition of holy Obedience is and the virtues that it helps to build in one's life.

At the surface, obedience is simply doing what is asked of you, without challenging or debating, but in a joyful and grateful way. But as in all things, we know that there is much more lying beneath the surface and apparent simplicity. To be obedient is to place yourself into the care of another. Not only believing that they will not over burden, take advantage of, or demand too much from you, but that they will take care of your interest, provide for your needs and promote your own good as a coach may train and foster an athlete to both improve one’s self and the team’s performance.

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Chapter 4: Dispositions of Life (adaptations)

6/14/2016

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Live according to the Way of obedience, chastity and the renunciation of ownership.

An entire book can be written about each of these dispositions of the vowed life: obedience, chastity and the renunciation of ownership. Each of these books could then be followed by a complete series on how we may adopt such attitudes and adapt them to every day life outside of a religious Order. Here, I will attempt to write briefly, and perhaps write these books later or leave them for someone wiser and more eloquent than myself, setting the stage and foundation for you to see how they may be applied and incorporated into your own life. My hope is that you may begin to see that these are not vows and dispositions that have been reserved to members of religious orders alone, but their very presence in the orders comes from a most basic observation that they are essential to the Christian way of life and should, in fact, be central to the life of anyone who longs and strives to live a life in allegiance to Christ.

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Chapter 4: A Prior for Daily Life (adaptations)

6/9/2016

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Recognize the Prior of your home, promising obedience.

In the fourth chapter, St. Albert directs the brothers and sisters of the Order to elect a prior from within their midst. His intention is simple and quite basic, and has nothing to do with democracy and governance, as some today are hasty to point toward. They would describe the Rule itself as a radical document of democratic ideals, written six centuries prior to the revolutions that swept the Americas and Europe. They would also like to reduce this move by the Patriarch to an ordinary act of practical management. The loose band of brothers gathered around the Spring on Mount Carmel needed to be brought together and organized under a single leadership in order to facilitate the living of a common life and create a structure for order. These are the ways of thinking in the democratic age of the 21st Century; it is the way of thinking of a corporate mind that concentrates on management structures and methods. But St. Albert did not come from this time and our age of thinking. His question was not first about how to organize a management structure that encouraged unity and cooperation among the brothers, nor was his second question about how to select a leader that would guarantee an equality of voice for all. Rather, we are already in the fourth chapter of his Rule and his first and second questions have already been answered: To live a life in allegiance to Christ according to this particular way which has been presented. These are his concerns, and the purpose for the Rule and the end toward which everything he has written points, including this provision to elect a prior.

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Chapter 4: The First Thing (desert reflections)

6/4/2016

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"The first thing I require is for you to have a prior, one of yourselves, who is to be chosen for the office by common consent, or that of the greater and maturer part of you; each of the others must promise him obedience
--of which, once promised, he must try to make his deeds the true reflection--
and also chastity and the renunciation of ownership." --The Rule, Chapter 4

Does it mean something that the 'First' thing Albert requires of the hermits on Mt. Carmel is to have a prior? In some ways, it may seem to us today to be a natural starting part: Organize yourselves into group first with at least some basic structure around a common cause (i.e. "to live in allegiance with Jesus Christ") and then proceed to make rules and discern the day-to-day means of life. However, this first step is not necessarily so basic. Why was building a chapel as a place to come together for Mass each morning not the first thing that Albert required? or the designation of individual cells? or the pledge of allegiance to Jesus Christ? We might consider that Albert did not even include the vows of chastity and poverty in his letter of the Rule, but this was a very common practice for eastern monastics because these vows were widely assumed and there was no need to specifically mention them. There remained, however many other questions and options within Albert's grasp. The selection (not necessarily election) of a prior was not a basic or self-evident choice. His choice of choosing a prior first and before all other requisites is meaningful.

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Chapter 4: The Renunciation of Ownership pt.2: The Spiritual Benefits (adaptations)

Chapter 4: Renunciation of Ownership pt. 1 (adaptations)

Chapter 4: A Chaste Love (adaptations)

Chapter 4: Obedience pt. 2 (adaptations)

Chapter 4: Dispositions of Life (adaptations)

Chapter 4: A Prior for Daily Life (adaptations)

Chapter 4: The First Thing (desert reflections)

Carmel's Way...

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