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PDF versionVatican preparing documents on prayer, brothers
Feb. 02, 2010
VATICAN CITY -- Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told Vatican Radio Feb. 2 that his office was working on two documents: a joint document with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on the importance of prayer in the life of religious; and a document highlighting the importance of religious brothers in the church.
The church celebrates World Day for Consecrated Life each year on Feb. 2, with is the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.
"Some people say that today religious men and women pray too little. I don't know if it is true, but I certainly hope not," the cardinal said. "Maybe prayer today is more difficult than in the past, in a time when the rhythm of life was a bit more human and there was not so much stress, not so much noise.
"We must put an accent on the absolute necessity of prayer in the spiritual life of consecrated men and women," he said.
Writing a joint document on prayer was the idea of Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the worship congregation, and Cardinal Rode said he agreed to the project because "on one side there is a certain ignorance, a certain lack of liturgical knowledge and formation in young religious; on the other side, there also are liturgical inventions that are not always in good taste and that do not correspond to the desire and will of the church and to the spirit of the liturgy itself."
As for the document on brothers, Cardinal Rode said the numbers speak clearly "and something must be done."
While the numbers of religious in every category have dropped in the last 50 years, the number of religious brothers has decreased most drastically, he said, citing the example of the Christian Brothers who had 16,000 members in 1965 and have fewer than 5,000 today.
"We think one of the reasons for the decline in these vocations is due to a certain lack of attention on the part of the church" to brothers, who are mentioned only in passing in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and Vatican documents published later, he said.
"A lay brother is not -- as one often thinks and most people believe -- someone who was not able to, did not want to or could not, for some reason, become a priest. It is a vocation that has its own reasons and a particular mission in the church," the cardinal said.
Catholics enter religious orders or consecrate themselves as virgins because the love of God is so great that it is worth giving everything for, Pope Benedict XVI said.
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Adoring the Eucharist and celebrating evening prayer with religious Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, the pope told them that they are witnesses for others of the realness of God's love and mercy.
The pope told the religious that each one of them had drawn near to Christ "as the source of pure and faithful love, a love so great and beautiful that it deserves everything or, rather, more than our all, because an entire life would not be enough to repay that which Christ is and has done for us."
Beyond the thousand things religious do in the church and in the world, he said, "consecrated life is important precisely as a sign of selflessness and love."
Pope Benedict offered special encouragement to religious who feel the weight of never being thanked, those who are aged or infirm and those experiencing difficulties.
Prayer comes in many forms,
Prayer comes in many forms, you can even pray through work. To infer more close adoration is a form of misdirection.
The false assumption here is that numbers of brothers are dropping due to lack of prayer (and probably from there to following Rome). Brothers have been hit like priests in this sex scandal. Brothers have abused children just like priests have, this is a major reason for the drop in numbers. Until these orders come clean with transparent abuse checks and balances, you cannot start to rebuild the monasteries.
Thus, If you are a religious
Thus,
If you are a religious male, your role is valued
If you are a religious female, your role is investigated
St Francis of Assissi and
St Francis of Assissi and many other saints and religious and laity have written many holy and wonderful prayers.
The saints and the laity and clergy were inspired by God, the Holy Spirit, by Jesus to compose many beautiful holy prayers that are a treasure for all the world.
I sincerely hope that Cardinal Rode will not force all religious to only pray his version of prayers he is having written. To force uniformity on the Holy Spirit is wrong.
The direction the church is going under Pope Benedict XVI seems very unreligious and destructive to the faith. How sad about what is happening under such tyrannical thinking of this pope and Curia like Rode, may these hierarchs see the errors of what they are doing. So far they are being so destructive to the church.
Lack of religious brothers, sisters, nuns, priests, lack of parishioners, is from the church hierarchy continuing sins of greed, arrogance, pride, apathy, cowardice exemplified by the pope and hierarchy betraying so many in the children abuses scandal.
Still the hierarchy does not really make amends or reform what is wrong in the church, and denies women true authority, true use of women's gifts and talents, denies women church governance and co-leadership, the role of co-workers. So sad how destructive this pope is.
Eh? "A lay brother is not --
Eh?
"A lay brother is not -- as one often thinks and most people believe -- someone who was not able to, did not want to or could not, for some reason, become a priest. It is a vocation that has its own reasons and a particular mission in the church," the cardinal said.
This doesn't make sense to me at all... ...I think I see what he was trying to say,
and it's somewhat akin to a male nurse not being someone who failed to make it into
medical school to be a physician. But Rode did not say it well.
But of course, a lay brother either could not or did not want to become a priest. If they were suited to and desired priesthood, they'd have pursued that very different vocation.
No order recognizes that better than the Christian Brothers, who do not admit priests to their order. They recognize, and have recognized from their foundation by John-Baptiste de la Salle, that having a two-tier institute with both priests and brothers leads the role of lay brother to be diminished. He further recognized that admitting priests would turn the mission "upside down" in some ways. In mixed orders, it always seems that the priests are in charge. But in an order whose mission is educational, not sacramental, that is backwards.
Perhaps that is even more true today. With the current shortage of priests, just covering Sunday Masses becomes an "all hands on deck" proposition. That is to say nothing of the other sacraments for which there is great demand. Priesthood is in and of itself a full-time occupation these days. I'm not saying that some men don't successfully juggle ordained priesthood and other ministries such as teaching
Regarding their waning numbers -- that is not surprising specifically since there is for men a "dual ladder" in consecrated life, where there is no such thing for women. Actually, for men, it is a "triple ladder": lay brotherhood, religious priesthood, or diocesean priesthood. Though the vocations are distinct, they are probably related.
A friend who is a former Christian Brother, one of many such friends who left the order on good terms in their thirties and forties to find successful marriages and raise families, has put forth the notion of a "temporary vocation." Certainly my friend emerged from his years of service as a very mature and grounded individual, much more ready to embark on family life than he probably was in his early twenties.
I don't think he, or the Christian Brothers, feel in any way short-changed by his decision to discontinue consecrated life. Quite the opposite.
The other thing that I recall from my own investigation into whether the Christian
Brothers were for me, albeit 3 decades ago now, was the constant emphasis on prayer
as an indispensable part of any vocation to consecrated life. In my more recent experiences with that order, that is something which has not changed.
Greg Bullough on Feb. 03,
Greg Bullough on Feb. 03, 2010.
You stated:
"Eh?
"A lay brother is not -- as one often thinks and most people believe -- someone who was not able to, did not want to or could not, for some reason, become a priest. It is a vocation that has its own reasons and a particular mission in the church," the cardinal said.
This doesn't make sense to me at all... ...I think I see what he was trying to say,
and it's somewhat akin to a male nurse not being someone who failed to make it into
medical school to be a physician. But Rode did not say it well.
But of course, a lay brother either could not or did not want to become a priest. If they were suited to and desired priesthood, they'd have pursued that very different vocation.
No order recognizes that better than the Christian Brothers, who do not admit priests to their order. They recognize, and have recognized from their foundation by John-Baptiste de la Salle, that having a two-tier institute with both priests and brothers leads the role of lay brother to be diminished. He further recognized that admitting priests would turn the mission "upside down" in some ways. In mixed orders, it always seems that the priests are in charge. But in an order whose mission is educational, not sacramental, that is backwards.
Perhaps that is even more true today. With the current shortage of priests, just covering Sunday Masses becomes an "all hands on deck" proposition. That is to say nothing of the other sacraments for which there is great demand. Priesthood is in and of itself a full-time occupation these days. I'm not saying that some men don't successfully juggle ordained priesthood and other ministries such as teaching
Regarding their waning numbers -- that is not surprising specifically since there is for men a "dual ladder" in consecrated life, where there is no such thing for women. Actually, for men, it is a "triple ladder": lay brotherhood, religious priesthood, or diocesean priesthood. Though the vocations are distinct, they are probably related.
A friend who is a former Christian Brother, one of many such friends who left the order on good terms in their thirties and forties to find successful marriages and raise families, has put forth the notion of a "temporary vocation." Certainly my friend emerged from his years of service as a very mature and grounded individual, much more ready to embark on family life than he probably was in his early twenties.
I don't think he, or the Christian Brothers, feel in any way short-changed by his decision to discontinue consecrated life. Quite the opposite.
The other thing that I recall from my own investigation into whether the Christian
Brothers were for me, albeit 3 decades ago now, was the constant emphasis on prayer
as an indispensable part of any vocation to consecrated life. In my more recent experiences with that order, that is something which has not changed."
----------------------------
I agree entirely with your excellent comment. I'd just like to add one point to what you have stated. You commented about the "triple ladder" open to men in the Church. They can be lay brothers, religious priests or diocesan priests. Yes. They can also be permanent deacons---married men, fathers(grandfathers), and ordained deacons. Thus, there is a quadruple ladder open to men in the Church, today.
It is interesting that the
It is interesting that the Cardinal is concerned about declining vocations among religious men and women and does not bring up the same problem in diocesan clergy. He also seems to atribute the decline to Vatican II. In fact the peak in religious vocations in the US came following Vatican II and arguably resulted from it.
If there is a concern about declining vocations why not investigate religious communites of men and women and the diocesan clergy and not just the women.
Hooray for Cardinal Rode!
Hooray for Cardinal Rode! It's about time someone addressed the dying vocation of the religious brother as well! This should prove quite interesting and revealing. I have a feeling the brothers won't welcome this at all--all the more reason to do it!
The Brothers have absolutely
The Brothers have absolutely nothing to hide! We do NOT need people like you once again telling us what ought to be! Let me know what you do in the Church so I can tell you what "ought to be in your life." Now, come on---be fair!!!!
I am personally grateful for
I am personally grateful for the decisions made relative to Benedictine life after the Council. We no longer have "lay brothers." There is one novitiate for all, and all who complete the juniorate after the novitiate are professed to solemn vows and have chapter rights. It is only after solemn profession that a monk may begin a process of discernment leading to seminary studies and eventual ordination. We have non-ordained men who have completed, for example, a Ph.D. in theology, an M.F.A. from one of the most prestigeous art schools in the U.S.A. Our monastery has had non-ordained serve as Prior and Subprior.
"Adoring the Eucharist" is
"Adoring the Eucharist" is from another age and theologically is way off kilter to what the Eucharist is suppose to be. Prayer is a constant conversation with God and can't be mandated by a Cardinal in Rome who is of another age and time. It is bizarre and creepy that Rode is trying to apply military precision when he talks about prayer. It is all too strange that people like Rode are in the positions of power. They are abusing and misusing it and they must be called to task. The love of Jesus must come from the heart NOT from MANDATED RULES handed down like generals in an army. The Eucharist is a gift to be shared with each other, it is NOT a sacrament to be abused by staring at a consecrated host in a gold monstrance. This borders on idolatry and heresy and should be ex[posed as a practice that hold little theological validity and much idolatry. It is a cult like practice that should have disappeared, and almost did until the right wingers seized control in 1978.
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