From the old days monks, nuns, nuns and nuns enjoyed the peculiar respect and love of the full Church. The awesome richness of spiritual charisms, which reflect the earthly life of the Divine Savior, shows us the peculiar function of gatherings in the Church—the Mystical Body of Christ. On 2 February in the Church is the Day of Consecrated Life, on this occasion wishing to pay this extraordinary environment a tribute, I invitation you, dear Readers, to take a short and, by all means, rather a brief journey in the fascinating planet of spiritual orders.
Before I pay this tribute, however, let us begin with any ideas, due to the fact that unfortunately there is confusion in this matter.
Monk or monk?
In general consciousness, a monk and a monk are synonymous. So all you gotta do is wear a habit to be a monk. Are you sure? Well, no. In fact, a monk is simply a narrower concept. While a monk or nun is any individual who chooses to execute evangelical virtues in a spiritual assembly, the monk or nun is already characterized by individual seeking God in voluntary isolation from the world.
Using the encyclopedic language, the orders are approved by church authority spiritual communities of men and women, surviving under temporary or perpetual vows according to a circumstantial spiritual rule, based on the evangelical councils: poverty, obedience and moral purity.
The beginnings of a life dedicated to God can be found at the beginning of Christendom. close Lake Moeris (today Karun) in Egypt there was a community of therapists who, choosing life in solitude, purity and poverty, provided the first models to Christian monasteries. Later, St. Anthony the Hermit, St. Paul of Thebes, St. Basil (the east Orthodoxian), St. Augustine, St. Benedict ofNursia (the creator of Western monasticism) had a immense influence on the improvement of both the eretic (loose) and the priceobitic (Community) life.
In later years, another conventions were formed, successfully fulfilling their charisms.
misunderstanding...
With any embarrassment, however, I must say that many of our countrymen, even Catholics, have no sentiment for consecrated people, let alone any deeper cognition of their lives. Many besides are incapable to answer the question of why there are orders. Worse still, sometimes there are narratives of anti-clericals, who reduce all those surviving in monasteries to the name – let me be forgiven for utilizing this message – "useless workers".
Well, how many of you, Dear Fathers, would agree to have your kid dedicated to the exclusive service of God?
If you have any opposition in this matter, don't worry besides much. You've been in rather good company. Fathers of St Francis of Assisi or St Catherine Labouré were extremist opponents of specified a way of life for their children. However, their opposition was unsuccessful. And out of this "holy disobedience" to the parental will, the Lord God brought distant large good. St. Francis left us the venerable Order of insignificant Brothers, and the Holy Grey – Catherine Labouré received from Our woman the mission of spreading the Miracle Medal. And she did it with purpose.
Why is there a negative attitude toward spiritual life? Among another things, misunderstandings of this kind of vocation. Many consider specified a way a waste of life. Half poorness – any think – erstwhile specified a friar does any activity outside: he uses specified a life in a infirmary or in a school or kindergarten; but erstwhile he lives in a monastery or an era, why do he usage specified a life? Unfortunately, a akin line of reasoning was characterized by revolutionaries – Protestant, French or Bolshevik, who went from words to deeds, driving out the “useless” monks from their solitudes in which they lived. Alone with God and for God himself...
Because it is besides actual that in order to be able to approve specified a lifestyle, 1 must have religion – in God and that the monk behind the walls of the monastery invites us with his prayer and penance countless graces. Without doubt, this religion was something that the late Carmelite barefoot, the cardinal. Karol Wojtyła – later Pope-Polician, who erstwhile said: They are.lightning protection, which protects Kraków from storms. Indeed – prayer, renunciation and repentance are pleasing to God – in all place and at all time!
But the misunderstanding of the “world” affects not only hermits specified as kameduli or carthuzi, but besides another people who have put on the habit. For what is this – people think "worldly": their full life in mortification, purity, obedience and poverty?
Especially today, it must be consternation erstwhile the carnival de facto lasts all year, in fashion there is assertiveness that frequently takes the form of egoism and deficiency of culture; erstwhile tv screens, computers and laptops pour looseness; and money has won itself the position of absolute ruler.
Yet there are inactive – unfortunately less and less – souls who do not compromise Take the Cross and follow Christ, fulfilling their calling in prayer and penance, or in service among the poor, the sick, the little...
And for how many average mortal monks and nuns have become aids to eternal salvation!
Worship of the Eucharist
For who reminds us of this large Mystery of Faith, which is the real presence of the Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist? Even Benedictine-Sacramments. The central point of their lives is the worship of the Eucharist – Christ hidden in the form of bread and wine. The nuns, in accordance with their charisma, united with Christ in His Feast, which he makes for the worship of the Father and for the salvation of the world, desire to worship with Him and through Him, and to reward as much as possible for the insults, ingratitude and indifference of men.
Hospital and charitable works
And how immense and inactive the activity of these faithful sons and daughters of the Church in the social or medical dimension! It is impossible to silence the works of mercy – shelters, shelters, hospitals or hospices, which were founded by nuns inspired by the teaching of Christ. For how can we forget St Vincent's à Paulo and his missionaries or blacks, with large dedication to the bed-watching patients who are seriously ill? How can we not mention the “holy madman” of John God, the founder of the infirmary order of Bonifrates? And how many of the church's contemporary critics realize the spiritual services of the children of St. Kamil de Lellis – with a mother-father care nurturing senile old men and persons with intellectual disabilities! How not to mention St. Teresa of Calcutta and her Missionaries of Love, serving wherever we face the most utmost material and spiritual poverty.
Going to the editorial office all day, I pass our neighbors—Albertin brothers, who each day bring aid to the poorest, neglected, and rejected, sometimes so hard cases that a "ordinary man" would not be able to last mentally in specified company even 5 minutes.
The words of St. Brother Albert: It should be as good as bread; it should be like bread that lies on the table for all, from which each can cut and feed himself if he is hungry,They proceed to inspire many of his spiritual daughters and sons who aid those in request materially and spiritually. This aid is carried out for 365 days a year. We frequently forget about it, or we don't really know it, due to the fact that this service is not accompanied by tv cameras, and the press is somewhat reluctant to compose about it. Besides, albertyns themselves respond allergicly to the thought of publicity.
Missionaries, educators, artists, preachers
Let us besides look at another areas. 1 cannot go past the incredible effort they put into bringing another peoples religion in God and... the benefits of our civilization missionaries, focused in many gatherings—combonians, white fathers, clariteens, verbists... The large work in the work of education and education is done by felicians, augustians, hearts, gifts, charades, drunkards, school brothers, or Jesuits. For years, spiritual schools and kindergartens have enjoyed excellent reputation. And this opinion besides attracts religiously indifferent people who want their children to be educated and raised by spiritual people.
And the fine arts? For many of the artists of the painting masterpieces – specified as the Dominican of Blessed Fra Angelico – inspiration was the subject of the Life and Death of the Savior! And so does the music. There is simply a Philippine assembly in the Church, founded in 1551 in Rome by St. Philip Neri, whose charisma is evangelization by culture and art, and especially by musical oratories.
The Church – the Mystical Body of Christ, constantly bears witness to the fact and Love of God. He gives to God the Most Holy and Perfect Sacrifice, preaches from the pulpit of the Gospel – for centuries this has been done in a perfect way by Dominicans; he teaches and educates, heals the soul and body, constantly prays and repents in the emeritic monasteries (cameda or carthuzi). This is all for the salvation of souls!
Cooking Art
Let's decision on to something. for bodyThat's food. Kitchen is art. And a good kitchen – a masterpiece. Of course, the Church had a large influence on the culinary work of Catholic nations. The same, which requires moderation and recommends fasting and abstinence during selected periods.
The church saw in the creation of cooking recipes a kind of artism and a way to self-improve the faithful. The culinary art experienced its large growth in monasteries and abbeys. In fact, this is the case today. It is adequate to enter any of the bookshops to find in it excellent kitchen recipes of Leonilla's sisters – józefitka, Anela's sisters – Salvatorian women, Anastasia's sisters from the Assembly of Daughters of God's Love and Father John Grande Majewski from the Bonifratrian order...
It is worth noting that Benedictine from the medieval abbey in Cluna set themselves the task of laying down recipes for fish, eggs and vegetables (they refrained from eating meat). Each day they served another dishes, which led them to search fresh flavors and culinary possibilities. It's Cluna's first cookbook. The monks, in their wisdom, knew that they would worship God by exploring the secrets of the palate, composing tasty dishes, and thus besides contribute to spiritual development.
Let us not forget that it is the students of St Benedict, who have been present on Polish lands for a 1000 years, who have brought here many plants, specified as mint, rosemary, thyme, coriander or lubczyk, which have been utilized not only for the treatment of various diseases, but are besides excellent additives which emphasize the taste of dishes.
Remembering the rule of moderation, we should besides mention alcoholic beverages – liqueurs, tinctures, honeys, wines and wonderful beers, which were and are to this day the work of the spiritual brothers – Benedictines, trappers, Carmelites, Capuchins and many others. The world's most celebrated champagne Dom Perignon bears the name of a modest monk from the Benedictine abbey in Hautvillers – Pierre Pérignon, who was the first in the planet in the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries to make the method of wine champagne (the conversion of calm wine into sparkling wine through secondary fermentation).
Conesers of good cuisine, expressing the joy of the appropriate usage of God's gifts, were many saints-mnipotents to mention, for example, Saint Thomas of Aquinas (Dominican) or Saint Popes Gregory VII (Beneditin) and Pius V (Dominican). And how many recipes – culinary and curative left us a Benedictine of St. Hildegard of Bingen, 1 of the most outstanding women of all time!
Civilization at the Table
In the mediate Ages – an era of Catholic par excellence – the abbeys cultivated the tradition of giving large feasts. The rituals associated with feasting were sacred in character and produced a sense of spiritual community, softened animosity, silenced disputes. The monks prepared their delicacies from the command of mercy and hospitality, creating the principles of the label, which in turn contributed to the refinement of the soul.
The art of conducting conversation and the principles of politeness at the table became increasingly sophisticated. It was during the joint feast that the rituals of secular society gradually developed, creating a model of European civilization.
In the planet of music
I mentioned music earlier in the context of Filipinos. And let us emphasize – in the improvement of music, spiritual people are involved. The Benedictine already mentioned, St Hildegard of Bingen, wrote that music permeates the earth and the divine. It is the echo of the Paradise chants of the first people, the embodiment of the Good and the Beautiful, which is sung by the Most advanced God. This extraordinary female emphasized that all sound came from God. The divine thought penetrates into the human mind, inspires, and from it works of art. As a result, music is created from God’s inspiration.
St. Hildegard knew precisely what she was writing about. She was a composer of dozens of musical works, including the most crucial – moralitet Ordo Virtutum.
The Italian Benedictine monk besides makes a immense contribution to the improvement of music. Guido of Arezzo, who in the 11th century perfected the sheet music and introduced a fresh singing method, called solmization. Each degree of scale received in it the name from the first declarations of poems in the anthem for the celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist: Ut Queent laxis, Resonare fibris. Mira gestorum, Famuli tuorum. Solve polluti LaBii reatum Sancte Ioannes! (To be able to be grateful in songs, your unusual works to praise unsurpassed, Dust of all the guilt that is staining our lips, Wash off holy John!) - Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La. In the 16th century Anzelm of Flanders combined the first letters of the last words (Sancte Ioannes), which formed Si, forming a full scope of C-dur.
As a substance of fact, in the next century due to the difficulty of singing the syllable Ut, it was changed to Do – from the first 2 letters of the name of the musician to the court of the cardinal. Francis Barberini, Giovanni Battista Doni (who made this change).
Returning to the creator of solarization, Blessed. At the end of his life, Guido joined a strict order of kamedules, where singing was heard very sporadically! There are no organs in their churches...
In this order, in the Bialystian era, I had the chance to spend 4 days. And it was a time for me to learn a wonderful lesson in Christianity and an extraordinary experience of God. Kamedula did not preach, I did not talk to them. Silence and the example of their prayerful, penance life were enough.
Thank you for your testimony. Thank you to all who have decided to carry out their vocation in the monasteries.
Thank God for creating the Laws!
Bogusław Bajor
