Abbey-Roads2

“Let’s start our own religious order!” 

In the old Bing Crosby musicals, down on their luck actors, unable to find a show, get together and say, “Hey!  Let’s put on a musical!”  And then you get “White Christmas” and everyone lives successfully ever after.

Sometimes it’s the same way with men and women who have wanted to enter religious life but find the decadence they encounter in certain religious orders not to their liking.  In some cases, they themselves have been rejected by a good community, yet they remain convinced they have a vocation.  “Hey!  Let’s start our own religious order!”

Anybody can go and be a hermit.

When I was testing my vocation in the early 1970’s I came across countless experimental religious orders.  Men intent upon reviving the original charism of the Franciscan order seemed to be the most prevalent.  Although I knew a Carmelite prioress who claimed to experience locutions and decided to finish the reform of St. Teresa of Avila by founding individual communities of hermits.

She moved from diocese to diocese, leaving a trail of one or two nuns behind in each foundation who remained autonomous - “idiorythmic” hermits if you will.  (Her moving around was not always voluntary.)  One such hermitage had only one sister hermit, but her newsletters asking for donations always were worded as if there was a vibrant community.  Sister would write things like, ”The sisters are remembering you in our monthly novena.”  What “sisters”?  There is no community there.

The funny thing about this is that many of these people left an established monastery because the particular community had so few vocations, or failed to meet their expectations in some way.  These founders intended  to go and renew, or “refound” the order the way it was supposed to be.  I’ve always been a little dubious about these “upstarts”.  Especially when they solicit funds for the “community”.  What community?

Let’s dress up like a monk.

Yesterday I heard of a group of men - a “new” order who seem to be falling apart.  Rumors, hearsay, and unverifiable facts about money and that “other” stuff, surround the group.  I can’t write about that.  Although I know a great deal about their origins and some former members of the community.  I never really believed they were “healthy” - even though they looked like good religious in their habits.  (Yes, the men were sincere though.)

What I know for a fact, whenever their fund-raising newsletter went out, communal spending went up.  Which caused me to wonder how they were any more observant of their vow of poverty than the order they hoped to renew was.  Their founder originally sought entrance into a new diocesan group on the East Coast in the 1970’s.  (That group, which rarely had one or two members, will soon die out as the founder is elderly and not in good health.)  The founder of the local group realized he could do the same thing in his own archdiocese, so he came back to start his own community.  His new group appeared more successful than the East Coast group, but today it may be crumbling.

Safety in numbers.

There are of course major new  religious groups, along with renewed  existing groups, and a few smaller communities, who have all the hallmarks of authenticity.  (Groups such as the Nashville Dominican Sisters, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the Hawthorne Dominicans, and so on.)  The main characteristic attesting to a particular group’s authenticity may be indicated by the numbers they attract to their respective congregations, as well as the approval they receive from the Holy See - not to mention a viable apostolate.

Not a few smaller groups have often been formed based upon the idiorythmic spirituality or “piety” of one person, just as major orders have often been formed in the past.  Thus the discernment process on the part of candidates can oftentimes be even more difficult.  Many times the new communities gradually adopt the exact same lifestyle as the orders they intended to re-found.  Though their community life can be observant as far as prayer and religious decorum, frequently they simply seem to imitate an archetype of an idealized religious life they understand from books and movies, and they become stagnant.  Instead of re-founding - they really just re-institutionalize themselves - hence they become as impotent as the orders they intended to do better than - or so it seems to me.

Is there an apostolate?

New forms of eremetic, monastic, and contemplative groups have mushroomed since the Council, while the revision of Canon Law once again allows for diocesan hermits.  Which means a few fervent souls went off to live as a hermit, one may even be living in an apartment complex near you.  The term hermit can be manipulated to mean anything you want it to mean.  Hence, the new contemplative groups, whether cenobitic or eremetic, can be unverifiable as to authentic charism.  (I’m not referring to daughter-houses established by existing monastic orders.)

On the other hand, communities with a genuine apostolate are fairly easy to recognize as either healthy or unhealthy.  The healthy communities normally demonstrate a clear purpose, while they successfully combine the contemplative life with the active life of the apostolate.  Their spirituality appears to be well integrated.

Religious life is a witness to the Gospel.

While reading Bl. Mother Teresa’s letters, I came across letters involving the difficulties she encountered in beginning the Missionaries of Charity.  Her Bishop took a very long time while he examined her case, insisting that he could not proceed hastily.  He explained that he needed certitude that it was truly God’s will because if it failed, it could be a source of scandal to the faithful, as well as disrupt, if not ruin the lives and vocations of the women who would enter the congregation in good faith.   

Religious life is a witness in the Church, therefore it is not something to play with, or attempt to recreate to suit one’s personal piety, or satisfy one’s desire for companions.

[Thanks to Jeffrey  for the beautiful photo.]