From Monks to Missionaries

Schools of Spirituality in the Christian Tradition

Verploegen

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781498274661
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Have you ever wondered what the difference between the Franciscans and Jesuits is? Have you been curious about how a monk's life differs from a missionary's and about the origins of these traditions? This book explores how four distinct types of spirituality evolved in Christianity over the centuries as a response to various needs in different eras. These all became schools of spiritual formation. This book introduces monasticism, mendicancy, apostolic ministry, and missionary life as umbrella categories out of which many religious communities formed. It explores thirteen of these different communities, introducing you to the founders and the original fire that moved each of them to create something new. This book provides historical background and explores the rich legacy of the founders of each of these communities. It vibrantly shows how the story of the church as a whole has been enriched and blessed by these feisty, controversial, and saintly sages whose radical choice to follow the Spirit led them into new terrain and resulted in the emergence of a diversity of forms of spiritual lifestyles. From within this treasure house of Christian riches, we can draw support and inspiration to contribute our own stories and pass on this legacy to those who come after.

Part I

Monastic Spirituality

Introduction

Perhaps one of the most enduring schools of spirituality in Christianity is that of monasticism. This first umbrella category is alluring even for modern persons. Monasticism connotes a life of community, prayer, and haunting intimacy with God. Monasteries that are as ancient as the Christian faith itself mark our landscape, whispering invitations to come closer to God. They speak of stability, strength, and stillness.

Many Christians have a fundamental familiarity with the basics of monasticism. This form of spiritual life has endured many centuries of turmoil, trauma, and trouble and provided a safe harbor for people, manuscripts, and prayer. We associate monasticism with community and contemplation. It is traditionally seen as a conservative lifestyle that requires us to go away to a place dedicated to foundational practices of solitude, silence, and Scripture.

Within all the major religious traditions on the planet, monasticism is one of the oldest forms of spiritual life. Monastic life finds expression in many religious traditions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and others throughout the world. However, within Christianity, it was not always understood as a conservative lifestyle.

Monasticism emerged in the fourth century as a reaction against the institutionalization and alignment of Christianity with the Constantinian Empire. In 312 CE when the Edict of Milan brought Christians out of the catacombs to be embraced by the emperor as an acceptable and official state religion, a number of developments occurred. First of all, this acceptance and endorsement of Christianity freed curious seekers to investigate and join the previously hidden and threatened religion. Secondly, there was political and economic support for this inquiry. While many joined the church with a true spiritual motivation, a large number joined with mercenary objectives. They could advance in their social position or political reputation by ascribing to Christianity. What resulted was a huge influx of poorly catechized members, who lacked the genuine fervor and devotion that previously had marked a church of martyrs and mystics, who had to fight and withstand great personal risk and condemnation.

Many zealous Christian souls saw this as a dampening of the original fire of Christ’s Gospel message. In reaction against this contamination in the cities, they fled to desert places to try to recover a more radical way of honoring Christ. These desert dwellers recognized the need to embrace a life of ascetical discipline, centered on Scripture, simplicity, and silence. The desert was a harsh place that stripped people of the securities and illusions behind which they could hide. From a spiritual perspective, the desert provided an environment for naked dependence on God, a radical return to what was essential: God and God’s providence.

But it also was a dangerous place. These Desert Abbas and Ammas realized a need to stay connected with each other in order to survive. Some gathered together in small clusters, living within view of each other but living lives as hermits. Others chose to live together under a common roof with a Rule to guide their communal life.

Out of this latter development, monasticism emerged. The various Rules of life that were formulated as a result of experimentation by different groups and individuals dictated a balanced lifestyle of prayer, work, and study. A basic daily rhythm that revolved around the liturgical cycle was composed of established times for communal prayer of the psalms and reflection on the writings of the Church Fathers. This balanced life of prayer governed those who joined these ascetic communities. To broaden their intellects and inspire them spiritually, a regimen of study was incorporated into the schedule of each day. Finally, daily manual labor helped ground these monastics in the earth and allowed time for the agriculture needed to provide for their material needs. They maintained self-sufficiency and often provided a livelihood for local populations who sprang up around them and linked themselves economically and spiritually to those praying within the walls of the monastery.

Monastic communities in Christianity began to flourish in the fifth century CE and became further structured by great men and women who reflected on their experience and adapted Rules to guide the healthy spiritual life in their communities. Monasteries grew as centers of learning, copying manuscripts before printing presses were invented. In the Dark Ages when invasions threatened the populace, monasteries became places of sanctuary, safeguarding refugees within their walls and preserving artifacts and precious objects from destruction. Eventually, they were places that housed the riches of the church and the society.

Monasticism is a form of spirituality that uses structured formal prayer in a communal setting, usually apart from populated areas. The routine of life is grounded in an apostolate of prayer. In other words, their prayer is their work. Community and prayer are the centerpieces of a monastic’s life. Monks and monastic nuns commit themselves to lives of stability, never leaving the original monastery that they first joined unless a new foundation requires them to do so. Enclosed and restricted by their communal rhythm, monks and nuns of monastic communities display the high value they place on communal life. The monastic buildings which house their lives provide an image of the stability of faith that has survived many generations of change.

Today, we continue to relish the soothing, mystical chanting of prayer that comes out of this ancient spiritual tradition and we find nourishment for our souls in the refuge of monasteries and churches surrounding them. In the following chapters let us explore three communities of monastic men and women, the Augustinians, the Benedictines, and the Cistercians or Trappists and the Trappistines to see how this style of spirituality diversified creatively according to various needs through the ages.

1

Augustinian Spirituality

Hearts Aflame for the Trinity

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.” These words echo the ache of love that was a refrain in the heart of St. Augustine, the man from whom this school of spirituality gets its name. The poesy of these words reverberates through Augustine’s writings, particularly in his Confessions where he tells the story of his conversion from a life of seeking love in the outside world to that of finding love in intimacy with God.

Augustinian spirituality can be characterized as both monastic and mendicant in its form. From this perspective, the spirituality of the Augustinian legacy is a combination and has witnessed resurgences throughout history of the same vigor manifest in the founder himself. Therefore, we return to the earliest days of the Christian formation story and include Augustinian spirituality in this first chapter, positioning its inception in the era of the founder. In this milieu we discover the elements that powerfully influenced his spiritual formation and the school of spirituality to which his name would eventually be attached.

The Milieu

It was the late 300s CE. Persecution of Christianity had been halted just over forty years prior, in 312 CE, with Constantine’s conversion in the Eastern end of the Roman Empire. Many ecclesial and governmental issues were still being hammered out. Schisms had occurred within Christianity, challenging the authority of bishops, who had apostasized or betrayed their Christian faith during the persecution. Theological battles began over the true meaning of Christ’s life. Heresies developed with controversies over what composed orthodox belief.

In Northern Africa the Donatist heretics raised a question about the authenticity of the sacraments presided at by those who were weak of faith. They replaced the appointed prelates with those whom they felt manifested greater fidelity to the martyrs they wanted continually to honor. Initially, the official response to this was to turn a blind eye, but eventually suppression was implemented and, sadly, civil wars resulted.

These theological wars occurred at the same time as barbarian invasions from the north, and collectively they compromised the stability of Roman governance in the West. In Northern Africa a weakened centralized government struggled with cultural diversity at the edge of the Christian world.

Augustine’s birthplace was Thagaste, North Africa, what is now modern day Algeria. This city was host to a mixture of religious cultures, theological attitudes, and spiritual practices. Paganism was equally strong within the vestige of what remained of a viable Roman outpost. Thagaste was decidedly Christian by the time of Augustine’s birth, but the heretical influence of the Donatists was ensconced in the ritual practices and martyr cults of the local people.

The Founder

Into this turbulent and provocative scene, Augustine (354–430 CE) was born to middle-class parents, a Christian mother, Monica, who eventually was declared the patron saint of mothers and wives, and a pagan father named Patricius. Augustine was given as many advantages as his family and the patronage of a wealthy townsman could afford, including a classical education in Greek (which he hated) and Latin (which he loved). With the support of a pagan priest, Romanian, he went on for graduate studies in Carthage after secondary school. Teaching would take him back to Thagaste, and also to Carthage. From there he would travel to Rome and Milan, where he would convert to the Catholic faith in 386 CE under the tutelage of the great St. Ambrose, being baptized in 387 CE. His mother’s prayers would be answered in that sacramental moment, but she would die the same year en route to Africa with Augustine at her side.

Augustine’s Christian life took him into monasticism, ministry, priesthood, and finally leadership as the Bishop of Hippo. He experimented with communal life, too, by living with companions in a monastic setting. Even after his ascendancy to the office of Bishop, he continued this monastic life with clerical colleagues, advocating for a renunciation of all private property and emphasizing charity and service. He would oversee his sister’s monastic community and establish a monastic community of laymen. He would refute the heretical errors of his day through writing, preaching, and arbitration.

Within his lifetime, Augustine would see the political stability, which he took for granted in the Christian Roman Empire, crumble before him and eventually threaten his life. In 430 CE another heretical group, the “Arian” Christian Visigoths, besieged Hippo, cutting it off from the sea, and Augustine died during that siege at age seventy-six.

What Augustine provided in the midst of chaos within the church was a form of order, a systematic apologetic or explanation of Christianity to the heretical factions of his day, which included Manicheanism, Donatism, Pelagianism, and Arianism. His conversion to Christianity was a coming home to God, a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, where his joy and passion could be most fully realized. This return on Augustine’s part included not just an intellectual endorsement of the kingdom of God, but an active consent to helping that kingdom be established on earth. Through a self-transcendi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1: Monastic Spirituality
• Part 2: Mendicant Spirituality
• Part 3: Ministerial and Active Apostolic Spirituality
• Part 4: Missionary Spirituality
• Epilogue