communitas et caritas

I've just been reading Ruth Burrows, The Essence of Prayer , and I've been thinking about this quote (p. 169):   "To expose ourselves generously to the demands of community life; to refuse to shirk them in any way is to expose ourselves to God, allowing Him to purify us through others, shatter our illusions with humbling self-knowledge, divest us of everything selfish and enable us to love others with a pure, mature, disinterested love.  Surely this is true for whoever would follow Our Lord closely, whatever their form of life." How true is that?!  I've been struggling with community living a bit lately--in part because I'm spending a lot more time at home, recovering (still!) from surgery.  So I think I need to make this quote my mantra for a while. Burrows writes in the context of a Carmelite monastery, where most enter expecting solitude, but where there is also structured and required community time.  Time with others that cannot be missed. ...

I really don't like goodbyes.  Really.  I say them, and tears fly, and the world looks rather bleak for a while. One thing I'm learning about religious life is that it's about availability to do whatever you are called to do in the interest of the Kingdom of God--and that this availability necessarily demands many hard goodbyes.  It means being able to go wherever God calls you.  At the same time, it means building relationships with those with whom you live and minister.  So...build a relationship, and then say goodbye to the one you love. What I still am working to grasp is that the one you love is still with you--in your heart, but also available through phone, skype, email, whatever!  That the goodbye is not forever and not a complete separation.  The bond of love in the Heart of Jesus is still strong. Today we say goodbye to one of our community members who's been here on sabbatical from the Korean Province.  She has been so much fun, so...