Archive for the ‘Friary Blog’ Category

On 6 March 2010 New Plymouth’ St.Mary pro-Cathedral became a Cathedral. Please see here for more info: http://www.stmarys.org.nz/

Brian and I went there from Hamilton and it was certainly a great celebration for all the people who attended. Now, there would be so many things to say about today’s event that I don’t even know where to start. However, there is one thing above the others that struck me today: the great variety and diversity that make up the Anglican Church in New Zealand. It is like a mosaic of colours, a rich tapestry of languages, cultures and traditions. Today the intense Maori spirituality merged with the grandiose style of celebration of English heritage, bible passages were read in languages of Polynesia, senior members of the community prayed alongside little children, female and male clergy together with a congregation of different backgrounds and ethnicity offered an authentic and superb act of thanksgiving and worship to God. And in the midst of it all I thought how extraordinary this Church must be to welcome such diversity and offer it as a gift to glorify God who has created such a variety.

Diversity makes us all better, stronger and wiser in our Christian life. It is really sad that the Anglican Communion is going through such a hard time and it seems to have forgotten one of the main feature of Anglicanism, i.e. “comprehensiveness”. Maybe sometimes it can appear confusing to some people. Some people might even miss a rigid structure or hierarchy where everything is in order. But why should the Church resemble more a military organization than a family? Families are not perfect and are sometimes very stressful, frustrating, chaotic or even dysfunctional. But it is still the place that is supposed to nurture us, let us grow and where we learn to give and receive love. I believe that the Church should be the place where everyone feels and is welcome as they are and people are helped to grow in their relationship with God and with the community, are supported to live their gifts and talents out in the world.

I appreciate that the Anglican church retains traditions that come from the earliest days of the Church but I also appreciate the fact that it is ready to engage with the modern world. Also, many ways of worshiping are acceptable in the Anglican Church: I personally feel close to a particular strand of Anglicanism called Anglo-Catholicism and sometimes to me it is quite challenging to come to terms with some strong Evangelical expressions of faith among some groups of Anglicans. But this is all part of the process of growth and development in faith and also a chance to learn and move beyond my personal limits and prejudices. We don’t all think the same things and this is challenging as well as exciting. I believe the key is mutual respect, humbleness and a willingness to keep talking and listening to each other.

As the Archbishop of York said in his sermon today: “We are to be stones built into one another, committed to one another. The unity of this spiritual building is vitally important. Party spirit, or some other sin can destroy it. If we are divided we can’t join in Christ’s work of making all people God’s friends.” And as we pray just before the communion ” We who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread” so I pray that we’ll never forget this important characteristic of Anglicanism worldwide, that there can be Unity in Diversity.

Wednesday 17th  February was Ash Wednesday. We started the period of Lent with a combined service by the Cathedral Communities of The Blessed Virgin Mary and our own Saint Peter’s. Of course, the choir was outstanding as usual and the service was magnificently led by the Catholic Bishop and the Dean of S. Peter’s. The homily was about Lent being a time of prayer. As Christians, we are all called to a life of prayer but this is the season to enhance our efforts and look for a deeper relationship with God through our prayer. It’s not always easy and sometimes we cannot find the right words even though we feel the need to express our feelings and thoughts to God. The homily tonight made me think of a prayer, which I found in a literature magazine long time ago,  by a French priest, whose name I don’t remember, that expresses quite well the feeling of being inadequate or speechless before God. But it is our desire of Him the first and most important prayer we can offer (my apologies for my poor translation from the original French):

Lord, I meant to tell you I don’t want to pray tonight. I am too scared: I don’t want to run the risk of waiting for you. It would take me so much effort, again effort. And I don’t want to make that effort. Not tonight, honestly.
This long stream of days when nothing really happens… I really get bored…. All these days going by without realizing if I have made any progress or if I am a little bit better.

It’s getting dark, and I think tomorrow is getting near. And when I wake up –if I get to sleep at all- I’ll know I am still the same. Neither better, nor worse, ahead of me another day and the same opportunities to do something good, which I’ll miss out, as usual.
Sometimes I have asked you for perfection : Be perfect as Your Father in Heaven is perfect. I didn’t get there yet. And as I get older, I wonder if I ever will. Or if I should keep trying. I wonder, O Lord, if this perfection, I have sought it in a very pure way. I would have liked to adorn myself with it, to decorate me with it… Be a saint for the others and for me.
I had to give it up. And to admit once for all that I am what I am.
After all, this might well be what you mean, Lord, when you call us to be like little children: to simply admit that you have accepted us just as we are and to accept the fact that we are sinners, the ones you have come for and to whom your Gospel was written.
(…) Lord, you have shown your preference towards all those who fall, the lonely, the rejected, the poor who believe they are not worth much. No doubt I’m starting to realize I am one of them…
It is for people like us that you have come.
But, Lord, tonight, don’t ask me too much.

Few days ago I got an email from a dear friend of mine living in Milan. She is now in a committed relationship with her female partner and since the end of last year they have been proud parents of a baby girl. She is now telling me that they would like their daughter to be baptized. I was surprised to hear that, since I thought they had abandoned the Church and christianity long time ago. Nevertheless, I was also very happy to know they had managed to keep their faith alive in spite of the official doctrine of the Church towards gay people.
She wrote me that she was also afraid they might be refused the baptism for their daughter because of their family situation. Reading about her concerns made me feel very sorry and wondering how we got to the point that people actually fear to be turned away by the Church. How can this be possible?
Across the centuries, there has always been a tendency in the Church to act like an exclusive club which determines who is in or who is out and reserve its “services” to people who are deemed to be worthy and deserving. On the other hand, when I think of the Church, it is the image of the yeast that I have in my mind: “The Kingdom of God is like some yeast which a woman took and kneaded into three measures of flour until it all rose”(Lk 13.20-21). This image describes an extensive and radical transformation which starts small and simple but gives rise to something unexpected and beautiful. The Church is not about hierarchy or power but it is the people of God, a place where everyone’s gifts and uniqueness should be considered important, where one should be helped to grow and develop in their relationship with God and in their love to the neighbor.

I dream of a humble Church which doesn’t compromise with the powers of this world but rather trusts in the paradoxical strength of the Gospel, a Church which celebrates diversity in the unity of the eucharist and strives to proclaim the message of a restored communion with God and among all human beings, a Church which leads the way towards a better and brighter future for all of us.
I believe religious life can have the important duty to be a prophetic voice within the Church, to show that inclusiveness, acceptance and humility are at the very heart of the Gospel. Some people already think they can live a Christian life without the Church and in fact it is true that, far from being the cornerstone of God’s dwelling among human beings, the Church has sometimes been a rock that caused people to stumble and fall. But the Church of tomorrow, if it wants to survive, has to turn once again and fully into that community of love and reconciliation the Christ Himself meant and established.

Yesterday we had a village meeting in regard to the future of Te Hurihanga, the youth justice facility here at Te Ara Hou village. It’s a pilot project, aimed at young men between 14 and 17 involved in crimes or violence, who were repeatedly coming before the Youth Court.

Te Hurihanga project gives them a chance to turn their lives around. It is a sort of re-education from a directionless life to a meaningful one.

It’s a three-year project and it is due soon for an assessment and review. It has been hugely successful but, apparently, quite expensive. This is why there is some uncertainty on whether the government is willing to continue to fund it or not.

Te Hurihanga caused so much drama and protest when it arrived few years ago. That was because some people in the neighborhood weren’t very comfortable with the idea of having of a facility targeting young offenders almost outside their doorstep. But to the rest of the village the boys in the programme have always been much more than just their criminal record. Many people here see them as their own children and have made it clear from the very beginning that they’d support the whole project, the boys and the staff all the way through the difficult journey of rehabilitation. Because that’ s the ethos of the village we live in: restoring hope, dignity and confidence of all the people who come here seeking assistance and support.

We, as franciscans, who strive to follow Christ in the footstep of St Francis, believe that our Lord has commanded us to do just that, i.e. to restore respect, dignity, and hope to every person as He did through the acts of healing the Gospel so that we could know that we are fully accepted by God, fully welcomed by him in our human condition. It was moving to see how the entire village show their solidarity the the staff and the boys at the Hurihanga in this difficult time, proving once again that we are all one family, one body of Christ, that we feel their pain and struggle and that they are not alone. That is also at the very heart of the Gospel and our mission as franciscan brothers is really to make people aware of the value they have in God’s eyes. “You are precious in my sight, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4): these are the words I think of when we I see the photo of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro embracing the world. Since Easter morning, we know that God did not hesitate to give everything so that we would never forget what we are worth. We are one, we are precious and we experience this every day here at Te Ara Hou, which means the new way.

I spent last week in Auckland and stayed at the Catholic Friary in Hillsborough, which is also a retreat centre. I took part in their daily office and together we celebrated eucharist, offering our prayers and intercessions to God, especially in favour of the people of Haiti and all who are helping in the aftermath of that terrible earthquake.

Regarding the friary in Hillsborough, I had heard so much about that place and the brothers living there that I was really curious to see it myself. I wasn’t disappointed. The friary is a big building with more than 40 rooms. When I saw that soon after my arrival, I thought that the community of friars must have been quite large at one point, but brother Bernie, who is the director of the centre, told me that the building was meant to be a retreat centre from the very beginning so most of the rooms were used by the guests anyway. But, walking along the corridors, i was thinking it would be nice if all those rooms were occupied by friars…

When I was in Europe I visited some ancient monasteries and for a while I lived in one of them myself. I recall one day while I was walking in a dark and silent corridor of this 1000-year-old monastery and thinking of all the generations of monks who walked there before me. Continual prayer, generation after generation, has made that place almost glowing with a sort of spiritual light. Even the walls seemed to be praying. Religious houses weren’t only houses of prayer of course but also a lighthouse of culture and education to many people. At the time of S. Francis, monasteries across Europe were places of wealth and power too.

Everything has changed now in our XXI century. It seems like religious life is not so attractive anymore, now that young people have so many options in front of them. Nevertheless, I still think the Holy Spirit is calling some men and women to a closer relationship with God. But very few are willing to answer that call. Religious life is a counter-cultural choice by definition, it means to leave everything behind, including one owns most precious relationships in order to pursue something more important.

We live now in a world of instant gratification and satisfaction. We want it all and now. Religious life on the other hand is about forsaking the immediate pleasure for something more essential later. It is about trusting God and becoming dependent on His will, in a world where personal independence, success and self-determination are a must. No wonder many people find this way of life absolutely incomprehensible.

It was good to see how other brothers are coping with this situation. I was encouraged and inspired by their own determination to be faithful to their call despite all the difficulties and problems we face inside and outside the church. The flame of faith that we are carrying with us to the world is still alive. Surely we live on the margins of the Church, and some people may even question our role in it but I reckon the church would be incomplete without us.

In fact, we already how important religious life is to the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches and, by the way, we are lucky and happy to have a Romanian orthodox congregation who worships every Sunday in the village’s chapel. Their rich liturgy is always a source of interest and fascination to me, as well as their theology and ecclesiology. I know some people in the Anglican Church also recognize how impoverished the Church would be without this way of life.

Anyway, even though we don’t really know what it is going to happen to religious life, I am confident enough that God will help us once again by giving us strength and vision to continue to be a witness of His love among all people. After all, religious life has changed before according to the need of the people they were called to serve and to live with, so once again the future is open to new opportunities and we just need to put our trust in Christ and remember his words to his disciples: ” I am with you always, to the close of the age.”(Mt 28.20)

For the last six months, I have been spending every Thursday night at the Hamilton Night Shelter. I have to admit, this is not an easy ministry for me. My first difficulty was to make the people there understand who I was. There was a combination of factors that probably played against me: many of them had no idea of what a religious order is about, let alone a franciscan one. On top of that, I was a foreigner with a funny accent from a very faraway land. I suppose some of them saw me as an alien when I first arrived! I also think some others saw me as an “outsider” like them. That probably helped me to break down cultural and language barrier and build up some trust. Moreover, I believe they appreciated that fact that, despite being associated with a church, I wasn’t there to preach or convert them, which is something that always puts some people off. In fact, I was there in a spirit of service to them.

The first few weeks were quite hard: very few people were willing to have a conversation of any depth with me. But I kept on going, week after week, without really expecting anything in particular to happen but just being open to whatever could arise.

I have to say that the staff working there were amazing from the very beginning and made me feel welcome all the way through.

I soon realized some people had made the night shelter their permanent home, so I kept meeting them week after week. I could see changes happening in their life, sometimes good ones, other times quite bad. Other people were more transient and able to move on to a new address very quickly.

Working there as a volunteer has surely opened my eyes on some situations in life I didn’t know. Most of them come from very dysfunctional families, some have been lost everything they had like jobs, friends, partners, nearly all of them have an alcoholic problem. I listened to their stories with respect and interest, trying to share their burden and pain.

I learnt a lot from them but sometimes it was very frustrating as I was wondering if I was doing enough for them. Was I really able to help them get through all of that or at least give them a sense of hope in the future and dignity to themselves?

Almost all of those men have been quite nice to me while I was there, with only some occasional abuse fueled by too much alcohol. Even though the shelter has a very strict no-alcohol policy, some of them are already intoxicated when they arrive but are asked to leave immediately. Let’s say that they don’t take it very well and always find the time to swear at some staff member, me included, before leaving the premises.

But generally speaking, they usually comply with the rules without a problem.

The night I am in is usually quiet, sometimes they are all in bed by 9 o’clock! However, there is a smoking area at the back of the building which is a favorite spot to have a chat before bedtime. I usually sit there with 2 or 3 of them, even though I don’t smoke, and use that time to try to talk and listen. I also share some of my experience with them and some of them seem to be interested in my way of life and even amused! They don’t quite understand the reason for celibacy, especially.

I believe that this experience may be useful to me as much as to them. I certainly have the chance to live out an important aspect of the franciscan spirituality which seeks to see the face of Christ in the midst of this broken and wounded humanity. And, on the other hand, I hope I can help them to look beyond their immediate pain and suffering, to prove that there is someone who cares and they are not forgotten by the rest of the world or by God. I don’t know if I can make a difference in their life but I hope that someone may feel, at least for a moment, that their life really matters. I notice sometimes that this is best expressed in silence rather than words. No preaching, no theology spoken, just an open heart and mind to welcome them as they are and the awareness that we all the same is what I bring into that place every week.

In our time, the internet is the primary source of information for many people. I remember when I was looking for more information regarding the Society of Saint Francis, an online search for “Anglican Franciscan in NZ” was the first thing I did. And, by doing so, I came across this web-site.

Well, It wasn’t exactly like this at that time, but it had plenty of interesting material for an enquirer like I was. One thing among the others caught my attention: the blog. It was mainly due to brother Kentigern, who spent few years in New Zealand before heading back to Britain where he continues his life and ministries in Leeds. I can only thank him for the time and effort he dedicated to the blog: beautifully written, witty and honest, it helped me to shape my idea about SSF and life in this friary.

I would like, with the help of my brothers, to carry on this tradition. Of course my style won’t be the same unfortunately, because English is actually my second language. So I apologize in advance for any mistake I’ll certainly make. However, like I said, I’d like to keep on talking about our daily life here at the Friary of the Divine Compassion, our ministries, the people we meet, the things we do, the wider community we live in but also about our life of prayer, our spirituality and what really means being followers of Christ in the footsteps of S.Francis in the XXI century.

Maybe, there will be one or two out there who, after meeting us online by chance, would like to know more and to find out not only about our journey of faith but also why and how we decided to dedicate our lives to God: the Gospel passage we read few days ago at the Eucharist expresses quite well the sense of longing, the desire and the thirst for God that are at the heart of every vocation and keep us moving towards the source of life and love: Jesus said to them “What do you seek?” and they said to him “Rabbi, Where are you staying?” He said to them “Come and see” They came and saw where he was staying (Jn 1.38-39).

So, let’s begin this journey together.

Br. Simone

 The Good Portion

As I begin my noviciate at the friary in Hamilton,  I still get asked what brought me over here from Italy. I have also found out some people thought I came straight all the way from Europe to join the Society of S. Francis over here! In reality, my story with SSF started over one year ago in America, where I first met the Brothers and had a first experience in the life of the community. I was already living in New Zealand at that time and I was in New York to visit some friends. I came across the Friary of Little Portion almost by chance, for I was looking  for a retreat centre and that place came up first on the list.  When I got back to NZ, I got in touch with the brothers in Hamilton and after a while I began living with them.

I have to say neither Franciscan life nor religious life were totally unknown to me: the former because S.Francis (we call him Francesco) , S.Clare ( Chiara) and their spirituality go way beyond religion in Italy and they are deeply and truly interwoven with the local culture and the way of living  and the latter because I had already had a period of discernment  in a Benedictine monastery. In fact I have an enduring conviction that I was called to religious life long ago and that in spite of attempts to have a regular life, I have always had this strong sense of call reaffirmed.

The community life here doesn’t differ too much from bigger religious houses around the world. We live under a rule and a we treasure the life of prayer, the liturgy of the hour, the possibility of listening to the Word of God and above all the holy eucharist, but also our community  seeks to be open, to welcome and listen to all, to share the joy and hope as well as the sorrow and distress of all people.

The life of each brother is centered on the service of praise offered to God in prayer and on the service offered to others through work, hospitality offered to guests, and service offered to the church and to different Christian churches and agencies.

Nevertheless, this way of life might sound quite odd to someone, but in fact I believe that by answering this call, we are not undertaking a new way of living the Gospel and we are not alone on this road travelled by many Christians over the centuries. Before us, others with the same vocation, expressed in different ways according to the times and places in which they lived, have made this journey: Elijah and John the Baptist, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Benedict and Scholastica, Francis and Claire, and many others.

After all, monks and nuns, present in the church from the first centuries, are men and women who live their Christian vocation as a radical commitment, often at the margins of society and of the visible church, even at the cost of being marginalized. The monk looks toward the city and the church and remains in contact with them, never separating himself but expressing his complete solidarity through his prayer and intercession. He sometimes addresses a word or gesture to the city and church, or addresses them through his silence; but some of the time, in order to protect what has been entrusted to him, he finds it necessary to turn toward the desert, giving the impression that he has turned his back on the city and the church. But this turning away is in no way a gesture of disrespect: it is simply a sign of his thirst to return to God, in silence and attention.

Despite sharing so much of this vision, we need to say though that franciscan spirituality is not monastic: rather than fleeing the word to find God, it seeks God in the world. Typical Franciscan idea is “the world is my cloister”.

 Francis had a deep experience of God in the run-down church of San Damiano:  facing the wounded Christ on the cross, he met the God of compassionate love, who delights to be with the simple and those rejected by the world. In that image, he discovered his own wounds and the deeper he entered into the mystery of Christ in his own life, the more he saw Christ in everyone and everything around him.

The God Francis saw wasn’t the one asking for offerings or sacrifices but He was the one offering himself, sacrificing himself, giving himself to all His creature so that we could have life. Francis understood that it is God who is coming to seek us in order to be in communion with us. The central act of our worship, the eucharist, is our way to respond to that and our thanksgiving to God, who allowed us to take part in His life.

In fact, all of our life should be a thanksgiving to God. Few things make me feel guilty like not dedicating enough time to prayer and praise to God. When that happens, I recall the word of Jesus to his disciples in the garden of the Gethsemane: ““Could you not watch one hour with me?”(Mt 26.40) He was asking them to watch with him, to wait and be awake with him in the hour of crisis.

 How many of us still immerse ourselves in activity, rushing everywhere, busy, busy, busy because the call of Jesus to “keep watch and wait” seems too great a challenge. Yes, keeping watch is certainly one of the hardest things. Gethsemani reminds us that what we are asked to do is something more simple and difficult than springing into action. We are asked to “be” rather than “do”.

  Francis himself was a man of prayer, even though his ministry to the lepers and his preaching the gospel seem to have overshadowed the centrality of prayer in his way of life. Certainly Francis considered prayer as the basis for following Christ as it is shown in all his writings.

As we follow in the footsteps of Francis and Clare, we are not trying to preserve a strange relic from the Middle Age, but even in the 21^st century a life of renunciation and sacrifice is still a mean by which we can obtain true freedom, even though it sounds like a paradox. The way of the Gospel is the opposite of the common mentality and we can really find ourselves once we give up our own will and surrender to God. Instead, our modern culture is more and more obsessed with individualism and consumerism and we live in the illusion that the more we have the happier we are. But such behavior has quite a devastating impact on our life and on our natural environment.  As Christmas approaches and the race to get presents for family and friends and to organize parties starts, it might be useful to remember the answer of Jesus to Martha, who was left alone serving the Lord while her sister Mary was sitting at his feet listening to his teaching: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Lk 10.42). This good portion is all we need.

Br Simone n/ssf