Chapter 2 in The
Monastery of the Heart, “A Seeker’s Path,” speaks of two different ways of
seeking God—in solitude and in community—and says they are both important.
The solitary, says Chittister, “go deeply into the struggle
with the self—both physically and mentally—that comes with solitude.” This path
“strips away the . . .companionship of a partner, the counsel of others, the
strength of a community. . .” She is speaking, of course, of the hermit
lifestyle, more common during middle age and Renaissance eras, but still
practiced sometimes, and she admits that there is a difficulty with this choice—“the
human tendency to turn in on ourselves and to forget our obligation to build up
the entire human community. ‘Whose feet,’ St. Basil asks, ‘will the hermit
wash?’”
I have always said I’d rather be a hermit than a nun. I
recognize in myself not only that need for rich solitude in which I experience
God most fully, but also those all-too-human tendencies to isolation and
self-centeredness.
The other path she speaks of is the intentional community,
such as a monastery or convent. She describes the strength of being “immersed
in a community, accountable to its standards . . . responsible for making the
human community ever more human, always more of a community.”
I recognize the need
of community for myself and the strength the communion with other believers
gives me, and perhaps had those historic communities not asked for so much more
than God calls for—celibacy, self-abnegation, frequently a salvation by works
kind of thinking, they might not have had as many extreme difficulties as they
did (and do).
In Chapter 3, “A Single Vision,” she goes on to speak of the
premise of her book, which is that “the Rule [of Benedict] does not necessarily
require community of place—the geographical confinement of all the members of
one community in one location.”
Whether we are near to or far from other members of the body
of Christ, “the Rule asks two major things of us: First, we are to be constant
at prayer. . . . Second, we are to live a single vision of life together, even
when apart. . . . We are to go the way together in heart and mind and soul.”
It made me think of us—this cyber community of thinkers and
bloggers, debaters and writers on what we call The Web. We are flung across not
only a continent but a world, yet we may speak together in what we (probably
amusingly to God) call Real Time.
Are we striving to “go the way together”, even if our
pictures of God are different?
We say we wish to create a place where we are safe to
discuss our differences, sure of respect and support. Do we, in fact, each
watch over, care for, safeguard the presence
and person (cyberly speaking) of that
irritating blogger whose point of view we hate?
“The bearer of the
monastic heart,
either alone or with
an intentional group,
must radiate
what is within
to a wider world
and respond to it.”
