In the (Cyber) World, but not Of It

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.”