Newspapers / Crossroads (Belmont, N.C.) / May 1, 1974, edition 1 / Page 3
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I Homily Of The Most I Reverend Jean Jadot I APOSTOLIC DELEGATE IN THE UNITED STATES, g AT A MASS ON THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT, :g MARCH 21, 1974, IN BELMONT ABBEY NULLIUS, I:!: BELMONT, NORTH CAROLINA May 74, CROSSROADS, Page S g We live in a time when certain Si words appear over and over in *: almost every article we read or ijlj talk we hear. I have only to ■i; mention the words “prophetic gmission” or “charism” and i| immediately many people react jijinot to the reality expressed by these words, but to the vague impressions occasioned by their •ji: excessive use in the last few ^ years. i-ij This is unfortunate, for these Swords do have a very specific, ^personal and important meaning |:|;for each of us. ji:; The II Vatican Council stressed that every Christian Si S: V" photo courteiy of SPIRE For more than 1400 years, men and women have followed the Way of the Cross according to the rule of Saint Benedict. must share in the prophetic mission of Christ, according to his own vocation, gifts, and state of life. The Holy Spirit distributes special graces - charisms - among the faithful of every rank. “By these gifts He makes them fit and ready to undertake various tasks or of fices for the renewal and up building of the Church, ac cording to the words of the Apostle: ‘to each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good’ (1 Cor. 12:7)” (Lumen >gentium, n. 12). A prophetic mission, therefore, is given for the growth of the entire People of G^ and relies upon charisms, special gifts of the Spirit. Although the words may not have been used as frequently in the past as in our day, the Church has always recognized that distinctive charisms and prophetic missions are given not only to individuals, but also to communities within the Church. Monasticism - and for us in the Latin Church this means monasticism mostly in the Benedictine tradition - has fulfilled a special role in the growth of the People of God. The saving effects and the profound influence of the rule and the order of Saint Benedict can be seen not only in the churches of Europe and the development of western civilization, but also in the churches of America and mission lands throughout the world. Pope Paul VI, in two ad dresses, one at Monte Cassino in 1964 and the second to a gathering of 207 Benedictine abbots and priors in Rome in 1970, spoke of the prqihetic mission that is yours in the church and the world of today. I invite you to study these messages, to meditate upon their relevance to your vocation as maiks and to express their spirit in your daily lives and activities. For the world has need of your prophetic mission. It must come to know and appreciate the special virtues of the rule of Saint Benedict, of “...your constitution based on the fatherly exercise of authority. I Archbisiu^ Jadot dtetributos commimton to an Abbey Stadeat the brotherly practice of com munal life and the filial spirit of obedience; your silence and prayer; your enclosure and your opoiness to the poor and to guests, as if they were Christ; your intellectual and manual industry, your austerity and simplicity; your Benedictine style, at once humble and distinctive, artistic according to the aesthetics of the spirit” (Pope Paul VI at Subiaco, September 8, 1971). Above all, the world has need (rf that special charism of the Benedictine life which has been summarized in three words: Ora et labora. Each of the three words of your celebrated motto is im portant, but I believe that the most important in our days is the smallest word, “et,” ora et labora. Your way of life as Benedic tines must make men realize that presence to (Jod in prayer is the only sure guarantee of our presence to the world; that only because we pray to Glod, do we truly woiic for each other, that our prayer gives rise to and is the source of our woric. Your special mission is to make men and women aware of the possibility of being open to (Jod simultaneously with being c^en to this world, of God being present to us as we are present to each otho-. Under the influence of Marxist philosophy - whose influence is much deeper than many of us would like to believe - many of our contemporaries look at this presence to God as a sort of alienation. Prayer is seen as something apart from concern for our fellow man. We are thought to lose our identity as men and to abandon our sense of personal responsibility toward history if we look to (Jod as our Creator. They can not see how we can consider ourselves as sons of God through Christ and at Tptoto courtesy of SPIRE| Ihe same time united to one another as human beings: responsible for the growth of this! world. According to them71 prayer is separated from work. • would set (Mie up against S the other: God and world, God : and nature. Ora et labora, j prayer and work as forms of the j same thing, is impossible. You must give the wcrld in ji your own lives the example and ij lesson (rf the primacy of prayer, i; This is why the Holy Father in :■ his message of 1970 reminded the ji abbots of your Order that “in the ji various forms of external ac- ;j tivity- studies, teaching, manual ij work, the apostolate among the [j young, in parishes and in [i missions - the interior spirit shall f; always and only be (ieveloped [i through that common fountain of ji life which is prayer” (Osser- ji vatore Romano, English edition, jj (October 15, 1970, page 9). ;j This is your special mission in * * i the Church and in the world, to jj pray and to work. F(x- this, you ij will be given in abundance .the ij special gifts of the spirit. ij The Order of Saint Benedict is | “made for strong, vigorous, i= resolute and ardent souls” jj (ibid.). We praise the ji Benedictines of the past; we give ? thanks to God for the Benedic- jj tines of the present; we pray that jj the Holy Spirit will call many generous young men and women J to embrace the Rule of Saint § Benedict so that in the future the jij world will have the example of their acceptance of the .i; charismatic gifts of the Holy jjj Spirit and will experience the >: inHuence of their prophetic :jj mission to live according to the 5 (Mie rule: Ora et Labora. i: *1«1***'»‘* • • • • • • ••••••••••• a'a'a m A ••••v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.vXwMvX
Crossroads (Belmont, N.C.)
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May 1, 1974, edition 1
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