Category: MonasticLife

without the church

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and counseled and assisted by the knight just mentioned, he moved to another village of his called Haselbury, some thirty miles east of Exeter. There in a cell abutting on the church, which had been empty for some time, and without the usual induction by the bishop and no solemn blessing, but only the inward authority of the Holy Spirit, he buried himself with Christ, shortly to be transformed with him in a sort of resurrection glory: in newness of life, in cheerfulness of spirit, in the power of signs, in the grace of prophecy.

The Life of Wulfric of Haselbury, Anchorite.

Wikipedia: Wulfric of Haselbury
Article: Saint Wulfric of Haselbury

spiritual elders

Even though many of the elders were priests or monks, or both, being an elder was not a church office, but rather an informal ministry. Individual supplicants engaged with spiritual elders sometimes with, or sometimes without, the sanction of the institutional church. The reputation of an elder was established “from below” by ordinary believers and an elder’s disciples. Hence, within the Orthodox Church, eldership may be regarded as a more democratic, nonhierarchical form of religious authority, which, until now, has not received sufficient analysis. ….

Many of them had an uneasy relationship with the institutional church.

Spiritual Elders: Chrisma and Tradition in Russian Orthodoxy, 4-5

tonsure

In essence, the monastic tonsure is a second Baptism. We have all been baptized and have given an oath that we will belong to God. We have said, “I do renounce Satan” and “I do unite myself to Christ,” and we have dedicated ourselves to God through the cutting of our hair, but we have forgotten all of this. In fact, by our Baptism, we have bound ourselves to the obligation of belonging to God. With the words “I do renounce,” which we then pronounced (if we were baptized as infants, then through the mouth of our godparent), we drove satan out of our lives, and we even spat upon him three times, losing all connection with him. With the words, “I do unite” we signed, in the presence of angels and men, a sacred contract that now we fully belong to God. With If anyone desires to come after me (Lk. 9:23) the Lord called to the unbaptized. It behooves us, the baptized, to pronounce: Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth (1 Kg. [1 Sam.] 3:10). It is a big deal, my brothers, that we were baptized and became Christians. How terrible that we forget our baptismal vows, and from this we now lose the grace of holy Baptism.

Monastic Tonsure: Second Baptism, or the Marriage of the Soul to Christ

living the Gospel

That we may be justified by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, let us repudiate the customary actions of our own wills and the observance of human traditions. Let us, on the other hand, go forward by means of the Gospel of the Blessed God, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Having lived during this present life in a manner acceptable to Him, by a rigorous avoidance of all that is forbidden and a zealous observance of whatever is commended, may we be able in the future age of immortality to escape the wrath to come upon the sons of contumacy and be found worthy of obtaining eternal life and the heavenly kingdom which has been promised by our Lord Jesus Christ to such as keep his covenant and are mindful of his commandments to do them.’ [ Ps. 103:18 ] Moreover, remembering the words of the Apostle, ‘in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by charity. [ Gal. 5:6 ] I regarded it as at once appropriate and necessary to set forth first the sound faith and sacred doctrine respecting the Father and Son and Holy Ghost, and then add the Morals.

St Basil, Preface on the Judgement of God

“Anglican” Religious Life

However, the general tone was of praise and support for Religious Life. The contribution which stands out, however, as one reads the debate a century later, came from Charles Grafton, Bishop of Fond du Lac in the USA, the only bishop present who had been a member of a community. He made three important points.

  1. First, he believed Religious Life was a vocation and should be treated as such.
  2. Second, it did not belong, as priesthood did, to the corporate life of the Church, but instead belonged ‘to the economy of the Holy Ghost’. Obedience to a Religious superior was a voluntary action of love, not the result of the legislative action of the Church. Unlike ‘the fixity of ministerial orders’ then, he believed the work of the Holy Ghost in the call of Religious Life manifested itself in a variety of different forms. Bishops had to trust this call to have a corrective power in itself.
  3. Third, he reminded the Conference that in Religious, bishops were dealing with ‘special devotional temperaments’ that could be ‘personally emotional’ about small matters of worship. A high-handed approach would not therefore be advisable. He went on to echo the arguments put forward in Father Puller’s paper, and concluded by suggesting bishops should regulate communities only in relation to property, financial donations and in insisting on communities ‘having sound government.
Petà Dunstan, Bishops and Religious 1897-1914

Fr Ignatius

  • The restoration of the ascetic life and continual prayer in the Church of England;
  • home mission work, by preaching, visiting the poor, and teaching the young;
  • to afford a temporary religious retreat for the secular clergy;
  • to raise the tone of devotion in the English Church to a higher standard by showing the real exemplification of the evangelical counsels;
  • to aid in bringing about the union of Christendom.
Joseph Leycester Lyne