How good and pleasant it is: the mission of our community

 Dear readers,

We have been working on our constitution and canons as we are able for several months now, and while we are still having conversations with trusted advisors and mentors about them, we have decided that it is a good time to publish a draft of our founding principles in order to get feedback. Please note that this document is not final. The purpose of publishing it at this point is to hear more perspectives as we continue to refine our vision.

Any insight or wisdom that you have to share with us is appreciated, and we will take it under prayerful consideration.

In the name of Christ,

The Fellowship of St. Columbanus

Constitution and Mission:

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Ps. 133:1) So begins the one hundred and thirty-third psalm in the Authorized Version. It is the purpose of this community to embody this blessing by the communion of lay oblates (and hopefully one day also consecrated members), celibates and families, together, with an apostolic mission. Our desire is to serve the people and the diocese, “like the dew from Mount Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion,” (Ps 133:3) and to that end we are adopting the Benedictine tradition of community and hospitality, together with the Columban tradition of mission.

The first page of the Rule of Benedict
Manuscript circa 1250

            We are spurred to action in particular by four evils in the contemporary world for which we believe that such a community with such a mission is a uniquely suitable answer.

            First, there has been a radical breakdown in public discourse, and a failure of all parties to engage in open conversation, to treat each other as fully human and made in the image of God, and to assimilate new information and synthesize conclusions reasonably. This is in no small part due to the breakdown in our communal life, and we often fail to meet one another intellectually because we have not met humanly, face-to-face.

The response of this community is to put substance to the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Come, let us reason together.” (Isa. 1:18) That is, “Come,” meet together, “let us reason,” not only learn and debate, but engage the full human capacity for encountering the Logos of God in the Person of Christ. So the prophet goes on to say that “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” Reasoning together implies reconciliation, for “how can two walk together unless they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3) And furthermore Isaiah says, “if you are willing and obedient you will eat the fat of the land.” (Isa 1:19) We must read this together with both the preceding verse and with the beatitude, “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” (Matt. 5:5) meekness being the precondition to willing obedience.

The Holy Family at Table
unknown. 16th century

It is therefore through Benedictine meekness, through obedience to Christ’s call to serve the least of these his brothers, by way of obedience to the superior and submission to the community of Christ, that we hope to make possible a “reasoning together.” To show wisdom through the good life and works of meekness. (Jas. 3:13) To restore public discourse we must first restore meeting, through reconciliation, by means of corporal works of mercy.

Second, there has been a breakdown of historical stays of society. Since the papacy of Pope St. John Paul II the Church has engaged in an extensive and vital conversation on the breakup of the family, and has made mighty efforts to revive it. But this is only one of the tent poles of society which have been broken. The parish frequently struggles to minister to a more and more scattered and mobile flock, the village is broken up by high fences and families are hermetically sealed off from one another into bubbles. Town elders are ferreted away into assisted living communities. Festive days are rarely celebrated as a community, as we become more isolated and fragmented.

What we hope to achieve in our community is the formation of an exemplary parish. We will, “daily pray together in the Temple and break bread together at home.” (Act. 2:46) The professed members having all things in common and the tenants sharing generously of what they have, living simply and in humble submission to the Church and to their elders. The community will work to bring in those living outside for common prayer, the sacraments, for sharing in life, and for education. It will also send out members to those unable to come in. Every day in the public square and in the community, we will not cease to preach Jesus the Christ. (Act. 5:42)

Cistercian monks at work and prayer
from Exposito en Apocalypsim. 13th century

In this way the community may serve as a “city on a hill which cannot be hidden.” (Matt. 5:14) It should exemplify the value of the Christian family in the tenants and of Christian community[1] in the professed members, and in the whole community together. The parish and daily prayer will be given pride of place, and elders put in leadership. Festivals should be communal and open to the wider community, and work, shared. The kitchen garden, and larger agricultural work where possible, should be an integral part of the community’s economy, encouraging both the sharing of food and labor, as well as Christian thrift and diligence.

Third, the systems of education have frequently fundamentally failed in several aspects of their task. They have not formed students, either in character or intellect: neither teaching moral facts, the forming of aesthetics, nor critical thinking, but rather teaching only what is opined to be bare physical fact, without equipping students to question or confute the opinions of their instructors or of current cultural orthodoxies. They have failed teachers, at primary and secondary levels where teachers receive inadequate support financially and are overburdened with standardized testing which has been shown to be ineffective, and they are constrained from broaching important topics in open and honest intellectual discussion; also in higher education, where profit-driven models have been applied to colleges and universities, leading to the abuse of adjunct faculty, to the point that in at least two cases, employed faculty members at major universities have died in a state of poverty and neglect, faculty are unable to engage in open discussion of topics contrary to social orthodoxies and students are at times even able to dictate the terms of education, regardless of the better judgment of their instructors. Finally, the university system is fallen into several systemic problems: the publish or perish model does not seek to produce the best scholarship, instead producing as much as possible, limiting concern for the effect that such a policy has on the quality of education available to students. The for-profit model has also given rise to exorbitant tuition costs in some countries, while scholarships and grants falter and faculty are underpaid.

St Benedict in scriptorium
16th century

Our community will stand as an alternative and counter-example as an institution dedicated to teaching without being driven by concerns for making a profit, as our Lord commands “freely you have received; freely give.” (Matt. 10:8) And further, the prophet Isaiah, “All who thirst, come to the waters; you that have no money, come buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without price.” (Isaiah 55:1) And the Psalmist shows us that learning is a kind of food, “The Law of the Lord is sweeter than honey,” (Ps. 119:103) and likewise Solomon advises that Wisdom is like honey for the soul. (Pro. 24:14) Thus the two branches of learning are likened to the same sustaining food: the secular Wisdom tradition of the kings, and the sacred Law of Moses and the prophets.

Education in the community will have as its aim not only the accumulation of information, but teaching students to seek wisdom and keep it, so that it will keep them (Pro. 4:6); but to seek first the Kingdom of God, so that all else may be added to them (Matt. 6:33). Not the mere accumulation of knowledge, but the pursuit of Virtue is to be the aim of education, because “if I propound all mysteries and knowledge but have not charity, I am but a ringing gong and a clanging symbol” (I Cor. 13:1-2). Teachers, as members of the community, both professed and tenants, are to be taken care of and their needs provided for because they are bearers of the divine image, and not mere employees of the schola.

The community is not meant to serve as another school on the model of contemporary schools, but as a center of education and learning functioning beyond the bounds of traditional educational institutions, able to support the efforts of schools, homeschooling families, colleges, and seminaries, as well as educating students of its own, providing academic and artistic works, and educating members of the surrounding community. To these ends not only should teaching be available in the community with tuition as students are able, but skills-sharing should be arranged, and training in any crafts that the members may have the ability to teach.

Saint Columbanus of Bangor
our namesake and patron

Finally, we wish to address the neglect of impoverished communities, primarily by living among them, offering pastoral ministry, practical aid, and training. To this end we will commit our community particularly to the service of the local bishop, to aid his parishes and his outreach as he sees fit. We take it as our special duty to submit ourselves to those who rule over us (Heb. 13:17), and to esteem those in the apostolic office highly in love (I Thes. 5:12-13). It is the task of the community to feed, clothe, and visit Christ in the least of our brothers and sisters. And more than only serving them, to teach them to become elders, gardeners, teachers, and ministers.

We hope in these ways to serve as a model for parish life and a center for restoration. With open doors swinging both in and out we can operate as a vision for a more perfect parish while also reaching beyond our own walls. A center of communal prayer and life which is a base of operations for an apostolic mission, working closely with the local bishop as a part of his ministry, for the restoration of the historical stays of society, public discourse, Christian education, and for the service of vulnerable communities.

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[1] This will also serve as a witness to the Messianic vision of the prophet Micah, “they will beat their swords into ploughshares, and they will sit under their own vines and fruit trees, and no one shall make them afraid.” (Mic. 4:3) And again the prophet Malachi says of the saints that God will open for them the windows of heaven and rebuke the locust, and their vine will not be barren, but the Lord will pour blessing on them abundantly, so that all the nations will call them blessed. (Mal. 3:10-12) And again the prophet Joel proclaims the reign of the Messiah, “Fear not, O soil, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! He gives the early and the late rains, he pours down abundant rain. The threshing floor shall be full of grain, and the vats overflow with wine.” (Joel 2:23-24)