What is a charism?

One of the attractions to religious life is living with others who have the same values and who desire to seek God in an intentional way.  One of the challenges when discerning religious life is finding the ‘right’ community.  There are hundreds of different communities/orders with their own charisms.  Until I was discerning, I don't think I had even heard of the word charism.  I had head of the word charisma.  I equated that with the popular kids in the school, the 'in' crowd.   If you pull out your handy and trustworthy Webster's, you will find this definition of charisma:  "A personal quality of leadership  arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm."   Some people just seem to have this innate ability to attract people and acquire a following.  I would guess Jesus had a lot of charisma.

Both of the above words derive from the Greek word kharis -  meaning favor or grace.    Charisms are gifts of the Holy Spirit to the religious order, and these gifts are put at the service of the church and all of God's people.    For example, some religious orders may be called to reflect the mercy of God and so they would hold out the works of mercy as their primary ministry and identity.   Some may be called to catechize and evangelize which they do through teaching.  No single order can reflect the fullness of God; each one offers a variation on the path to holiness.

Part of discerning the call to a particular community is an honest assessment of your own personal gifts and where they might mesh with a community's charism.  Just like our word charisma, there will be an attraction, an enthusiasm for what a community is about.   

When I was discerning, my spiritual director had given me a thick book that communities in the U.S. advertised themselves in...you know, in the Dark Ages before we could 'Google'...and told me to read about each community and bookmark it if there was an attraction after an initial read.   In a sense I was looking for whatever seemed charismatic to me. 

Some of it came down to I knew what I wasn't attracted to -  I might have joined the Trappistines if they didn't get up at 3:30AM (yes, before the crack of dawn AM) to pray every day.   Or perhaps they should have advertised that they often make mighty fine candy to support themselves...maybe that would have attracted me or rather my sweet tooth!    I was, though, ultimately attracted to a life of prayer.  I had visited both active and contemplative communities which enabled me to narrow down which ones to inquire further with.   I was attracted to my community because it has both the Benedictine/monastic charism and Eucharistic charism.    Two for the price of one!!

There is no "one right way" to live religious life.  There are a multiplicity of communities and charisms to reflect the many facets of our great God!

A Father's Love

Yesterday being Father's day, it seemed appropriate to discuss fathers in this weeks blog.  We have a tradition here at Clyde to set up a table dedicated to fathers and then each sister puts out a photo of her father whether living or deceased.  It can be fun to try and guess whose dad is whose especially in the old black and white photos.   I usually pick a photo of my father, Ed, playing the accordion since that was his great love, after my mother of course (although sometimes my mother questioned that!).

I took the opportunity at our noon meal to ask different sisters at the table what their father thought of them entering the convent.  Sadly, some of them lost their father at a young age so dad wasn't around when they did enter.  One sister lost her father to cancer but we asked her if her dad would have been surprised at her choice if he had lived.  She laughed and said, "probably not."

Some fathers were very proud.  That was the case in my own experience.  Mom told me that when Dad found out I wanted to enter the convent that he wanted to run down to the local newspaper office and have a story written up.  My home town has a population of 710 people and puts out a paper once a week...I would have been embarrassed to death!  My oldest brother said Dad would 'pop his buttons' every time he would talk about me after I entered.  Even though he was thrilled, he was a practical man and when we were discussing what I should do with my finances when I entered, he said, just keep it tucked away some where for awhile...things happen."   Another sister said that while her father was okay with it, he told her, "Just come home if it doesn't work."

One sister said her father had a photo of her in her habit that he carried around in his pocket and would show people because he was so proud.   Another sister related the following story: in the late 1940's sisters weren't allowed to have their pictures taken.  However, her father came to her first profession and naturally wanted to take her picture.  So he said, "Your rules aren't my rules," and asked the mother superior about it and was allowed to take his daughter's picture.  I suspect he might have done it anyway without her permission.

One of our current junior sisters was 23 when she entered.  Her family was not thrilled about her entering so I went to visit the family so I could answer their questions and hopefully make them see we aren't a group of weirdos.  (That meant I had to be on good behavior, which I CAN do when called for)  Her mom, dad and sister came along to pick me up at the airport and then we drove to a garage to pick up a car that had had some work done on it.  So her dad says to me, "Sr. Ruth, you come with me," as we separated into 2 vehicles.   So it was with some trepidation I got into the car alone with her father.  He wasted no time and got right to the point with his questions.  However, he asked what I call 'good parental' concern and practical questions...that's what a good father does.  So our car ride wasn't so bad after all.

I didn't always see eye-to-eye with my dad.  Really, what kid does?  However, I suppose if I'm honest with myself I don't always see eye-to-eye with God, my Father.  When some tragedy happens I question God, "Why did you let that happen?  Where were you?"  And I really don't get a satisfactory answer.  However, just as when my earthly dad and I would argue, I knew in spite of that he would always be there for me.  So it is with my heavenly father, he is faithful and steadfast in his love, even when I want to argue with him about how he is running the world.   I suspect when Ed Starman made it to heaven 2 years ago, he probably asked God, "Why did you make her so stubborn?"  :)

The Body and Blood of Christ

Yesterday was the Feast of Corpus Christi, the celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ.    A beautiful feast indeed, but this year underlying it was a sad memory.  It marked the ten year anniversary of a tragedy that happened to our brother monks at Conception Abbey just 2 miles away.  On the morning of June 10, 2002 a gunman entered the Abbey church and proceeded into the monastery enclosure with an assault rifle.  He gunned down every monk he saw, killing two, seriously wounding two and then committed suicide in the back pew of the Abbey church.  The gunman was around 70 years old with no known connection to the Abbey that was ever found.

I had been out watering flowers at the front of our monastery when another sister yelled out to me to come inside because there was a gunman over at the abbey and we were supposed to go on lockdown.  I thought this must be some kind of mistake because this kind of thing does NOT happen in little Conception (population 56) or Clyde, Missouri (population 72).   We are out in the middle of nowhere and people don't even lock their doors here.   Rumors abounded in the early hours that 20 monks had been shot or the gunman was on the loose and we shouldn't let anyone into our monastery who came knocking.

The monks were forced to wait outside the whole day as their monastery was checked out room by room until they determined it was a lone gunman.   Radio and TV stations had descended on the area to give live reports of what was going on throughout the day.   The most impressive thing was that the Abbot was stressing forgiveness every time he was interviewed.

We waited helplessly at Clyde not knowing what to do for our brothers at this moment.   But we did the one thing we COULD do - we invited them over to pray Vespers with us and eat the evening meal with us because their church was cordoned off as a crime zone with police tape.    The Abbot mentioned during a final radio interview that the sisters had issued an invitation to pray and eat at the convent that evening.   Because everyone was listening to the local broadcast, our cooks showed up to help get food ready and our workman who drives the school bus volunteered to bring the monks over with that.  That's what happens in a small town.

I will never forget the look of shock and pain on their faces as they stepped off the bus at our monastery entrance.   Vespers was sung to a background of occasional quiet weeping as the emotions washed over all of us.  Supper was simple fare but the real food we shared was our presence to each other during this tragedy.   It was a sign to me of what the 'body of Christ' is about.

Jesus gave himself as food to share his Divine Life and Love and to strengthen us on the journey...I am convinced that is what enabled those monks to speak of forgiveness after those shocking events 10 years ago.  I know I was strengthened by the witness to forgive a most terrible crime.  

The Call of the Wild

Whew!  I returned from our monastery in Tucson on Friday after an enjoyable Monastic Experience attended by 9 women.  We covered the topics of discernment, how to do lectio divina, Eucharistic Adoration, skills needed for community living, mindfulness, how to pray the Jesus Prayer and we listened to vocation stories from 4 different sisters.  They also got to help in our Liturgical Vestment Department (no sewing skills necessary!) and help seal popcorn bags for our new work Prayerfully Popped.

One of the women asked the very important questions : "Just what is a 'call'?  How do you know you have one?"  In other words, what does it look, smell, hear and taste like?   As we listened to the vocation stories, it was clear the details of the 'call' were different for each one but there were similarities also.  A call can start out as a 'voice' or idea in your head that seems to come from out of nowhere.  (yes, some people do hear 'voices' and they aren't crazy!)  It can also be the thought or feeling that something is missing in your current life situation...but it may be murky as to what that something is.  Someone may ask you, "Have you ever thought about being a sister?";  and then that question starts to haunt you.  Some people 'know' as a kid that they want to be a religious and as they grow up it doesn't go away.   My own experience was hearing a 'voice' that would NOT go away as much as I wanted it to. (I probably did ask myself at one point if I was crazy or not, I suppose some people would still question that :)

If a call is authentic, one of the primary factors is that 'it' doesn't go away.  Another one is that God opens up the doors for you to follow it.  God doesn't call us to things that aren't possible.  For example, someone may feel called to religious life but have physical or mental health issues that won't allow them to enter a community.  For them the 'call' isn't to canonical religious life but God is probably calling them to some sort of deepening of their spiritual life.  The call is also authentic if after initial hesitation, you actually reach a point where you want to do it.  God doesn't call us to places where we will be miserable.

Lest you think it was all work and no play, on Saturday night we played the dice game "Left, Center, Right" (can be bought for $5 at you local Wal-Mart) for the chance to win some gift certificates to our gift shop.  Everybody gets 3 tokens in this game and you roll 3 dice which determines whether you get to keep a token, have to give one  to the person on your left and/or to your right or have to put a token in the center where no one gets it.  The last one with a token left wins the game.  It's amazing how 3 little dice can bring out a competitive streak and a strong range of emotions in typically calm people.  I have reached the conclusion that the best way to get to know a person is to play a  game with them, their true colors usually emerge.

Sr. Lucia, one of our more wiry sisters, challenged everyone to a limbo contest on Memorial Day afternoon.  She had about about 6 takers.  If I were a Chinese acrobat I might have been one of them but I opted to chronicle the event with my camera lest I need to visit a chiropractor the next day.   My back hurt just watching these women as the bar got lower and lower and lower.
Luckily, no one got hurt!!!...I think.