Spirituality in Community

Tuesday, 12 March 2007

Our conversation on spirituality, led by Darryl Lang, continued with the theme:
Spirituality in Community

Imagine that you’re a seeker, a refugee, have suffered abuse and you’ve been invited to stay at a monastic community.

What would you experience?

1. You would meet a porter…
   (his chief role is to welcome guests and introduce them to the rest of the community).
2. The abbot and everyone else will welcome you with “all courtesy of love”.
3. The abbot would gently ask what prompted your visit (ministry of conversation); he would read Scripture with you, offer prayer and extend the kiss of peace.
4. The abbot would wash your feet, show you to a guesthouse, which would be managed by a caring brother who would give you bedding.
5. You would be included at the abbot’s table at meals (if the abbotwas fasting, he would break the fast because ministry to guests was most important).

Benedictine Rule #53
All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ,
for he himself will say: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Discussion Questions

1. How compelling is this portrait of spiritual community for you?
2. Are there parallels between how the monastic community welcomes strangers and how Living Room might do the same? If so, what are they?
3. How can we together determine how to function as a spiritual community?
4. How do we know that we are grasping the concept of a successful community?

“Welcome is one of the signs that a community is alive.
To invite others to live with us is a sign that we aren’t afraid,
that we have a treasure of truth and a peace to share.”
“A community which refuses to welcome — whether through fear,
weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is
fed up with visitors — is dying spiritually.”
~ Jean Vanier

The discussion continued along the vein of : Spirituality in Suffering

Scripture references:
For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. ~Philippians 1:29

Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will
suffer persecution.
~II Timothy 3:12

For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment.... But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered[a] for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
~I Peter 2:19–21

Suffering affects people’s relationship with themselves.”…[In suffering] all the dross goes; the ambitions, love of money, vanity about appearance, everything that sets us above others in our own mind. Suffering purges everything that is not central to life.”
Suffering teaches us the absolute limit of our abilities and unites us with others going through similar circumstances, as well.


“The early Christians gladly accepted suffering because they longed, like all people of God, to see God face to face. They also longed for any foretaste of that full and personal intimacy. In suffering they came into fellowship with Jesus in a deeply personal way.”
[Acts 7: 54-56]


Suffering and Doubt

“Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: ‘Can I believe it all again today?’…. At least five times out of ten the answer should be, ‘No,’ because the ‘No’ is as important as the ‘Yes,’ maybe more so.”
~Frederick Buechner