« on: September 03, 2007, 06:54:07 PM »
The Week That Was
Last week was certainly an Augustinian Week.
On Monday, 27 August, the universal Church celebrated the feast day of Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine. What we know of her comes from the writings of her son, concretely the book “Confessions”. She saw her whole mission of wife and mother as that of bringing her family to God. So she prayed, wept, sacrificed and worked for their conversion. She had a lot to pray and suffer for, as Patricius was a hot-tempered pagan and an unfaithful husband, while Augustine was a hot-blooded youth and restless genius who scorned his mother’s religion as fit only for the lowly and the ignorant. As Augustine would later write, “She had brought up her children and suffered the pangs of labor anew with them whenever she saw them straying away from you”. Her tears and prayers were rewarded. Patricius became a Christian before he died. With her son converted and baptized in 387, Monica’s mission was done: “My son, there was only one thing for which I wanted to linger awhile in this life: it was to see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This God has granted me, more lavishly than I could have hoped for”. Not long after, she got sick, and a few days later, she died (at age 55).
I am sure not a few wives and mothers can identify with Monica. Their spouses or children need to return to God or to be kept in His way. There is a movement, in many parts of the world, of the so-called Christian Mothers of Saint Monica. Thinking of one day introducing the movement among our women in San Sebastian, I asked from Recollect confreres abroad for copies of “A mother’s prayer for the faith of her children”. The reply was surprisingly prompt. Here is the starting prayer: “Oh Lord, we are Christian mothers. With your creative grace we have brought our children into the world. Yet we know that our task does not stop there. We also desire to work with you and so bring them to eternal life. For this we now raise our hearts and hands to you in prayer, assisted by the intercession of St. Monica, whose tears and prayers brought about the conversion of her son Augustine to Christ and offer you these our humble petitions…” (In a next blog I will explain more about this movement and publish the whole prayer. Who knows, one of the readers of this blog might just be the person to urge to already start the movement here in the Philippines).
Tuesday, the 28th, was of course the feast of Saint Augustine. The Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity of San Sebastian tendered a dinner at the parish hall. They are lay people who strive to live the Augustinian Recollect charism and among them are our very own Mesdames Ceres Alcantara, school accounting manager, and Precy Kalalo, school internal auditor. A program followed the dinner. The first number, presented by the Augustinian Recollect aspirants of nearby Saint Rita College, depicted Augustine’s interior struggle before his conversion. His past vices, symbolized by attractive ladies in black tights, taunted him: “Are you leaving us already?” God’s grace, symbolized by angel-clad aspirants, pulled him in the contrary direction. The tug of war went on for some time till grace finally triumphed. Isn’t this a picture of everyman? We are pulled from opposing directions!
In this connection, let me share some notes I took from lectures attended in Madrid in September 2001 on the occasion of the “Days of Augustinian Recollect Spirituality”:
“Nobody was as kalat as Augustine and nobody was as much in need of interiorization. Unchaste life, skeptic, Manichaean, ambitious, passionate – his energies were dissipated in all places. The decisive moment for his self-unification was the reading of Romans 13: 13-14 (“not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires”) in the garden. But before that, some steps had been taken, certain seeds have been germinating that would soon burst into bloom.
If in Augustine doctrine is inseparable from practice, then the way of interiority that he teaches, which is practically identified with conversion, is a way that he also practiced. Having been so dissipated in the past, he now realized that exteriority – being lost in so many external distractions – is alienation from God and the true self. So the first step in Augustinian interiority is Noli foras ire: Do not go out of yourself. He now appreciated the experience of the return to the self. And so he exhorts us: In teipsum redi: Return to yourself. But this return is not for its own sake, it cannot stop there. Other movements, of a pietistic nature, may remain with the self, absorbed in the contemplation of one’s navel, as it were. That cannot be enough, because that would make the self the ultimate objective of one’s existence, that would not be an encounter with the true self. A true return to self means the discovery of God who is there waiting for the prodigal son. And God impels the convert to transcend oneself and dedicate oneself to Him and the others. Transcende te ipsum: Transcend yourself. This transcendence is not the work of the person but a gift of grace. In the same way, the very beginning of the interior process is a grace from God.
For a person to be clothed in Christ he has to be stripped of the unclean garments – this is moral conversion. Augustine had to be stripped of two great obstacles: lust and a certain paralysis of the will. Augustine, however, did not allow the paralysis to become greater with time; with his will strengthened by God’s grace, his lust dissipated. All that happened when he was 33 years old”.
There, as you can see, I have some useful materials filed away in my Mac.
Thursday saw me with Ma’am Eden Abando and Sirs Rod Ponce and Philip Cheng watching a musical play on the life of Saint Ezekiel Moreno in the theater of our sister school San Sebastian in Cavite. The show was a success and the actors performed impressively, though, except for the lead role, all were students. And to think that, as Fr. Vincent Cadeliña, campus minister of that school and initiator of the whole thing, as well as bit actor thereof, said, some of the students did not even know how to dance or sing six months before. What marvels challenging the students and supporting them can do! We left Cavite determined that that effective and artistic way of disseminating knowledge about Saint Ezekiel should be made available to other audiences, starting with our Manila students.
On Friday, the IREP faculty members held their prayer meeting and sharing. This beautiful practice has been going on these past years and it takes place on the last day of major exam week. Sister Mary Rose Reyes, of the Congregation of the Holy Face of Jesus, was the organizer this time. She put to our consideration the gospel episode for the following Sunday (Luke 14: 7-14). From the reflection that generosity is possible only where there is humility, we opened our hearts and minds to each other in a touching gesture of trust and charity. We came out with a greater knowledge and appreciation of each other.
Saint Augustine said that what contributes to the community is a quasi-liturgical act, as it builds up the Body of Christ. I am sure he would have approved the way we wrapped up the Augustinian Week.
