ID of a Comboni Priest (4)
Between Monastic and Secular Spirituality
With the changes that came with Vatican II, our spirituality became fed by our concrete ministry rather than a former quasi-monastic rhythm of community life. We recovered St. Comboni's intuition that the Heart of Christ was to be for us not so much the object of devotion but rather the power house from which we continually receive the energy to bring the love and compassion of Christ to those most in need ~ to the poor, the oppressed, the underdeveloped, those to whom Christ himself would go first.
Our own energizing relationship with God, our spirituality, is more and more centred on the service we render to his people. The great challenge we face is that of living wholly focused on the needs of the people we serve while, at the same time, totally centring on the person of Christ who sends us and the one we encounter in those we serve. Jesus himself experienced similar demands: He needed whole nights in prayer so as to be able to spend whole days sharing the abundant compassion of the heart of his Father (cf. Lk. 6:12). This continuous heart-to-heart contact with the Father enabled him to make fundamental choices in his life (cf. Lk. 4:42-43).
Our work of evangelization feeds our prayer: we bring to Jesus what we have been doing at his own command ~ to him we entrust our burdens (Mt. 11:28-30), and him we thank for our successes (Lk 10:17).
The rhythm of our communities too is more and more shaped by the concrete ministry we assume. With minimal community structures, we need to cultivate a strong sense of identity and belonging centred on our common way of following Jesus as priests. Frequent fraternal sharing of our own pastoral and spiritual experiences in our communities helps us to remain focused on our identity as Comboni priests and helps to correct deviations before they can damage the service we give.
True spirituality is not an escape from the world but a deeper plunge into it, where prayer & service become two movements of the same sacred breath.
