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30/04/2006 |
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Monks in the City |
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Most of the great scenes in the Gospels are portraits of believers together. Jesus is almost always with friends, always with a crowd. The abiding Easter images of the newborn church are the disciples in the upper room together, the friends recognizing the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus only after a shared meal. Community is central to Church. But for many young Catholics, divorced from parish life or missing the strong faith communities they found on college campuses, living the communal aspect of their spiritual lives is difficult. The religious impulse becomes something personal and private. Prayer, Service and Friendship The Community of Sant'Egidio, a Vatican II-inspired movement for lay people, was founded to share the benefits of a structured religious order with single and married people who are not priests, nuns or brothers. It's a movement within the Catholic Church, founded in Rome in 1968 and supported by the Vatican that links lay people in a life of prayer, service and friendship. More popular in Europe, Sant'Egidio is beginning to grow in the United States. There are communities in five states and Washington, D.C., totaling approximately 100 members, according to Andrea Bartoli, who joined nearly 40 years ago in his native Italy. "Sant'Egidio is a wonderful invitation to take the gospel seriously and an invitation not to be alone, to live in social justice," he said, explaining that he helped establish groups here for Americans to benefit from the movement. The community is particularly dedicated to promoting peace, ecumenical dialogue, abolishing the death penalty and advocating for the poor, he said. Sant'Egidio includes people of all ages, but many of the new adherents in the United States are young. Living the Gospel Today Worldwide, there are 40,000 members in 60 countries. They have secular careers, marry if they choose and make their own decisions on where they live. But they meet several times a week for prayer, work together on service projects and develop deep friendships as key to their religious experience. Brendan Moloney, 24, who teaches at Brooklyn Jesuit Prep in New York, joined as a student at Boston College."It was a desire to take my faith seriously as a lay person," he said recently. "The idea that the gospel can be lived today, that it's not this foreign text, that's very attractive." Moloney works, has a girlfriend and lives in an apartment in Brooklyn, but several nights a week he joins other New York Sant'Egidio friends for prayer. "There's something nice about ending the day praying with friends," he said. Vespers The Sant'Egidio groups follow a set format. Their services are quiet and reflective, similar to evening vespers observed by many vowed religious communities. After a hymn and a sung psalm there is a Bible reading, a homily and prayers of petition for each day. On Mondays Sant'Egidio friends pray for the poor, on Wednesdays for the church itself. "Being part of this community I feel part of the universal church. I can think of a friend in Cuba or in a country in Africa," Moloney said. "It has become central to my life." Kerri Marmol, 26, a married mother of a two-year-old had a similar take. "It's my life. It's my family, my community," she said. "I think I definitely thought about becoming a nun, but I knew I wanted a family. You definitely want to do something radical with your faith." In addition to thrice-weekly common prayer, Marmol is part of a Sant'Egidio sponsored Bible-study in her parish and visits seniors in a public housing development. She helps run the School for Peace, a Saturday program for low-income Boston kids that mixes academic tutoring with Big Brother/Big Sister-style friendships. "It is a way to live the gospel very radically, very simply, in everyday life. We want to be monks in the city; living a very intense religious life but in the city, in the world," she said of being part of Sant'Egidio. Social Conscience The value of being part of an organization, rather than simply a prayerful person with good friends and a social conscience, Marmol said, is the sense of being connected to an international movement. "We're not doing it alone. You feel this great support. Your little drop in the bucket is multiplied," she said, adding for example the children in the School for Peace are currently preparing a talent show. The money they raise will be sent to Sant'Egidio Schools for Peace in Kenya and Nigeria. There Schools for Peace are not simply a Saturday homework help program. In some remote areas they provide the only education available to poor children, she said. Marmol stressed that Sant'Egidio's three tenets of prayer, service and friendship carry equal weight. Friendship is as important as prayer and service. "That sense of community is so lacking for Americans. People are just craving it. People are so alone," she said emphatically. "And friendship is central to the understanding of our community. It comes from the Gospel. Christ said 'I call you now my friends'. That's one of the things we explore, what is that deeper call to friendship." Explaining that Sant'Egidio communities pray with a Byzantine icon of the face of Christ, Marmol reiterated the continuity and fellowship she shares with the group, "It's a nice anchor in the day. It's a great way to end the day, together with your friends and before the face of the Lord."
Eileen Markey
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