Br Thomas Joseph, CFR on…

THE SOUL OF THE LAY BROTHER

When given the assignment to write a few words on my understanding of the interior life of brothers I honestly did not know where to begin. In a sense, t goes on every day and keeps me alive yet it goes on with out much reflection. Here begins the need for self examination, especially if I say I have faith and love in God.

I found that our prayer Schedule (the Divine office, Mass, and an hour meditation and Eucharistic adoration) is a great framework to grow in the life of prayer. Not only is it a strong and solid frame work, it is also a safety net that guards against disaster and softens the blow of any possible slips of daily life. The danger I find, however, is that I can get caught up in the "functionality" of the framework and forget its purpose, namely to do the will of God and to grow in holiness. Hence, that self-examination that I mentioned earlier. The importance of meditation is absolutely crucial and I believe that our Franciscan life offers plenty of opportunities for it.

CFR's pray as brothers: with one heart and one voice. Praying the Divine Office in common 5 times each day deeply unifies the friars.

Of course we have the two hours of meditation everyday, in the morning before the Holy Mass as well as in the evening at Vespers. We begin the day in mediation and close the day with mediation. The hope is that we carry that "reflective" spirit the whole day, especially to our apostolates. To be reflective, not for the sake of piety, but to become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He reveals the will of the Father to us in Christ Jesus. With the vows that I take, poverty, chastity, and obedience, there is a certain assurance of doing the will of the Father coming through the superior. It is important that the grace of being reflective in mediation will lead to self-abandonment to God's will as revealed through my superior. Otherwise, the vows prove to be worthless, outward demonstrations of self righteousness. Truly this is prayer itself, abandonment to the will of God. The sublime example is that of our Lord Himself on the Cross.

This is what I see as the interior life of the brother. By his consecration alone, the lay brother is invited and hopefully united to a more intense spirit of recollection. One could say that he is called to be an "enfleshed" meditation of the gospel life. A living meditation is his vocation. To put on the mind of Christ "though He was I the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God, something to be grasped at. Rather, He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave, being born I the human likeness."