I have been reading Fr Joe Mannath's A Radical Love, A Path of Light: The Beauty and Burden of Religious Life. I purposely am not rushing through it.
Fr Mannath, time and again, makes this statement: '...it is for any other form of life too...'. This only confirms my conviction that religious life is no special or great vocation. It is as good as any and every other vocation to life. All that one can say is that it is different. Right in the first chapter, this is evident.
The oft repeated question in the initial part of the book is 'Why become a religious?' It certainly is not to be different or superior to others. Not even to run institutions and man (or woman) organisations. Just like every other form of life, religious life is basically a call to live more competently and professionally what everyone is called to do. As religious, we are called to be professionals of the Spirit... to live a radical life, as did Jesus. We may do a hundred and one things, but if we are not masters of spirituality, then we are not worthy religious.
Fr Mannath, time and again, makes this statement: '...it is for any other form of life too...'. This only confirms my conviction that religious life is no special or great vocation. It is as good as any and every other vocation to life. All that one can say is that it is different. Right in the first chapter, this is evident.
The oft repeated question in the initial part of the book is 'Why become a religious?' It certainly is not to be different or superior to others. Not even to run institutions and man (or woman) organisations. Just like every other form of life, religious life is basically a call to live more competently and professionally what everyone is called to do. As religious, we are called to be professionals of the Spirit... to live a radical life, as did Jesus. We may do a hundred and one things, but if we are not masters of spirituality, then we are not worthy religious.
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