On Flexible Friars

Yesterday was the foundation day of my community. Normally this weekend finds our community gathering as individual Provinces, but as I was not able to gather with my brothers, I have spent much of my weekend reflecting on this day, thirty-nine years ago, when our founder Richard Thomas Biernacki made his vows and began this sometimes tumultuous, sometimes holy, but always devoted community of men that band together in the service of the Lord.

Richard set a standard when he said no to the traditional forms of religious life. This standard was to be forward thinking and to look ahead to the needs and concerns of the church; to continually evaluate who we are, where we are going and to not become stagnant in our way of life. As “Flexible Friars”, we are called to continue this tradition and minister to all that God places before us.

As a community we have done quite a bit of work on what it means to be a man in life vows; how this differs from annual vows, and we have tried to answer the question of whether or not we have made life vows an objet to be obtained versus a journey to be lived. At our summer convocation his past July, it was really wonderful to listen to the thoughts, experiences and visions of the diverse brothers in the various stages of their journey within religious life.

Each one of the brothers that was a presenter to the community had a different analogy or view of what life vows was, and it was apparent through the discussions that followed, everyone recognizes the importance of this phase in our life as a religious, but articulating is somewhat difficult. As a brother that will someday (God willing and Council consenting) make my life vows, I find verbalizing what I expect life vows to be about daunting; how can I know what it will be like when I have not done it? Yet somehow I know that this is a wonderful and momentous step.

Part of me recognizes that as a journey, life vows will be a very different experience for me than it will be for a brother that has been in the community 30 years, 20 years or even 10 years. I know that the Church is a very different organization than what Richard started out with all those many years ago. I know that much of our theology has grown and evolved with our human evolution. As a community we continue to change as new men enter, and as we sadly say goodbye to those men that go on to sing in the heavenly chorus. Our community, as is life, is in a constant state of flux.

For me, being a part of this community has been liberating, joyous, heartbreaking, comforting, exasperating and wonderful. As I look toward the future I can not imagine my life without this community; they are in me and I am in them. I know that I am a better priest, a better person, and a better Christian because of these men, and I am blessed to walk this journey with them.