September 1999
Index
- The Christian Call to Community by Fr. Bob Camuso
- Please Fill our the Questionnaire! by Steve Egge
- Sacramentum Update by Jim Malneritch
- SacraMentors Council of 12 takes shape by Norm Bailey
- Book Review: Poustinia - Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man - Review by Carl D. Jones
The Christian Call to Community
By Fr. Bob Camuso
Most of us would probably agree that individualism is an essential element in our character as Americans. We claim as a birthright our freedom to be an individual. As individuals, we want the option to stand apart, especially when we need to stand up for who we are for what we believe.
Knowing our desire to stand apart, God programmed into our software a deep longing for unity and communion with others. Thus, we want to belong. We want to be part of something greater than ourselves. Above all, we want to be in communion with God's people here on earth.
But finding a balance between individualism and community has never been more difficult in America. It seems as though we no longer as a nation prize responsibility, self- sacrifice, deferred gratification and concern about the greater needs of community. Instead, we now see a great deal of selfishness where people are more concerned with their rights than with responsibility to community.
As a result of increased individualism in America, more and more people feel isolated from a caring community. Many discover that it is difficult to re-enter community after being apart for so long. When some try to re-enter, say a church community, they can find the least bit of conflict difficult to face. People can rub us the wrong way. Our egos can be easily hurt. Or we may find something wrong with how the community is being led. It is safer to stay away from the messiness of community and retreat to our tightly knit cocoons made up of family, a few friends and, as added insulation, our things such as cable TV, personal computers, Internet websites, FAX machines, and automatic garage door openers. To get by, we find that less and less do we need to come in contact with others. And there is little or no fear of social backlash when we leave a particular community. We can always find a new one.
With what has happened in America, one wonders why the Catholic Church continues to prosper. Maybe it's because our Church respects the diversity and pluralism of modern society, yet at the same time is rigorous about right and wrong and the importance of the common good. Or maybe the Church prospers because within its boundaries one can find grace that is offered by Jesus to heal the wounds of division and isolation.
SacraMentors, of course, is a part of the Catholic Church. Our mission is to be a little bit of glue to help us bond more securely to our parish communities, to our families, to our greater Church and to society. But sometimes the stronger the glue, the more toxic it can be. When men, and now women, gather in their weekly groups to follow the Apostles Process, some discover that conflicts arise, tensions sometimes build. For as we become vulnerable and share our deepest selves in Christ, we become more open to be hurt. Yet, as Lory has said many times, if we are doing the process correctly then this is bound to happen. Even though we know this, when we get hurt the tendency is to want to bolt from the group and return to our private cocoons.
The challenge is to stay and not run. The disciples all ran at the death of Jesus. But what might have happened if they had remained at his tomb? Surely, they would have witnessed the Resurrection. It is tempting to run when we smell the decay of relationships in community. But Jesus calls us to pick up the cross of community and follow him, because he does not want us to live an isolated life. We are meant to be part of a church just as Jesus was part of a church. For, as Jean-Marie Tillard wrote, "There is no Christ without church, just as there is no church without Christ." In this way, we are called to interdependence with one another. Which means we exist in a state of "struggling freedom." Our struggle is to let go of our goal of self-sufficiency, which we will never achieve, and to stop letting this goal destroy our relationships with others.
To remain active in Christian community we may find times when we face a choice: to bolt when we are uncomfortable, or to exist in a state of struggling freedom and trust in God that all things will work out for the good. For as followers of Christ, we believe they shall.†
Please Fill our the Questionnaire!
By Steve Egge - Spirituality Council Co-Chair
The SacraMentors process consists of two parts: “The Series” and the “Apostle’s Process”. The purpose of the series is to open the door to a renewed spiritual life. The weekly meetings or “Apostles Process” is the room to which this door opens. The Spirituality Council is actively trying to improve how the weekly process draws us closer to Jesus and the life he calls us to lead. With that in mind we are:
- Changing the Service page (this is coming to the Parish Coordinators soon!)
- Renewing emphasis on the weekly meetings at the Series by the trainers.
- Making easier sign up sheets for forming groups at the Saturday Sanctum.
- Trainers will attend the second weekly meeting after the series is concluded.
- Making sure weekly meeting space and time is available at the parish before the series starts.
- Encouraging parish growth by concluding the Series with a commissioning ceremony and inviting newly commissioned men to go back to their home parish and join their brothers in the weekly “Apostle’s Process” meetings.
- Asking for feedback from all SacraMentors on the weekly process.
The Spirituality Council is concerned with the attrition that seems to happen after the series concludes. Enclosed in this newsletter, is a short questionnaire that will help us determine what might be done to help develop a strong parish Apostles group. We urge you to take the time to prayerfully fill it out (add an extra page if you need to), fold it, seal it with tape, stamp it and send it to the Spirituality Council. We need to hear from you, especially if you are no longer participating with your parish group as you can help us find out why there is attrition.†
Sacramentum Update
by Jim Malneritch, Spirituality Council Co-Chair
A Sacramentum, for those of you who are new SacraMentors and for those who have never had the opportunity to attend one, is : A gathering of brothers from several parishes at one place, held approximately every two months, for the purpose of common prayer, reflection, sharing and fellowship.
The upcoming Sacramentums will show a few changes:
Sacramentums are held on Thursdays and recognizing the difficulties of traveling during rush hour traffic, starting time has been moved to 7:30 p.m., ending time to 9:30 p.m.
Since active parishes are becoming more widespread, we have divided the Sacramentums into a north and south meetings. Anyone is welcome at either meeting, but hopefully this will make them more convenient to all. Topics covered will be the same at both sessions.
This year’s theme for the Sacramentums will be “Prayer”. Why prayer? For us to know, love and serve God we have to communicate with Him. We need a dialog with Him not so much as to what we wish to say, because He already knows what is in our heart, but to hear what He has to say to each one of us. This dialog is prayer and it takes place in many forms. Each Sacramentum will highlight a specific form of prayer. The Mass, the Rosary, Contemplative prayer, Centering prayer, Fasting, etc. These will be covered, not necessarily in that order, by a brief talk, some discussion, and possibly some sharing as to how a particular type of prayer has effected miracles in your life. Find out which type of prayer best suits your spiritual needs. This will be a good way to be informed of what ‘s out there for you.
We will also try to get a guest speaker when possible, and to have materials that you can take home with you for further study and digestion.
Next Sacramentums will be Sept. 23 at St. Andrew, Sumner, and Oct. 7, St. Brendan’s, Bothell, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The form of prayer covered at both will be the Rosary.
The main ingredient to the Sacramentums is you, dear brother!! What you bring within yourself to these gatherings is often just what a brother has been searching for! It is in giving that we receive. So please come, give, and go home filled with the blessings of your brothers and the Holy Spirit. †
SacraMentors Council of 12 takes shape
By Norm Bailey, Marketing/PR Council Co-Chair
Earlier this year, at a meeting of the SacraMentors Parish Coordinators on January 25th, Father Bob Camuso and Lory Misel unveiled a rough draft of an idea they had to form a new body of men within SacraMentors. A governing body which would oversee key areas of the evolution, develop- ment, implementation and marketing of the program; as well as the fundamental processes of presenting the program training sessions and follow-on apostles process assistance to newly trained parishes.
For the next several months Fr. Bob and Lory, along with Steve Egge and Carl Jones hammered out an organizational structure, job descriptions, and search criteria for finding suitable applicants for the resulting positions.
Called the Council of 12 (see below), it consists of 6 councils, all reporting to the Executive Director (Carl) and the Board of Directors (Fr. Bob, Lory, and Steve).
- Fund Raising - Jay Blakley & Dick Charles
- Development - Jim Ferris & Dan Staab
- Marketing/Public Relations - Norm Bailey & Mark Hadnett
- SacraMentors Series - George Atwater & Bruno Ienni
- Training Council - Bill Barth & John Miles
- Spirituality Council - Steve Egge & Jim Malneritch
The previous issue of this newsletter included a copy of the Council of 12 organization chart. That chart also showed some of the areas of responsibility and focus each sub-council would be responsible to manage.
The inaugural meeting of the Council of 12 was an all-day session held at Sacred Heart Parish in Enumclaw. At that time the tone was set for the council’s focus by a rousing rendition of the Hokey Pokey, thanks to Lory Misel.
Lory’s philosophy for that ice-breaker was that sometimes we just have to let go of our reserves and immerse allow ourselves to be vulnerable and exposed. Only then can we truly be open with each other. If you’ve never seen Lory or Father Bob do the Hokey Pokey, you now have a request you can make of them the next time you see them. After the music stopped, the creative juices began and the rest of the day was spent seriously identifying each sub-council’s goals and objectives for the coming year.
By the end of this first session, it was apparent that the council needed to have further meetings in order to work out the details of the intra-council operability.
This was achieved through a series of biweekly meetings, held at Holy Spirit Parish, where further refinements of the sub-council job descriptions and an understanding of the interfaces and exchanges was established.
The chart at the right shows the major and minor interfaces each sub-council will have during routine functions of the council. As the council matures, it is anticipated that an ever-increasing number of sessions will be presented at an ever-increasing number of parishes, resulting in (yes, you guessed it) an ever-increasing number of SacraMentors brothers joining the organization each year. In order for this vision to become reality, the council will need the able hands and minds, plus the willing hearts and spirits of current and future SacraMentors to fill the ranks of each sub-council.
There are ten additional positions identified for each sub-council, resulting in a council of 12 for each of the 6 sub-councils. A full council comes to a total of 72 SacraMentors.
To date, though, the numbers of volunteers stepping forward to help fill the ranks has been sparse. This may be due to summer vacation activity, or simply a lack of understanding of the importance of the task ahead.
If you are as impassioned about SacraMentors as I am, and as the rest of the council members are, you should know that this is the time to get involved in the direction, evolution and growth of our program. All sub-councils have vacancies which need to be filled.
The Holy Spirit called you to become a SacraMentor. Listen to your heart now and see if the Holy Spirit is calling you to join the council. Your talents are needed by the council. I urge you to pray over it and then call the council co-chair of your choice to sign up.†
Next issue: Council Roles
Poustinia: Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man
by: Catherine de Hueck Doherty
REVIEW by Carl D Jones
First of all what is a Poustinia and how do you pronounce it? Poustinia is a Russian word that translated means desert and it is pronounced pous, (as in youse) – teen – ia.
The author says “the word poustinia stands for prayer, penance, mortification, solitude, silence, offered in the spirit of love, atonement, and reparation to God!”
In very old Russia it meant a physical, quiet place where people went to find the God who dwells within them. In our western society a poustinia could would be called a hermitage, a place of quiet reflection.
This book talks about how the poustinia is adapting itself to western society. It talks of how the idea of building poustinias in the west is changing the original concept of the poustinia being a distant, isolated place where the poustinikki separated himself from society.
In the west the poustinia can be in the country, a town or even in the heart of a major metropolitan city. In the west the poustinia is a physical location within but separate from the “noise” which we deal with every day. It is a small, simple place where the only thing that separates us from God is ourselves and our choice not to leave the distractions at the door.
The building itself is simple in structure and includes only two rooms. The main room has a cot, a chair and small desk, and a small kitchenette for heating soup and water for tea or coffee. The second room is a bathroom. The only adornments to the poustinia is a cross and possibly an icon on the walls and the only reading material allow is the Bible. The time spent in a poustinia varies from one day to several weeks depending on the location of the facility and the need of the poustinikki.
In this book we find that we are not that different from our eastern brothers and sisters in our search for God. We see that we stumble along at a herky-jerky pace until we find “the” way for us and then it seems like warp speed has overtaken our vessel and we go blasting along for until we become overwhelmed by the constant “noise” again. Then we can enter the poustinia we have built to center ourselves and regain focus on the real goal.
The book outlines what a poustinia is, how it can be incorporated into ones life and what could be possible for the individual who chooses to take the journey. It is an intriguing process which seems to only have positive results if one undertakes it. It is not too different than the journey we are all on as SacraMentors to grow closer to God. This is a good read.†
Carl D Jones, is a SacraMentor brother who worships at St. Andrew Parish, Sumner, WA.
Should We Bless God?
Yes! The Catechism of the Catholic Church charges us to do so. In Part four, Chapter two, dealing with Christian prayer the Catechism says:
Because God blesses the human heart, it can in return bless Him who is the source of every blessing.
Catechism No. 2645
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