What Do You Seek?

John-Francis Friendship

Description

John-Francis Friendship spent twenty-five years as an Anglican Franciscan friar. Drawing on the whole breadth of monastic history and experience, he looks at core aspects of monastic and religious life and applies its practical wisdom for living well in today’s world. Chapters include:
• Knowing your heart’s desire and pursuing it;
• Counter-cultural living – the spirit of poverty, chastity and obedience;
• Clothing yourself in Christ – getting into holy habits;
• Living in community – how to get along together;
• God in all things – seeing the whole world as divine;
• For the sake of the kingdom – serving those in need;
• Living with thanksgiving – shaping the eucharistic life.
What Do You Seek? draws on a vast wealth of spiritual wisdom accumulated over the centuries to offer inspiration and courage for living with integrity and hope today.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Monasticism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 30 septembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781786223470
• Langue: English

Extrait

What Do You Seek?
Monastic Wisdom for Living Today
John-Francis Friendship






This book is dedicated to all
Anglican Religious Orders
that we might learn from their wisdom.

A M D G






© John-Francis Friendship 2021
Published in 2021 by Canterbury Press
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Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Canterbury Press.
The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
978-1-78622-345-6
Typeset by Regent Typesetting
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd



Contents
Foreword by the Bishop of Manchester
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Introduction
What’s the purpose?
The Way of Love
A consecrated life
Follow me
A Rich Variety
Monks, nuns and others
‘New monasticism’
Seeking wisdom
1. For the Love of God
Called by God
Beginnings and Endings
The wonder of creation
Existential crisis
Called into being
Seeking Home
Desiring at-oneness
Humility
Lord, I am not worthy
Know thyself
Accepting brokenness
Clothed with humility
Offering Self – the Way of Holiness
The Beatitudes
Mary and Martha
2. Seeking God – The Call of the Desert
Purity of heart
Repentance
The Desert
The Greening of the Desert
Shared solitude
Monks to earth’s ends
Virtues and vices
Apatheia
Fasting
The witness of life
‘The Desert a City’
Three solitaries
From solitude to communion
Solitude
Loneliness, aloneness and solitude
Darkness
Unseen warfare
Developing our cell
Two Marys and a John
3. Silence and Meditation – Prayer and Praise
Word into silence
Recollected living
Inner silence
Attentiveness
The Rhythm of Prayer
Called into living prayer
Beyond beginnings
The hidden Christ
Liturgy
The beauty of holiness
Corporate silence
Contemplative worship
Intercession
The Divine Office
Pray without ceasing
The sanctification of time
Unadorned liturgy
Ad gloriam Dei in eius voluntate (‘To the glory of God in the doing of his will’)
For the sake of the world
The Psalms
4. The Monastic Way – And Contemplative Living
The Monastic Call
A spiritual guide
The eternal Sabbath
Monastic Guidelines
Rule of Saint Augustine
Rule of Saint Benedict
The place of Scripture
Anglican monastics
Monastic Vows
Obedience
Stability
Conversatio morum
Contemplative Living
Mary, woman of prayer
Carmelites, Poor Clares and Others
5. For the Sake of the Kingdom – Serving God Through Those in Need
A Call to Women
Pioneers
Worldwide developments
Call of the gospel
A Call to Men
Christian socialism
Homelessness and the marginalized
The Poor Man of Assisi
Forgotten treasure
And Still Christ Calls
6. Vowed for Life – Poverty, Chastity and Obedience
The way of Christ
Poverty
Blessed are the poor
Heavenly treasure
Penury and justice
Letting go
Cooperation, competition and community
Saved through poverty
Chastity
Being loved
Celibacy
The sexual celibate
Obedience
Listening
Discernment
Leadership
Humble obedience
7. Habits and Hearts – Clothed in Christ
Baptismal life
Vocation to union with God
Personal dedication
Clothed in Christ
What we wear and who we are
Recollected living
Vocation
A new name
A New Heart
Conversion through community
Repentance
Heartfulness
Penetrate my heart by the radiance of your glance
8. Priests and Prophets – Eucharistic Living
Formed by Religious Life
Carrying concerns
To the Glory of God
Dispersed communities
A holy priesthood
Priests and leaders
Fools for Christ
Holy common-union
Adoring the Host
A Prophetic Life
Justice, peace and the integrity of creation
9. Life Together – The Witness of Life
Everyone has a place
Life together
Saved by my neighbour
Hospitality
Rule for holy living
10. The Hidden Monk – The Full Stature of Christ
One in Christ
The ‘monkhood of all believers’
Dispersed Yet One
Hidden ‘monastics’
Third Order of St Francis
Associates, Companions and Oblates
The beauty of holiness
What Do You Seek?
Death and dying
The reign of God
Pearl of great price

Appendix 1: Some Traditional Religious Orders
Appendix 2: Commemoration Dates of Some Founders and Foundresses
Appendix 3: Prayer for Religious Life

Bibliography
Acknowledgement of Sources




Foreword
BY THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER
Ferrets were entirely unknown to Peruvian Anglicans. I was due to make a long stay and was advised to take photos of my home life to share at various gatherings and had taken shots of my wife, children and pets. The cats they instantly recognized but, even using the correct Spanish word, a ferret meant nothing to them.
For many, the Religious Life is as unknown as my ferrets. We might know ‘monk’ and ‘nun’ but nothing of what enlivens those words. Yet, Archbishop Welby has repeatedly said, there can be no revival of Christianity without the renewal of the Religious Life. His colleague in York, Stephen Cottrell, adds a historical context reminding us that Europe was not evangelized by clergy, but by monastics.
During the time I have chaired the committee bringing together representatives of Church of England Religious Communities alongside our bishops, I’ve closely witnessed how a fresh burst of the Holy Spirit has drawn Christians to exploring and engaging with new forms of the Life and its traditional expressions. Emerging communities are learning from experienced brothers and sisters as they explore how patterns of living out baptismal life can be strengthened by the wisdom passed down through many centuries of Religious Life. I vividly recall one leader of an emerging community, not from the Catholic end of Anglicanism, telling me, ‘We’ve discovered St Benedict – it’s all there, isn’t it?’ Her words left me wondering how many more sense being drawn to something, but with no better idea of what it might be than my Peruvian friends did of my ferrets, and so fail to find their true calling.
This book is written for those wanting to grow in their discipleship, as the title indicates; those who may not have the language or pictures adequate to describe, even to themselves, the nature of that precious pearl for which they are searching. It concerns Anglican Religious Life and comes bearing the experience of one deeply formed as a Franciscan but who has spent many years drinking at the wells of a variety of expressions of the Life. Key features are set out simply and clearly, illustrated from the writings of many who have travelled this way before; reinforced by both Scripture and the words of the Desert Elders.
Perhaps this book should be required reading for all presenting themselves to their Vocations Team or priest, who feel God’s call must, because this is the only model they have ever seen, mean becoming a ‘vicar’. In our pluriform age, consideration of Religious Life should be required of those who seek to help people find their path among today’s array of options.
Above all this is a book for any prepared to acknowledge that what they are seeking is not merely to better themselves, who acknowledge that the small voice from within will be quietened neither by enthusiastic activity nor internal contemplation, but by recognizing that this call comes from beyond. The one we are seeking is God, and we seek because God has already sought us. The Holy Trinity summons us to a closer fellowship, lived out in that communal companionship which encompasses both activist and hermit. It is God who calls us to a life that can only be lived in God’s grace and God’s strength.
+ David Manchester
(Chair of the Advisory Council for Religious Communities)Christmas, 2020




Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to all who assisted in my vocational development as I sought to respond to God’s call on a journey that continues to be r