An Online Society of St. Barnabas
"Christian community is the place where we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger in us." - Nouwen
About a dozen of our readers expressed an interest in trying an online Christian community for the sake of mutual, prayerful support and to help in keeping a daily prayer routine. So, I called around to see if any of those in authority would object to a translation of the defunct Society of St. Barnabas into this new incarnation, and there were none.
It turns out it’s not too difficult to resurrect a dormant monastic order, especially one that thirty years ago surrendered all legal rights to its “name, image, and likeness,” as they say in collegiate sports.
So, the Society of St. Barnabas is once again active, albeit as an online community rather than a physical organization.
All that is required of us is to provide a workable framework for an extended community. Since those participating in the OSSB live, work, and abide in the secular world, our spirituality will be designed easily to merge with the experiences of the day.
Here are the important daily goals for any Christian community:
1. Prayer 2. Labor 3. Silence 4. Study 5. Renewal
Prayer is organized at a certain time or times each day. It is not a difficult discipline to develop, akin to taking a new medication at a certain time. What is deliberate in the beginning becomes second nature before too long.
We should at least begin and end the day with prayer.
This need not be lengthy or laborious. If you have a form of prayer you prefer, by all means use it. If you would like, the one-page daily devotions found in the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer are very useful. Please follow the link to find short devotions for morning, noon, early evening, and evening, found on pages 137-140.
We all engage in labor during the day that consumes most of our attention. It can sometimes be a challenging discipline to see it as a form of prayer.
So, if I may offer a useful lesson taught by the dean of The General Theological Seminary back in my student days, develop what Eastern religion calls a “mantra”. That is, a brief, repeated form of prayer while at work and when desired.
His suggestion for us was, “Spirit of Christ, breathe through me.” Said once, or as a refrain, it serves as an apt exercise. I have found it useful on more occasions than I can possibly count. If you have a moment during your labors to offer a verse such as this, it will serve as a reminder that work, too, is a form of prayer.
[Of course, one may compose one’s own “mantra.” My wife will occasionally be heard to repeat, “Bubba Jesus, give me peace.” Usually when during my labor I’ve managed to shoot a nail gun through my thumb.]
Silence may be the most precious experience in our contemporary age. It is very difficult to escape the world, and the world is very noisy, busy, frenetic, and enabling of temporary autism. This is why it’s important to build a period of silence into the day.
Silence enables meditation, which is a particular feature of mysticism. If prayer is when we initiate a conversation with God, meditation is that period when we are prepared to listen to God. This is why verbal silence and quiet periods are arranged throughout the monastic day.
The early monasteries were centers of literacy and learning, and not just for the monastic community. It is from the organization of abbeys and monasteries that Western higher education was built. Certainly, that can be seen in the Gothic preferences of university architecture and in the hierarchical, cloistered life of the students and faculty.
So, communities set aside time for daily study, whether it is reading the Bible, scriptural commentary, learning a new language or skill, or engaging in some other written work that opens one’s mind and imagination to new ways of seeing the world and eternity. Even a short biography of a saint can be enriching.
Strive to renew your Baptismal Covenant through reception of the sacrament on a regular basis. While daily offices have a significant role in maintaining our faith, there is no liturgical experience of greater mystic power than the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
To have that moment when blood and sinew are fed and infused with the Body and Blood of the Christ is a moment beyond articulation. That quiet reception is the keystone that has held together 21 centuries of Christianity, through persecution and indifference, towards revelation and victory.
So, for those who wish to join us in this experiment in a new kind of Christian community, follow the five-fold path above and I will do what I can to facilitate our study through suggestions, resources, and references, and also expand our common identity so that others may have a method of support in their daily prayers.
Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws; trust in Providence. - St. Augustine
This is great, Rob. Count me in.
Bubba Jesus, give me peace!