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Daily
News Updates:
25 - 30 July 2000
 ISD 2000 DAILY REPORT 1
Tuesday, 25 July 2000
The International Study Days 2000 opened this morning at Pratista
(Cisarua, Indonesia) in the O.S.C. Province of Sang Kristus with
the celebration of the Eucharist. Master General Rein Vaanhold
led the gathering in this celebration. Also, attending and participating
in the Eucharist was the local bishop, Msgr. Alexander Djajasiswaja,
and Provincial Prior Frans Vermeulen, O.S.C. Father General noted
that this was truly an international gathering of Crosiers. For
the first time at an International meeting or General Chapter,
the members attending from both the Province of Sang Kristus and
the Region of Martyrs of Bondo were all respectively Indonesian
and Congolese (no European or Americans among those participants).
And from the Province of Bom Jesu and the Proprovince of Wahyu
Salib half of the participants were native to Brazil and to Indonesia
respectively. In mentioning this development, Father General also
stressed the importance of ISD 2000 to the Order at this time.
He noted that historically the Order had become much more apostolic
since our rebirth in the mid-19th century. In fact, in a recent
book by confrere Roger Jannsen, the author says that we become
much more like a Congregation than an Order at that time. As a
result, our charism of community life was diminished. In his visits
since he was elected, Father General says that community life
remains a challenge for us but something which he believes that
the membership desires more than ever. So, these study days are
a significant step in helping us to restore more of a balance
to our apostolic community life.
After Communion, Msgr. Alexander also addressed a few words
to the group. The Bishop stressed the importance of this topic
for the Church of Indonesia. He said that "in my experience
leading this diocese in this time, again and again this topic
of basic ecclesial community [communidades de base or komunitas
gasis gerejani] seems very important and pressing." Next
November the Church of Indonesia will hold a Synod and the topic
will be the empowerment of basic community towards the new Indonesia.
He said further: "I hope that your study, your efforts, will
be of importance for this diocese, the Indonesian Church in general,
and also for this society, which is still in difficulty and turbulence."
After the Eucharist, the confreres gathered in the afternoon
for the first session of the ISD 2000. The chairman of the Steering
Committee, confrere Pierre-Paul Walraert, began a general orientation
to the study days. Again, we were welcomed to this significant
event for the Order. In doing so, Pierre-Paul reminded the assembled
participants that it was the 1997 General Chapter which mandated
this gathering. That Chapter focused the Order's attention to
its spirituality. So, it was decided to have the ISD take the
time "to re-value the richness and the importance of Crosier
community life as a key value of our Crosier charism in order
to nourish and support the day-by-day practice. " One of
the significant ways in which we will do this is to study and
interact with our important sources of Crosier spirituality, namely
the Scriptures, our father Augustine, and the Constitutions of
the Order. In addition, the celebration of the liturgy (at least
3 times daily) and the practice of lectio divina (4 times per
week) will be an important means of building up among us, here
gathered, a sense of community life.
As a further part of the orientation, confrere Mike Van Sloun
gave an introduction to the practice of lectio divina. This is
a method of sharing our faith with one another, using texts of
the Scriptures. During these ISD, at least four times a week we
will gather in same language groups for lectio divina. The last
session of the day was an opportunity for the participants to
dialogue with one another. In small groups of five or six confreres,
we shared with one another a little of our personal background
and especially the reasons and motivations for our participation
in these study days.
It seemed for us all that our first day got off to a good start.
The steering committee done of a good job of relaying the significance
of this event and of orienting us to the program which we will
undertake. We ask for your prayers and support and we probe the
Crosier charism of community.
Jim Hentges osc
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ISD 2000 DAILY REPORT 2
Wednesday, 26 July 2000
The second day of the International Study Days began at 7:00
with the participants gathering in small same language groups
for lectio divina. It is a faith-sharing method, using scriptural
texts. It was a new form of prayer for many participants, but
they seemed to like it. This form of prayer will be used four
times a week.
After a continental breakfast, all the confreres gathered for
the morning session. The facilitator, Falco Thuis, O. Carm., began
by explaining the process of the three weeks. He said that since
the International Study Days 2000 will be a time to value and
re-value the richness of community life, the first part of the
process is for everyone to share his personal experience of Crosier
life. The second part of the process is to reflect on that experience
by using significant resources of Crosier spirituality. The third
part of the process is to articulate steps that can be used to
renew a commitment to Crosier community living.
Falco asked the participants to begin this day by reflecting
on their "personal incarnation of their ideals" in Crosier
community life. The source to value and re-value community life
is everyone's own experience. Everyone went off to reflect privately
for the rest of the morning.
Everyone gathered together again at 11:45 for Eucharist in
the Pratista chapel. The prayers for the Eucharistic celebration
were done in English and the music was sung in Indonesian. It
was a good challenge for all of the confreres to pray or sing
a language other than their own.
After Eucharist and dinner, the confreres met together in four
small groups to share with each other their experiences of Community
life. The groups met all afternoon until 6:30. They will meet
again tomorrow morning to record what they want to share with
the whole group. The whole group, then, will meet in the afternoon
and each group will have the opportunity to report to the plenary
assembly.
The day concluded with evening prayer and supper. It seemed
that all went well this day. Confreres are sharing deeply and
sincerely with one another. They are not only studying Crosier
community life, but also trying to live it.
Stephan Bauer, O.S.C.
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ISD 2000 DAILY REPORT 3
Thursday, 27 July 2000
Today's morning prayer was lead by Congolese frater, Katembo
Ngazi Heribert, whose 28th birthday we celebrated throughout the
day. In accord with a tradition among our Sang Kristus conferers,
nasi tumpeng (a large inverted cone of white rice plus trimmings)
was split with a large rice spoon replacing the Western
custom of blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. Happy -Birthday
songs were then sung in several languages.
Previous to that delicious meal, small (language) groups re-gathered
in order to list on newsprint the key elements and values experienced
and/or hoped for in actual lived-out Crosier community life. These
four newsprints were then displayed in the meeting room to be
read in lectio-divina style. In other words, they were to be read,
discussed informally for a few moments and then reflected upon
privately to hear deeper messages and even biblical metaphors
coming from these newsprint group reports.
The English group reporter, Fr. Stephan Bauer, and the Indonesian
group reporter, Fr. Rudiyanto, presented the more elongated explanations
of their respective group's newsprint-report. Nearly all the participants
took part in the further processing of the key elements presented
by these groups. Special attention was given to elaborating various
methods of faith-sharing experienced by some Crosier communities
and desired by many more. A strong call arose for Crosiers to
become men better known for deep spirituality. We seem to be known
up to the present much more for our pastoral work. We also viewed
briefly how intimacy and correctio fraterna appear in the
various cultures. Indonesian conferer, Fr. Anton Subianto, made
a clear call for commitment to community living as the key basis
for living together, rather than like or disliking certain conferers
therein.
The Indonesian group called for "productive solitude"
as a key element in forming well-grounded members of a community,
who because of their purposeful solitude can bring to the community
greater spiritual depth, deeper awareness of their relationship
to God, and deeper awareness and contact with what is going on
around us. Our three Congolese conferers responded to the question
of how social and political turmoil can impact on our efforts
of solitude and communal living. We learned that social turmoil
need not necessarily destroy solitude, but bring one to deeper
presence and awareness of the situation. (Two of our Congolese
participants and one of our Brazilian conferers present are fraters,
eagerly learning from this special experience.)
Fr. Silvestre lead us in the Eucharist this noon, and Frater
Charles (both from Congo) lead us in evening prayer. Among the
120 songs in the special liturgy book, are African songs, as well
as other songs representing the other language groups and/or provinces,
proprovinces and regions. In our liturgies, we continue to pray
for Bishop Al Sowada, recovering from a very difficult 10-hour
quadruple by-pass surgery July 19th and his mother, who died July
12th, as well as for Fr. Jim Hentge's mother's younger sister
who died yesterday.
We close this third day of our study days with recreation together-lively
conversation and simple celebration of Frater Ngazi's birthday.
Our recreations together are further enabled by having the TV
in a different room up stairs another simple concrete example
for improving fraternal interchange. On the wider scale, the lush
floral paradise-like surroundings contribute to the good spirit
and health that we enjoy so far on this mountain-slope retreat
high above the city of Bandung, twinkling at us from below both
in the early morning as well as in the late evening.
Virgil Petermeier, OSC
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ISD 2000 DAILY REPORT 4
Friday, 28 July 2000
Time goes fast, here in Pratista - Cisarua, at our International
Study Days 2000. This morning, at 07.00 am, we gathered in small
groups for Lectio Divina. We meditated and prayed upon a pericope
of Paul's letter to the Philippians (Phil. 2, 1-11). It was an
appropriate text to use on this Friday, when Crosiers all over
the world celebrate the Mystery of the Cross. But also the topic
of community was strongly emphasized in this message.
After breakfast, the participants gathered for another two
sessions. Like the day before, we listened carefully to the report
of two small groups. Today the French speaking and the Dutch
Portuguese speaking group. The spokesman of each of these groups
(Sylvestre and Lambert Graus) gave explanation upon significant
aspects regarding lived Crosier community life they had written
down on their respective newsprint sheets. After the presentation,
there was opportunity to expound certain topics, in a spirit of
dialogue and mutual understanding.
The French speaking group (Ngazi, Charles, Sylvestre, Pierre
and Pierre-Paul) explained the dynamic of how community in prayer
can create real community (communio) when the prayer becomes personal
and every member prays directly from the heart. It was interesting
to hear how in a Congolese community, the members are using family
terminology to address themselves to one another, using terms
as "big brother" (those already for longer time in the
monastery) and "little brother" (those who later on
joined the Crosiers). Community building are also the moments
when people have to opportunity to tell the story of life and
faith.
The Dutch Portuguese speaking group (Jan van Dooren,
Sinvaldo, Carmito, Jan Rooijakkers, Bert) underlined the importance
of the simple little things that are important for good community
living. They also mentioned the problem of communication between
generations. Further, our communities are to be an inspiring "home"
for the confreres, where there is room for prayer and for friendship,
and where the needs of the people of the surrounding society can
be shared.
Michael Van Sloun celebrated the Eucharist at the noon time.
In his homily, he presented Jesus as an excellent and patient
teacher. Jesus is always willing to repeat the deep sense of his
message for his disciples and for us in order to make sure that
they and we come to a profound understanding of what he is to
say.
The afternoon sessions were dedicated to personal reflection
time and small group sharing. We arrived in fact at a final stage
of the first part of the International Study Days 2000. During
former days, we were occupied with a honest and frank sharing
of our experiences with Crosier community life. The next step
is to share the valuable things we have heard up to now and what
we have learned from all of it. Based upon this sharing, the small
group was invited to come to a list of at least three values that
are important for Crosier community living. Of course, the whole
group of participants is anxious to know what will be the values
of the other small groups and how they will have brought them
together in order of priority. Tomorrow morning (Saturday, 29
July), they will know it
Stephan Bauer presided evening prayer. We put the Cross of
Christ in the center of our evening liturgy. Lifting high the
Cross of Christ, in the direction of North, East, South and West,
we prayed for the needs of these different parts of the world.
Our prayers were made in the name of a number of Saints who once
as great Christian examples played a significant role in the history
of the Church in these specific areas, in an extraordinary way
proclaiming the Good News of the Crucified and Risen Christ.
Pierre-Paul Walraet O.S.C.
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ISD 2000 DAILY REPORT 5
Saturday, 29 July 2000
Notre journée a commencé à 7heures avec la
prière du matin animée par Francisco Sinvaldo Fernandes.
A la session de 8h30, Laurensius Sanenti a ouvert par un temps
de prière; Pierre-Paul Walraet a accueilli Monsieur Paul
Van Geest Expert invité qui nous aidera dans la réflexion
de la semaine qui vient. Pierre-Paul a introduit le travail de
la journée.
La première session était consacrée a
la présentation par les groupes de partage les trois valeurs
les plus importantes de notre vie des Croisiers telles qu'entendues
lors des sessions plénières précédentes.
Ce fut l'occasion pour tous de voir clarifier les points jusque
là restent obscurs. Chaque groupe a dispose d'environs
un quart d'heure pour présenter et défendre les
priorités établies.
Lors de la seconde session, Yan Sunyata, osc et Falco Thuis,
o.carm, ont livré leurs impressions relatives aux rapports
présentés et ont échange a ce sujet. Il apparaît
que pour la plupart des groupes le « In Deum » est
une priorité évidente. On constate aussi que la
« Communion » est extrémement importante aux
yeux de tous même si elle est abordée de différente
façon. Des différences apparaissent entre les groupes
sous le sujet suivent : « la simplicité de vie »,
« l'équilibre entre ministère et communauté
», « la dignité de chaque individu et les conditions
nécessaire pour mission ». Yan Sunyata nous a livré
sa vision de la vie religieuse qui selon lui, a pour but de produire
des hommes de compassion. Il nous a illustré sa thèse
avec un très bel exposé sur la spiritualité
Boudhiste. Falco Thuis a insisté sur les deux choses que
selon li nous caractérisent : la litugie et la croix. La
liturgie est un aspect très important de notre vie. C'est
une liturgie publique (aspect canonial de l'Ordre). Il faudra
toujours veiller a avoir de groupe de personnes disponibles pour
cette mission.
La croix est un symbole important qui touche à la mort
et à la vie. Qu'est-ce qui est mort dans la vie des hommes
d'aujourd'hui ? Qu'est-ce qui est mort pour nous ? « C"est
parce que beaucoup de gens meurent autour de nous de diverses
façon que nous voulons donner vie, etre témoins
de la résurrection » affirmation des confrères
Brésiliens. Puis l'assemblée a posé des questions
de clarification et nous avons conclu le travail de cette journée,
l'après midi était libre.
L'office du soir était animé par Virgil Petermeier,
osc et les confrères d'Agats qui nous proposèrent
une méditation dansante de l'Evangile du jour. Ce fut apprécié
par tous, autant par les congolais, les brésiliens que
par les européens.
Our day began at 7:00 AM with morning prayer animated by confrere
Laurensius Sanenti (Proprovince Wahyu Salib). After breakfast,
he also led us in prayer at the opening session. Confrere Pierre-Paul
Walraet then welcomed visiting peritus Dr. Paul van Geest who
will help us in our reflection during the coming week. Pierre-Paul
then introduced the work of the day.
The first session was devoted to presentations by small groups
of the three most important values of Crosier community life as
heard during of the preceding sessions. This was an opportunity
for all to clarify points which had to this point remained unclear.
Each group had around a quarter of hour to present and explain
the priorities that they decided upon.
During the second session, confrere Yan Sunyata (Province Sang
Kristus) and facilitator Falco Thuis, o.carm, delivered their
respective impressions to the reports of the small groups and
then had a further exchange with the whole assembly and among
themselves. It appears that for most of group, the Augustinian
value of "In Deum" is an evident priority. One observes
also that "Communio" is extremely important in eyes
of all though each group approaches it in a different manner.
Differences appear between groups under the following subjects:
the simplicity of life, the balance between ministry and community,
the dignity of each individual, and the necessary conditions for
mission. Confrere Yan Sunyata presented his vision of religious
life that according to him has as its purpose to produce men of
compassion. He illustrated his idea with a very beautiful statement
on the spirituality of Buddhism. Falco Thuis insisted on the
two things that according to him that characterize us: the liturgy
and the Cross. The liturgy is a very important aspect of our life.
This is the public liturgy (canonical aspect in the order). It
will always be necessary to have persons available for this mission.
The cross is an important symbol that touches upon death and life.
What is death in the lives of people today? That is, what is death
for us? "It is because many people are dying for various
reasons that we want to give life, to be witnesses the resurrection"
an affirmation of our Brazilian confreres. Following the
opportunity for questions of clarification, we have concluded
the work of this day. The afternoon was free of scheduled sessions.
Evening prayer was animated by confrere Virgil Petermeier and
other confreres of the Proprovince of Wahyu Salib and included
a meditative dance from the Gospel of the day. This was appreciated
by all especially the Congolese and the Brazilians.
Pierre Vandormael, osc
Kagheni Sylvestre, osc
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ISD 2000 DAILY REPORT 6
Sunday, 30 July 2000
Sunday is free for the participants in the ISD 2000. Following
morning Eucharist with the OSC community of Pratista and visiting
laity, many of the participants took off on a bus tour of the
region. The tour included a visit to Buddhist shrine, a local
volcano, and a musical school or workshop for bamboo instruments.
The day's schedule concluded with evening prayer and the evening
meal.
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