Test the Spirits (Mark 6)

For me, the tricky thing about doing a blog about the 12 Marks is that I don't actually agree with the spirit of every Mark. And Mark 6, Intentional Formation Along the Lines of the Old Novitiate, is one Mark that falls short of me agreeing with it. Why? Well, the novitiate, the period of preparation and discernment undertaken by a new member of a religious community, is not "old" in the usual sense of the word. Yes, it has been around a long time, since Jesus instituted it by virtue of his ministry. But it is not "old," like one might speak of an old house or an old lady or an old banana. When we refer to these things as old, we are referring to them with reference to secular time, the natural plane of time. Conversely, I think that the novitiate exists in higher time, the supernatural plane of time. We practice the novitiate in a space measured by secular time, but the practice itself, like the Sacraments, is rooted in higher time. By entering into the novitiate, we are entering into the life of Christ. So the problem with the New Monastics referring to the novitate as "old" is that since it is eternal, it cannot be "old." So while to draw from the wisdom of the novitiate is all fine and good, a "new" novitate will never be more than the shadow of the "old" novitiate. Not only does the wheel not need reinventing; it cannot be reinvented.

With that said, this will be another short post because the ways in which Hyaets shadows the novitiate are rather limited. At Hyaets, new prospects are invited to do a volunteer resident discernment year. I know very little about this process, other than that few is any permanent residents have entered into the community through this channel. I also know that the general idea of discernment year is that one enters into it and tries to test out how they fit into the community and that this process is evaluated every three months during this year. I now ask everyone to reflect on the following quote from the Rule of St. Benedict of Nursia, monastic guru and founder of the original alternative community almost 1500 years ago:

"Do not grant the newcomer to the monastic life an easy entry, but as the apostle says, 'Test the spirits to see if they are from God.' Therefore, if someone comes and keeps knocking at the door, and if at the end of four or five days has shown patience in bearing harsh treatment and difficulty of entry, and has persisted in the request, then that one should be allowed to enter and stay in the guest quarters for a few days. After that, the person should live in the novitiate, where the novices study, eat, and sleep."

Again, sorry for the boring post, but I'm not a huge fan of Mark 6. I'm now on the choo-choo-train to the 919 and they gave me a New York Times, so I have to be a good white person and get to reading it.

Pax et bonum.