read letter 7 - Edmund Rice

A Way into the
Future
July 31st, 2012
Dear Brothers and Friends
- A Purification -
At the start of spring I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my good luck;
have listened to too much noise;
have been inattentive to wonders;
have lusted after praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.
Wende# Berry
From Co#ected Poems: 1957-1982
This time of year brings us close to Edmund’s chosen
feast-day, St Ignatius of Loyola, on 31 July. How these
two men were able to move in new directions in their
lives provides a powerful model for us. Wendell Berry
poetically captures for us how such movements of
change can occur.
What do you need to "bury in your trench," so that
“the old will escape into the new” We propose that the
first thing we need to bury is the old images of God that
no longer sustain. Did you ever wonder why it was that
the first commandment calls us to abandon false gods
and cleave to the God who reveals Godself to us now
Idolatry is the sin that humankind is most prone to
commit. We are constantly forming smaller ideas of
God, a God who allows us to stay within fixed bounds of
belief. No wonder Hafiz can warn us against any
adherence to small gods!
Dear ones,
Beware of the tiny gods frightened men
Create
To bring an anaesthetic relief
To their sad
Days.
As we prepare for A Way Into The Future, what are we
being asked to jettison from the past We know that a
journey into something new calls for “travelling light.”
What am I personally willing to let go of so that I have space within my heart to accept the fresh life being
offered to me
Many of us have old ideas about what we Christian Brothers were, and what “being faithful” meant. We
know enough of our culture to realise that so much has changed. Reading past Scrutinies for Vows shows
us what the hallmarks of fidelity were: being regular at prayer and at Mass, taking part in community
exercises, a committed teacher, respectful of authority, and so on. We were male and macho, and even
cultivated this masculinity. Emotion was frowned on and many of us never shared what was actually
happening within us. We got on with the work and bore our difficulties without complaint, because that
was the way things were.

We operate out of our images of God. What is the image of God that governed our past behaviour
Was it a God that demanded service and suffering, a God that we had to keep on our side by the way we
behaved We spoke of a God of love, but it was usually tough love! And we lived that tough love in our
communities too.
Our past few Chapters have constantly invited us into a new way of being Brother – one that some of us
have found very, even too, confronting. There has been the desire to return to the way things were, the
certainties of the past, and the comfort of living in closed and familiar circles.
We see that there is much cultural baggage that we hold on to and which weighs us down:
• Vestiges of hierarchy and patriarchy continue to be prominent in our living.
• In some parts of the Congregation, we are still caught up with the Christian Brother kingdom and
our institutions. While this is often good, it can stop us from looking beyond our narrow interests,
and even at times knowing that our interests are narrow.
• We can be jealous of our rights as Religious and slow to encourage and welcome the growing
influence of other members of the Network.
• We at times seem to be suspicious of an emerging Christianity, and this hinders our participation in
community prayer and celebrations.
• Many of us are still scared of showing emotion and relating on a more feeling level with one
another.
• We are strongly wedded to past or current Province and community structures and find it hard to
imagine different ones for new times.
These areas are reinforced and further developed in Ted Dunne’s article on “Interior Freedom” in the
latest edition of Human Development, in which he says that “the emergence of truth requires that we make
room for the ‘new’ through a labor of letting go.”
“the emergence of truth requires
that we make room for the ‘new’
through a labor of
letting go”
Today we are called to a spirituality of the heart, to be
aware of our feelings and we are encouraged to share the
“secrets of our hearts.” Life in community has taken on a
depth that it rarely had before and our communities are
opening in hospitality and welcome. We are becoming more
aware of the God who speaks in other religions and cultures,
and who challenges us to move beyond our boundaries,
whether imposed by narrow thinking, or the physical
structures we set up which may have served their purpose.
This God is welcoming of the stranger, open to the
different, amazed by the beauty of the other. This God is everywhere, not “elsewhere,” and most
noticeable among the disadvantaged of our world. And so this is where we now take our place.
So, what do I need to bury in the trench Can I list the most obvious things from my daily life How will
these “escape into the new” How do I prepare myself to receive A Way Into The Future
We invite you into your own reflection on the questions in this letter, and then to share with other
Brothers the fruits of your pondering.
Your Brothers,
David, Francis, Jack, Peter, Philip