Desire is the essence of man,
that is to say, the effort by which man strives to persevere in his being.
[Baruch Spinoza] From Ethics
Fidelity: it's better to go further with someone with nowhere everyone
[Pierre Bourgault] From Bourgault bittersweet
At the end of June 1962, an alert was sounded, sad and mournful as a death knell. An unusual number of pp (professed perpetual) had left the community. All provinces Canadian community had been affected by the same virus. It has been called the "debacle of June." Then took the new tones of a disaster. Sadness became silent, without comment, his arms fell, his legs were cut off. Then it was the signal for battle, a movement of collective resistance to the spread of this virus. How to stop the epidemic?
In response to this alert, fall 62, I found myself in Verdun, with a dozen brothers, delegated by their supervisor as a corresponding Voices of Brothers of the Sacred heart.
At the beginning of the meeting, we recalled the events that brought us together. Indeed, each province had its "case" of secularization surprise. A coincidence no common cause? Why? Yet all was well. We had the wind in your sails. Every six years, the chapters generals had brought meaningful updates practices that framed the community. The general chapter of 1958 (1) was well rejected most minor changes brought to his attention, but we did not care a bit. We saw no urgency to make then changes to established consensus that managed our living together or, a fortiori, to undertake a substantial revision of our rules, and constitutions.
The main shifts "modern" we had taken without much hesitation: the entrance to the TV in our common rooms (1952), extension years of training, diversification of our ministries, taking over more and more classes of high school and even the tie, had caused a stir temporarily.
Overall, everything was fine. There was no bobo in the gears.
We did not scholarly analysis. Pp announced a departure from religious life ill anemic. He would climb a little temperature and everything is replacing. The spirit of the council gave us the meaning and the means.
Our action plan was simple. It should address the principal dimensions of our religious life and in our magazine publishing community, every month, under PERSEVERANCE, re-energizing tonic that would raise the tone of our life of faith, hope and charity. Blitz (2) on the PERSEVERANCE. Nine articles with a density and richness unmatched appeared that year in addition to many other free expressions which, by contagion, on topics related to religious life. All ranged perseverance rather than in line with the endurance athlete that maintains the practice of regular exercise, but in that of fidelity to God manifested in Jesus of Nazareth.
Here is a brief overview of the most important publications issued under the theme of perseverance in Voice 1962 and 1963.
For him, the causes of infidelity are grouped under three heads:
1 - Lack of vision personalist, 2) the loss of a sense of affiliation and 3) the shallowness of our faith and our love.
A major work that he had concocted in his honors thesis at Jesus Magister. See Voice of March 1963
Brother Jean-Roch (Sherbrooke) based persistence on the practice of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. See FOCUS ( Voice, Jan. 63, p. 365) Brother Charles-Emile (Granby):
Perseverance is to live the common life with enthusiasm, otherwise it is not worth sacrificing everything for betraying the most fundamental sense of our vocation. See FOR BETTER LIVING THE LIFE COMMON - ( Voice 1962 p. 267):
Brother George Albert (St-Anicet)
(Albert's brother George was then Master of the Second Novitiate in St-Anicet.)
Smelling the time of revolution that we know, he presents the religious life as a revolution that is to say a "totally new arrangement" of his life in Christ.
" Man in Christ, has found a new polarization which reorganizes his whole life in love. "
In this perspective, the same set of perfection which were the basis of religious training, self-denial, detachment from earthly goods and loves taking a different direction. This is not to form a small well to perfection itself, depending on the model drawn in the Gospels, but to leave any room for the Christ to shine through and shines through us. See TRAINING AND PERSEVERANCE ( Voice, March 64 p. 236)
And there were a few others like it inspired by a renewed theology in the spirit of Vatican II.
We had guessed that other peripheral factors could have an impact on persistence.
The apostolic dimension
Was loaded with brother Guy-Marie (Mtl), which was experimenting with new formulas for ministry to youth, to enlighten the apostolic mission of Brother educator.
He made two incisive articles. One title, You give birth in pain (Jan. 63, p. 166) in which he reminds us that our religious vocation took his meaning to the mission of "child life" among youth entrusted to us.
you children when you meet your guy and that you should take all their little stories.
you children when you try to discover the inner drama that lurks in your students ... (p. 168)
In the second article in the provocative title, Christ or mass production (Voice, April 1964), he said a few lines of force of the apostolic commitment, the great forgotten religious vocation. Freedom and teamwork are as two important bases that can shape and training for religious life and fidelity to his vocation.
"As we seem far from this great team who followed Christ in Palestine. I'm searching the gospel, I do not think that the chief executives tried to impose upon these men. Instead, I see that concern for "unframed" of " deinstitutionalize " . " (p. 280)
" I even believe that it is the strong element of a life of constantly question the solutions adopted previously. This avoids the gentrification sclerosis. The team is just a great way to "re-oxygenate" prospects ". (p. 284)
These articles aroused some controversy, especially from novices to Granby fielded a whole page of quotes from the Gospel that Jesus had "framed" the lives of his disciples.
When the institution feels threatened, to defend herself, she finds what she seeks. The controversy lasted for the duration of a rose, the space of a publication of The Voice .
The psychological dimension
The psychological dimension of fidelity was taken seriously. We asked the brother Pierre-Arthur, sc (Granby), to explain the human perseverance.
The question was this: "What are , next to the religious life, the psychological and not to forget their most immediate applications to the loyalty of the religious teacher? " (Voice , Jan. 1963, p. 164)
Brother Peter Arthur who had made serious studies in psychology replied in a long documented article that was published in two parts in Voice, under the title : Perseverance, human problem ( Voice, Feb 64 p. 187).
As he knew the answer to this question could be controversial or misinterpretation, he was careful before publishing his article to be approved by the Reverend Brother himself.
The vows of poverty, chastity and obedience must be consistent with self-love and proper integration of its physical reality and sensible.
"So it is normal and healthy for man to be attracted to the woman he admires the beauty and be willing to cede. This tendency is willed by God who has lovingly implanted in the heart of man. Far from being denied, repressed, this inclination must be fully embraced and integrated by the religious soul. " (Op. cit., P. 188)
And while the article brother Pierre-Arthur should read to understand how the loyalty of their religious vocation is closely related to knowledge oneself, respect for energies within us and a hard drive to order its affections and energies to its commitments.
The sociological dimension
correspondents Voice entrusted to Brother Marie-Joseph (Granby), then a student in sociology at the University of Montreal the task of analyzing the impact of modern society on the loyalty of the brothers. He could not satisfy the order. Only later, through two TV shows that we realized the importance of social conditioning on the loyalty of brothers and sisters, members of religious congregations established in Quebec in the early twentieth century.
first issue
was March 9, 1963. The show "Some others" that evening, was devoted to the association of Brothers Educators of Quebec. Our representatives we had "honor". This explains why nobody had done Voice or otherwise comment the issue. However, the response of one of them to a certain issue had tickled the skin. I laid an article entitled Under the question mark which was published in The Voice June 1963. I justified my title as well:
" There was a time when the brothers went unnoticed. They were under the suspension point of a white ... memory. A certain event and put them in the spotlight. One exclaimed: "It's a brother who said that! "Suddenly, we passed under the exclamation point, almost admiration. And now here we wondered about ourselves as we would a dodgy character. "Brother, what may be his life? What is it? Why are not you priests?"
Then came the killer question, one whose answer me constipated the bowels for several days.
" We have good Christian educators, so why the Brothers? "
The answer (which I found awkward, but true to the highest):
" Quebec is a good ground to recruitment, we need for our mission " (See The Voice, May 63, p. 400).
My opinion on this answer was relentless.
"You understand, dear compatriots! Brothers do absolutely nothing for you. You shamelessly exploit and in the name of Christian charity (our mission) you must support them, "recognize" that is to say, the adulation and send them to weanling son. " ( Op cit., P. 401)
And I continued to give the ax to see how the social impact we paralyzed:
"Before a question about our identity we biaisons often because we do not know if we are devoted to God or the world or both. We truly live in ourselves the question mark. Faced with a question about our role in society we respond awkwardly because we exist too for ourselves. " (Op. cit., P. 402.)
was, I believe, put the finger on the problem.
second issue: Interview with Roger Lemelin Bouchard on the report.
Mr. Lemelin, after acknowledging the debt of French Canadians to religious communities observed: "Apparently we can now move from religious communities."
In the editorial voice of , March 1964, brother Charles-Emile, then chairman of the drafting committee, recalled the statement of Mr. Lemelin and gave him reason. He entitled his text "F had our sociological vocation." ( Voice, March 1964, p. 235)
He first recognized that the "purpose of the entry into religion" has always been to give to God.
"But, he continues, this gift might be warped by social pressure when the career teacher does not conceive that cassock, when the division between secular and religious life were poorly demarcated.
Brother Charles-Emile was glad for the clarification that would allow religious life to regain its autonomy. So he ended his editorial with this sentence:
Having called these reflections are too summary by the words "Fire sociological our vocation," perhaps I might conclude with a similar expression , " Fire our numerical strength. " ( Voice March 64 p., 235)
A nail in the coffin had been planted. The Quiet Revolution in Quebec appeared to be an important factor in the secularization of the brothers in the years which marked the beginning of a new era.
Me, I firmly believed we could and we had to adapt to these new conditions. The start of every brother that I knew I bruised, I understood, but I therefore wish it were otherwise. It is a time when I least doubted my vocation. I was engaged, heart and spirit in the revival, in my religious family and spent my life. The vows I was no longer a burden or a sacrifice, they framed a state of life that I loved deeply.
What conclusions can we draw today from the blitz on persistence?
A zero impact on persistence
First one expected miracles from these items. They were too well made to attract attention, too developed to generate debate, scientists may be too much to arouse some interest among most brothers are more concerned with their daily lives that we learned theories formulated on their state life.
When asked "Does God answers our prayers always ? "Replied the little cat'chisme:
" Yes, God always hears our prayers, when they are done well, but he answers them in the manner it deems most useful to our salvation. " No. 331
These scholarly writings on the loyalty they had an impact on persistence of the brothers in 1962?
(A. - Yes, because they were well made, but they had an impact other than the one.)
First, again have both feet on the ground. Supporting evidence is less than fifty percent of the brothers in a dress and vows that have read one or other of these items with high content of theology.
The writer receives regular those cold showers, beneficent to his humility.
Secondly, the virus was not eradicated. The "debacle of June" became a steady stream that killed every year in every province and Canadian community more vocations in the saddle until the exhaustion of vital forces of the community. Within 14 years, from 1957 to 1971, says the chronicler Jean-Claude was forced to close 60 schools of education required by the brothers in Canada.
Before concluding that these writings were not brilliant as a sword in water, there are some other aspects to consider.
The concept of "persistence" (3) meant that respect a contract for life before God had given way to the concept of "fidelity" which implied a relationship of faith in the person of Christ and members of the community Church. And the vows meant a quality of relationship always renew and always questioning. They hired all the individual within a dynamic relationship and do not imprisoned in the grip of the oath taken in other times.
mentality that these articles conveyed prepared the way for a profound renewal of the reciprocal relationship between church and state. Instead of e s'épier and monitor its "cheese" it was open to collaboration in seeking the best for all.
Clearly, these attitudes, ripened long and revealed in the articles written under the theme of perseverance, have meant that communities have no resistance to the state that took its responsibilities in health care and education. They have also shown more tolerance towards the secularization of institutions and individuals that brought these changes.
The brothers who stayed, met the selection of their colleagues who left and did not mean severed all ties with them. Moreover, they abandoned the attitude fallback on the traditions they had first taken to make determined efforts to the task of revising their rules and constitutions their habits and ways of life, their prayers for themselves and their faces make them more consistent and more that meet the needs of the time.
Those who chose to leave the community did so without bitterness, and most have maintained ties of gratitude to the community that had hosted and brotherhood towards the fellow they left.
This led to the tame and the "debacle of June 62" and secularization that followed. Instead of being seen as catastrophes, they were seen as a painful but necessary adjustment that contributed to the betterment of all.
Thus ends this period, the closure of part of the perseverance and openness to the multifaceted FIDELITY Christ present and active in multiple communities of life and belonging.
++++++++++++++++++++++
(1) The brother Stan said the conservative attitude of this chapter.
"After completion, it was clear that the chapter had only accepted the proposals to conservative tendencies and had rejected almost all the innovative nature of projects such as the adoption of civilian names, changes to the dress, rules on smoking, family visits and vacations. "(Yearbook of the Institute of Brothers of the Sacred Heart - 1906-2006 p. 132 (2) All these writings to attack the perseverance, lightning succeeding intervals appeared to me as the successive attacks of the German army against the city of London during the 2nd World War e hence the term blitz derives its name.
(3) All items mentioned above have made the transfer of "perseverance" which marks a period in time in the brand loyalty that quality of links established between two or more persons and in particular between and professed Christ and his Church. This change of vocabulary illuminates the profound cultural transformation that is happening among brothers and help accelerate this transformation.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DIRECTORY 1962-1963
No. 57
It follows the work of Vatican II: Renewal word became fashionable.
Given what is happening in the field of education in Quebec, the brothers are on the alert. A Survey on Learning is ongoing.
There
new initiatives: the inauguration and blessing of the School of Trades Victoriaville May 23, 1963, a project that was initiated in October 1961.
A change in policy between school boards and the brothers regarding the homes that were once provided by school boards and adjoining school.
There were nine closings of houses.
There is concern in air. Community in a province, we compare, at its founding in 1945, the average age was 31 years and in 1963 it was 41 years.
And the columnist notes that vocations are shaken: the attraction of women and good wages.
- 1514 professed
- 105 novice
- 1272 juniors
Next issue: 32 - The outputs of community from 1962 to 1971
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