Lately I have found myself having a remarkable number of conversations with people about intentional community, new monasticism and the nature of the Franciscan tradition. It has been encouraging to find some many people who are exploring new ways to share life in community as God’s family. Above all, I am very excited to be making many new friends.
One consistent theme that has come up in nearly every one of those conversations has been the differences between Franciscan and Benedictine traditions, especially as they relate to new monasticism and/or intentional Christian communities. While acknowledging the generalization, my experience has been that new monastic communities tend to live in the tension between the differing (though not contradictory) values between those expressions.
Many people do not realize that Franciscans are not, in fact, monastics at all. They are mendicant orders- from the Latin mendicans, which means ‘begging’. Benedictines, on the other hand, are monastics- from the Greek μοναχός, monachos, derived from Greek monos, which means ‘alone’. Generally speaking, Franciscans gather into communities to organize for the purpose of going into the world to live the gospel, where as Benedictines gather into communities apart from the world (though not always entirely) for the purpose of sharing lives of continual prayer and worship of God. Franciscans are primarily missional, whereas Benedictines are primarily contemplative.
It should be strongly noted that I use the term “primarily”, because Franciscan can be deeply contemplative and Benedictines can be powerfully missional. It is not about one over or against the other, but about the unique vocation. Further, Franciscans have drawn a great deal from Benedictines throughout their history, owing much to their “older brothers and sisters”.
Generally speaking, new monastic/intentional Christian communities tend to live in the tension between the Franciscan and the Benedictine, the “mendicant” and the monastic, the missional and the contemplative. While inevitably each community will lean more towards one than the other, the healthiest of those communities wrestle between the two expressions. This is why I chose to make formation as a third order secular Franciscan with the Company of Jesus, as our community has both Franciscan and Benedictine charisms. While I lean towards the Franciscan, I need the tempering influence of my Benedictine sisters & brothers to remind me of the contemplative nature of my vocation as well.
What is your experience with this dynamic? Do you lean one way more than the other?
(P.S. For an amazing book on living in this tension, you must read “Pilgrimage of a Soul” by Phileena Heuertz)
