Return to Catholic roots

[pieter]

This weekend I went to a Catholic monastry
in the Southern province of Brabant, to joyn
a group of mainly Catholic people.
The meet several times a year on saturdays
in that locations an discuss differant topics,
go to mass, and have their celebrations.
As a secular Catholic i witnessed a sort
of return to the wormth of a community
of believers and spirituality.
The tradition of the places goes back to
11.50 when the Monastry was found on the
Principles of Augustine.
I thank my friend and theatrical players
Stefan Papp (half Duch, half Hungarian)
for telling me about his groep Ruach
and letting me joyn in.

www.abdijvanberne.nl/index.html

[pieter]

he Catholic tradition in the South of the Netherlands is wonderful, because the whole area was Catholic in the past, and so the Catholicism is inhebited in the culture, customs and Carnaval in the Southern provinces.
Even protestants feel attracted to that culture, tradition and the peace and quiet atmosphere of the Monastry life.
The Monastry I went to is both contemplative and practical and pragmatic.
The Monks drive a guesthouse, for people who want a period of rest and meditation and a program for people who like to share a part of the Monastry life.
People can rent a room there, there is a bookshop with religious literature,
Icons and religious and classical music, and they have their own printing firm. In my group the majority of the people are women, most of them have studied theology, lead church services (what suprises me, because in the Catholic church women may not be priests), spritual caretakers and play a role in local church communities.
Most church communities in the Netherlands are grey, because the people
of it get old and the young people don't go to church anymore.
The Catholic church closed a lot of churches and incest in the Churches
which are viable. Churches became appartments, discotheques, hotels,
studios for artists and etc. Even though I lead a secular life I was sadened
by the disappearance of the Catholic and Protestant churches in the
Netherlands, because I liked the place churches had in villages, towns
and cities. Strangly enough I think that christianity will return in Western-Europe, because a lot of people feel an emptyness in their lives, and because
churches reformed themselves, and people see the positive social role churches play in the society.
Church communities- and workers help elderly people, ill people,
homeless people, the poor, and foreign refugees that escaped persecution in the countries they came from. Monks help mental ill people or stressed people to get grip on them selves. First of all by accepting people, letting them feel welcome, giving them a place to rest (shelter), have psychological, psychiatric and educational knowledge (a lot of Monks are not only religiously trained, but also aware of what goes on in society). For me the group where I participate in gives me something I don't get anywhere else, and I give something back they can use, so it is a mutual benefit that brought me there.

Pieter

[Jaga]

Pieter,

I am glad you have such a nice warm adn spiritual experience in the monastery. I wish, the church would find the way to attract younger people. I think the absence of young people touches not only CAtholic Church but the protestant churches, at least this is what I noticed in Germany

[pieter]

Pieter,

I am glad you have such a nice warm and spiritual experience in the monastery. I wish, the church would find the way to attract younger people. I think the absence of young people touches not only CAtholic Church but the protestant churches, at least this is what I noticed in Germany

Jaga,

Thank you for your kind reply. Ruach the spiritual and human group
of women and man (I say it this way, because the majority of the group
are women) who are in the middle of their lives, in the middle of society,
with their differant careers, knowledge of theology, making practice
of their faith in their jobs and communities.
Exept for the brother monk, the three men in the group are the least
relgious, one non-religious guy, Stefan is something like me (not a church
goer-, or community man), but we wanted to do something with our roots,
the positive and lasting things of our Catholic heritage.
Via the group Ruach (you can find it on the website, but unfortunately everything is only in Duch) we find a portal (a gateway) back to that tradtion, and the things we miss from that.
Fortunately there is also a women with a heavy Duch reformed background,
so that there is also a calvinist protestant element in the group, and we see the differance in her knowledge of the bible, protestants are more bible oriented than Catholics, in the way of their personal relationship with god.
The good thing of the Monastry is that it is really a center of christian enlightenment, it cooperates with 14 protestant churches in an oecomenical
project, and in the Netherlands also many Protestants and secular people go to the monastries to find rest, peace and time for meditation.
In that way the positive influence of the church goes farther than Catholics
alone. What attracts me to the monastry is the ancient tradition which you can feel and witness in the atmosphere overthere, and the humbleness,
accepting and welcoming attitude of the monks, and their true christian conviction. I could not become a monk myself, but I can learn a great deal
from there personal and communal attitude. Ruach is an enrichment of my
life and a new eppisode in my spriritual and religious life.

One strange story. The guest monk had Polish guest, a Polish monk and his sister. He said that the Polish monk escaped from Poland.
In my naivity I asked if he escaped during Communism?
No the Monk had escaped present day Poland, because he could'nt stand
the atmosphere in the Polish church today. I asked myself if that has to do
with the Ultra-Catholicism what was discussed here by some people in a topic? I called my mother saturday evening, after I came back from the monastry. She told me she had difficulties with Polish Cahtolicism, and that she was not as religious as her parents and her Polish relatives, she told
me that she is Agnostic, and that she thinks that I carry on the Polish Catholic tradition of her family in a Duch Catholic version.

Pieter

[pieter]

Ruach, a picture of most people of the group (some people are not on it).
The group has about 17 members.

www.abdijvanberne.nl/ruach.html

[aadam]

Hello Pieter, thank you for sharing your experience (here and in other topics) it is most interesting to read them. I really regret that at present I have less time to discuss things here. All the best.

[pieter]

Adam,

Thank you for your interest. I know about your personal search and research in life on ideas, faith and belief.
I think you have found your way, and I am just at the beginning of finding my way.
Part of that is studying religion. I just bought the Duch translation of the book "Islam, A guide for jews and
Crhistians", written by Frank E. Peters (2003, Princeton, Universaty Press, Princeton NY/Oxfordshire),
a neutral, objective study, which is inbetween the Islam hatred in some media and political circles and
the political correct, Islam love by some very liberal radicals.
It studies the history of Islam from a scientifical (historical, philosophical, theological, political science)
point of view. I always loved Islamic architecture, art and culture, and the positive influence of the
Moorish rulers in Spain in the early Middle ages. Part of European scientific and cultural heritage
is Northern-African (Berber) and Arab. We got our Math, algebra and Medical knowledge partly
from these Southern Islamic European kingdoms (Sevilla, Cordoba and Grenada).

Pieter

P.S.- This gnostic christian group in the South of Holland has many influences
and elements, but it's core lies (ofcourse) in Catholicism, the ancient tradition
of the Norbertines.