Dear Brothers and Sister,
As you know our Order is divided into two houses: Aquinas (East of the Mississippi) and Catherine (West of the Mississippi) for the purposes of common fellowship, support, and ministry.
As prior I oversee the house and have a responsibility for pastoral care and leadership of those in Catherine House.
I would like to hear suggestions and ideas about how we should conduct our life as a house.
What would help you to live your Dominican life more strongly? Ideas can be crazy and big, as well as less bold and more “realistic.”
Please post to the blog and/or e-mail them to the group.
http://saintcatherinehouse.blogspot.com/
I am expecting that every member of the house will respond via e-mail and/or to the group.
Also check below for a sermon by Brother Ken Murphy O.P. he is preaching it on October 19th and he would appreciate feedback.
Yours in Christ,
Brother Kevin+
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18 comments:
I would appreciate the chance to meet together as a house say once per week (and perhaps as an order once per month) and share in say Evening Prayer or Compline.
The technology exits where we could all come to a common virtual space and be able to hear and speak. For those with a webcam we could even see each other.
Here is the radical part, what if at least the once per month order meeting included a Eucharist (one house meeting a month could also do this). If we each had a wafer and some wine in front of us, the presiding priest would pray the Eucharistic Prayer, our individual wafer and wine would be consecrated through the hearing of the words and we could each partake, together. I would imagine we would put on our habits.
We could share the giving of the sermon/homily throughout the course of time. We would each need a headset with a microphone that plugs into a USB port and perhaps a webcam. The software is at no cost but does have some limits on numbers.
To me, cyberhouses are temporary entities, existing only until geographically local houses can be formed. That being said, I agree with Carl. Our methods of online communication lag far behind the tech curve. I would be interested in exploring not only real-time online communications, but also a cyberpresence in virtual worlds such as Second Life or There. Such a presence would not only provide an additional focus for a cyberhouse, but would also be an opportunity for recruiting new members.
I think my brothers' comments and ideas speak for me as well. I would be very glad to "see" them more often.
Br. Rick says,
I hate to rain on a parade, but. . .
We had a chapter-wide email discussion of the idea of a cyber Eucharist last year. Some were dead set against the idea. On reflection, I have to say that you can also count me out for any such celebration.
I am a believer in transubstantiation. But even for those who are not, I would venture that most of us believe there is a real presence in the Eucharist. Many of us believe that an epiclesis requires the actual, hands-on intervention of a priest who has been ordained in the apostolic succession. If you were to counter that the Episcopal Church has officially ventured into a theological lala land where nearly anything goes, you would get no argument from me. But thus far the BCP rubrics, Rite I and Rite II, require the celebrant to hold or to put his or her hands on the vessels containing the elements. That cannot be done virtually.
I have set up a chat room for the class I am leading for the second year novices on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (see what you have to look forward to, first year novices?). We have instant, real time discussions and it works well for that purpose. It is private insofar as one would be extremely unlikely to find it if I did not provide the link.
That being said, I confess that I don't understand why it would be advantageous or helpful for us to get into some cyber virtual world. We are spiritually connected. We are geographically separated. That is part of our identity as an order and as a house right now. We are citizens of heaven, bringing heaven's message and heaven's values to the communities in which we live. We are missionaries and some form of physical isolation appears to be part of our vocation. I do not like the idea of participating in a world where we simulate not being isolated.
I think we can and should have occasional cyber meetings using a chat room or an IM methodology, but it will never be the same as Br. Carl and I having a beer after chapter activities, or Sr. Jackie and I meeting for coffee before the meeting starts. I can't actually drink a beer or have a cup of coffee in cyber space. I need to put the mug to my lips and swallow liquid. I need to see and hear Carl laugh when I tell a joke.
I recite morning prayer every weekday morning at about 4 a.m. Central. My chat room class room is only in use every other Monday evening. If anyone would care to join my morning office, I can email you the link to the chat room.
I must say that I agree with everyone, at least in part. The technology is there to allow us to come together, virtually. I think we should explore how we can best use it to expand our community amongst our selves, and use it as Bro. George suggest-as a internet presence. ( I am not familier with the virtual worlds he talked about)
However, I also strongly agree with Bro. Rick in the manner in which the Eucharist is to be conducted. I would be against any such celebration in a virtual world.
The two words that seem to leap out at me as I read these post are:
radical
virtual
I don't see any benefit to radically change the celebration of the Eucharist, or to almost celebrate the Eucharist in a almost real enviroment.
As far as cyber Eucharist is concerned, I prefer Eucharist at church or home where I can see, touch, feel, etc. My understanding of the early Dominicans is that they went out, mostly in twos?, probably without a laptop. They knew that others were doing the same thing and they prayed mightily for each other. I take support knowing that throughout the day (and night) some of us are "on duty," supporting all of us. Sharing forms or a focus for common study would be another dimension we could share that would be collegial and lend support while we're each out here living, working, and preaching where we're supposed to be. My intuition tells me that this order is about to grow exponentially. Perhaps there will be houses all over the place soon. Then we will be concerned about how the houses can interact and commune, not just individuals.
Br. Rick reports:
Br. Carl and I prayed the morning office together this morning in the chatroom I had been using for the Aristotle class. It was a good experience and I certainly enjoyed it. There are some technical problems with praying the daily offices in a chatroom. One needs to download the prayers in Word or some other word processor and cut and paste into the chat box. It's a little disjointed. But it was very nice to pray with Carl.
We will be joining for MP again tomorrow at 4 am Central. If anyone would care to join us, I will send a link to the chat room on request. Car will be officiating.
Br. Carl is a bit more technologically proficient than I am, and at his instance he and I will be experimenting with SKYPE, which is a voice chat technology, similar to a conference phone call. I think that might work better for praying the offices.
Blessings.
Brothers,
Yes, I think using Skype and other technologies for the office are certainly a possiability.
I would adhere to the Church's teaching on the celebration of the sacraments.
The danger of the technology age is that we will be become disconnected from each other in a sacramental sense - which very much includes the physical.
In the future when we can plug ourselves into a viritual world that seems more real, perhaps super-real, to our senses than even "regular reality" Christians will continue to insist on real presence in the sacraments and with other - this will be a hard line to take in the coming centuries.
Brother Kevin+
Sr. Jackie said..
I would love to be able to hear and see all of you once a week or once a month.
One thing that I enjoy on a personal level is to watch EWTN. I can pray the rosary with Mother Angelica, I enjoy "Life on the Rock" on Sunday nights, and "Super Saints", etc. Therefore, to see and hear my Brothers on my computer would be awesome.
At the present, I am happy with just knowing that my Brothers are supporting me and praying for me.
Have nothing to say; so...
Br. Rick says,
After my experience this morning, I'm thinking it might be good to have regular daily offices prayed online at a mutually agreeable time. Br. Carl and I will try out the SKYPE method soon, but he tells me he has already used it. For the audio conferencing, one would need a computer with a sound card, a set of headphones, and a microphone, or a combo headset and mic. There are some of those available in the $30 - $40 range. The basic SKYPE software is free.
So I'm thinking maybe we could set up MP maybe at a given day and time each week (wouldn't necessarily have to be 4 am), or every other week, and possibly have an expectation that all members of the house attend at least once a month? We could rotate officiants. Log on with your BCP, headphones, and microphone.
Hello Catherine House,
What a fine blog you have!
Please save the date, March 21, 2009, for the consecration of the new bishop of Northwest Texas in Lubbock. I plan to be there and I am hoping we can round up a number of others to attend.
Sister Elena+OP
Please let me clarify. When I mentioned partaking of the Eucharist while seated in front of my computer with the members of the house and the order, it was based on doing so via the Internet. I had envisioned using something like Skype that Br Rock has mentioned so I could see a human priest officiate and hear the actual voice.
I would not be in favor of doing Eucharist on the virtual worlds I have heard about where the person online exists thru a graphic character.
I do believe that the person taking needs to be involved in the process of the Eucharist and the virtual world does not do that for me.
I brought this up because we do not have a central house, we gather physically perhaps once per year and I was wondering if our brotherhood and sisterhood would be strengthened if we shared in the Holy Communion.
I will get right on the Skype technology with Brother Rick so we can perhaps at least do Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Compline at various opportunities.
Humbly,
Br Carl
From Br. Rick:
I'm with Br. Carl nearly all the way, but my objection is not just to a virtual Eucharist. I do object to that. But I would also object to virtual consecration of the Eucharistic elements. It is a sacrament. It needs laying on of ordained hands.
That said, I fully support lay-led and clergy led offices that could be prayed collectively no matter where each of us are physicially located using the internet and computer technology.
So Br Rick, Just to be clear. You are saying that you would need to take communion from the wafers that were on the paten and from wine in the chalice that were physically present at the same alter as the priest who consecrated them?
Br Carl
Br. Rick responds:
Not just that, Br. Carl. I am saying that the priest has to touch the elements or their container. I am saying that the Eucharistic elements cannot possibly be consecrated over the internet. Physical touching is a critical element in this sacrament. The BCP rubrics demand this. And for good reason.
We could not consecrate a priest over the internet either. A priest or bishop who is already ordained has to lay hands on any priest before he or she is ordained. The priest doing the ordaining likewise had hands laid on him or her by a priest who was ordained in the same way. And for every priest ordained in our church, this has happened in turn in an unbroken succession going all the way back to the original apostles.
Those and only those are the ones who may consecrate the eucharistic elements. Those are the ones who may confirm us as members of the church. Those are the ones who may hear our confessions, in person. Those are the ones who may baptize us. Those are the ones who may solemnize a marriage. That is the apostolic succession. Their authority to perform sacraments derives from the apostles themselves, whom Jesus commissioned in person.
It involves physical touching. Epiclesis during the Eucharist involves physical touching. It cannot be dispensed with. It cannot be done virtually. When a priest physically touches the elements and invokes the Holy Spirit to change them into the body and blood of our Lord, he or she does it by the power granted to the apostles by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and that power has been passed down along the generations in an unbroken chain by physical touching.
I might jump in to say that this has always been the mind of the Church and I do think that this historic understanding of the Eucharist - esp. since we are Anglicans, and some Anglo-Catholics, would forbid any viritual or internet celebration of the sacraments.
They are to taken place in real 3D community - face to face. The theology of the Prayer Book and the greater Catholic Tradition of Christianity seem to speak against this.
In other words, if we did engage in such a celebration we would in fact be saying we don't really believe in the real presence of Christ, the sacramental nature of the Church, etc.
Br Michael of St Louis said...
My post is late and I am glad I have had the chance to read everyone's comments. I would say that I concur with Br Rick's comments of October 14th (which I gather were modified in subsequent postings).
Br Rick mentions the bi-weekly chat room discussion of Aristotle's Nichomachian Ethic (for 2nd year novices). Since we moved to the chat room format this has worked very well.
I have used SKYPE when our son was in Liberia. It works well.
At my work, we routinely call in to a conference call number to have multi-participant calls. I subscribe to one of these called "Confer". Check it out. For pennies per minute (per person) we would have the possibility to have an ongoing voice discussion, which would permit, for example, an evening prayer or Compline done jointly by the House (or to conduct meetings of any kind). One way to do this would be to have all of us subscribe to Confer (or some other tool like this) and then rotate the task (and cost) among those of us who would be in a position to "sponsor" a call. This would require the call to be billed to that sponsor's credit card. If calls were limited to 30 minutes this would be very affordable for many of us.
I would like to revisit Br Rick's comments in which he reminds us that we are modern day mendicants, out in the mission field. Regardless of what decision is finally made, I would urge us all not to fall in love with technology. While I think it is a good tool for a meeting or even a lesson, I am chilled by worship in cyberspace. I DID, however, appreciate Br Carl's comment that if we do an office at at prescribed time, we are with each other in spirit. I already gain strength from that practice, as I know morning and evening prayer is part of our daily life.
Peace to all,
Br Michael of St Louis
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