“DIM/MID" represents the French & English abbreviations for "Monastic InterFaith Dialogue". The website is http://www.dimmid.org
The “Commission” that Ms. Colin speaks of is the facilitative organ of the “Benedictine Interfaith Dialogue”.
Regards,
Lúcio
Indian Questions
by Sr Bruno-Marie Colin osb
View source.
On the invitation of Sr Iona Misquitta, I had the pleasure of taking part in the assembly of the Federation of Indian and Sri Lankan Superiors and also in the annual meeting of the contact persons of Benedictine Interfaith Dialogue (BID). Sr Iona is the person responsible for BID, the Indian and Sri Lankan equivalent of the European DIM/MID. These meetings were held in the Sylvestrine Monastery of Mount Fano in Kandy, Sri Lanka, February 13-16, 2002.
Sr Iona’s intention was to enable me to get to know the Indian Commission and, in a lightning visit of 10 days, the Benedictine communities and their situation. In sending me, Fr Pierre de Béthune, the General Secretary of DIM/MID, wanted to strengthen the bonds between the Commissions of the two continents and to stimulate the interfaith engagement of the Benedictines. For my part, I wished to respond as best as I could to all these expectations (to be Roman with the Romans!), even if the prospect of making a journey like this on my own was somewhat disquieting.
The International Bulletin will doubtless give an account of the BID meeting, so it is my impressions of this first contact with South India (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala) that I would like to offer in order to express my thanks. I really put myself into living this adventure in depth, by day and by night (3 nights out of 7 were spent on trains), but all that I can say is bound to be very superficial.
There was no time to keep a journal and this experience was so dense that an interval was needed before impressions could settle, some things be forgotten and the main points stand out. Therefore will those who know these countries kindly forgive my naive and external approach to an India that is far more mysterious and profound. May this account give them a pretext to return in heart and mind to this captivating continent!
The first thing I discovered was how extremely varied Benedictine life is. From the very beginning questions arose. When Benedictines meet, what do they say? “What congregation are you from? Are you active or contemplative?” Since, as a nun, I do not travel widely in Europe and, moreover, come from Belgium, a small country, these were new questions for me. To be able to reply that I came from a monastery affiliated with the same congregation as Asirvanam brought a smile of recognition.
In Western Europe monasteries resemble one another, but this does not mean monotony, since each country has its own style. In India, however, I found myself faced with a great diversity of families: there were Sylvestrine, Vallombrosian, Camaldolese and Benedictine monks (the latter from the Congregation of the Annunciation), Benedictine and Camaldolese nuns, sisters of St Lioba, of our Lady of Grace and Compassion, and of the Missionary Benedictines of Tutzing. Each family has its own style of foundation: there are important cenobitic communities (Mount Fano, Asirvanam, Shanti-Nilayam), semi-anachoretic foundations of men and women (Shantivanam), convents engaged in helping people (Grace and Compassion), and monastic houses (St Lioba).
While each of these communities has kept some features that came from its founding house, each has also succeeded in becoming engaged in a multiplicity of undertakings well adapted to local circumstances: missions, parishes, spiritual centres, schools, student hostels, crèches, hospitals, homes for the elderly, farms, animal husbandry, arts and crafts …
As a gyrovague going from cell to cell (10 monasteries in a week!) I found four communities that seem to illustrate the needs of the country and the expectations of its people. I would like to say something about each of them.
Shantivanam – Saccidanânda Ashram, Tamil Nadu.
With its hermitages scattered in the forest, its church, its fine mediation area, Shantivanam is still the Christian ashram desired by Jules Monchanin, Henri Le Saux and Bede Griffiths. But – sign of the times – the Camaldolese have just opened a new novitiate built on the European model. Many Westerners frequent the guest house and appreciate finding there a centre of Christian meditation with traditional Indian characteristics. I cannot forget the happy moment when Sr. Marie-Louis and Sr Sarananda, nuns of the neighbouring women’s community, and I called to mind the three founders, each of us having our own preference.
Shanti-Nilayam Abbey, Bangalore, Karnataka.
This is Sr Iona’s community, numerous and impressive when singing Office, with young and less young Sisters seated on the ground facing the altar. Some wore kavis, wishing to indicate their deeply Indian roots, while the majority used white habits to show their desire to be recognized as Catholic nuns. As soon as you entered the door, it was impossible not to think of the founding abbey, St Cecilia’s Abbey, Ryde, England, and its concern for a strictly contemplative life.
Sevasadan Hostel, St Benedict’s Convent, Cochin, Kerala.
This small, fraternal community, which is so welcoming, is responsible for a hostel for girls coming from all religious confessions. Here I had the pleasure of finding again the spontaneity, simplicity of life and sound training of the Sisters of St Lioba (Freiburg).
Grace and Compassion Priory, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.
The Sisters of this young, dynamic community, who generously respond to the needs of the local people, gave me the joy of a profoundly “Indian” day. The time was divided for the first part into a circumambulation (by jeep!) of Arunchala, the mountain so dear to Dom Le Saux, recollection in a temple of Shiva, one of the great sanctuaries of India, and meditation at the Ramana Maharshi Ashram. The second part was spent visiting the various forms of service undertaken by the community: a hospital, a technical school and workshops, a crèche, and a farm. Three sisters who are deeply committed to their Benedictine life accompanied me that day and shared their discovery of the riches of the Ramana Maharshi spirituality.
Meeting these communities, which are well grounded in the local culture but careful to keep traces of Western Benedictine tradition, led me to ask some questions I scarcely dare formulate: Does every tradition keep an unchangeable nucleus derived from the culture from which it sprang? Is there any desire for the inculturation of Christian monasticism into the Indian cultural tradition? What is inculturation? Is the desire for monastic inculturation a projection of our Western exoticism that would be met by another form of exoticism, that of Indian wishing to preserve the Western origins of Christian monasticism? Is concern for praying in a common language a sufficient explanation for the general use of English in liturgical worship? In Sri Lanka, the Buddhists have decided not to speak it.
The signs of omnipresent prayer bear witness to the Indian’s profoundly religious life and are a call to love in the presence of God. The prayer of monks, morning prayers in the family, the muezzin’s call, puja before the village temple, candles offered to Mary by Christians and Muslims mingling together, the incessant flow of people in the Hindu and Jain temples, a basilica full of Christians, a chapel of the Blessed Sacrament open for adoration 24 hours a day, men and women profoundly absorbed in prayer, Westerners meditating in ashrams – all this speaks clearly. In confining the faith to a private universe, in passing it through the sieve of rationality, in banishing the external signs of religion, have we not amputated a vital dimension of our “humanity”?
At the Superiors’ meeting, an encounter of the faiths in an atmosphere of esteem and tolerance for the cause of peace formed the background to the official contributions. The Bishop of Kandy, Mgr Joseph Vianney Fernando, recalled that dialogue is not an option but the way to live the spirit of the Gospel. Fr Abbot Primate Notker Wolf invited us to see monastic stability as an opportunity to develop inter-faith engagement. A Sri Lankan Buddhist patriarch with spiritual authority over 5000 monks spoke of his conviction that Buddhist and Christian monks could work together by following their own traditions without being in competition with one another. Finally the Indian High Commissioner called for the authenticity of each faith to be lived to the full. He saw this as a positive factor in co-existence. All this urged BID towards a dynamic engagement with other faiths.
Following the important meetings at Bangalore and Makkiyad, the BID Commission has fully taken shape. An office has been set up to ensure follow-up. A contact-person has been designated in each monastery. A number of monks have personal friendly relations with representatives of other traditions. Some communities engage in inter-faith hospitality and meetings. Others, who are more reserved, contribute a positive approach to other religions by seeking information.
The chief part of the meeting also fell into the category of information. The theme “Love, Compassion, Forgiveness” was explored by Buddhist representatives in the presence of Christian monks whose questions revealed their concern for comprehension in depth. On the other hand, none of the Buddhist speakers attended the various responses to the theme made by the Christian participants. The absence of the Buddhists was caused by difficulties with the timetable, the need to take classes or observance of the monastic fast.
Sant’Anselmo’s request to Sr Iona about the possibility of organising a course of inter-faith lectures in the Bangalore area will certainly be a powerful stimulus to the Indian Commission.
I cannot fail to mention the prodigious hospitality of these countries. Fr Anselm of Mount Fano made himself entirely available and was concerned to introduce me to the life of the Sylvestrines, the beauty of Sri Lanka, its mountains, forests, rivers, lakes and palm groves, the high places of Theravada Buddhism (the Temple of the Tooth, the grottoes of Alu Vihara where the Tripitakas were first copied), and Dambulla.
Sr Iona also wanted me to get to know the Benedictine communities of South India and the realities of life there – quite a challenge for one week! She succeeded by drawing up an itinerary, appealing to the contact-persons in the communities that welcomed me, and leaving a little margin for the unforeseen to Providence. This was an excellent means for discovering the hospitality of the monasteries and also the unbelievable welcome afforded by the families and friends of the monks. There were shared meals in towns and country, and lodging where one was woken by the sound of the raga. All gave of their best. Twice people made train journeys of over 20 hours in order to accompany me from one place to the next. “If you are asked to go a mile….”
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