11/28/07:

"Common Life and Prayer" - Paul Wadell

During our nearly two weeks of touring Norbertine Abbeys in Austria and the Czech Republic, we saw a lot of abbeys and we met a lot of Norbertines. But we never met a glum Norbertine. Maybe there were some glum Norbertines and they hid them while we were there, but we never saw them.

But one thing that struck me about the Norbertines we met is that every one of them seemed happy to be a Norbertine and quite happy to be living, praying, and working together with other Norbertines. They loved St. Norbert, they loved their common vocation, and they loved their life together in community. When you see that it draws you in because you are among people who know who they are and who enjoy who they are. They enjoyed being Norbertines.  They enjoyed their common life.

The Norbertine way of life is based on the Rule of St. Augustine. Like Augustine, the Norbertines believe that the goal of their life together is “to love God and to be of one heart and mind on your journey together to God.” You don’t become of “one heart and mind” naturally or effortlessly; you have to work at it. And you work at it by being committed to an essential element of Norbertine life, a strong commitment to prayer.

For the Norbertines, common life and prayer go together, they’re inseparable, because prayer teaches us to pay attention to what really matters. No matter how busy their lives were, the Norbertines we met in Europe made it a point to come together each day for prayer. They did this not only because it continually reminded them of who they were and of what they had promised to be, but also because they knew that if they had regular times for prayer together, their lives in community would remain fresh and strong—even joyous.