In the common vocation
This year at the September ecumenical conference, perhaps to some extent because of the theme we had chosen — since the Lord’s Transfiguration has always been very dear to the monastic tradition both in the East and in the West — the participation of those who share the same vocation with us was unusually numerous and varied.
This year at the September ecumenical conference, perhaps to some extent because of the theme we had chosen — since the Lord’s Transfiguration has always been very dear to the monastic tradition both in the East and in the West — the participation of those who share the same vocation with us was unusually numerous and varied. We have had the joy, thus, of having with us monks and nuns from Greece (Athens, Karditsa, and Preveza), from Romania (Ia?i), from Russia (Holy Trinity-St Sergius lavra, Danilov monastery in Moscow), from Mount Sinai (Monastery of St Catherine), from Italy (Poffabbro, Valserena, Pra’d Mill, Dumenza, Montaner), from France (Mont-des-Cats, Tamié, La Pierre-qui-Vire, Taizé, St Antoine le Grand), from Belgium (Wauvremont, Clerlande, Chevetogne), from England (Maldon) and from Germany (Skete St Spyridon of Geilnau). Other monks and nuns have visited us at other times during these months. Of Italian monks and nuns we wish to mention fr. Mauro, abbot of the Subiaco monastery, and fr. Augusto, abbot visitator of the Italian province of the Subiaco Benedictine Congregation; fr. Michelangelo, abbot of Monte Oliveto; br. Cesare, br. Zeno, br. Isidoro, and br. Amedeo of Pra’d Mill); br. Antonio of Dumenza; br. Matteo of Camaldoli; fr. Roberto from the Camaldolese hermitage of Bardolino; fr. Filippo of the St Giustina monastery in Padua; fr. Marco and fr. Nino, who recently have settled in the St Joseph hermitage by Fiesole; sr. M. Clemente and sr. Antonietta Maria of Viboldone; sr. Daniela of Poffabbro; sr. M. Pia and sr. M. Gabriella of Civitella S. Paolo (Roma); sr. Stefania, Capuchin Poor Clare nun from Fabriano; sr. Cecilia of the Little Family of the Annunziata (Montesole). From foreign monasteries and monastic communities we have had the visit of: fr. Victor, abbot of Tamié (France);
fr. Ivo of Westmalle (Belgium); br. Jean-Albert of Wauvremont (Belgium); br. Denis of Maredsous (Belgium); fr. Gaetano of Orval (Belgium); br. Matthieu of Clerlande (Belgium); sr. Minke, who spent with us a sabbatical of a about a month, and sr. Regina of Grandchamp (Switzerland); fr. Seraphim from the Orthodox monastery of St Nicholas (Romania); fr. Domenico and br. Isaac from a priorate of the Pannonhalma monastery (Hungary); fr. Patrick of Glenstal abbey (Ireland); fr. Gabriel of a Cistercian monastery in Ethiopia; fr. Antonios from the monastery of St Pachomius (Egypt); sr. Dolores Bae, Olivetan nun from Korea; fr. Parthenios, a monk of the Orthodox Church of Antioch (Hosn diocese, northern Syria), who is studying in Rome and who on the advice of his bishop spent about a month with us in order to become better acquainted with western monasticism; and finally fr. Iakovos of Simonos Petras on Mount Athos. Recently fr. Fadi, a Syro-Orthodox monk from Iraq, who has stayed with us already in the past, has returned to Bose for a longer stay. Likewise br. Roberto, a friar minor of the Poziuncula convent in Assisi, is spending a period of discernment with us. In addition, some brothers and sisters of our community have visited other monasteries and monastic communities in order to strengthen the bonds of fraternal friendship: br. Lino has visited the hermitage of Monte Rua, the Little Family of the Annunziata in Montesole, and the monastery and hermitage of Camaldoli; br. Nimal has visited the Campello hermitage; br. Vincenzo and br. Gioele were present at the solemn profession of br. Maurizio at the Benedictine monastery of Dumenza; sr. Natalia was at the Orthodox monastery of Solan (France); while br. Guido and sr. Maria expressed the participation of our community to the sisters of the Collepino hermitage on the occasion of the funeral of sr. Maria Teresa.