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Dear Lover of Life,

If you think that this is early you are right! We usually publish every second month, but the renowned Catholic scholar, Doctor Anna Silvas, of Armidale Cathedral Parish and University of New England, has given permission to publish her talk Christian Families and the Beginnings of Monasticism, which was first presented to the Catholic Dinner Club, Armidale, in June 2001. As I usually keep the newsletter to five A4 pages I felt that it was worth the effort to publish an Extra dedicated to the Family. (It is also extra in that it is longer than usual but I found it impossible to leave any more out of the second article, which deals with the role of parents in the education of their children for Chastity.) I have, with her permission, edited it for print media and adapted it in the Conclusion to make it more relevant for readers in the Lismore Diocese. Anna’s words are in regular type – mine are in bold type.

It is within the family that the growth in the faith takes place. There are great demands and difficulties in raising a holy Catholic family today – so we have to be single-minded, open-hearted, informed, courageous and full of hope. We need to be firmly grounded on the Rock and cling to Him as we are buffeted in stormy seas.

Families need encouragement and I hope that this paper will give hope and encouragement to struggling parents who take seriously their role of primary educators of their children. It is through the Grace of the Sacrament of Marriage that we are able to achieve all things necessary for a wholesome family life, and to arrive with our families intact at our Final Destination to receive a Heavenly reward.

CHRISTIAN FAMILIES AND THE BEGINNINGS OF MONASTICISM

Doctor Anna Silvas

Introduction

How many parents here have seen their children grow up and fade away from the Catholic faith and practice they had once hoped to pass on to them? You invested in a Catholic education perhaps, and as the years went it seemed to go for very little, as far as handing on the faith is concerned. Where are the young people? many ask. The impulse of our Christian faith just seems to be ebbing away from one generation to the next .

I have been studying a time and a place in the Church when the opposite was happening. The time is the fourth century, and the place is Asia Minor, or modern Turkey. Yet, make no mistake: all was not well with the Church. It was the time of the Arian crisis, and a very severe crisis it was. Yet the Christian impulse, passed on in devout families, gathered in strength from one generation to the next. So much so, that it could be said that the Christian family gave rise in that part of the world, to monasticism.

Some of you may not quite grasp what monasticism is, though it is of great importance in the Church’s tradition, both East and West. Monasticism comes from a Greek word monachos—in modern English we have mono—and it means basically ‘alone’, specifically ‘celibate’, or unmarried for God. Thus when the Eastern Churches speak of their monastic clergy, they mean their celibate clergy, from whom they choose bishops, as the Roman church also chooses its priests. To be a celibate priest is to be a monk. A monastery or monastic community is a local community of monks or nuns.

A remarkable family

Let me introduce to you what is probably the most remarkable single family in the whole of Christian history. Early in the 4th century this family featured Saint Macrina the Elder and her husband who suffered years of exile for the faith during the last savage persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. They had a son, Basil, who was a lawyer in the city of Neocaesarea. He married Emmelia whose grandfather had died in the persecutions as a martyr. Saints Basil the Elder and Emmelia had ten children, one of whom died in infancy. But what children they had! The first-born, Saint Macrina the Younger has been called the ‘Mother of Greek Monasticism’. Among the sons, three were bishops, two of them renowned Fathers of the Church: Saint Basil of ‘the Great’ called ‘the shining light of the whole world’ and Saint Gregory of Nyssa, ‘the founder of Mystical Theology’ in the Church. The youngest born was ‘the great Peter’, as his brother Gregory calls him. Another brother, Naucratius, had been the first of the sons to seek a life of holiness, but died in a tragic accident at the age of 26. You can begin to get the idea. From great-grandparents and grandparents who were prepared to die rather than deny their faith, Christianity was passed on in the children till it bore the fruits of highest holiness in the third or fourth generation. - - -

The family ascetic movement

St Basil became the great organiser of monastic life in Asia Minor. But the monastic life associated with his name was to no small extent an outcome of what can be called the ‘family ascetic movement’ of the fourth century. By this term is meant not so much individuals, typically women, living an ascetic life within their natural family, but the serious commitment of the entire family to pursuing a life of Christian faith and piety.

It began to happen when spouses—typically with the wife in the lead—took their conversion to Christianity and their Baptism as a serious commitment indeed. These devout married converts progressively exchanged the values of the pagan civic culture for more explicitly Christian virtues.

• They fostered the Scriptures and church traditions in their homes,

• practiced hospitality,

• personal frugality and

• Gospel charity, in which the idea is no longer philanthropy with a view to civic kudos, but the self-effacing succour of the poor in imitation of Christ. In such ways these families redefined themselves as Christian in relation to civil society. It is not surprising that in times of crisis, martyrs and confessors came from their ranks and in times of peace, virgins. These devout families were seed-beds of Christian radicalism. While they did not normally cross the line into an ostentatious break with society’s demands, yet when really put to the test they were willing to do so and they left to their posterity memories of actually having done so. It was their children or perhaps more pertinently, their grandchildren who tapped into this potential for Gospel radicalism as a life option, precisely in the mid- to late-4th century when many in the Church were becoming increasingly accommodated with the prevailing imperial and social mores.

One example of devout Christian spouses was Bishop Palladius’ married friends in Ancyra, Verus and Bosporia. Everything he tells of their way of life – the cessation of class distinctions in their household, their withdrawal to the country, and practical charity to the poor - is equally compatible with their adopting celibacy or not. Like Macrina the Elder and her husband, this couple show that the very way baptised Christian spouses remade their household along expressly Christian lines took on features that one might call ‘pre-monastic’. Between devout Christian households and dedicated ascetic communities, there was not such a sharp dividing line at all.

The next stage in the domestic ascetic movement was marked by the commitment to celibacy. It can be seen very clearly in the households of devout widows. In the late 340s and 350s there was Emmelia herself, who exemplifies the tradition of widow ascetic almost as a forerunner. The widow Magna of Ancyra, like Emmelia, reorganized her household as a devout Christian community. Down in Antioch the devout Anthousa, widowed at 20 years of age, refused to remarry, drawing the admiration of the pagan intellectual, Libanius. She had just one child - St John Chrysostom. In Constantinople towards century’s end, the immensely wealthy and very ascetic St Olympias, widowed at 22 years of age, resisted strong pressures for a second marriage. She became the patroness and friend of bishops such as Sts Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa and, specially, John Chrysostom. Many other devout widows and virgins flocked to her community. At Rome there was a whole class of noble widow ascetics, such as St Jerome’s friend St Marcella whose house on the Aventine became a centre for the Roman ascetic circle, such as St Paula and her two virgin daughters.

Another stage was reached when celibacy was adopted while both spouses were still living. Again, the social consequences were all the more apparent when they were of the aristocracy and presiding over the complex household typical of their class, comprising distinct quarters for men, women, children, servants, guests etc. In such a case the whole household gradually, almost organically took on the aspects of a celibate Christian community, a kind of ‘pre-monastery’.

In St Gregory Nazianzen’s wonderful funeral oration for his sister, Gorgonia, he tells us that once she had borne children and wished to consecrate herself wholly to God, she persuaded her husband to join her in a life of celibacy. Of particular interest is the fact that her husband was a priest. And we don’t even know his name. Following the classic family ascetic evolution their two surviving sons—they had had five children—became monks.

In Italy at the end of the fourth century was Sts Paulinus and Therasia of Nola. It was Therasia who persuaded her husband to embrace Baptism. They then lived in celibacy for years before he became a bishop. Their household at Nola was gradually transformed into a monastic-like establishment. Apronianus and Avita, also adopting celibacy after Baptism, joined their community.

The evolution of devout Christian household into monastic community is nowhere seen more clearly than at Annesi, St Basil’s family household. Thanks to Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of his sister Macrim, we can follow the Christian impulse as it ‘picks up swell’ from one generation to the next.

1. from St Macrina the Elder and her husband, the zealous converts and confessors early in the century

2. to the devout married urban household of Sts Basil senior and Emmelia in the 330s.

3. to the aristocratic country villa presided over by Emmelia the widow ascetic in the late 340s and early 350s, in which the young Macrina dedicates herself to virginity

4. to the abandonment class distinctions, the commitment to the common life, celibacy, and a common simple dress among the women in the mid 350s, all under the influence of Macrina

5. to the incorporation of a house for male celibates or monks at Peter’s profession in the early 360s

6. to a fully-fledged monastic community in the 360s and 370s, comprising men and women ascetics, children and guests presided over by Macrina with Peter as priest and head of the men’s section.

‘From her retreat in Pontus, ten days’ journey from Caesarea, Macrina presided over the disintegration of a civic dynasty’, says Peter Brown. That is one modern judgment—‘from below’ so to speak. From her own intensely spiritual perspective however, Macrina presided over the patient but thorough transposition of the natural order into an ‘angelic’ order, one whose citizenship was in heaven (Phil 3:20), as says St Paul.

St Basil’s insistence on the importance of community life for ascetics which he conceives of as a well-ordered multi-function body-corporate comprising men, women, children and guests who

• profess a kinship based on evangelical love,

• seek a common goal of Christian piety,

• practice voluntary poverty,

• give themselves to productive work ordered to service,

• carefully educate the young to piety and maintain it in adulthood by a system of mutual witness and correction,

• collaborate with the wider Church in communion with the bishop and use a certain ‘family language’ (brother, sister, father, mother, household, family, communion). All this shows that the roots of classic ‘Basilian’ monasticism are to be found in the devout Christian family household, embodied in an exemplary fashion at Annesi.

Conclusion

 Now we come to our own day. First of all, the Church in Australia today is, just as the Church was in St Basil’s day, in crisis on a range of fronts. The Statement of Conclusions two or three years ago made that quite clear. What has happened to us in the past couple of generations? Unlike St Basil’s day, it is not easy to see a vital increase of the Christian spirit being handed on in a core of devout families and so helping to save the Church in dire times, and this is somewhat disquieting. Where are the young ones? we asked at the beginning. Whole bus-loads of students pour into our Catholic colleges every day, but few of them ever come to Sunday Mass.

We could also ask: where are the religious? Our Diocese is now almost without the witness of visible religious communities. As to that particularly concentrated form of religious life that is monasticism, we are blessed by the presence of the Carmelites. What would Lismore be without them? I, for one, am so thankful to them and to God for their presence and prayer life, and for providing a quiet place of peace for prayer .

So times are serious for our Church. What is needed is the re-catechising of the local church, as is been done in Armidale at the initiative of Bishop Matthys. We really ought to join in prayer and work for the renewal of the faith in our diocese of Lismore.

Let me end on a note of hope. My friend, Simon, reported recently a wise quip from another Basil and lawyer in our midst. ‘I’ve read the book’, he said—meaning the Scriptures, ‘and guess what? We won! **********************************************************

Recently I was approached by a woman distressed at the recent sex education her child had received at a Catholic School. I suggested to her that she should take this complaint to the Principal, an idea she baulked at, commenting that “it is a Catholic school so it must be all right”.

The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality was issued on 21st Nov. 1995 by the Pontifical Council for the Family in response to repeated requests from parents concerned that their rights and responsibilities as first educators of their children were being usurped, and that their children were being damaged by school-based sex-education. We pray that these guidelines will be studied, and urgently and diligently applied by parents and other educators.

Excerpts from The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality.

41. It is extremely important for parents to be aware of their rights and duties, particularly in the face of a school that tends to take up the initiative in the area of sex education. The Holy Father, reaffirms this in <Familiaris Consortio>: "The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others".

42.. This holds especially with regard to sexuality: "Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centres chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church reaffirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education, by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents". No one is capable of giving moral education in this delicate area better than duly prepared parents.

46. The Church holds that it is her duty to give parents back confidence in their own capabilities and help them to carry out their task.

48. The family environment is thus the normal and usual place for forming children and young people to consolidate and exercise the virtues of charity, temperance, fortitude and chastity

64. Parents in particular have the duty to let their children know about the mysteries of human life, because the family "is, in fact, the best environment to accomplish the obligation of securing a gradual education in sexual life. The family has an affective dignity which is suited to making acceptable without trauma the most delicate realities and to integrating them harmoniously in a balanced and rich personality". The school's task is not to substitute for the family, rather it is "assisting and completing the work of parents.

65. Each child is a unique and unrepeatable person and must receive individualized formation. Since parents know, understand and love each of their children in their uniqueness, they are in the best position to decide what the appropriate time is for providing a variety of information, according to their children's physical and spiritual growth. No one can take this capacity for discernment away from conscientious parents.

66. Each child's process of maturation as a person is different. Therefore, the most intimate aspects, whether biological or emotional, should be communicated in a personalized dialogue.

68.. Parents should stress that Christians are called to live the gift of sexuality according to the plan of God who is Love, in the context of marriage or of consecrated virginity and celibacy. Only a person who knows how to be chaste will know how to love in marriage or in virginity.

74. Parents should provide information with great delicacy, but clearly and at the appropriate time. In order to evaluate properly what they should say to each child, it is very important that parents first of all seek light from the Lord in prayer and that they discuss this together so that their words will be neither too explicit nor too vague.

78. A child is in the stage described by John Paul II as "the years of innocence" from about 5 until puberty. This period of tranquility and serenity must never be disturbed by unnecessary information about sex. Boys and girls of this age are not particularly interested in sexual problems.

83. In some societies today, there are planned and determined attempts to impose premature sex information on children. But, at this stage, children are still not capable of fully understanding the value of the affective dimension of sexuality. They cannot understand and control sexual imagery within the proper context of moral principles and, for this reason, they cannot integrate premature sexual information with moral responsibility. Such information tends to shatter their emotional and educational development and to disturb the natural serenity of this period of life. Parents should politely but firmly exclude any attempts to violate children's innocence because such attempts compromise the spiritual, moral and emotional development of growing persons who have a right to their innocence.

88. In (puberty), educational needs also concern the genital aspects, hence requiring a presentation both on the level of values and the reality as a whole. Moreover, this implies an understanding of the context of procreation, marriage and the family, which must be kept present.

90. One should discuss the cycles of fertility and their meaning. But it is still not necessary to give detailed explanations about sexual union, unless this is explicitly requested.

101. Parents should help them to love the beauty and strength of chastity through prudent advice, highlighting the inestimable value of prayer and frequent fruitful recourse to the sacraments for a chaste life, especially personal confession.

113. Frequently parents are not lacking in awareness and effort, but they are quite alone, defenceless and often made to feel they are wrong.

117. It is recommended that parents attentively follow every form of sex education that is given to their children outside the home, removing their children whenever this education does not correspond to their own principles.

118. It is recommended that respect be given to the right of the child to be adequately informed by their own parents on moral and sexual questions and that respect be given to the right of the child to withdraw from any form of sexual instruction imparted outside the home.

119. Human sexuality is a sacred mystery and must be presented according to the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Church, always bearing in mind the effects of original sin. In an age when the mystery has been taken from human sexuality, parents must take care to avoid trivializing human sexuality, in their teaching and in the help offered by others

129. The normal and fundamental method is personal dialogue between parents and their children, that is, individual formation within the family circle. There is no substitute for a dialogue of trust and openness between parents and their children,

133. Catechesis on morality may be provided by other trustworthy persons, with particular emphasis on sexual ethics at puberty and adolescence. Such catechesis must not include the more intimate aspects of sexual information, whether biological or affective, which belong to individual formation within the family.

136. Parents must reject secularized and anti-natalist sex education, which puts God at the margin of life and regards the birth of a child as a threat. This sex education is spread by organizations that promote abortion, sterilization and contraception and try to arouse the fear of the "threat of over-population” among children to promote the contraceptive "anti-life" mentality. Furthermore, some anti-natalist organizations maintain clinics which, violating the rights of parents, provide abortion and contraception for young people, promote promiscuity and an increase in teenage pregnancies. An abuse occurs whenever sex education is given to children by teaching them all the intimate details of genital relationships, even in a graphic way.

141. Parents should also be attentive to ways in which sexual instruction can be inserted in the context of other subjects (e.g., health and hygiene, personal development, family life, children's literature, social and cultural studies). But catechesis would also be distorted if the inseparable links between religion and morality were to be used as a pretext for introducing into religious instruction the biological and affective sexual information which the parents should give according to their prudent decision in their own home.

143. Explicit and premature sex education can never be justified in the name of a prevailing secularized culture. On the contrary, parents must educate their own children to understand and face up to the forces of this culture, so that they may always follow the way of Christ. It is clear that the assistance must be given first and foremost to parents rather than to their children.

145. Those who are called to help parents in educating their children for love must be disposed and prepared to teach in conformity with the authentic moral doctrine of the Catholic Church.

147. The Pontifical Council for the Family is aware of the great need for valid material. Parents who are competent in this field and convinced of these principles should be involved in preparing this material. They will thus be able to offer their own experience and wisdom in order to help others educate their children for chastity.

150. The Pontifical Council for the Family therefore urges parents to have confidence in their rights and duties regarding the education of their children, so as to go forward with wisdom and knowledge, knowing that they are sustained by God's gift. In this noble task, may parents always place their trust in God through prayer to the Holy Spirit.

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Your prayers are asked for:

• That the Senate will vote against the killing of embryonic human babies to be used in medicine.

• The repose of the soul of Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart OCD who supported Apostles for Life in prayer. We owe a large debt of gratitude to Sister and those who miss her so much at the Goonellabah Carmel.

• The repose of the soul of John Salkeld, husband of Maureen, who is an inspiration to us by her kindness, encouragement and support.

• God’s Mercy for a soul who chose euthanasia, and for peace for his family. May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. May the Holy Family of Nazareth watch over each and every family and family member!

Angela