The Silent Witnesses A Spirituality of the Contemplative Life in Reference to the Cottolengo Monasteries
| dc.contributor.author | Mwalachl, Agatha | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-03-01T07:38:59Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-03-01T07:38:59Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2003 | |
| dc.description.abstract | "Tell us something about your life". This request that has been often addressed to me either by the small groups of Christians who visit our monastery or the young people attending the prayer meetings that I used to animate, prompted my choice to do this research so as to deepen my understanding of the spirituality of the contemplative life in the Catholic Church and in our monasteries. To explain what contemplative form of religious life is today, especially to a young searching soul, as is the case of the ladies contemplating to make a choice for our monastery, a theoretical basis that is compelling and energising presented coherently is of crucial importance. This essay attempts to answer four questions. First, what is contemplative life and which are its roots in the scriptures and in the history of religious life? Second, what is the Church's teaching on the contemplative life and which are the principal elements that distinguish it from other forms of religious life? Third, what is the mission of the contemplatives? And fourth, what are the challenges facing this form of religious life and what could be the most appropriate response of the contemplatives to these challenges? The essay has four chapters. Chapter one is an elucidation of the terms spirituality, Christian spirituality and contemplative life. We found it of crucial importance to understand well the meaning and use of these terms in order to grasp the message of the whole essay. Chapter two explores the biblical and historical basis of the contemplative life in the Catholic Church. Chapter three is a discussion on the contemplative life in the economy of salvation and chapter four focuses specifically on the Cottolengo monasteries. The Cottolengo monasteries discussed in the last chapter serve as a concrete example of the reality of the contemplative life in the Catholic Church; hence completing the picture of what this style of religious life is all about. The essay closes with a general conclusion, which is a summary of whatever is discussed in the four chapters. The essay draws ideas from the already existing rich literature on the spirituality of the contemplative life and history of religious life. It is also enriched by ideas from the critical reflections gleaned from my personal experience of more than a decade in the Cottolengo Monastery in Tuuru — Kenya, together with living testimonies of my fellow sisters through discussions and interviews reported in appendix I and VII. Due to space and time limits, the essay goes straight to the point. It does not dwell much on the details about the customs and practices in the contemplative life. We have focused on the above-mentioned key themes in order to make the reader get to know what contemplative life is in a brief but complete way. Even if I am a Cottolengo contemplative, I purposely chose to develop this topic in a broad way without confining my research on the Cottolengo monasteries alone for two reasons: one, because I strongly feel cum ecclesiae, that is, I am a Cottolengo contemplative operating in the large reality of the universal Church. Secondly, although the Cottolengo Monasteries do not belong to the ancient monastic Orders such as the Augustinians, Benedictines and others, they have all the essential characteristics of any authentic contemplative community and their vocation places them at the heart of the Church. Therefore, I too can confidently say with St. Therese of Lisieux: "in my mother, the Church, I shall be love." | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12342/1213 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Tangaza University College | en_US |
| dc.subject | Witnesses | en_US |
| dc.subject | Spirituality | en_US |
| dc.subject | Cottolengo Monasteries | en_US |
| dc.title | The Silent Witnesses A Spirituality of the Contemplative Life in Reference to the Cottolengo Monasteries | en_US |
| dc.type | Other | en_US |