www.vocation.com - I'm a bit disturbed by the laxity of some parts of the

	Rob asks: I returned recently from a short stay with a contemplative religious order. I seek your advice on how much attention I should pay to things like the members of the order not wearing their habits all the time at the monastery (and never wearing any clerical dress in public); slight aberrations in the liturgy (joint offering of gifts: "The Lord is [not be] with you", etc.); and members of the community not always attending communal prayer and not always wearing their habits when they do. The vocations director there told me not to pay too much attention to the little things, as it is Christ I should be focused on, not the other members of the community. He says no religious order is perfect and that there will always be aberrations when people are living together. He said I will know if I'm meant to join them quite apart from these little external things it will be a mysterious inner conviction. Part of me understands and agrees with this, but I'm a bit disturbed by the laxity of some parts of the community. Any advice? Thanks and God bless, - Rob
	Dear Rob, What the vocations director said is true; you should be focused on Christ. However, in a community each member should additionally be a help to the others to focus on Christ, making the whole community as such focused on him. A religious community is not a collection of individuals who just happen to live or function in the same place; it is more like a family and has its family spirit. The superiors, for their part, have the obligation towards each and every member, of guiding that family so it lives its particular charism faithfully and provides each member with all he needs in order to live and grow in that charism, in the spirit of its founder. To know if a religious community is good, you don't compare it with other religious communities; you compare it with the idea and inspiration its own founder had and which was approved by the Church. So if the things that disturb you are deviations from what the founder intended for that particular order, or if they show a lack of concern for the unity of the Church, it should give you pause. God bless, - Fr. Anthony


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