Community life
In the first week of January we had the joy to welcome again among us, with gratefulness for his friendship and communion with our community, archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, who came to Bose for his spiritual retreat. On the eve of his announcement that he was resigning as primate of the Anglican communion, the archbishop wanted to share with us, in a moment of fraternal collation, his vision of church
This year 2012 again opened with the usual period, from 2 January to 20 February, during which the community suspends its ordinary hospitality. It was a time what permitted us to cultivate more the dimension of fraternal life and of community discussions, especially through our annual chapter, which took place on 3–5 February. This year’s chapter focused our attention on three dimensions that are fundamental to our monastic life: the human, Christian, and monastic formation of those who have recently come to us; the permanent formation of the professed; and hospitality. Taking advantage of the presence of our brothers from Ostuni and Assisi, we also evaluated and discussed the prospects of life in the fraternities.
During this period of community retreat, in the first week of January we had the joy to welcome again among us, with gratefulness for his friendship and communion with our community, archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, who came to Bose for his spiritual retreat. On the eve of his announcement that he was resigning as primate of the Anglican communion, the archbishop wanted to share with us, in a moment of fraternal collation, his vision of church, as it has matured in these years of his service of communion among the various Anglican Churches, through four eloquent images: a Church that creates spaces to discuss the great social, cultural, and moral questions that are current in contemporary society; a Church that renews itself, becoming more alive and more loving at the very time it is put to the test and despoiled; a Church as a community that remembers; a Church that, although always tempted to respond to the challenge of diversity by becoming competitive and exclusive, seeks to build communion while respecting diversity.
In the last few months several young persons have started out on the way of postulancy and novitiate. On the eve of the Sunday in Albis with joy and thanksgiving to the Lord the community lived the monastic reception of br Giandomenico, who, having finished his novitiate, pronounced his promise of celibacy and common life in the form of monastic life as it is set out in our Rule of Bose.
Finally, we are grateful to the Lord for having been able to join with joy two friends who celebrated their eighty years with us in Bose: fr Robert Taft, American Jesuit, who for many years taught at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, to whom we are grateful for his contribution in the field of Eastern liturgies, which has enriched also our community liturgical research; and don Bruno Maggioni, priest of the Como diocese, who has noursihed and continues to nourish our community by his contribution to Biblical exegesis, which always makes the Gospel emerge and vibrate on every page of Scripture.