Many of my friends will know this as the motto of the University of the South - Sewanee. Others may know it as the first line of Psalm 133. The Latin translates to "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live in unity."
In 2009, I was beginning my final year of my undergrad program at Lee University. After years of contemplation I finally decided to rush Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. For most of my college career I told myself that there was no point in joining a fraternity, that it was just paying for friends. Boy was I ever wrong. My last full semester has become the best of my time in college. I have truly gained BROTHERS; an actual extended family. These men who would have been just friends have become so much more. I love all of them, and I have found that this extends just like a real family.
In the four years since graduating from college I have spent most of that time away from my blood family. My family has done something that every family does in that time, it has grown. New babies have been born almost every one of those years, and although I have not spent much time with them or really know them, I love them so much and would do anything to protect them. They are still my family. The same applies to my brothers. Some men had come a gone from our chapter before I arrived and multiple men have come and gone since I left. They are all my brothers and I love them as I love all those new members of my family. I have also discovered that this extends beyond the Pi Xi Chapter. After moving to Indiana I have met Brothers in the some of the most interesting of places. One while in passing at a performance the the Blue Devils DCI, while another Brother noticed me wearing my letters in the parking lot at the grocery store. One I met through a Facebook group for young people who love Liturgy and another who has become a Benedictine Brother at a monastery. Wherever or whoever they may be now, I love them all the same, because we are all Brothers.
I have found the same to be true in the church. I have spent my entire life in the church but this feeling was on a purely local level until my time in college. During my Sophomore year of college I began attending the local Episcopal Church. This was a huge step for me, having been raised in the Pentecostal tradition, worshiping through liturgy was like a whole other world. As I grew in my faith and became more active in the local, national and global church I noticed a beautiful connection. The first thing I noticed was the connectivity of the word. The Episcopal Church, as most liturgical denominations, follow a cycle of readings. Over the course of three years, if you attend church every Sunday, you will have heard most of the Bible. Plus, that cycle is a connecting tie between all the other parishes around the world. My college roommate was living and teaching in South Dakota, while I was in Knoxville, Tennessee doing the same. We could talk to each other on Sunday afternoon and discuss the days scriptures and sermons. We had heard the same scriptures read even though we were separated by over 1,000 miles. Though each parish may do things slightly different their is a beautiful universality about the liturgy. I can feel just as comfortable worshiping in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. as I do participating in the Eucharist at Saint Phillip's in Circleville, Ohio. Whenever I drive into a town and see a sign reading "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You," or see the Episcopal shield or flag on a building or car, I feel an immediate connection. It is the same connection I feel whenever I see the letters ΦΜΑ. For the first time in my life I have begun to feel this family connection with the entire Christian community and the world in general. I have always been empathetic but in recent days this has taken on a whole new meaning.
During the summer of 2011, I spent two weeks with the Brothers of Saint Gregory's Abby in Three Rivers, Michigan. You can check them out at www.saintgregorysthreerivers.org. During that time I fell in love with the Daily Office. After spending four weeks with them over two summers in their Summer Vocationers program, I have chosen to make the Daily Office part of my everyday life. Even though I do it alone, I know that there are people joining me in prayer at all hours of the day all around the globe. There are multiple moments in the Office for Morning Prayer that recall the whole human family and connect us all to each other.
I find this in the Prayer of St. Chrysostom:
Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen
We are all in this together, we are family. HABITARE FRATRES IN UNUM; That brothers live together in unity. This is not necessarily HABITARE FRATRES IN PACEM, not in peace, but in unity. We are one family, with family problems. We do not all get along at all times but the world would truly be a better place if we remember that we are all family and think of each other in that way. It is much more difficult to feel hate toward family. Love is difficult but that is what makes it love. That is how we live together in unity.
Most Holy Lord, Jesus Christ; bless us with the knowledge and forbearance to live as one as you and the Father are one. To show forth such love that we see all of humanity with the eyes of love, the eyes through which you see us. Grant us a sincere awareness to know the needs of our brothers, that we may offer a hand, or give a meal, or even something as simple as a thought and a prayer. help us to remember that we are all brothers in Christ and therefore equal in the eyes of the our Father. AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment