Author: Paul Zalonski

Today we –two of Connecticut’s Schools of Community– tried something different: we had an Advent Day of Recollection in Connecticut!

The Nutmeg State has two Schools of Community that until recently had not too much to do with one another for no other reason that we just didn’t do much with each other. There are other excuses of distance, flavor, time, place, etc. However, what is not disputable has been the desire of several of us find a way for us to share in friendship, prayer, and a quest for unity in Christ!

A few people feeling convinced by the Holy Spirit to propose a Fraternal Day (which we had on October 30th) and the Advent Day of Recollection. It is fair to say that we attribute our desires for true communio to the Holy Spirit. Two moments of grace in 2022 have opened to us a vision of living the charism of Communion and Liberation more intently and with a deeper of purpose together.  Nineteen people from the New Haven, Newtown and NY communities gathered for the Advent lesson, Holy Mass, the sacrament of Confession, lovely conversation and good food.

Lots of beautiful things happen through a convivium on several levels! As a gastropod I experience the convivial through good nutritious food because it is an experience of truth, beauty, goodness AND love; it is supreme only after being nourished by the Holy Eucharist. The emphasis may be on virtue of love. I recall that St Augustine taught a two table theology: the Holy Table and the dinner table –we are first “gathered at the banquet of the saints, … [and] we shall partake of the table of God’s mysteries” and “eat as is fitting.” Augustine also reminds us that we can eat well but digest poorly if we hear God’s word without putting it into practice (a paraphrase). Hence, I perceive the act of convivium as a real Catholic virtue! It is full of love and it is sacrificial.

And virtue needs to be extroverted: our friends in two different schools of community and a few others, lived this conviviality with a desire born out of the Eucharist.

Father Luis Hernandez, a priest of the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo working in the Boston area made the trip to be with us. He spoke with us, journeyed with us, laughed with us, loved us in a beautiful way. He reflected back to us that “It was also good for me to live the retreat of the Fraternity in a new and special way. It’s great to see how the Movement is different in its external aspects, but the same in its essence.”

The gift of place was made possible by my experience and relationship with the Promisek community in Bridgewater, CT. Promisek is a large piece of property in Litchfield County, Connecticut, held in stewardship as place of retreat, conversation, culture, and learning. People of diverse experience and history relate to the land of Promisek because it is a healing place, a place of deep personal and communal education, and a place of conversion rooted in the spirituality of the Rule of St. Benedict. A fitting connection of CL with Promisek exists because each are deeply informed and formed by the experience of Benedictine community: prayer, work, reading (study) and service. I always recognize that CL is truly a profound reality — an experience– of being sons and daughters of St. Benedict of Nursia. We may not say it that way on a corporate level, but we are this type of community. We are not monks or nuns or sisters, but we all relate to the charism of Luigi Giussani that depends on the recognition of the Lord’s Presence (the Incarnation) and the truth, beauty and goodness of creation.

More at another time on the content of the lesson.