Practicing the Rule

Sometimes the Rule can be ‘read’ in the lives of our brethren before even following the lines of the booklet which is presented at the time of first profession. Not only is it a rule to which we all refer in a spirit of cohesion and unity, but our Rule of Life passes from words into the shared principles of the common life.

When I started to get passionate about motorbike tourism, I was fascinated by taking a trip on two wheels along the tracks of the Sahara desert. Since that experience, I have not been able to turn away.

It is especially the challenging aspect that fascinated me in the desert: you cannot just get carried away by the romanticism, because this kind of travel requires meticulous preparation. The slightest mechanical or other glitch that can occur on a highway can become a big problem in the desert. I remember that everything from the motorcycle to clothing to food was prepared in the smallest detail. When setting out on a Sahara trek, there are two essential calculations to be made: the mileage of the trip, and therefore the fuel consumption, and the daily water reserve. The fatigue caused by these preparations is compensated by the sight of the landscape and above all by the sensation of being able to “float” on the sand with a means of mechanical transport, as if you were sailing in the open sea. The desert is indeed a great sea of sand, where you feel surrounded by silence and infinity.

This great adventure ended with my first trip to the Central African Republic, where I realized that there was also another type of “desert”. My religious vocation quickly grew out of this new voluntary experience, and on this path that I continue to follow, I discovered that there was also a spiritual desert. If, indeed, the geographical desert spoke to my heart, the spiritual desert is the central place of the struggle against all that obstructs our relationship with God, with ourselves, and with others. Where I live my mission, it is clear that the adversity, fatigue and preoccupations that hinder my search for intimacy with God are on the menu every day. In this sense the desert is devoid of any romantic meaning and adventure, rather it becomes the image of the interior space that every man finds in himself when he travels into his heart and discovers hidden depths, unknown places where he can acquire a new self-awareness and relationships that are vital to him.

But first, I believe, it is necessary to specify what the real experience of the spiritual is before then explaining what the spiritual desert is.

For this I will rely on a paper by the theologian Karl Rahner who, in a very concrete way, draws examples from our everyday life: “Have we ever decided to remain calm, for example, after being treated unfairly? Have we ever forgiven someone without that someone thanking us because they considered the forgiveness a right? Have we ever obeyed, not because we were obliged to do it, or because things would otherwise have taken a wrong turn for us, but simply by through the power of this mysterious, silent, incomprehensible being we call God and for His will? Have we ever tried to love God, even when we felt no great enthusiasm, and when He seemed absent and far from us, even as though we were speaking to someone obstinately deaf? Have we ever done a job that required the courage to forget and ignore ourselves? Have we ever been good and kind to someone who, for their part, has shown and still shows us not the slightest sign of gratitude and understanding? “”Every day I seek these experiences in the depths of my heart; when I find them, I can tell myself that I have had a spiritual experience, that I have received the action of the Spirit of God that works in me. I can say that I have experienced God. But if I find nothing in this, I have lived the spiritual desert. It is a struggle that does not end at any moment; grace does not come at once and does not dwell in the soul. There is rather a time for consolation and a time for temptation, a struggle that lasts a lifetime”.

Angelo Sala scj

Article 86 - Silence, respect for the mystery of God within ourselves and each other, promotes attentiveness to God, as well as the work of honest dialogue with one another. It will be a ministry of charity.