Apostolate January 24
In choosing his (Augustine’s) rule, the first brethren of the Cross also joined life in community to an apostolic life of prayer and work (Const. 20.3).
Their unhappiness was no secret. No, the others guessed their discomfort with every intonation of “O God, come to my assistance.” A bit rebellious, they often found themselves together to express their anxiety and to share their inspirations. They lived in a disorder incompatible with the Gospel. Their witness to the Crucified was no longer credible. They hungered for more fraternal collaboration. The formal recitation of the Psalms together was not very satisfying. Their prayer had lost its vital relationship with those living around the cathedral. No, at the date agreed upon, they would leave their choir stalls in the cathedral and never return again. It was better to leave for a calmer place in order to give themselves to truer evangelical living. Thus it was that Theodore de Celles, founder of the Crosiers, and his companions began the reform of their canonical life under the Rule of St. Augustine. It was their hope that the anxiety and inspiration, the hunger and determination for a more balanced Gospel life, would characterize the Brethren of the Holy Cross down through the ages.
It’s the elephant’s muscles that get him out of the swamp where he is stuck. (Shi)
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