Homily Given by Rev. Prior Joel Garner, O. Praem. at the First Vespers of the Solemnity of St. Augustine.

At this prayerful occasion our community vested our newest member, James Owens, O. Praem. in the Norbertine Habit. James is joining his classmates from St. Norbert Abbey at our house of studies in Chicago for his first year of formation.

This First Vespers of the Feast of our Father Augustine begins a day-long celebration of the life and gifts of this extraordinary Christian.  He was simply a brilliant man, and his autobiography details, like no other, the conversion his life underwent on multiple levels.  As you know, Augustine wrote a rule of life, and it has become the Rule of the Norbertine Order since our founding in the early 12th century.  It is this Rule which we ritually present to James Owens as one of the symbols of his initiation into our way life. 

To be honest, the Rule did not mean much to me after I entered the Order over 50 years ago.  We were never led to study it.  I don’t even remember a conference on it during my years of formation.  I do remember that it was read weekly at table in Latin, with varying degrees of skill. 

But in recent decades that has changed.  Some important studies on the Rule have been translated and the wisdom of the Rule has become more accessible through some excellent commentaries.

A few years ago some of us were privileged to make retreat at St. Norbert Abbey under Brother Frank Kazenbroot from Berne Abbey in Holland, our mother abbey.  He was able to communicate the insights on a 4th-century Rule of life into 21st-century language.  The translation of his book, entitled “It’s Like a Mirror: Reflections on the Rule of Augustine,” is now available to all who are drawn to the spirituality it embodies.  I know that the oblates have worked their way through it with Geno.  And the associates have now all asked for a copy.

For me one of the most enriching aspects of Bro. Frank’s reflections on the Rule is his attaching a summary word to each of the Rule’s eight chapters.  These words are: Sharing, Praying, Living Frugally, Making Choices, Giving Yourself, Forgiving, Listening, and Contemplation.  His reflection on each chapter of the Rule unpacks these words.  And those words have become mantras for me as I assess the quality of my own spiritual life.

Much of Augustine’s vision and energy were derived from the community in which he lived.  He sought to live the gospel life daily, and it was out of his community life that he was empowered to live the gospel.  He lived a simple life in community, for which and out of which he wrote his famous Rule.  He wrote it about the year 397, some ten years after his baptism, with fully a decade of community life behind him.  Shortly before he became a bishop, he began to insist that most of his clergy should live with him and share in that community life. 

It is interesting to note that the word rule or regula in Latin doesn’t appear in the original document.  It was added later.  So our “Rule” is not about rules and regulations, what is allowed and what is forbidden, what we should or should not do.  Augustine simply wanted to put his ideal of religious community into words.  He wanted to share his insight with his companions who were seeking a way to God in the heat of the day.  The Rule of Augustine is primarily a guideline, an orientation point, or as Augustine himself writes in the final chapter: It is “like a mirror.”

Looking into a mirror brings you into the present moment.  You no longer see the child you used to be, nor the person you will look like some years from now.  You only see how you are at the present moment.  In his Rule Augustine invites us to look at ourselves honestly and compassionately.  Perhaps there is no better day than Augustine’s feast itself to remind ourselves
that we are regularly called to look within, to look at our spiritual mirror – the mirror Augustine provides.  Self-reflection leads to critical evaluation and hopefully to any necessary action.  It is that kind of spiritual examination that will contribute to the first purpose for which we have come together, namely, as the Rule reminds us “to be of one heart and one mind on the way to God.”

Jim, our prayer is that Augustine’s Rule, which you will be introduced to in the novitiate, will aid you to your journey into God as a Norbertine.