Memores Domini

For about a dozen years, I have been pondering, with intuitive awe but cognitive dissonance, the vocation of my daughter, Margaret Rose, in the Memores Domini. This vocation to live "the memory of the Lord" is fascinating, but does not fit our received Catholic categories. It is a life of the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity and obedience) as a lay person in the world. I explain it incoherently to others: "She is like a nun, but not a nun." Or more accurately for the informed: "It is close to a secular institute, but not exactly."  They accentuate their lay or secular character by avoiding religious terminology like "vow" and "consecration" and yet their lives are given over totally to Christ in the literal practice of these three evangelical counsels, within community, yet much in the world.

Giussani and St. Benedict: the Incarnation

In the current Communio ("Memores Domini: Living the Lord's Memory in a Post-Christian World," Summer 2023), Father Antonio Lopez, a Communion and Liberation priest-theologian deeply involved with this community, has shed a great deal of light. Within a deeper meditation on "memory of the Lord," Father Antonio describes the life as distinct from, but enriching of the married, clerical and religious lives. The life is a total, nuptial, virginal surrender to Christ the Bridegroom in the profession of poverty, chastity and obedience. It is entirely lay as non-clerical, removed from the sacrament of Holy Orders. It is Not in any way an official representation of the Church. It is also lay as distinct from the traditional religious life, understood as removal from the world into an alternative monastic, itinerant or even active religious life. 

This life is a specific expression of the broader charism received by Monsignor Luigi Giussani and carried by the Communion and Liberation movement. Lopez helpfully compares Giussani with St. Benedict and the monastic vocation. Stress is placed on the primacy of the Incarnation. The entrance of the Logos into the world has, in fact, consecrated all of life to God. The presence of God, after the coming of Christ, permeates the entirety of life. And so we find in Giussani a pronounced positivity. This positivity flows, of course, from the original goodness of Creation; from the Incarnation; from the redemption by Jesus on the cross, the resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. This positivity flows from engagement with Christ within the Church, the historical, flawed, hierarchical, magisterial, sacramental Church. But the world, even as separated from God by sin, is itself a desperate hunger for God. And so, the Christian, overflowing with the graces of baptism/confirmation, nourished by the Eucharist and the Word and the community, moves in the world with sublime confidence, joy and vigor. A distinctive theme in Giussani is the primal goodness of desire, even when disordered, as a longing for God.

The obvious difference between Benedict's monk and Giussani's memores is, of course,  that the former moves away from the world into the monastery; the latter moves into the world, confident that the world, even as sinful, is thirsting for this Word of Life. It is a retrieval, in a sense, of the primal evangelical energies of the original, persecuted Church that did not yet know the "states of life" (clerical, religious) that Catholic history was to delineate.

Engagement with, Detachment from "the World": Secular Institute?

We can trace a pattern in the history of Catholic spirituality. The desert fathers/mothers fled a post-Constantine society viewed as sinful to build an alternative. In the middle ages, the mendicants maintained a distinct "consecrated" life as they penetrated directly, evangelically, into the world. This tendency was carried along into the modern era with the vigorous active orders which entailed consecration (as separation from the world in community, dress, vows, etc.) but vigorous service within society as in missions, education, and acts of mercy. 

The Secular Institute, recognized by the Church after WWII, presents a new form: "consecration, secularity and mission." They are consecrated to Christ, by the vows, in a life of secularity, in the world, bringing the light of the  Gospel to every aspect of society, without the traditional trappings of the religious life. 

The Memores Domini, as I understand it, is really a form of the Secular Institute but distinct in that there is no public vow, received canonically by the bishop. Rather, Lopez explains, it is a private association, approved and guided by the hierarchy, but not officially associated and representative of it. We might see this "private" rather than "public" profession as an accentuation of the lay or secular quality of the community. They are a secular institute but more secular.  There is a distance from the canonical, hierarchical Church. This can be a loss, but also a gain. Distance suggests a lack of closeness or intimacy with the bishop and hierarchy. But also a freedom of movement as there is no public identification with the hierarchy. 

Holiness of Secular Work

Similar to the secular institute, there is a pronounced sense of the sacredness of lay work. As they make their evangelical "profession," so most are strongly dedicated to a career "profession" as an arena of service which often entails education, certification and lifelong dedication. It is understood, Fr. Lopez explains, as a now-redeemed participation in God's creation: in stewardship of the earth and Adam's primal "naming" of the creatures as an evocation of their inherent goodness. In this they resemble Opus Dei. In this they contrast with the Neocatechumenal Way which accentuates strong community and family life with an apparent diminishment of the relative value of career and service in the public arena. 

Giussani and Kiko (founder of the Neocatechumenal Way) also strongly differ in their view of the world: Giussani's Italian, Renaissance-like confidence and positivity contrasts sharply with Kiko's apocalyptic, dystopian view of Western society and even (implicitly) of the institutional Church. Kiko's is a sharper sense of sin: if Giussani lives in Christmas, with an eye towards the Paschal Mystery, Kiko lives in Holy Week, remembering the Nativity. At its worst, CL fails to make clear, decisive judgments against a world turned away from God and so abstains from the Culture War; at its worst, "the Way" is suspicious, defensive, and in flight from a threatening world. As extremes, they represent the perennial tension within the broader, always inclusive Catholicism as engaged in a world created good, redeemed, and remaining largely in bondage to sin and the demonic.

Vows? Promises? Profession?

Their "profession" of virginity (along with poverty and obedience) is a total gift and therefore subjectively or interiorly a "vow" in the classic sense. But exteriorly, it is not canonically accepted. Therefore, should the memores have a radical change of mind, there is no impediment to marriage. The transition back into normal lay life of marriage, freedom and ownership is not hindered by any ecclesial barrier. 

It would seem, likewise, that the memores is free to initiate (business, organization, association) and advocate (policy, politics) as there is distance from the official Church. This calls to mind the voluntary laicization of Monsignor Ivan Illich in the late 1960s. An influential, controversial clergyman, he voluntarily relinquished his clerical prerogatives for the freedom to advocate controversial social policy. He remained faithful to his vows of celibacy and the daily prayer of the Church. He returned to the lay state in terms of his activism, but remained interiorly consecrated to virginity and daily prayer. His state was similar to that of the memores, although he retained, of course, the indelible character of ordination.

Privacy of Profession 

The evangelical promises or profession,  are interiorly intended as final, total and binding, but are not so externally or canonically.  They are made in private, with the association; even immediate  family do not participate. This was, for my wife and I, a strange thing when we accompanied Margaret to northern Italy for this life-defining event. In our experience, marriage, ordination and solemn vows are all occasions for family participation, not exclusion. We did not, and do not, entirely understand the purpose of the privacy. We peacefully accepted it, of course, and immensely enjoyed the entire trip, including visits to families of the movement, as an extended celebration of her profession. 

In considering this privacy or distance, I do see some meaning. There is an inviolable privacy to every person's vocation in Christ. For example, the marriage is public, before the assembly, but the consummation is, obviously, private and secretive. It is holy, like the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem temple which only the High Priest could enter. But even in marriage each spouse retains an interior solitude or privacy which is accessed only by Christ himself. So our distance from Margaret in her profession was itself symbolic of an interior movement of her...away from embedment within our family, into a new family or community,  to her mission within the Church and the world, and into intimacy with Christ. It is analogous, then, to the departure of the child to the spouse and into a new family; or of the priest/religious who leaves the family for a new life and community. And so, Margaret Rose has been very close to us with regular phone calls and periodic visits and maintains a steadfast sense that she is our same daughter; and yet there is a mysterious, indescribable detachment as she has gone away, almost like the Irish monk who embraces a "white" and probably "red" martyrdom by departing Ireland for pagan Germany in the 6th century or the Maryknoll missioner who in 1930 goes to China, possibly never to come home.

A Durable, Perennial Form?

Margaret is thriving, joyous and vigorous in her life form. Her own personality and temperament are remarkably consonant with the positivity of Giussani, CL and Memores Domini. I have no doubt that she will live out her live quite gloriously in this vocation. This brings me great joy. And yet, I wonder, beyond her life: is this a durable form within the Church? Is it a perennial, like the monastic or mendicant or active religious orders? Or is it an annual, which blooms beautifully for this season, but then fades with the passing of time? Only time will tell of course. There remains an obscurity about the life.

There is a superficial resemblance to what we might call the "modern nun." Many religious sisters, after the Council, abandoned the apparatus of the religious life (habits, convents, etc.) and adopted a lay style, even as they retained their evangelical vows, prayer life, communion with others, and service to the poor. I have known so many. They live admirable lives. But the form is not durable. There are no new vocations to this religious form which is clearly not a perennial. It does not procreate itself. 

The essay from Fr. Lopez is a major contribution toward a clarity of definition of this vocation. It flows from a spirituality of the Incarnation which rivals in positivity those of Benedict, Francis, Dominic and others. It is a total self-giving in nuptial intimacy with the Bridegroom (poverty, chastity, obedience) as it is starkly secular or lay in its immersion in the world and work in immense confidence and positivity. Perhaps it will take up what is best in the life form of the "modern nun" and crystalize it into a hard, distinctive, durable form of Catholic life.

I am left, after reading this essay, with a more lucid understanding of this vocation as evangelical, virginal and lay. Evangelical in the sense, primarily, that it flows from intimacy with the person of Jesus and secondarily that it is an urgency to share this love with others. It is virginal as a total gift of self, to the Bridegroom, surrendering marriage-freedom-ownership, in total, mystical, mutual- possessiveness of the Beloved and unrestrained service to the Church and world, within a community of the same. It is lay as immersed in a graced but flawed world, and in communion with but clearly detached from the hierarchy and traditional religious life.

They benefit from an evangelical "rule of life." This has been lacking in the style of the "modern nun" who abandoned traditional convent protocols but was left without a hard form, aside from the subjective but fragile intentions for prayer, community and service. Such were vulnerable to fashionable, progressive ideologies including  feminism and leftwing social activism. Their rule includes community prayer, silence, the sacramental life of the laity, regular direction and instruction from leadership.

 Context Within the Broader Communion and Liberation Movement

Memores Domini is intelligible only within the broader organism, Communion and Liberation. Birthed in the 1960s, out of a charism granted to Monsignor Giussani, it was in part a response to the secular liberation movements of the time. Deliberately, it self-identifies as a "movement" unlike other ecclesial associations. That era, and the entire post-war period, the lifetime of our boomer generation, has seen a parade of movements come and go: worker priests, Cana, civil rights, peace movement, hippies, farm workers, ecumenism, liberation theology, feminism, gay liberation, moral majority, and so many more. Most of these left deep influences on the society and Church but not an enduring form. 

And so, the obvious question: Is CL (and Memories Domini) a passing movement or a durable form, an annual or a perennial in the life of the Church?

The perplexity is that, for better or for worse, it is a soft, not a hard form. It is similar to the charismatic renewal or the peace movement rather than Opus Dei, Regnum Christi or the Neocatechumenate. Participants gather fluidly, enthusiastically in "schools of community" around the writings of Giussani and the NY Encounter, an annual, eclectic gathering that fairly explodes with youthful, contagious positivity. But organic life requires as well a skeletal, muscular stability as well as fluidity and flexibility. 

The lucid, profound theological presentation by Fr. Lopez is a marvelous step towards clarity and permanence. It remains to be seen if the movement and the particular association will develop practical forms to preserve, protect and advance this splendid charism.