The Joy of Benedictine Life
In religious orders, jubilees are great occasions. Br EMMANUEL?SUNTHENI?OSB describes the big celebration of jubilees of six Benedictines at Inkamana abbey.
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The “Zululand Boys”: (from left) Benedictine Brothers Mark Govender, Benedict Ntshangase and Clement Sithole. (Photo: Br Bernard OSB)
here was great joy at the Benedictine Inkamana Abbey in Vryheid, northern KwaZulu-Natal, when six confreres celebrated their golden and silver jubilees.
Brs Benedict Ntshangase and Clement Sithole celebrated 50 years in monastic vows, Frs Pius Paul and Leo Eireiner 50 years in priesthood, Br Ansfried reached 55 years of missionary assignment in Zululand and also cerebrated his 60 years of monastic vows last year, and Br Mark Govender celebrated his silver jubilee in monastic vows.
In the tradition of the missionary Benedictines of St Ottilien, jubilarians are remembered on the day the order’s founder, St Benedict of Nursia, died.
The climax of the day was the Pontifical Mass celebrated by Bishop Thaddeus Kumalo of Eshowe, the diocese in which Inkamana is located. The Mass was concelebrated by the abbey’s prior, Fr John Paul Mwaniki, cellerar Fr Boniface Kamushishi, Abbot emeritus Godfrey Sieber, Fr Jeffrey Steele, the prior of St Benedict Abbey in Polokwane, Fr Edgar Friedmann, the former conventual prior of Digos in Philippines, all ordained monks of Inkamana, and priests of Eshowe and Dundee dioceses.
It was exactly at 11:11 am, when the “Zululand Boys”, as the jubilarians were dubbed, renewed their commitment to monastic life which they promised 50 years ago to God in the hands of Archabbot Suso of St Ottilien abbey in Germany.
They sung the solemn Benedictine prayer, the “Suscipe Me Domine”, which every monk of the order pronounces when making his first monastic vows. There is no Benedictine vow without the “Suspe Me Domine”.
The Benedictine Fathers and Brothers at Inkamana abbey, KwaZulu-Natal.
St Benedict stated in his Rule for monks that after novitiate, the novice places himself before God and sings: “Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum, et vivam, et non confundas me ab expectatione mea. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen” (Receive me, Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live, do not disappoint me in my hope).
The Sacred Heart abbey church, beautifully decorated by Inkamana High School learners, was packed to the brim. Outside the church a tent was put up to accommodate and cater for relatives who came to witnesses this greatest occasion of their sons of the soil but couldn’t find space in the church or refectory.
In his sermon, Fr Mwaniki, the prior, acknowledged one of the greatest of the Benedictine ethos: Humility.
He reminded Brs Benedict, Clement and Mark: “You began a journey with a simple and humble ‘yes’, beginning a journey which the Lord drew each one of you into a deeper relationship with himself, so that his word was deeply understood and cherished: ‘I have called you by name; you are mine.’”
He encouraged the jubilarians to be an example to the young monks and to continue responding positively to their commitment to monastic life in prayer and work.
He pointed out that “our South African bishops affirm with gratitude all that Pope Francis says in his apostolic letter to all consecrated people”, issued last November.
“The bishops highlighted one of the pope’s appeals to consecrated men and women, and indeed, the whole Church, [when] they stated: ‘We have to ask ourselves, Is Jesus really our first and only love, as we promised he would be when we professed our vows?’ Only if he is our first and only love will we be empowered to love, in truth and mercy, every person who crosses our paths,” Fr Mwaniki said.
He asked the monks and the faithful to “embrace the future with hope”. This echoed Pope Francis’ counsel to those in the consecrated life: “Embrace the future with hope, look to the past with gratitude and the present with passion, joy.”
He told the congregation that for the past 25 years Inkamana have had young people coming and no year has passed without new novices, a sign of hope for the abbey’s future.
Fr Mwaniki told the congregation that the “Inkamana abbey community embraces and witnesses internationality and multi-cultural living which counteracts the tendency of extreme nationalism”.
There are eight nationalities at Inkamana, all of whom encourage and respect one another.
“We acknowledge each other as a gift not as a threat or a burden to one another,” the prior said. “We are for Christ and we live for Christ.”
The salt of the day was the words of encouragement and love from Bishop Kumalo who thanked the first missionary Benedictines who responded to the call to establish a local Church in Zululand and in some other parts of Natal.
He commended the priests and brothers who worked tirelessly in developing and building up Catholic churches within his diocese.
Bishop Kumalo also thanked and encouraged the “Zulu Boys” who responded positively to the call of serving God as monks, in particular Brs Benedict and Clement.
It wasn’t an easy for the first African missionary Benedictine monk to join the monastery.
Ask Br Benedict about how it was when he first joined, and what was his secret to reach 50 years in monastic vows, he often says: “You see, these boys wanted to chase me away, but prayer kept me here.
“I am still here not through my own efforts but because of God.”
These are words of encouragement to the junior and young monks who must put their trust in God because no way is easy, and we all need to pass through the narrow gate.
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