Monastic life : broadening horizons...

Vatican Radio / http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=445761

Fr. William Skudlarek, OSB, has been the Secretary General of DIMMID since November 1, 2008. Prior to that he served as chair of the MID board from 2000 to 2005, and as Executive Director of MID until his appointment as Secretary General. He is a monk of St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, but resides at Sant'Anselmo in Rome.

This story is about monastic life gleaned from a Benedictine monk with strong spiritual curiosity.

One that has drawn him to seek other monks with totally different beliefs : primarily Buddhists, also Hindus and to a certain extent Jains. Monks then from right across the world , who at a glance recognize in each other that same option for the monastic life, opening wide to each other the doors of their monasteries or ashrams. Unveiling in this way hitherto unknown spiritual realms of learning . Offering hospitality to each other in a world where so often religion is used to justify violence.

The monk in question is the Secretary General for monastic inter-religious dialogue for the Benedictine Confederation who also works with Cistericans and Trappists. He’s Father William Skudlarek who tells Veronica Scarisbrick how monastic inter- religious dialogue began as a way of bringing together Catholic or Christian monks and nuns with religions that also have a monastic order, such as those just mentioned. A trend Fr William explains which in the past ten years has broadened its approach : "...monastic is basically interpreted now as a spiritual practice or spiritual religious experience ..so what we are interested in is promoting relationships, dialogue if you will, between spiritual practitioners both Christian and of other religions. That means we also engage in dialogue with Muslims for example who do not have a monastic order but certainly have a spiritual practice..". Fr William also explains how the Rule of St Benedict plays into monastic inter-religious dialogue, introduces us to some charismatic figures in this field such as a French man who was a bit of a trail blazer, spending most of his life in India, his name Henri le Saux. The important thing our Benedictine monk insists is to be respectful , every family , every religious group must have the option to set up boundaries:

"...we recognize so often that the language is very very different but there is a deep kind of communality that joins us , it's an expression of love, of love for the other of love for the stranger... respecting that there are some unresolvable differences that will always be there...".

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