I consider the monastic tradition a status that goes beyond Christian denominations and transversal to different religious faiths. Monasticism, which pre-existed Christianity itself, was assimilated from the earliest centuries, bearing fruits of holiness and representing a prophetic sign of total consecration to God as an absolute good.
During the first persecutions of Christians some of them fled into the desert and here they dedicated themselves to a hermit life made of prayer, penance and simplicity, in search of an intimate communion with God. With the achievement of peace with the Roman Empire this lifestyle continued to flourish as a radical life commitment choice as Christianity became lax.
However, hermitism does not imply a selfish and contemptuous life plan towards mankind. On the contrary, the hermit carries in his heart and in his prayer, in the spiritual bond of the communion of saints, all of Christianity and every man in search of the Absolute.
The Protestant reform, at its advent, fought against monasticism and hermitism. Starting from the twentieth century, a process of rediscovery of it has begun, which has led to the emergence of important realities such as the Order of the Watchers (Freternité Spirituelle des Veilleurs) in France, the Community of Iona in Ireland, the Community of Taizé in Switzerland and the monastic community of Bose in Italy.
The phenomenon called "new monasticism" by scholars has also seen the flourishing of less institutional forms of monastic life and numerous metropolitan hermits; the latter seek a profound communion with God not necessarily in natural deserts, but also in the city, transforming the indifference and loneliness that often characterizes the indistinct multitude of urban reality, into a place of encounter with God and of openness to one's neighbor. in search of meaning in the daily frenzy. In this sense, the hermit vocation deserves the recognition of an authentically evangelical vocation.
I consider "the Desert" as a privileged place in which to seek renewed Christian communion. The division of the churches is in fact a wound to the Mystical Body of Christ. I believe that an authentic spirituality of communion cannot be realized with easy syncretisms and "leaks forward", but by making the tensions and tears of the crucified Christ our own and trying to overcome the demon of discord with prayer, a precious balm poured out on his Body; with silence, reparation for offenses and disputes between brothers and sisters in the faith; with fasting, understood not simply as abstinence from food, but from selfish impulses and the desire to prevaricate.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
