Every religious community is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Religious (monks’ and nuns’) Day in Bosnia and Herzegovina was held on Saturday, September 3rd at the Don Bosco Catholic School Centre in Žepče, and gathered more than 150 monks and nuns.
The program began with an opening prayer and a greeting and welcome from the president of the Conference of Superior Religious Leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina (KVRPP BiH), OFM Jozo Marinčić. Archbishop Tomo Vukšić and the director of the Salesian community in this city, rev. Mirko Barbarić, also gave a speech on the occasion. The religious meeting was moderated by rev. Ivan Veriga.
Then the lecture entitled Monks and nuns – experts or amateurs of synod?, was held by a Franciscan school sister of Christ the King of the Province of the Holy Family in Herzegovina, sister Branka Perković. In her presentation, among other things, she pointed out that “in the Church, nuns and monks are not a peripheral, historical phenomenon, but are fully included in the people of God” and as such “express the deepest nature of the Christian vocation” and “the aspiration of the whole Church-Spouse towards union with the one Fiance”. Explaining that even the sons of the same father find it difficult to live in a communion, she noted that one should get rid of the need to justify one’s own pain of living in a communion by denying it and resorting to sugary talk about the community. Following this, she underlined that religious communities were not born “of blood, nor of the will of the flesh”, nor of personal sympathies or human reasons, but of God, and as such, they are not a human building, but a gift of the Spirit. She further spoke about the two essential determinants of every monk and religious community, which are: participation and mission. The presentation ended with a song by Sister Martina Koprivnjak, a member of the Society of Sisters of Our Lady, entitled Pusti, dobro je (Let it go, it’s good).
The lecture was followed by a discussion, and after refreshments, those present had the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Monks work for the local Church
Eucharistic celebration in the church of St. Anthony of Padua in Žepče was led by Msgr. Vukšić in the concelebration of about 20 priests, mostly members of some of the religious communities that exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At the beginning, the archbishop expressed his praise that the religious communities found their organized expression also in the Conference of their senior religious leaders, in order to find answers to common questions by agreement, each retaining its own charisma and the identity of its own institution.
“In the service of expanding and strengthening the Church of Christ and the kingdom of God in human hearts and societies, religious communities have the wholehearted support of the hierarchical part of the Church. In this sense, I am with you today at your assembly as a representative of the other brother bishops, members of our Bishops’ Conference, to whom you are direct collaborators in proclaiming God’s message and in witnessing his goodness and love”, he said and thanked for everything that the monks do in the local Church.
Man dreams, God decides
In the appropriate homily, the archbishop spoke about St. Gregory the Great, the pope, whose feast day was celebrated that day. He explained that this saint, as a very gifted descendant of a distinguished Roman family, born in 540, had first started a worldly career and, while still very young, in 572 even reached the post of prefect of the Eternal City. “However, only two years after that, after the death of his rich father, he left the public service and decided to start a monastic life and built several monasteries, the first one, that of St. Andrew, in the family house. However, he lived this way of life for only four years because Pope Pelagius ordained him a deacon in 579 and sent him to Constantinople as his nuncio at the imperial court, where he stayed for six years”, said Archbishop Tomo and spoke about Gregory’s wishes for missions. He mentioned how he was elected pope in 590 and literally became a priest, bishop and pope in one day, at the age of 50.
“It was exactly on this day, September 3rd, 590, when the pontificate of the 64th Bishop of Rome began, which lasted for the next 14 years. He died on March 12th, 604, and his administration of the Catholic Church is generally considered one of the most successful in history”, said the archbishop of Vrhbosna and spoke about the principle that inspired Gregory and that connects his thinking and actions, which can be summed up in the following words: preacher.
“At the same time, Gregory thinks that an ordained minister of God and every Christian, including monks of course, has the obligation to be a preacher of what he experienced in his intimacy about the example of Christ who became a man in order to bring the message of salvation to everyone”, said Msgr. Vukšić who also reminded that, according to Gregory’s clear pastoral psychology, in order to reach people’s hearts, the preacher must know how to adapt the content and the way of presentation to different types of listeners: in the Church and the world, and in monasteries as well.
Servant of the servants of God
After dissecting some of Gregory’s methods of preaching to different groups of people, the Archbishop of Vrhbosna underlined that this Pope remained a simple monk in his heart all his life and was free from any form of human glory. “He simply signed himself servus servorum Dei (servant of the servants of God). For him, that saying was not just some pious formula, but a true manifestation of his way of life and actions. He was intimately very moved by the humility of God who made himself our servant in Christ, who ‘washed’ and ‘washes’ our dirty feet. That is why he was convinced that especially the bishop should imitate this humility of God and thus follow Christ. His real desire was to live as a monk in constant conversation with God’s word, but out of love for God, he knew how to be a servant of all who serve God”, said the archbishop and at the end underlined that “precisely because he was like that, a servant to a servant, he is great and it shows the measure of true greatness to all of us who have voluntarily chosen to be servants of the servants of God”.
The Holy Mass celebration was animated by the choir of the parish of St. Anthony of Padua from Žepče under the direction of sister Slavica Tubak, a member of the Croatian Province of the Sisters of Mary of the Miraculous Medal.
In the afternoon, there was a tour of the Centre and recreation in the Salesian spirit, and an assembly was held for the members of the VRPP BiH Conference. Ceremonial closing of the XXIV. religious day was held at 5:00 p.m.
Judging by the number of monks and nuns who were present at this meeting, it can be said that the sign of mutual connection was shown in the best possible way. However, it is clear that there are many more people dedicated to God, who live their charisma in one of the other religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, it is clear that more efforts should be made to spread and promote this important event, where, in addition to listening to lectures, participating in Holy Mass and planning future steps, friends and colleagues from school benches and previous and current pastoral services can meet.
KT
Žepče – September 4, 2022
