Meditation for September 9, Community Life

A religious, the author of the Life of Marie Therese Noblet, servant of Our Lord in Padua, makes this comment in the bi­ography.

"To direct a religious community has never passed for an easy or enviable lot. It is only too well known that some persons who have good qualities and charm, when considered individually, lose them as soon as they become a part of a common and corporate group."

This comment expresses a psychological fact drawn from the study of human beings. Groups are always less perfect than the isolated individuals who compose it. In every association, accom­plishments only are added; faults are multiplied.

It is a risk that religious communities cannot always avoid. And if every member does not take care in this regard, there can easily be many losses.

When these groups are composed of women it is necessary to be more vigilant. A woman is observant and particular, that is a gift; she becomes jealous and that is a fault; she compares, com­ments, attaches importance to details, and, being imaginative by nature, she embellishes or minimizes persons and actions, misrepresents intentions, and sometimes even creates all kinds of stories without foundation.

I have a new reason then for combating the petty spirit, that is, to make my superiors' duty of government as easy as possible; the exercise of authority is always a delicate thing, therefore I will never by my attitudes or interventions, or even by my silences, or my moodiness contribute to making a duty already difficult in itself, even more so.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)