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The cloister is living proof that accepting without reservations to fully live the Gospel in this world is possible (and joyful)

Of Mother Ildegarde Cabitza

(AUTOMATIC READING)
There is a function of monastic life, within the company, which generally escapes superficial observers.
To those who ask us: “What do you do, Oh, closed in your monasteries, to cooperate in the affirmation and extension of the kingdom of Christ?” we usually reply that we give our prayer and our sacrifice to the world, to create a secret yet real compensation for the fearful spiritual deficiencies that dig an ever deeper abyss between man and God.
The answer is true, but it is not complete. Prayer and penance are the elements most easily perceived and understood by outsiders, but we should say with humble and ardent pride: “We are here to pray in the name of our brothers and to offer ourselves every day in union with the sacrifice of Christ, right, but also to give living testimony to Christ, to his doctrine of truth”.
Every monastery must be “as a sign”: the ideal type of the perfect Christian society, where the values ​​of the spirit have absolute precedence over any human interest, where the supreme law is charity, where individual members have, once and forever, believed in Love, and they have it together, with unreserved faith, accepted the risk of living the evangelical word to the full, renouncing the canons of “wisdom of the flesh”.
To whom, even among believers, even among the most sincere practitioners, the Gospel appears in its integral practice, utopia, and its needs irreconcilable with our human possibilities, we testify, living, that no doctrine can, May, more perfectly adhere to the deepest need of the spirit, of human coexistence itself.
The world is torn apart in the frantic effort to find a healthy economic balance, in an equitable distribution of earthly goods. Benedict's wisdom has made the path simple and smooth for us; “Let it be given to each according to need” (RB 34,1) and the shared commitment to industriousness, orderly and serene, comes to join with the work of Providence which watches over so that like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, Let us not even lack what is necessary for food and clothing. We already enjoy it, in progress, the bliss of the poor in spirit.
The same goes for purity, the same goes for mortification, so for all aspects of life, lived in the full light of the Gospel.
There is a great and comforting word, in the Holy Scripture: “Faithful Lord”, the Lord is faithful and does not disappoint anyone, believing in Him, trusts in his teaching.
The maximum happiness that the earth can give to man is contained within the walls of every monastery, in proportion to the intensity of the love that operates in individual souls and the generosity with which the word of God is lived: the radiance of joy, of bliss that also shines through on the outside, it is our truest testimony.
The most ancient ascetic tradition has predilectly insisted on comparing monastic life to martyrdom, distinguishing red martyrdom from white martyrdom; and this not under the aspect of suffering and torment, but essentially under the aspect of testimony, because the martyr is a “witness” and a witness is the one who accepts death with a single act to affirm his faith in Christ, as he who lives this statement hour by hour, translating into itself, in its entirety and splendor, the teaching of the Master.
Populated with fragile creatures like all others, trembling with the same passions that disturb the world, the monastery stands, citadel of God, to witness the victory of the spirit over the flesh, and it sprouts, magnificent flower that opens in solitude in praise of divine glory.
Note from BastaBugie: the author of this article is Mother Maria Ildegarde Cabitza, Abbess of the Benedictine Abbey of Rosano from 1942 al 1959 and died in the concept of sanctity.
Here is a short biography of Mother Maria Ildegarde Cabitza taken from the SantieBeati.it website:
Maria Ildegarde Cabitza (al fresco Leonilda or Nilda), was born in Gonnosfanadiga (Sardinia) il 26 April 1905. From a wealthy family, the father was a doctor, was able to complete his higher education, then not easily accessible to girls. He had a significant cultural education which, together with a profound spiritual formation, it enabled her to carry out her future mission as mother and teacher within the monastic community. He trained in the apostolate and spiritual life in the ranks of the Italian Catholic Action. With Benedict XV in 1918 the GF was born, the female youth branch of the ACI. Leonilda, of very lively intelligence, he enrolled at the University of Rome in the Faculty of Letters. He was part of the GF and the FUCI, participating effectively in the various apostolate initiatives. Il 21 December of 1926 he brilliantly passed his degree exam in literature with a thesis on The monumental memories of the main figures of the Church in the third century, which was published in the Liturgical Bulletin. He then attended the Diocesan Higher School of Religious Culture. He later enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy, intimately convinced that, in addition to its usefulness for one's own training, was helpful to a deeper knowledge of God.
At the same time, the ideal of a life of consecration to God was taking shape in her, under the spiritual guidance of Msgr. Viewpoints of Bologna, professor and spiritual guide of Catholic students and universities. The meeting with Abbot Emanuele Caronti had a great influence, pioneer of the Italian liturgical movement. In fact after a course of spiritual exercises, held by the same abbot E. Caronti in Castel Gandolfo in July 1928, his orientation towards monastic life became clear. Il 27 March 1930 Nilda announces, with a letter to his parents his next entry into the monastery and interrupts his collaboration with the magazine directed by Abbot E. Caronti, the Liturgical Bulletin. Il 26 June 1930 entered the Benedictine monastery of S. Anthony of Eboli. A few months later, on January 11th 1931 was sent, with two other novices including Emmanuella Moretti (who became the new Abbess), a S. Paolo of Sorrento, then followed by Marzia Pietromarchi, friend and partner in the lay apostolate, who will become Nilda's inseparable companion in monastic life. It was about reviving a monastery inhabited solely by an eighty-year-old nun and three lay women. Il 17 November 1931, he obtained his second degree with a thesis on The pedagogical value of the Rule of Saint Benedict, then published in 1933. Il 13 January 1932 he made his monastic religious profession, taking the name Maria Ildegarde. In the 1931 fascism will suppress the youth organizations of the ACI for which Leonilda had carried out an active apostolate. Soon the monastic community of Sorrento was reborn and became flourishing with new vocations. At the request of visitors to the Order, it was a question of implementing transfers from more flourishing communities to others in serious vocational crisis.
This is how it was in the midst of the world war, mother Ildegarde Cabitza together with her sister Pietromarchi left Sorrento, sent by Mother Moretti to reform and renovate the ancient monastery of Rosano (founded in 780), near Florence and assumed the role of Abbess there. They were welcomed with joy and affection by the locals. There was great work to do. Mother Ildegarde wrote in a letter from Rosano del 21 November 1942: “You can imagine him as an old man, immense monastery waiting to come back to life and where everything needs to be redone, not materially, but spiritually and intellectually? The place is very beautiful and the Monastery as well… there is immense work to do…, but I am serene and intimately full of peace.” The war forced them to abandon the monastery and when they returned they found it desolated by bombing and looted. With great enthusiasm he undertook the restoration works of the seriously damaged monastery. But all his energies were aimed at the renewal of monastic life, bringing it to the authenticity of Christian life under the sign of Saint Benedict. Thus his dream came true: that of regularly established seclusion. That dream expressed to her parents when she was still a student: “We thought about a new order, I repeat, brand new for Italy. A house of prayer, of study, of peace, from where through intense and profound study, especially with publications, with courses, with continuous work, Christian thought could be spread among women. In short, we had a big dream: that of bringing female religious life back to its full height, to do that the monasteries, today so often impoverished and reduced to the point of pity, would return to being beacons of sanctity and civilization as they were in ancient times, when they knew how to give the Church and the world the greatest women […] The Benedictine Order was the only one capable of understanding and appreciating the project […].” All this was being achieved to the point of making the Rosano community a model, among the most flourishing of the Order. Equipped with the ability to train and educate spiritually, fu “madre” e “teacher” within the monastic community and towards those who turned to her.
He had the grace and consolation of a great prodigious sign in his Monastery: the tearing of the statue of the Sacred Heart. During the singing of Vespers the 4 April of 1948, it was observed for the first time that tears fell from the eyes of the statue of the Sacred Heart. In June of the same year another impressive and unexpected miracle occurred: the shedding of blood. These facts occurred repeatedly between 1948 and the 1950. The facts are confirmed by the nuns and in particular by Mother Ildegarde Cabitza Abbess of the Monastery. Mother Hildegarde always held her in high regard, together with manual labor, intellectual activity. He published several works: Seek the Lord, Gift that never ends, Listening to the monk, Words higher than the earth, Joint stones, Saint Benedict, A study of speech. In the 1955 gave birth to the Beata pacis visio bulletin. Il 12 April 1956 she was elected first president of the Federation of Benedictine Monasteries of Tuscany. He died in the concept of sanctity in the Monastery of Rosano II 28 August 1959 at the age of 54 years.