FAITH in the MODERN WORLD

At the end of last year, Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI declared 2013 the YEAR of FAITH. I recently found some thoughts by Our Benedictine Abbot Primate, Notker Wolf OSB. While this message was for Advent, I feel it very appropriate during this Lenten Season, especially in light of the changes in our Church..

"New Evanglization begins with ourselves. We direct our lives completely according to God’s Word, we allow ourselves to be gripped my him, steeped in him and slowly changed so that it no longer we who live but Christ lives in us. This is a slow and difficult process. God has no easy job with us until he can fully give us the gift of his life.

This season... is a welcome opportunity to reflect on the process of being formed in and by Christ and with this becoming truly human, an opportunity to start to walk this path with courage.This is the only way that we can give true testimony to Christ and his Gospel. This is applies to every one of us, not only personally as individuals but no less to our lives in community. The inner relationship with God that we foster becomes visible in the sincere, loving relationships we have with others.

God also gave us our reason in order better to explore the depths of the mysteries of the Faith. ‘Fides quaerens intellectum – Faith that seeks to understand,’ was the motto of St. Anselm... Our Faith embraces both our complete trust in God as well as our assent to what he has revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

At a time when the marketplace is crammed with those offering messages of various kinds, in some cases messages that attack or ridicule our Faith, it is not enough to cut ourselves off: we must involve ourselves wherever the opportunity presents itself in the debates in our various societies.

We cannot and may not opt out of this world and withdraw to a comfortable cocooned existence. All of us, according to his or her vocation and manner of life, are challenged to bear witness to the Gospel and to proclaim in the words of St. Paul, ‘ Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel!’ (1 Cor 9.16). Mission is one of the essential marks of the Church."

Abbot Primate Wolf is also a musician who has performed both traditional Benedictine music and Christian rock since 1981, and is on at least 4 CDs. He plays electric guitar for Christian rock group Feedback and counts The Rolling Stones and ZZ Top as influences.

The position is of Abbot Primate is largely honorary as we Benedictines are not a centralized order. He has a role as a roving ambassador for us and speaks on Benedictine or Catholic issues. On September 21, 2012, the Congress of Abbots reelected the 72-year-old Wolf to serve another term as Abbot Primate. He was born in Bavaria and was Archabbot of St.Ottilien, the Missionary Benedictines.