Conversatio and Conversation

      In preparation for a talk I gave to the faculty and staff at a Benedictine school, Woodside Priory School in California, I did some research on the Benedictine profession of conversatio. Conversatio morum is one of the three vows Benedictines profess. (The other two are obedience and stability.) The term conversatio has had many interpretations over the centuries and currently it is understood as fidelity to the monastic way of life.

     Whenever I type conversatio, my word processing program wants to change it to conversation and that seems to be more than linguistic programming. Brian Taylor, an Episcopalian priest, writes about Benedict’s Rule in his book, Spirituality for everyday living: an adaptation of the Rule of St. Benedict. He says that conversatio is at the root of growth in grace for all who seek God. Conversatio calls us to be open to the community and to be willing to be responsive to the “the judgment of God as expressed by other people.”

     Such a “take-a-deep-breath” thought! It was startling to me then as a firestorm of opinion blazed about recent events at Villa Madonna Academy. It remains startling to me whenever I find myself in conversation with anyone who holds a point of view different than mine and I want to dismiss that view. And it haunts me and halts me whenever I read about any church and/or political ideological point of view.

      Today I read an article about Bishop Robert Vasa in Santa Rosa, California, who had sent a letter to pastors and teachers in Catholic schools requiring that the teachers sign an addendum to their 2013-14 contracts. He consequently revoked that requirement saying among others things that he had failed to engage and consult the pastors of the diocese and overlooked “a proper engagement of the principals” and “erroneously chose a path of informing rather than mutual discernment.”  I was impressed by the action of conversatio in that statement. I wonder about the true conversation and humility it must have taken to write those words. Apparently Bishop Vasa heard the judgment of God expressed by other people.

     We engage in conversation in all aspects of our lives and if we are serious about conversatio, growing in grace as we seek God, we must be willing to be responsive to the judgment of God as expressed by other people. And how difficult that is.   Sr. Deborah Harmeling, OSB