Being at home

Redemptorist community life surrounds me with the variety that can be found among my confreres – different family backgrounds, cultures and personalities. It is a veritable kaleidoscope of diversity, history and possibility gathered for mission.

F.-Peter-Hung Living in the midst of such diversity is not always easy. To live in fruitful harmony requires effort on my part, as it does on the part of the other members. I’ve heard it said, ‘living in community is an art’. Even where a person has a talent for it, effort, imagination and perseverance are needed. It is much the same in community. In an exceptional work the art transcends the artist. Likewise, in a thriving religious house the community transcends the individual members.

There are times when the art of community is not fully mastered, but they are often the times that unmask the next step of the journey. I believe practice makes perfect. I also believe community is something that in God’s grace we create. It is where each member can feel at home with themselves and with the others. That is how community becomes the springboard for our mission among the excluded.

(Peter Hung, C.Ss.R)