a new Catholic mass

What’s weird about a monastic community in the middle of a city?

People seem to think of it as strange and cultish. People see it as a mysterious ancient tradition that they don’t understand. People imagine it as communal, hippie hemp-wearing phenomena. People view it as foreign and cryptic. People judge it…

Until they are invited into it.

Into: asked to participate, rather than simply look on/judge
It: communal rhythm

What’s weird about it is how much this little community has to say about God to the society at large. Christian and not-yet-Christian alike seem to affirm (once participating slightly in our commonality) both in speech and participation that communal life breeds encouragement, challenge, acceptance, and respect for all those involved. The communal life of believers inherently seeks to share and reciprocate itself to everyone, regardless of creed or breed because it is based on the infinite love of God. This boundry-less love flows beyond borders of insider-outsider, nourishing the cracks between us-them.

Maybe what is so weird about communal life lies in the fact that the love of God pulls us together, rather than apart. Maybe what makes a community devoted to God and each other so foreign is the fact that it subverts our natural tendencies towards the selfish love. Maybe what makes our community so weird is God himself, unashamedly present in each of us individually and communally.

What’s so weird about God-fearing people loving holistically?

Newton’s law of gravity says that a larger mass draws a smaller mass to itself. But we still don't know why. So how can this little mass of community cause such a stir, such controversy. Perhaps the why is better explained in a world of possibility - a love that manifests the possibility to imagine. To imagine a renewed future in the present. Just because you don’t like the mass or can't explain it doesn’t mean you won’t be affected by it – or drawn towards it - or just plain sucked in.

What's so weird is maybe this city really could be a blackhole.