November 25, 2009

Faithful invited to Community of St. John prayer group

By Denver Cathoic Register

Since the completion of Eagle’s Nest retreat house in Littleton last year, the Community of St. John which runs the facility is emerging to become a much more permanent presence for the Archdiocese of Denver. 

The Community of St. John, a religious institute founded in 1975 by the French Dominican and professor of philosophy Father Marie Dominique-Philippe, uses the retreat house during the summer months for its Princeville, Ill., novices. The retreat house may also be used by others.

“As the increased presence of the community emerges, the blessing of laity interested in the community has grown, as well,” said John Smith, who is in discernment to become an oblate of the community. Oblates are laypeople affiliated with a particular order who follow the community’s rule of life to the degree their circumstances permit.

Smith said a prayer group, primarily comprised of volunteers who had been involved in building the retreat house, has formed and is meeting at Carmel of the Holy Spirit monastery in Littleton on the third Saturday of each month. Following participation in the monastery chapel’s daily 6:30 a.m. Mass, the group has a Holy Hour and then meets for a couple of hours to discuss the vocation of the Community of St. John alongside a book by Father Dominique-Philippe on the Gospel of St. John, titled, “Wherever He Goes.” 

New members are invited to join the prayer group, Smith said. 

The spirit of the Community of St. John is that of the “beloved disciple.”  Those who are professed oblates exist as the lay branch.  The community has one oblate living in Aspen, several future oblates (those in discernment), and many friends throughout Colorado.  The religious, of which there are three priories in the United States, exist as professed brothers who live a contemplative and apostolic life, and religious sisters who live a strictly contemplative or an apostolic life.
“All branches live devoutly from the heart of contemplative prayer and adoration,” Smith said.

Each branch, through a Rule of Life, hopes to live in the spirit of the evangelical counsels and in consecration to the Truth (Jn 17:17-19).  Members maintain three covenants: with the Eucharist, Mary, and Peter’s successor, the pope.

The U.S. Web site for the order, www.communityofstjohn.com, notes: “It is the spirit of the family of St. John which profoundly unites all of its members.  But there exists in this family different ways of living from St. John’s paternity while preserving the unity of heart and soul which characterized the first Christian communities (cf. Acts 4:32).”

For more information about the Community of St. John or the inquiry group meeting at Carmel of the Holy Spirit Monastery, 6138 S. Gallup St., call 720-475-1793.