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Beatitudes Community offers spiritual formation for singles, couples
By Brother Anthony Ariniello
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Brother Anthony Ariniello |
“For me, it’s like when a guy asks a young woman to dance. He takes the lead, but he wants her to follow the dance with gusto, not with cold feet!” my friend Mark said, in answer to Archbishop Charles Chaput’s question,
“What does it mean to answer God’s call?”
We were sitting in a café in Paris during World Youth Day 1997. Four of us there that day went on to enter the Spirituality Year at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in the coming years. It was that morning, however, amid 5,000 youth dancing in praise in the Sacré Coeur Basilica for our WYD catechesis, when the call to the priesthood reached my heart. I beheld Christ’s priestly love for his people, as if he were sweeping his bride off her feet to dance.
And I said, “Time out!” I was swept off my feet, but I needed a time for God—a time for the call to mature. A time set aside to be guided and formed in order to make the discernment. Spirituality Year was just that. Sixteen of us moved into the John Paul II Center to begin the first full session of the Spirituality Year from 1998-1999.
Toward the end of the year, we began Vigil Praise, a monthly evening when other young people could share in our prayer. But in fact, many who visited us expressed their jealousy. They wanted this time for God, for formation and discernment, but they weren’t ready to say yes to the priesthood or to one order or another.
Many just wanted to take marriage seriously—as a vocation.
My story went on. After four years of fruitful formation, I found a call to continue the road to ministry with the Community of the Beatitudes, born in France in 1973, in which married couples, religious and lay celibates share a common life. After nine years of formation in Italy, France and Israel, I am the first American brother to take final vows and to be ordained a deacon on the way toward priesthood. For my diaconate year, I’ve been sent home to Denver, to the first American Beatitudes house, which is located at St. Catherine of Siena Parish. My mission? To offer a sort of “Spirituality Year” for everyone.
Like many new communities in the Church, the Beatitudes has the custom of offering in our houses a program of formation and discernment that offers a taste of our spirituality and is also a first step toward religious life or preparation for family life spirituality. I rejoiced when I discovered these School of Life programs. I thought of those young people who came to Vigil Praise, desiring a first step of discernment, looking for a way to respond to Christ without cold feet but, rather, with a bold step.
After finishing seminary, I was sent to Rome for two years of study in theological anthropology, where I worked on a “Theology of the Home.” I'll be able to apply this to a new dimension of our School of Life, designed for couples. This year, School of Life will offer a four-step formation workshop to help couples bring a Lord’s Day liturgy to their family table.
Below are the four School of Life programs the Beatitudes Community is offering. Enrollment is currently open.
• Residential: three intense months residing in our Denver house
• Light: three months of weekly teachings, spiritual direction and a commitment to prayer
• France: 3-8 weeks in our houses in France and Spain next summer, guided in English
• Couples: workshop for a Lord’s Day table liturgy (schedule follows):
Step 1 - A teaching on family spirituality and Lord’s Day liturgy
When: 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Nov. 2 or 3:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 5 at St. Catherine Parish, 4200 Federal Blvd., Denver. Pick one date. Babysitting available.
Step 2 - A Friday evening Sabbath prayer meal with the Beatitudes Community (experience our community’s table liturgy with your children) Pick a date: Nov. 4 or 18 or Dec. 2 or 16
Step 3 - Retreats
When: Nov. 19 day retreat at St. Catherine Parish or Jan. 6-8 weekend retreat in the mountains.
Step 4 - A Beatitudes member joins you for a table liturgy and meal at your home When: a Friday, Saturday or Sunday
For information and applications, email anthony.beatitudes@gmail.com, visit www.beatitudes.us/SOL.html or call 720-855-9412.
Brother Anthony Ariniello is a Denver-Boulder native. A member of the Community of the Beatitudes, his religious name is Anthony of the Transfiguration. He is an ordained deacon in ministry at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Denver.
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