Frequently Asked Questions

The Congregation of Saint Augustine is an established, not-for-profit organization dedicated to living a holy and religious life according to the rule of St. Augustine. We bring people together, whether you are a cleric or a layperson, whether you work a full-time job or don’t work at all, whether you are old or young, queer or straight; none of that matters. And it doesn’t matter because we believe that God loves us all equally. If it doesn’t matter to God, who are we to say that it matters to us? What matters is taking the Rule of Saint Augustine and trying to conform your life to Christ through it. That’s the main point.

Now, what is the Rule of Saint Augustine? If you go to our website, you’ll find the full version of the rule. It’s not very long, and it gives you a sense of how much he valued living in community and being loving and sharing in Christ’s name. Even though we are far apart, we pray together, we eat together whenever possible, we worship together. Even if we’re in different cities, we can come together on social media or on Zoom and BE TOGETHER. We do all of these things together, following what Jesus Christ told us to do: to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. So beyond the Rule of Saint Augustine, it’s how we embody and live that rule through Christ’s two commandments: to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

You cannot get simpler than that in many respects, but it’s a very difficult challenge to live that way, which is why we created the congregation. We cannot do this by ourselves. We need each other. We need brothers and sisters to support us on the journey.

We have an open table when we celebrate the Eucharist. It is a completely open table. When we do Bible study, it’s completely open to all. And membership in the congregation is open to all: male, female, white, Black, Latino, Asian, whatever your ethnic background, whatever your sexual orientation, whatever your gender identity. Christ loves you as you are, and we accept and love you as you are.

This gives you a sense, hopefully, of our openness, our welcome, and our affirmation of you as an individual. As a group, we come together to support and love each other to help us reach the difficult goals Christ set for us. When he tells us to love our neighbors, that’s difficult. When he tells us to love our enemies, it might even seem impossible. But when we come together as a congregation and support each other, it’s easier. We share the burden together, so that for each of us the burden is lessened.

That’s a good question, and the easy answer is this: go to our website, CongregationOfSaintAugustine.org, all spelled out. Some people say “Augusteeen,” and that’s fine. Either way, we’re open, affirming, and welcoming to all, no matter how you pronounce it.

On the website, there’s a form you can fill out, or you can just send me an email; however you want to reach out, whatever is most comfortable for you. That’s what matters. We’re also setting up a Facebook page, so you’ll be able to find us on Facebook. That link will be on our website, along with our other social media, so you can reach out to us in any number of ways.

And look, nobody is expecting you to start with a commitment. We are expecting you and welcoming you. I’ll put a cake out in the window if it helps. The whole idea is that you come to me with questions.

And here’s the first question: Do you feel a call to serve? Do you feel that something is missing? Would you rather be spending more time serving God, serving Christ, but you’re not quite sure how? Maybe in your faith life you feel isolated, and you would rather have a community.

Maybe you feel called to serve as a priest. Maybe you think, as so many people may have told you throughout your life, that because you’re a woman, you can’t be a priest. Not true. Or that you can’t be a deacon. Not true. Or maybe you think that because you are gay or queer, or whatever identity you have, you can’t be a priest or a deacon. Not true.

So your calling could be coming at you right now, and it may seem confusing and difficult, because the world has been telling you forever that you can’t, you can’t, you can’t. Here’s a community that tells you that you can. You can, because together we can do whatever we need to do to serve and love our Lord. It’s that simple.

So the first question isn’t for me, but for you. Do you feel any calling? Do you feel any pull? Do these words make sense to you? Do they touch you in any way? If so, reach out and come to me with as many questions as you have. I’m an open book. The more open and honest we are with each other, the easier it will be to come to an understanding. Is this for you? Will this bring fulfillment and joy into your life? Is this a way for you to serve God? Are you being called to serve? Yes. But that doesn’t mean that this is the right way for you to serve. Let’s work on that question together.

As I said, it starts with you wanting to reach out. You have to want to reach out. If it’s idle curiosity, that’s okay, because that could mean something too. If you started with a commitment, that would be a little odd, because you don’t know anything about us yet. So take your time, look through the documentation, and then reach out.

We have that initial conversation. You think to yourself, this is interesting; I want to know more. What do I do next? Well, maybe we should do a little reading. Maybe we should pray together. Maybe you sign up to do Bible study with us. Whatever that path is, it will be different for each of you, because we are not a cookie-cutter process.

We’re trying to build a community, and here’s what’s funny to me: people think that in a community you have to wash out the differences. That’s not how it works. We have to foster the differences. We have to build on the natural strengths God gave you: your talents, your sense of humor, the way you think about things, which is going to be different from the way other people do. When we have those beautiful voices singing together, that’s how we make a chorus work. How we develop that, and how we move from a worldly set of talents and skills to a congregation that is built to serve and love the Lord, is an individual process. And we can do that.

So when you reach out, we’ll talk, and we’ll figure out the path from the kinds of questions you have. If your questions are totally different from somebody else’s, it would be silly for me to have just one set of answers. I need to work with you and have a conversation. And by the way, don’t think for one minute that I have all the answers, because I do not. But I am going to work with you until we know those answers. We will pray together. We will study together. We will do whatever we need to do. And if it turns out that you’re supposed to be serving in another way and not with us, I still think the time we spent together is valuable. So you are under no pressure whatsoever just because we’re spending time talking. The key is how you are being called to serve, because we know you are being called to serve.

First of all, there’s a bit of a theme in the people we’ve chosen to represent us, to intercede for us, and to serve as models of a good life. The first thing you should notice as we talk through them is that they were outcasts. In one way or another, they were not exactly the ideal you would expect, and yet they’ve become symbols throughout the world.

So let me start with Saint Augustine. Who is Saint Augustine? Saint Augustine was an African bishop. He was born in North Africa and got his education in North Africa. He traveled to Rome and then Milan, where he lived and worked, because Rome was the center of the world at that time, especially for North Africa, Europe, and West Asia. He returned to Hippo, in North Africa, which today would be in the country of Algeria, and he became bishop of Hippo, H-I-P-P-O, believe it or not.

He had a very long journey. So for people who think they’re too old to join, that’s not how it works. He was probably in early or mid-middle age when he got his calling and came to serve. He had always been curious about God. He looked at different philosophies and different religions, and he was part of one for many years, but he did not feel he was living the right, genuine, authentic life. And then he converted, was baptized, and became a Christian.

He had a life that many people, especially in today’s Christianity in the United States, would consider, at least, unsavory. For example, he had multiple affairs, and those affairs included having a child out of wedlock, something many so-called Christians today would object to completely, and something that might even disqualify him in their eyes. Yet he became one of the most influential theologians, if not the most influential, in Western Christianity. His books are still read today. His theology is still quoted today. It’s still taught in schools today. He is a phenomenal, towering figure in Christianity.

His rule, however, is simple and well worth reading. I encourage you to go to our website, download the rule, and read it.

You would think that being a bishop would keep him very busy running his diocese, and it did. And you might think that being a theologian who wrote multiple books, sermons, and tracts (he was a prodigious writer) would make it hard to serve his people. Yet he was a pastor, and he never stopped being a pastor.

What does that tell us? It tells us that he was not just talking about love; he was living it. He was not just writing about love; he was living it. He was not just preaching; he was living it, in all of his sermons and in everything he was doing: running his diocese, visiting the sick, all of those things. He was doing it.

And so he resembles that of which he writes. He was a living example (he’s living now, but in a completely different sense) of what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. He lived it. He taught us how to do it. In his book the Confessions, he wrote a spiritual autobiography, which is still read today because of how compelling his story is, how honestly he told it, and how meaningful it is to people even today. He died in the early 400s A.D. That’s over sixteen hundred years ago, and we’re still reading his autobiography like it happened last year. That’s why Augustine.

The answer to this question comes in many parts.

First, I don’t think we choose our mentors, the people we model ourselves after, because we agree with every single thing they do or say. I can’t think of a single person in my life that I agree with 100% of the time on every issue. That’s not really how Love works, right? So, even if we disagree with Augustine on this one issue, he is still a great theologian, pastor, and example.

Second, in a very meaningful way, Augustine lays the groundwork for our welcoming and affirming theology. In his Homily on the First Letter of John, Augustine wrote: “Love, and do what you will.” Let’s be perfectly clear… do what you will does NOT mean do whatever you want. Your will must be formed according to the Love of God, Self, and your Neighbor, as Jesus taught. You cannot insult your neighbor and call it love. You cannot abuse a child and call it love.

In this Homily, Augustine makes the following point: The same outward act can be good or evil depending on its root; and he uses the following example: a father disciplining his son and a kidnapper striking a child. When we use someone for our own pleasure, when we treat the other as an object, whenever the overt act of making love is not motivated by love, it is, indeed, sinful. This is already accounted for in our vow of fidelity. The same sexual act is lust when it objectifies and dehumanizes the other, and an act of love within one’s vows when done with love, kindness, and respect. The motivation, not the act per se, decides.

He also lays the groundwork for our modern notion of consent. In his famous book The City of God, Book 1, he writes that the women raped during the sack of Rome did not lose their chastity, because their will did not agree; the agreement of the will carries the moral weight. In the same book, he wrote about the “libido dominandi,” the lust for domination. There is something about sexual acts that lends itself to this notion of domination. We believe that Love does not seek to dominate but to illuminate. Sexual acts should be celebrated as embodiments of our mutual love and respect; they mean recognizing the other as a person made in the image and likeness of God, and loving them as God loves us. It cannot be an act of domination because love requires you to honor, respect, and protect the other from abuse; it does not and cannot permit verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse of any kind. The same-sex relations Augustine knew were largely acts of domination, masters with slaves, men with boys, and he was right to condemn them; that is not what we are talking about. But two people of the same gender are capable of that great love just as two people of different genders are. Gender is not an obstacle to love, nor is it an obstacle to love of Christ, nor to loving another of the same gender in and through Christ.

Elsewhere, I’ll take on the issues of why Christian Ethics must permit same-sex marriage, ordaining Queer clergy, and similar issues. But for now, I just wanted to make the point that, on this issue, Augustine was a man of his times, but that he had such a deep love of God within him that he laid the groundwork for us to build a foundation for a welcoming and affirming theology based on his profound teachings on Grace and Love.

The Black Madonna of Perpetual Help is actually a blending, a merger, a unity of two different devotions to Mary.

The first is Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which goes back to the Middle Ages. The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (if you go to our website, you’ll see images) captures the idea that she is our refuge in times of stress, in times of worry, in times of fear. The image is of the child Jesus who, when he was afraid, ran to his mother. Those of us who have been fortunate and blessed enough to have that kind of figure in our lives, whether in our family or in our adopted or chosen family, have had that mother figure we run to when we are afraid, when we feel vulnerable, when we need comfort. The image shows Jesus with one of his sandals dangling from his foot, to symbolize how he ran to her in haste. And that’s our call. We have refuge; we have support. We have a mother praying for us and loving us, and when we need her, she’s there.

The second symbol is the Black Madonna. The Black Madonna also goes back a long way; some people would argue that the imagery predates Christianity. But certainly, as a Christian symbol, from very early on and throughout Christianity, there are images, statues, icons, and all kinds of devotions to the Black Madonna throughout Europe, from Poland to France to Spain, and also in Africa and even in the Americas, going back hundreds of years, if not longer. They call her the Black Madonna because she is dark-skinned. Many people relate her to Solomon’s Song of Songs, where he writes, “I am black but beautiful,” and say that he was paying homage to the Black Madonna even then. Her history is really fascinating.

Her darkness symbolizes the earth, from which all things spring. She is the ground source of grace, the ground source of faith, the ground source of strength, just as she was the ground source for Jesus, as the woman who bore him. There’s a lot of rich symbolism there. But because of the darkness of her skin, she has also become a symbol for those who are marginalized and oppressed. She looks at those who are marginalized and oppressed and stands up for them. She is their refuge as well, but she is not just comfort. She’s not just a shield. She’s also the sword, as she fights for justice. Some of the histories and traditions around that imagery are really fascinating on this point: standing up to authority, telling the truth even when it’s painful, and a history of support for the oppressed, the marginalized, and the disadvantaged.

So we take these two symbols: Our Lady of Perpetual Help for her comfort and her love, one part of feminine energy, and the Black Madonna for another part of feminine energy (“don’t mess with mine”), the strength, the power. Together they form a more complete feminine energy, a love that is tender but also strong and defiant. And so we blend them, and I think the artist who rendered the icon did an amazing job of capturing both that strength and that comfort.

It is our hope that as we grow, we will have more than one province, or chapter, whatever terminology is more comfortable for you. We have named our first province for Mary Magdalene. Why? She has an interesting history, as well. You may remember her, or associate her with, the woman who was going to be stoned to death, and Jesus saying, “Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone.” And everybody dropped their stones and walked away. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” actually appears elsewhere, but this is where we get that vivid image of not judging others: first, because you’re not the judge and you’re not equipped to judge (you never have enough information to judge another person), but also because of your own sin. As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, before you criticize your brother for the speck in his eye, remove the plank from your own. So she’s a constant reminder of humility.

Because she was saved by Christ, she became one of his most devoted servants. And this is fascinating. We often talk about Peter being the first apostle, but actually it was Mary Magdalene, if you take apostle to mean a messenger of Christ and all that he taught. Remember, it was Mary Magdalene who went to the tomb, found it empty, and cried out, “What have you done with my master?” And Jesus called her by name and said, “Mary, it’s me. I’m here.” And she recognized him. Just as Jesus is calling you to serve and be his ambassador, he called her first and said to her, go and tell them that I am alive, that I am resurrected, and that I will be coming to see them. And she ran to the apostles who were gathered in Jerusalem, and on the way she ran into Peter and John. So the first apostle, the first messenger of the resurrected Christ, was Mary Magdalene: a woman, a Semite.

So just note: we’re talking about a bishop, Saint Augustine, who was African, and a Semitic woman. She was one of the figures at the foot of the cross. She stayed with him to the end, through the crucifixion, through the pain, and her devotion to him and her faith in him continued after he was dead and buried, because she was at the tomb. Afterward, she moved to southern France, where there is a huge devotion to her, because she established the church there. So when people say a woman can’t serve, a woman can’t do this, a woman can’t do that, she’s another very strong figure who says, yes, we can. We can do it all. She’s a very powerful image of that. Some of the iconography around her is also quite beautiful, but she’s not as well known as she deserves to be, considering the magnificent life she lived and the incredible story of her faith and devotion to Jesus.

When we think about these three images, we should not walk away saying that our European brothers and sisters are somehow left out or less than. That isn’t the point. The point is that Christianity has been dominated by European history, and that doesn’t tell the whole story. That’s important. But what’s more important is to understand that in the early church, most of the intellectual and spiritual development came primarily from the areas near the Holy Land; in what we call the Middle East, in North Africa, and in Mediterranean cultures like Greece, Southern Italy, Spain, and France.

So by going back to these images, these saints, and this history, we want to go back to a time when what dominated was not race, not ethnicity, not wealth, not power. It was love. It was faith in its cleanest, purest form. Now, they were all human, so we capture the failings as well: Augustine, with a child out of wedlock; the Black Madonna, in many cases disparaged because of her blackness; Mary Magdalene, whom some people have called a fallen woman. All of these figures are ancient and holy, and at the same time, in one way or another, marginalized. So they represent hope for us. They tell us that no matter where we have been or who we have been, the love of God can transform us into new creatures. That is why we have chosen to follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, to adopt Our Lady, the Black Madonna of Perpetual Help, as our patroness, and to dedicate our first province to Mary Magdalene.

Our motto is “Love Proven.” What that means is that love isn’t a verbal token. It’s love in action.

So how do you do that? Suppose you work a full-time job. There are people all around you. Maybe you’re in the service industry and you’re taking care of people. Maybe you’re a car salesman, or whatever the case may be. You do the task, but do you do the task with love? Do you see the people you work with, and the people you deal with as customers or vendors, in that same spirit? It isn’t always about what you do (although I’ll get to that in a second), but it’s always a question of how you do it.

This is true even in your daily life with family, with friends, with your partner, whatever the case may be. Say it’s my turn to cook dinner tonight. I’m hurried, I’m rushed, I’m a little annoyed that I have to cook because I have so much work to do. And we forget that cooking dinner for our partner is an act of love. It’s an act of service. It’s perfectly human to forget sometimes. When that forgetting becomes habitual, a behavioral norm, we have a bit of a problem. And these things happen too; it’s all part of the human condition. So what I’m saying is that how we live our charism of love is in our professional and personal life. That’s why we pray together, and that’s why we have the ceremonial life, the Mass, the Eucharistic services, whatever those happen to be: precisely to keep us grounded and reminded. And it’s why we have brothers and sisters in the congregation, to keep us reminded that we are to be vessels of love. We are supposed to be ambassadors of Christ’s love at home, at work, and when we’re driving.

The second part is about what you do, not how you do it. What you do could be very limited because you have, let’s say, a full-time job and a family, so you don’t have a lot of spare time. But you want to take some of that spare time and read to the blind, or work at a soup kitchen. If you’re already doing a ministry, by all means keep doing it, but now you’re doing it with that spirit and with congregational support. If you want to do something different, or you don’t have an active ministry but you want to establish one, we can help you find one, depending on where you are.

For example, I am part of a Bible study that meets every Tuesday morning, and we moved it to 8 AM to accommodate people’s work schedules. We have somebody up in North Carolina, somebody down in Florida, and somebody as far out as Kansas City. So we don’t have to be geographically bound. This kind of thing is happening because of the miracle of the internet. Time and distance don’t mean what they used to mean. So if you’re in another part of the country and you’re trying to establish a ministry and you don’t know how to get started, we can absolutely help you find that place.

Mary Magdalene, for example, was a woman of means. When she moved to southern France, she established what would later, in Parisian terms, be called the salon. She opened her home and made it a place of worship and a place of study. People would gather to read the Gospel, and she knew Jesus. She could preach from experience and teach people what that life was like. In the early days of the church, there were no churches as we know them today- these elaborate structures. People prayed at home. People met in one another’s homes; that was all that was available. She led that path, and we do the same thing. I have a chapel that is also my office, where I do my work and my prayer, and it reminds me that my prayer is my work and my work is my prayer. That is part of what she reminds us of.

Augustine, for me personally and for those of us who are members of the clergy, means being a pastoral theologian, like Augustine. That means we preach, we teach, we bear witness, we study, we write sermons, we celebrate: all the different components of what it means to be a theologian, and also all the components of what it means to be a pastor. Now, you can’t expect the same level from people who are working full-time. But working full-time doesn’t mean you have no responsibility in the bigger picture. We expect everyone to be an ambassador and everyone to carry some share of the work. And we see that in all of it.

Now, Mary, in any of her forms, in any of her apparitions, in any of the ways we give her love and devotion (and there are many, many Marian titles): the thing to remember is that when the angel appeared to her, what he proposed was fairly absurd. You are going to have a child, though you have not known man. That in and of itself is absurd. This is going to happen through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now you’re doubling down on absurdity. It doesn’t make human sense at all. And yet her response was, “Be it done unto me according to thy word.” And so there is obedience: not a blind obedience that comes from being a slave, but an obedience born of being a faithful child, a loving child. She is an example of the kind of obedience that religious vows often ask of us (be obedient to your bishop, to the prior, to your superiors), not in the sense of giving up your will or your intelligence. No, you bring all of those things, through love. She is a perfect example of that.

So we have all three: Augustine, Mary as we recognize her in the Black Madonna of Perpetual Help, and Mary Magdalene, as perfect examples of what to do and how to do it.

We live in a modern world that places extraordinary demands on people and their time; I would argue unreasonable and impractical demands. We try very hard to be sensitive to that. But on the other hand, someone a long time ago said, “I am the Lord your God,” and you will honor me. If we are to take Jesus at his word and love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, that also has to include our time. So we have to figure out ways to make this work.

In practical terms, when we say obedience, we don’t mean that your prior can tell you how to do your day job. That’s not what is meant. It means you will follow the direction of the order in terms of spirituality, and that you will bear witness. It means you will strive at every opportunity to live the life of love we discussed, in terms of what you do and how you do it, because there’s always an opportunity to grow in grace. You’re going to be mindful of that, pray for it, grow in that grace, and bring others to that life. That is the obedience asked of you because you’re part of a congregation. It’s exactly like being part of a family. You be yourself, you be an individual, you grow. But at the end of the day, we are only as strong as our weakest link. We are only as strong as the love that binds us together. We are only as strong as the grace that keeps us a family, because nothing except our love is going to bind us. And love requires obedience of us.

That is critical to understand, because it is not just the foundation for being part of a congregation; it’s the foundation for being a good Christian. And obedience to a religious leader should never supplant obedience to Christ. I could point you to the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission: going out and teaching them to obey everything I have taught you. So it is a mandate. Bear in mind that it’s very difficult in the United States to talk about obedience, because we’re taught to be individualistic. So I emphasize that before saying anything else.

Now, poverty is a very different thing for most of us in the world, even for secular priests and others, than it is for those who have taken religious vows. Remember that we have three different orders. I don’t think we’ve talked about this, so we can follow up in more depth later. The first order is ordained clergy. The second order is made up of people who have taken vows; they are not ordained, but they are religious brothers and sisters who are in the world, living lives consecrated to God. The third order is lay people doing their day-to-day work. Because of these different orders, we can’t have a single picture of what poverty might look like.

If you are religious clergy or a brother, ordained, or not ordained but having taken permanent vows, and you live in community, you own everything in common. You do not own anything. Even if you go out to work, the salary you earn belongs to the house. You’re allowed certain things, like your clothes, a computer, or a phone; in this day and age, those are necessary. But the spirit of it is that you share what you have. We wear a habit, which we haven’t talked about either, and we may pick up on that as well, because it’s part of this identity and this poverty. We don’t have to worry about clothes. We just want to live as simple a life as possible.

For some, it isn’t a vow of poverty; it’s a vow of simplicity. If you’re in the world and working, let’s say you’re a parent, you cannot take a traditional vow of poverty. It would be irresponsible to do that. You’ve got to care for your family and your children; you’ve got to put money aside for their college funds, or whatever the case may be. You may not have children, but you may still have rent, and nowadays there’s no place you can go to find reasonable rent. Everything is financially outrageous. So this is not supposed to be a burden; it’s meant to be a blessing. It’s meant to relieve a lot of stress. It’s no longer about keeping up with the Joneses: I need a bigger house, I need a fancier car. No. We put all of that aside, and if we’re able to live in community, we put it aside even further. That’s a great blessing, because it’s liberating.

So what it means in your particular case depends very much on where you are. In some cases, living in community is the perfect solution for you. You’re single, or you’re a couple and you want to come in as a couple, and you want to live the most simplified life in common that you possibly can. That’s a very different situation from somebody who is working full-time and can’t get away, or who has marital or family obligations. So it very much depends.

Now, we do not impose a vow of celibacy on anyone, because celibacy means you give up your entire sexuality as an offering to God. This is not a knock on anybody who chooses to be celibate. In fact, if you join the Congregation of Saint Augustine and you wish to be celibate, we honor you and acknowledge you, just as we honor and acknowledge those who choose to be married. We’re not disparaging that life, because all of us are called to serve, but not all of us are called to serve in the same way, or to make the same offering, or the same sacrifices. This is really important to understand.

It does not mean that you should be frivolous with your sexuality, just as you cannot be frivolous with your money or frivolous with your intellect. All of these things are gifts from God. Your sexuality is a gift from God, whether you consider yourself straight, gay, lesbian, whatever the terminology; I don’t care. It’s a gift from God, and it’s intrinsically part of who you are, intrinsically part of what makes you beautiful to God, what makes you special to God. So you should honor it, you should love it, and you should live it, but you should do so with Christian dignity. What does that mean? It means we’re not encouraging hookup culture and random sex partners. Why? Because what starts to happen is that we start to objectify our fellow human beings, and right away we have lost sight of the love we’re supposed to give them. We’re supposed to love and honor them as they embody Christ. We’re supposed to love and honor them because they were made in the image and likeness of God, just as we were. The minute we objectify them, the minute we start treating them like objects for our own pleasure, we have failed to do that.

If you’re committed to somebody, there’s a relationship between you. That’s reasonable. There’s a physical attraction, and it’s born of love, not lust. You’re not objectifying the person. These are the things that, in your heart of hearts, in your conscience before God, you must own.

We would encourage the same gospel message to everyone. If you read Paul, Peter, and others, they call for obedience to civil authority. As a Christian, you’re supposed to uphold the law. You’re supposed to obey civil authority and religious authority because you’re supposed to obey God. To some degree, for better or for worse, and especially if you live in a democracy and people have been elected to these roles, you owe them a certain amount of respect. So obedience isn’t strictly for a religious order. There’s a lot more leeway, of course. It’s not disobedient to vote for a Republican if you’re a Democrat, or vice versa. You have a certain amount of independence in how you do that. But if a law is passed, whether by a Democratic Congress or a Republican Congress, the law is the law, and you’re expected to obey it.

As for finances, this would be a much healthier economy if people observed the same kind of approach: not so much poverty, but what was given to us from the very beginning of time, in creation, which is to be good stewards. When the Lord gave dominion, he didn’t mean you can do whatever you want and rape and pillage the earth. He meant be good stewards. A good lord doesn’t drive his people into slavery, abuse them, and beat them; he treats all the people within his jurisdiction as people who must be nourished, informed, and strengthened. And let’s be honest, there’s also a tremendous amount of self-interest in that, because the stronger your people are, the stronger your lordship is. The stronger the American people are, the stronger the American government can be. There’s a definite relationship there. So we would expect that same notion of stewardship, which is really what we mean when we say poverty and living together in communion. It’s about how we steward the resources we have, and that applies outside the congregation as well.

The exact same thing applies to chastity and good judgment, because the key is that you’re not objectifying your fellow human being, regardless. Recently there has been a lot of backlash against the LGBTQ community, and our trans brothers and sisters especially are having a really difficult time now. We should keep them in our prayers all the time, because it’s really dangerous for them now. But we need to understand that it is not intended that we discriminate against anyone for their sexual orientation or identity. Neither does it mean that these things are licenses to do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. No. We expect you always to respect others as you expect to be respected: do unto others. So if you start objectifying people and treating them like objects for your desire, whether you’re in the order or not, you are violating God’s law.

Yes, but different vows. The third order is very different. Think of a lay person living in the world, with a job and so on. Those vows are different. If you are a brother, a sister, or ordained clergy, first or second order, those also have different vows. And it’s possible to be a brother, which requires a bit more commitment than the third order, and still be in the world. Diversity of service means diversity of commitment, and that means there has to be diversity in the vows.

For the third order, the main thing is understanding the difference between simplicity and poverty. A vow of simplicity means I will live as simply as possible: no ostentation, no keeping up with the Joneses, no vainglory. You’re not out there to shine and be a peacock. You’re out there to live humbly. In the sense of humility, the two vows are the same, but they’re practiced differently, for practical reasons. If you’re in the order, you may not need to own a car, because there’s one car and we all share it. But if you’re in the world, you may absolutely need a car to get to work, to go shopping, and all of that. And that’s okay. That kind of ownership is normal, natural, and necessary. It’s those things that make the difference between us being a burden and us understanding and helping you. And you get home, and before you start your busy evening, you join us for evening prayer. You let go of the stresses of the day; you relax yourself, relax your mind, relax your soul. Now the time you’ve set aside in the evening to spend with your family has a whole different color and feel to it. The same thing holds across the board: the vows are different because they reflect the different ways you are called to live your life of service.

The three orders are very typical of religious orders, especially in the Catholic Church. This is normal, because we have different levels of commitment. One is called the first order, then the second order, then the third order; we inherited that from the tradition. It does not imply that the first order is somehow superior or better. It’s not a hierarchy, it’s not a priority. It’s just different.

The first order is made up of people who have taken vows of ordination: priests, deacons, and bishops. These are people who have consecrated themselves and their lives and have been given, through apostolic succession, the authority to do things like celebrate the Mass, hear confessions, baptize, join people in holy matrimony, officiate at weddings and funerals, and all these different roles and tasks. But what they really are is service. When you commit yourself to an ordained life, you understand that you are acting in the person of Christ in a very particular way, and service is a big part of it.

Within the first order, we know that a bishop can ordain a priest, but a priest cannot ordain a priest. So there is a separation of powers, if you will, within the first order. A deacon can preach, but a deacon cannot consecrate the body and blood of Christ; a priest can. So within the first order there are at least three ranks that have to be respected. Once you’re made a deacon, you’re a deacon forever, and you should always live out your diaconate in caring for the poor and the marginalized, and in preparing the table. That is everybody’s job, but it is the deacon’s primary job. You don’t stop being a deacon if you become a priest. You still carry that level of service. You still have to care for the poor and the marginalized. You’re still responsible for preparing the table where the sacrifice is going to be made. As a priest, you can’t confirm as the bishop can, and you can’t ordain other priests as the bishop can. It’s important to understand that those levels of service and levels of commitment are different, but they’re all within the first order. And all being in the first order means is that you are ordained. You can be an ordained priest and work full-time outside the church. That happens all the time.

So the order doesn’t necessarily reflect what kind of vows you’re taking. You could be a priest and take a vow of celibacy: I’m never going to marry; I am surrendering the sexual part of my life and giving it to God as a gift. Or, even though you’re working in the world, you don’t want to take a vow of simplicity; you want to take a vow of poverty. That’s a different thing. Because you’re working in the world, it might be a little harder, but we’ll figure out together how you can live out that life. So there’s not a one-to-one relationship between the order and the vows. Generally it works that way, though, especially if you are attached to a community and living in communion, because if you’re living in communion, it’s pretty much a vow of poverty.

But even there, let’s say you’re second order, a brother or a sister. You teach; that’s your job. You go out in the morning, teach your classes, come home, and have your duties to the house. You live in communion, but you work in the world. A vow of poverty may not work for you because you’re caring for your elderly mother or father. We’re sensitive even to that. So even if you’re living in communion, you may not have the same vows, because of individual circumstances. We don’t want people to feel obligated to take a vow simply because it’s the rules. That’s not what love is. Love looks at the totality of the person: the totality of their experience, the totality of their context, the totality of their capability. We look at all of that, and we bring you into our congregation with a heart full of love, so that you can fulfill your love in the best way you possibly can, given all of those things.

So that’s the first order. The second order is people who have accepted a lay but consecrated life. That’s very different from being a lay person who observes the rule, lives the rule, and practices love the way we teach it, but does so in a different capacity because they’re working full-time, they have families, and so on. It’s a very different type of commitment.

The habit is optional, and lay people can get a habit. A lot of third-order Dominicans and Franciscans are actually buried in their habits. It’s not frivolous for them; it’s very serious. How often would you wear it? If you come to one of our Masses, symposiums, or synods and you feel like donning a habit, you’re perfectly entitled to. It’s unusual (most lay people do not have one or wear one), but canonically, you’re allowed to. Brothers, on the other hand, are expected to wear their habits, not necessarily at their jobs, because that may or may not be practical, but whenever they have the opportunity to be in habit, they should be in habit. Even that is relatively optional.

I like to wear the habit or clerical clothes, depending on the circumstances, because I believe we are always and everywhere a sign and a symbol, and looking like one helps, because you don’t know when you’re going to bump into somebody who needs that. They may reach out to you and say, can we talk? They may look at you and say, I hate the church. Or they may say, can I have a blessing? You don’t know what you’re going to run into. But if they don’t see that, they won’t know to come to you, unless you have that saintly glow about you, which some do, and they attract people to them, which is a great charism. You see what I mean? So the habit is important.

The habit consists of a tunic. In most areas it’s black, but we’re sensitive to those in the tropics, who may wear white. Generally, though, it’s a black habit. The tunic is a simple body covering. It’s long; it goes down to your ankles and down to your wrists, with two big sleeves. Basic black. Some have slits for pockets; that’s fine. Then it has a capuche, which is a hood that covers from the chest to the back. The hood usually comes down to a triangle in the back, and it’s meant to cover the entire head, and even more if you pull it all the way forward. Around the waist we use a black leather belt. On the right side of the belt there’s a purse, if you will, that holds the Scriptures. The idea is that this is where a soldier would keep his arms, or in the old days, his sword. Our weapon is the word of God, so we carry the Bible instead. It is also perfectly justified and encouraged, as our brothers the Dominicans do, to carry the rosary as well. So you may think of the rosary as our shield and the Bible as our sword. Those are the things that are required. Many people wear sandals with their habit, which is perfectly appropriate, but in certain climates that’s not the best thing to do, so shoes are perfectly fine as well.

Oh, that is a Great Question! And I am sorry if I gave that impression. That is absolutely not the case. Certainly, orders and congregations are more common among the Catholic Churches, and they vary as much as the churches themselves do. Remember, many churches hold to the catholic tradition: Roman, Orthodox, Anglican/Episcopal, Old Catholic, and Lutheran. And beyond those churches, Christians come in many shapes and sizes too: there are Methodists, Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Baptists, and nondenominational churches. All are welcome. ALL are welcome. What matters is if we have a common love of God, Christ, Holy Spirit, and a deep commitment to Love and serve God’s children. Can a Baptist live in communion with a Catholic priest… yes. How do I know? I’m ordained as a Catholic priest and as a Baptist minister. Remember before when I said you really shouldn’t let people define what is and what is not possible; when they tell you If you are this thing, then you can’t be this other thing, don’t believe them. With God, anything is possible.

So, when we say all are welcome, we mean ALL ARE WELCOME. Will we need more than one service on Sunday, or ecumenical services? Maybe. So what? If my friends are coming over and some have gluten allergies and others have lactose allergies, would I serve them all the same food? Love requires us to accept you as you are, to welcome you, and to nourish you. And that is what we are about. ALL ARE TRULY WELCOME.