CHAPTER 3: EUCHARIST IN ECUMENICAL MONASTERIES 115 Two things are missing for pragmatic reasons: the offering of gifts by the faithful and the exchange of a sign of peace. In the past, the latter resulted in elaborate good-bye wishes amongst the guests, many of whom would depart straight after Mass. The Communion rite proceeds similar to the morning prayer with brothers assisting in administering Communion to their peers and the guests. Again, the non-Catholic brothers partake of Communion. The community has chosen always to have a Roman Catholic priest preside over the Sunday morning Mass as part of the routine of the community and the guests. However, they also provide ample opportunity for visiting clergy from other churches to celebrate the sacrament with the group that they accompany at other moments. 3.3 BOSE: ROMAN CATHOLIC AND ECUMENICAL The mission of Bose is described by Bose monk Adalberto Mainardi, when he writes: “This ‘ecumenical’ ministry of the community of Bose is rooted in the local church, and it carries out an ecclesial service both within its own diocese an in other local churches.”272 This ministry has been widely acknowledged and appreciated. The ecumenical significance of the community is illustrated by the appointment of Brother Enzo as consultor of the PCPCU in 2014. The pope also wrote the community on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2018: Its simple beginning became a significant mission that has fostered the renewal of religious life, interpreted as Gospel lived in the great monastic tradition. Within this current of grace, your Community has distinguished itself in its commitment to preparing the way of unity of the Christian Churches, becoming a place of prayer, of encounter and of dialogue among Christians, in view of the communion of faith and of love for which Jesus prayed.273 Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople addressed the community in similar terms: “Faithful ‘to the monastic tradition of the Fathers’, the community of Bose ‘rightly enjoys international prestige and recognition for its multifaceted 272 Adalberto Mainardi, “Monasticism and Ecumenism: The Monastic Community of Bose,” Review of Ecumenical Studies 12, no. 2 (2020): 261, https://doi.org/10.2478/ress-2020-0017. 273 “Letter of His Holiness to Enzo Bianchi to Mark the 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the Monastic Community of Bose (11 November 2018),” Vatican website, 2018, http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2018/documents/papa-francesco_ 20181111_lettera-enzobianchi-bose.html.
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