Who Will Join?

The Adherents

A friend suggested the term. It means to stick. The term member seems passive and group-oriented. As example, some contemporary hermits formed internet support groups, belong to forums, use religious titles before their names and group identifying initials following. It seems many religious life seekers lean toward institutionalization of the vocations.  Members of groups, orders, institutes, and communities may belong, but adherence implies action. Who indeed will stick to, respect, comprehend, visualize, and represent the Order of the Present Moment?

It could be anyone, but the desire for Christ must be intense and may include a desire for the desire for Christ. Or the desire for the desire for the desire for Christ. Desire is key,  desire for Christ and yet feasible for anyone. While it may be more challenging for a docker-type personality to learn to float with the mystery and spiritual intonations, a floater-type personality may be challenged to discipline, to adhere, to stick to the will of God as He wills in each present moment.  Regardless, docker, floater or any combination thereof make fine Adherents.

While traditional religious orders have levels of membership beginning with entry level members called postulants or aspirants, the Order of the Present Moment obviously unfolds moment by moment, thus a time frame or levels is unnecessary. 

When traditional order postulants are familiarized to the order's purpose and mission, structure and daily life, they next become novices, usually by making initial vows and wearing a habit modified in design from the full members' habits. A novice category is not feasible for the OPM adherent because the habits are whatever the person is wearing in the present moment. The first point of being a beginner is a moment, and then one is what in the next moment?

At the conclusion of being instructed and experiencing, for a time, life of the order (including prayer, worship, spiritual reading and behavioral formation), the traditional religious order discerns with the novice if he or she has a vocation to profess final vows. Some orders require a succession of professions—postulant, first, and final profession, usually following a year or up to three years each of formation. 

After final profession in which the novice becomes a consecrated religious (for approved traditional orders/groups are allowed a type of canonically legal consecration), they wear the habit of the other professed religious. These vows are for life, unless the religious determines otherwise after much discernment and in consultation with the superior. A dispensation of vows is then allowed, and the religious returns to private life.

No such distinction or regimen is possible for the Adherent of the Order of the Present Moment. Again, the moments follow one upon another, and the progression occurs in more or less measureless fashion. If one has made the vow before God (and this may occur with a priest receiving the vow in a private profession), the learning continues but in an avowed, privately consecrated manner. 

However there are always events and experiences, previous learning, that flow in the course of life, so that the next phase of learning will more or less evolve in accordance with the Adherent's stick-to-itiveness. There are two main factors involved. One is the Adherent's intensity of desire for God and the ability to listen, learn and live spiritually. It is essential to be aware of and grasp the OPM's teaching and direction which will lead to transformation. The other factor is the Adherent's ability to accept, in grateful awareness, God's mercy and love.

How does a person intensify desire for God and the ability to listen, learn and live spiritually? Professing the vow is a start. It must be assumed that the person is baptized, confirmed and a practicing Catholic or Trinitarian Christian. If this is not the case, then take the steps necessary by speaking with a Catholic priest, or a minister of a Christian denomination that is Trinitarian—adheres to Christian belief, baptism and life lived in and of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

While any Christian may be an Adherent in the Order of the Present Moment, there may be some stumbling blocks if not a Catholic. Yet if drawn by the Holy Spirit, make the vow, and see where God leads. If the Adherent is open to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus Christ and to maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, the OPM unfolds in Christ's Church. The Adherent will surely at some point be moved to conversion and enter Christ's Church.

It is within the Church—Holy Mother Church—that a person's desire for God will intensify through the Sacraments of Eucharist (Communion), Reconciliation (Confession), and as needed, Anointing of the Sick. For some, there may be additional sacraments such as Marriage or Holy Orders. Already mentioned are the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, and these need now be assumed. 

If there are those who seek God in other religions or belief systems, the Order of the Present Moment may not be of particular interest. But anyone may become an Adherent, even a soul furthest from Catholicism. Conversions occur in every moment. God alone knows each soul and each soul's life choices for eternity. And that discussion is beyond the scope of this exercise.

(This topic is continued in the next post.)