Centuries of tradition have painted monks and brothers as silent, perhaps balding holy men who pray, teach, and preserve the written word as scribes.
Religious orders like the Marist Brothers have always done more than this ancient and often inaccurate image portrays; yet, it still comes as a surprise to learn that in order to recruit new members, the Marist Brothers are launching a campaign over the Internet using such sites as youtube.com.
The Marist Brothers are a 190-year-old international order of Catholic teaching brothers with about 200 members in their 14 Marist High Schools in the United States, including one in Bayonne.
The campaign, which will use online and other venues to reach men from their teens to their mid 30s, seeks to communicate in “honest, direct and down to earth” language.
The campaign features personal stories from Marist Brothers through a new Web site at http://www.maritbr.com.
“Real Brothers; Real Stories” will feature video spots placed on YouTube.com and podcasts syndicated to iTunes and other venues. Vocation Director Brother Steve Milan has also created a profile on MySpace.com to interact with members there.
The Marist Brothers Web site answers some of the basic questions about who the brothers are and what they do, such as “Do brothers pray all day?” and “How is a brother different from a priest?”
Brothers and monks are frequently associated with each other, but the Web site describes the differences.
“While some brothers are monks who dedicate themselves to a more contemplative lifestyle in a monastery, other brothers who are not monks focus on providing direct services to others,” the site says.
Marist Brothers, for instance, work in education in a variety of capacities with a special focus on youth. Some are counselors, teachers, school administrators, and campus ministers.
Trying to reverse a decline
Like many other religious orders, the Marist Brothers have seen a steady decline in membership over the last few decades.
The decline, said Brother Steve Schlitte of Marist High School in Bayonne (which serves students throughout Hudson County), is due to a number of factors. For instance, the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II (1962 to 1965), redefined the roles that individuals played in the church.
In increasing public participation in church activities, Vatican II gave religious people options other than joining religious orders. While the changes gave new energy to the church, they meant that people felt they could serve the church without having to commit to a lifelong career.
“Vatican II changed the Catholic mindset.,” Brother Steve said. “Many felt they could do church ministry as lay people.”
Brother Steve said changes in society itself tended to discount religious order as a viable vocation.
Unlike earlier immigrant-based social structures that centered around the church, many Americans see the church as only one aspect of their lives, not as central as it has been in the past.
One important and significant obstacle to many may be the idea of living a life of celibacy (without sexual relations).
“In a society that is highly sexual, not being sexually active almost seems pathological,” Brother Steve said.
In seeking members, Marist Brothers must address these issues. Why should a person seek a relgious life and give up the idea of pursing wealth and family?
Even some of Brother Steve’s younger family members think of him as a little estranged from general society.
The changes, of course, can be surmounted since religious life can provide some people with the answers they search their lives to find.
This is not a refuge for people to hide away from reality, Brother Steve cautions, but rather a deliberate choice for people who hunger for spirituality and different values.
In taking vows of poverty, people in religious orders like the Marists live a communal life of sharing and spirituality, focusing on teaching and doing good, rather than on the pursuit of wealth.
A teaching order, Marist Brothers also teach by example, showing people what it means to live a holy life, and thus providing an example of spirituality.
Brother Steve’s routine
Daily routines vary, but for Brother Steve is starts with rising, showering, and morning prayers.
“I like to say that I attend mass every day, but school consumes a large part of my day,” he said.
The day concludes as it begins, with prayer.
Brother Steve said he often reflects on Christian values, and he understands that people in religious orders like the Marist Brothers serve as symbols in society for how to live a simple life of poverty, where a group of people can share possessions.
“You learn to listen to the needs of the group and respond to those needs,” he said.
“Living in the community and the coming together of people who are not blood relatives becomes a lesson for the general community.”
In some ways, people who join religious orders are working and living in the community, and their ability to work out many of the details of communal life speaks volumes to the community at large.
“How we work out living together can speak very powerfully,” he said.
He said religious life is about an individual’s quest for God and that religious orders like the Martist Brothers are “like-minded people on that quest.”
People do more as a group than as individuals, and are often accountable to each other.
“In this togetherness we find our spirituality,” he said.
This is a kind of search for meaning and to make sense of the world.
In recruiting people, Brother Steve said he looks for “well-balanced people,” who could succeed in the outside world, but choose to seek this.
“We are a teaching order that works with young people, so we would look for someone who may not have the answers, but has framed the questions well,” Brother Steve said. “That person would have to be hopeful and come to this with some experience in life. We would would be concerned about someone who had never dated or had no relationships. We want someone who is well-rounded, well-balanced and aware.”
The Marists Brothers are looking for men 22 or older who have finished with college and want to explore the religious life. Those seeking the religious order have plenty of time to test the life and change their minds, since induction occurs in stages and people can withdraw at various points if they choose.
“We’re not asking much, just for someone to give away his life,” Brother Steve said. “He must believe in hard work. What we promise is that a person can be happy, but it is not a bed of roses.”