Blessing of the Teilhard Guesthouse

It was a pleasure for me, as the community's chaplain, to participate with them in a house blessing and Eucharist on September 20.  What a wonderful way to celebrate their beginning as a community.  Several prayers struck me as giving us glimpses into the community's values.

One is their inclusion of a collect for their community's namesake:

Eternal God, the whole cosmos sings of your glory, from the dividing of a single cell to the vast expanse of interstellar space: We bless you for your theologian and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who perceived the divine in the evolving creation. Enable us to become faithful stewards of your divine works and heirs of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Another prayer was for the blessing of the guesthouse.  We were gathered in their chapel room for this first blessing prayer:

Loving God, you have taught us to welcome one another as Christ welcomed us: Bless those who from time to time share the hospitality of this home. May your fatherly care shield them, the love of your dear Son preserve them from all evil, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit keep them in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Also, I was particularly touched by the prayer for a child as the community eagerly awaits the birth of Liz and Jesse's child.  We gathered in their apartment for this blessing prayer:

Heavenly Father, your Son our Savior took young children into his arms and blessed them: Embrace the child whose house this is with your unfailing love, protect her from all danger, and bring her in safety to each new day, until she greets with joy the great day of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Some Basics

So, before we wax theological and get all spiritual, it is probably good to describe our context; the basic setting of our communal living.

The People – We are 5 (soon to be 6) Episcopal seminarians and family at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), a seminary of the Episcopal Church and a member of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). We are myself, Matt, a Master of Divinity (MDiv) from the Diocese of Utah who also has a wife and daughter back in Salt Lake City (I commute weekly), Lauren – an MDiv student from the Diocese of Arizona, Jonathan – a Master of Arts (History) student from Portland, and Liz and Jesse – a married couple soon to have a baby girl. Liz is an MDiv student from the Diocese of New Hampshire and Jesse is a pre-school teacher. Liz, Lauren, and I are in the process to become priests in the Episcopal Church.

The Structure – We live on the second floor of an eccentric building owned by All Souls Episcopal Parish in Berkeley, California. The first floor is occupied by Episcopal friars, members of the Society of St. Francis. The third floor is occupied by a Deacon in the Diocese of California. Our floor consists of 3 apartments – Lauren's, one shared by Jonathan and I which also contains a former living-room we have converted to a chapel/house heart, and Liz and Jesse's apartment.

Here's our building. The Teilhard Guesthouse is essentially all the apartments/windows, etc. along that wooden balcony on the 2nd floor.

We all essentially have our own space. Even the apartment Jonathan and I share actually has separate bathrooms and we can have as much privacy as we want. We use our funny little chapel area as the house “heart,” for prayer, checking in, etc.

The Wider Community - We are closely connected to All Soul's Episcopal Parish. We are, in fact, guests of this parish (hence our name) and do not pay rent. We are committed, nonetheless, to worship and life with them, and all that entails. We also have made a commitment to not separate ourselves from CDSP and to maintain close ties in worship and community life there as well. Finally, we have a spiritual advisor, Rev. Dan, who is a resource to help guide us in forming our community.

A Note On the Name

After an enjoyable evening of discernment and discussion, we chose the name "Teilhard Guesthouse." The first part of the name refers to the Jesuit Theologian and Scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a provisional holy person (saint) in the Episcopal Calendar of Holy Women/Holy Men. While I can't speak for everyone in the group and hope others eventually weigh in, we really found a group resonance with his attempt to link faith and all of life, including his scientific understandings, and to never lose sight of a deep spirituality that would hold all of those issues. We very much resonated with his Collect:

Eternal God, the whole cosmos sings of your glory, from the dividing of a single cell to the vast expanse of interstellar space: We bless you for your theologian and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who perceived the divine in the evolving creation. Enable us to become faithful stewards of your divine works and heirs of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

 We also felt strongly that the name should include our sense of this as a guest house. We are guests of the local parish (as later posts will better describe) and we hope to be a place that also receives guests.

We thought through many possible names, after other saints, after Christian concepts, but in a really beautiful way Teilhard de Chardin's person and work felt like a good fit. We expect to continue to learn and grow through further reflection on him and his writings.

Intentional Community

This is a blog about a Christian intentional community. The idea has both an awesome formal sound to it and a bit of irony, like the rest of the world is stuck in “unintentional” communities(?!). In our case, what it means is that we are a group of seminarians and friends who have chosen not only to live together in close quarters but also with the intent of supporting one another in living as Christians in this world – exploring what that means, learning about the presence of God in our lives, and finding ways to be a benefit to the world as Christians. I hope, and I think the rest of us hope, to be able to use this blog as a means of tracking this little experiment – describing what we are doing and how we are doing it, what works and what doesn't.

Our hope for the community is to learn and experiment with ways of Christian intentional living. We realize that we are a bit of an odd case – a bunch of seminarians – but we suspect that at least some of our insights might have broader relevance. We think that – as our spiritual advisor pointed out (quoting) someone else – that there is a “little monk” in all people. We all sense that there continues today that ancient yearning in Christianity for community living. We also sense that the monastic model, while having much to say and teach us, might not be the perfect model in all respects for us or for others. We hope to find some tools that can be useful for Christian intentional living today. We look forward to the experiment/journey and your comments as well!