When it first arrived in my inbox, I skimmed through Rose’s email with little interest. My emails tend to pile up and this particular invitation held no immediate draw. Stephen and I are planning to go out to the Bruderhof community for dinner and a campfire ... It wasn’t for lack of enthusiasm on Rose’s part that I didn’t give the invitation a second thought, but rather on account of a kind of skepticism on mine. Life is full of things to do, work, home life, side projects, the regular routine, even the regular “CL” events. What would I have to gain from meeting strange new people who seemed to have very little in common with me? But in the face of Rose’s pointed questions when I saw her that week at School of Community, Are you going to come with Stephen and me to meet the Bruderhof? ... Why not? They really want to get to know us! I decided to go, more out of a desire not to disappoint Rose than because of any expectation that there might be something new and good waiting for me there.

We arrived at the Bruderhof community late in the evening because we had come from our own CL community day held at a Franciscan retreat house 40 minutes away. When we first arrived, Dana greeted us warmly and brought us a meal of homegrown vegetables and bbq chicken that had been raised there on the farm. Over dinner, we briefly introduced ourselves and met some of the other Bruderhof members. After dinner, we joined about two hundred people of all ages, families with young children, elderly couples, and young men and women, around a bonfire as they sang songs and the children made smores. After the evening bonfire, families returned to their lodgings and we spent a few more hours chatting with Dana, his wife Maureen, Clare and other senior members of the Bruderhof community.



They wanted to know all about us. They asked us about our approach to education, what authors we read, the structure of our community, the different forms of living out the faithfulness to the Church through the charism of Communion and Liberation. And they wanted to know us personally, our personal stories. How did Stephen become Catholic and when did he meet CL? What is Memores Domini, when did I become a member and what is particular about its form within CL and the Church? How did Rose come to meet the Bruderhof community? Where was she from? What did she teach? All of this rich conversation took place outside at dusk as we sat watching the sunset behind the acres of lush, green farmland that nourishes the various Bruderhof communities throughout the US through farming and cattle production. We also had questions for them. Who are you? Who was your founder and when and why did you come to the US? How did you hear about Fr. Giussani? You have schools? What is your educational method? How do you become a Bruderhof member? I was particularly intrigued by Clare, an older woman who was not raised in the Bruderhof community, but rather decided to leave her job thirty years ago and join the Bruderhof as an adult. She is now the creative director of Plough Publishing, a publishing house sponsored by the Bruderhof community. It was Clare’s energy, depth of perspective, and authentic curiosity to know us that struck me most and made me realize I was experiencing a unique and enriching encounter that I would have missed out on had Rose not sent out her invitation and urged me to lift my head up out of my predetermined plans.

This is what makes our companionship so essential for my life. I have friends who stir up my heart, even unwittingly. They prompt me to look up and notice what is happening, just as the title of the Fraternity Exercises says, the Lord speaks to the heart now, “See, I am doing something new: do you not perceive it?” And even if I respond lethargically in front of a proposal, Christ takes whatever small opening He finds to breathe life into the embers of hope that smolder within.

As we walked back to our cars that evening I couldn’t help but chatter excitedly to Rose and Stephen, “We have to come back! We have to tell everyone about these people. I can’t believe I almost didn’t come!” I’m sure it is just the beginning.

Annemarie Bacich, New York, USA