St. Peter Damian was one of the great reformers of the Church in the 11th century. He was left an orphan and his childhood was not exempt from hardships and suffering.
When Peter Damian was about 28 he became in 1035 a hermit at the Benedictine monastery at Fonte Avellana in northern Italy. He was subsequently chosen in 1043 prior of the monastery. He wrote treatises on the ascetic life and on Church reform. He worked very closely with the popes of his time on reform matters and served them on several special diplomatic missions to France and Germany. After one such mission, Peter Damian fell ill on his way back to Rome and died at the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Maria in Faenza on the night of Feb. 22–23, 1072.
Peter Damian had a great love for silence and solitude. Pope Benedict XVI said, “He described the hermit’s cell as the ‘parlour in which God converses with men.’ For him, living as a hermit was the peak of Christian existence, ‘the loftiest of the states of life’ because the monk, now free from the bonds of worldly life and of his own self, receives ‘a dowry from the Holy Spirit and his happy soul is united with its heavenly Spouse’. This is important for us today too, even though we are not monks: to know how to make silence within us to listen to God’s voice, to seek, as it were, a ‘parlour’ in which God speaks with us: learning the word of God in prayer and in meditation is the path to life.”
Peter Damian taught that Christ must be the centre of a monk’s life. He said, “May Christ be heard in our language, may Christ be seen in our life, may he be perceived in our hearts.” Pope Benedict XVI commented: “Intimate union with Christ engages not only monks but all the baptized. Here we find a strong appeal for us too not to let ourselves be totally absorbed by the activities, problems and preoccupations of every day, forgetting that Jesus must truly be the centre of our life.”
Bishop Jacob Muricken (a prelate in India who became a hermit in August 2022) said, “We live in a society where every space and moment is supposed to be ‘filled’ with projects, activities, and noise. There is no time to listen and converse. Ours is a time of continuous movement, often leading to restlessness, with the risk of ‘doing for the sake of doing.’ We must resist this temptation by trying ‘to be’ before trying ‘to do.’ Man can encounter God only in silence, prayer, and internal and external solitude.”
Bishop Muricken diagnosed the spiritual crisis of the Church today: “The spirit of the world has attained more space in people’s hearts because of the low-voltage light of the religions.”
The prelate explained: “Prayer, contemplation, simplicity, fasting, abstinence, silence, seclusion from the world, etc., are inseparable parts of true spirituality. Unfortunately, such spirituality is not well cared for and promoted by the Church. The result is that genuine spirituality is put aside to the periphery. We could add here the warning of an eminent theologian, Karl Barth: ‘The Church must not allow itself to be swept away by the movements of the age.’ Erosion and decadence of faith-based Gospel values and morals have become the style of the age. An antidote for spiritual diseases is to follow the principles of proper conduct inculcated by the saints. According to St. Teresa of Ávila, silent prayer that leads to contemplation is essential to union with God in the midst of and despite our multi-faceted engagements. So the Church, which is going through a spiritual crisis, is decisive for the years to come. We must give utmost importance to the rich traditions of the Church, especially to hermitism and monasticism.”
The success of the saints, such as St. Peter Damian, in reforming the Church in the past reminds us that true spirituality is the key to genuine renewal.
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伯多祿達彌盎在默禱中與主相遇
聖伯多祿達彌盎是11世紀教會最偉大的改革家之一。他成了孤兒，他的童年也不能免於艱辛和痛苦。
當伯多祿達彌盎大約28歲時，他成為（1035年）義大利北部豐特阿韋拉納本篤會修道院的隱士。他隨後被選為修道院會長（1043年）。他寫了關於苦修生活和教會改革的論文。他與當時的教宗在改革問題上密切合作，並前往法國和德國為教宗作外交任務。在一次這樣的任務之後，彼得在返回羅馬的途中生病，並於 1072 年 2 月 22 日至 23 日晚上在法恩扎的聖瑪利亞本篤會修道院去世。
伯多祿達彌盎非常喜歡沉默和獨處。教宗本篤十六世說：『他將隱士的房間描述為「天主與人交談的客廳」。對他來說，隱修士的生活是基督徒生活的頂峰。「生命中最崇高的狀態」因為這修士現在擺脫了世俗生活和他自己的束縛，獲得了「來自聖神的嫁妝，他快樂的靈魂與天上的淨配結合」。即使我們不是隱修士，這對今天的我們也很重要：知道如何使我們內心保持沉默，以聆聽天主的聲音，—如以往，去尋找一個天主與我們交談的「客廳」：在禱告和默想中學習天主的話語是通往生命的道路。』
伯多祿達彌盎教導說，基督應該是隱修士們生命的中心。他說『願基督在我們的語言中被聽到，願基督在我們的生活中被看見，願祂在我們心中被察覺。』教宗本篤十六世補充說：『與基督的親密結合不僅涉及修士，而且涉及所有受洗的人。在這裡，我們也發現了一個強烈的呼籲，不要讓自己完全沉浸在每天的活動、問題和關注中，而忘記耶穌必須真正成為我們生活的中心。』
雅各布·穆里肯主教(印度的一位主教，於 2022 年 8 月成為獨修士)說：『我們生活在一個社會中，每個空間和時刻都應該被計劃、活動和噪音“填滿” 沒有時間聆聽和交談。我們是一個不斷運轉的時代，往往導致躁動不安，有「為做而做」的風險。我們必須抵制這種誘惑，在嘗試“做”之前先嘗試「成為」。人只有在沉默、祈禱和內外的孤獨中才能與天主相遇。』
穆里肯主教診斷出今天教會的精神危機：『世界精神因為宗教的低壓光而在人們心中獲得了更多的空間。』主教解釋說：「祈禱、沉思、純潔、大小齋、靜默、與世隔絕等，是真正靈修不可分割的部分。不幸的是，這種靈修沒有得到教會的良好照顧和推廣。結果是真正的靈修被放在邊緣。我們可以在這裡加上一位傑出的神學家卡爾·巴特的警告：「教會決不能讓自己被時代的運動沖走。」基於信仰的福音價值觀和道德的侵蝕和頹廢已成為時代的風格。靈魂疾病的解藥是遵循聖人們灌輸的適當行為原則。根據亞維拉的聖女德蘭的說法，導致沉思的默禱對於在我們多方面的參與中與天主結合至關重要。因此，正在經歷屬靈危機的教會對未來幾年具有決定性意義。我們必須極其重視教會的豐富傳統，特別是隱修士和獨修者。
聖人，如聖伯多祿達彌盎，過去在改革教會方面的成功提醒我們，真正的靈修是真正更新的關鍵。
