Day Two – Handing on What We Have Received

Question:  Tradition is often cited as an authoritative source, with roots in the past. How does it function in the present Rule, and in the community’s life?

Br. Kevin Hackett: Tradition is such a rich word, which in its Latin origins (traditio) means simply, “that which is handed on or over.” A past of some sort is presumed, of course, but the orientation is toward the future (for us, God’s future) rather than the past. I experience our Rule of Life to be just that—and I can say that because I come from that tier of men who arrived in the community after the Rule had become a finished, or I should say more accurately, a published document. And I already have the sense that while there is much in it that I want to see handed on to the next generation, there are parts that are clearly not going to move forward in the natural process of winnowing and revision.