What our Rule says about usThese excerpts from our Rule will help explain what the CCG is. Foundation and Principle, chapter 1We are the Community of the Companions of God, brothers and sisters sharing our lives as we struggle to live the Beatitudes and the Two Great Commandments which Jesus gave his followers. We are a community of adults who accept this Rule and the disciplines of our community life freely, as we attempt to become, with each other, more fully human, more fully alive to God's presence in us, in all other persons, and in his splendid creation. The Community does not exist to govern every detail of the members' lives, but to provide support and love, direction and shared experience, encouragement and constructive criticism in our never-ending quest to become “the glory of God: the human person fully alive.” Foundation and Principle, chapter 2 The Community of the Companions of God is an ecumenical community sponsored and fostered by the Celtic Catholic Church. We are men and women either single or married, celibate or sharing our love uniquely with another. We live a monastic life after the celtic fashion, suited to our various stations in life in our modern setting. We are open to the laity and clergy, drawing people from different traditions of God's Church into a unity based on the celtic monastic ideal, which sees the Church as community. Our prophetic vision is to see our family of love become the model for Christian living everywhere. Seeking to be a home to all who wish to become “companions of God,” we allow for various life-styles, so that all who are so called may find their place with us. We are all are under vow to follow the same Rule, we all obey the same constitution, and are joined together by the same spiritual parents. |
We are a dispersed (i.e. we don't all live together) group of Christians who try to help each other become better Christians by mutual accountability and by living according to the ideals found in our Rule. We are almost, but not quite, all members of the Celtic Catholic Church, and we are all found in the United States. We are a small group, with, at present, only ten names on our official roster.
Although we do not live together in community, our Rule envisions a combination of life-styles under the same Rule: single people and families living in their own homes, as well as brothers and sisters living together in community (monasteries). We are not there yet, but it is the goal we strive and hope for. Living dispersed as we do does not make things easy. It probably is a more difficult way to reach our goal than living in community would be, since we do not have each other around all day to keep us accountable to our ideals.
The heart of our day-to-day practice as Companions is the weekly Chapter. Each week, we read a chapter from our Rule. If a member is isolated from others completely, then he/she reads and meditates on the chapter alone. But we really try to create small communities of people living near us to read together, share, and hold ourselves acountable. Monthly chapters are also possible, if there are folk who can't meet each week due to distance. And every year we hold the Annual Chapter, when we all try to get together. At this meeting we also conduct business.
Members are called to prayer, penance, study, and apostolic service. Are you called to this with us?
In large part because of the difficulty of long-distance community, we do not solicit membership over the Internet. However, we have no desire to be exclusive, so we offer this information to the public. If you feel a call from God or a strong urging from within to live by our holy Rule, you are welcome to get in touch with us. But be warned, we will expect certain things of you, as we do from ourselves. We make every effort to meet each other at the Annual Chapter meeting; we pay dues; we actively try to be a part of each other's lives as much as possible; we commit to regular prayer for each other; we try to find other folk near us to create a weekly Chapter meeting with; and the Rule itself calls us to a wide range of commitments and changes of attitude.