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For a Perpetual Remembrance
Our dear son Joseph Silbermann, a duly professed Canon Regular and Abbot of the Monastery of St. Saviour, of the Order of Prémontré in Bavaria, and Visitor-General of the same Order for the Provinces of Bavaria, the Tyrol, and the Palatinate, has recently set before us: that St. Norbert, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Father of the Religious of Prémontré, in the year 1120, established and instituted, at the request of a large number of seculars, an Association for the benefit of those who live in the world, and are known under the name of the Third Order. It was speedily embraced by the many persons of rank in France, Brabant, Germany and Spain. The members are called Brothers of the Third Order of Prémontré. Under their ordinary lay dress they wear the white scapular, recite daily certain prayers, fast more frequently than the generality of Christians, that is to say, during the whole of Advent and on Friday of each week. This Third Order still exists in several districts of Bavaria.
However, many of the faithful are frightened by the severity of the fasts. Now the Premonstratensians of the Province of Bavaria desire to develop the Third Order, so as to procure the salvation of souls and a greater perfection of life. The have accordingly mitigated the ancient regulation as to fasting. Moreover, the necessary permission and confirmation having ben granted to our dear son, the present Abbot-General of the who by virtue of the statutes of the said Order, approved by the Apostolic authority, has th epower to admit seculars with the title of Brothers and Sisters, and to give them participation both in life and death in all the Masses, prayers, and other spiritual goods and good works of the Order of Prémontré. New rules have been made for the Third Order on the basis of the old Rules, and which are appended.
Explanation:
This preamble of the Sovereign Pontiff is simply a historical sketch of the Third Order. Two chief ideas can be easily recognised in it. First, the Third Order is not a fantastic after-growth added at a later time to the work of St. Norbert. Its real author is the illustrious Patriarch himself. He it was who at the request of numerous lay persons erected it and established it in favour of men of good will who were obliged to live in the world. Moreover, in his idea, the Third Order is not the same as the religious life properly so called, for the religious life necessarily includes the idea of the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. As in the Third Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic, a special branch may be admitted to live together in community under a special Rule, but ordinarily there will be no vows of any kind except the baptismal vows, the observance of which will be made at once stricter and easier. The Tertiaries are to be lay people affiliating themselves as far as possible to the Order properly so called and following a particular Rule without abandoning the world. Association in prayers, good works, communions, union in faith, and Christian living - such rules are the essence of the Third Order of Prémontré.
It is not, however, a simple Congregation or Confraternity. It is much more than that. It may be called a radiation of the Norbertine Spirit, a peculiar form of the Gospel spirit, well defined and easily adopted. Benedict XIV, in his Constitution of 1751, never calls it by any other name than that of the Third Order of Prémontré. It is a Canonical Association, recognized and approved by the Church, that is to say, by the Sovereign Pontiff, who is its Head and Chief.
The Apostolic Brief sums up in a few words the history of the Third Order of St. Norbert. Founded by that great Saint, it was at once embraced by numbers of lay persons in France, Brabant, Germany, and Spain. This eagerness to join the Institute of the Canons Regular in those times ought to stimulate and encourage the fervour of the Tertiaries of the present time. Noble examples have ever had the power of exciting to perfection certain souls that hunger and thirst after justice.
But an obstacle presented itself even to those most determined to win the kingdom of Heaven (which suffers violence). When the Patriarch of the Premonstratensians opened in the twelfth century the doors of his Institute to the people of the world, the human frame was, generally speaking, more robust and the will more energetic. In the eighteenth century there was greater weakness of frame and character, the best no longer had the courage to embrace the austerities practised by preceding ages. Accordingly, Benedict XIV, exercising his supreme authority, mitigated the fasts and abstinences, taking care at the same time to preserve the spirit of mortification and self-denial, which is the very substance of all Christian life.
The present age, still weaker in soul and body than the preceding, has learnt to value this relaxation, now almost necessary. The Rules of the Third Order have therefore nothing to frighten those of weak health and good will can find substitutes for all exterior practices.
These remarks have their place at the commencement of the Rule of the Tertiaries in order to remind them in a few words of the position which the Third Order of St. Norbert holds in the bosom of the Catholic Church. They may, moreover, encourage themselves to study it and to grasp its full meaning by the reflection that it is the work of a Saint, and that the works of a Saint are always attended with special benedictions. They may encourage themselves to an exact observance of their Rule by surveying the vast field which is opened to them. Following in the train of countless holy souls who have shed glory on the Order of Prémontré, they have the right and the duty of striving to reach the highest pinnacle of evangelical perfection by simply using the means afforded to the Norbertine Brotherhood. To them, indeed, in a special manner, are addressed those words of our Divine Saviour: "Be ye perfect as also your Heavenly Father is perfect." [Matt. v. 48]
