Modern age religious movements strive to revitalize faith in those areas in the culture where the religion is becoming more and more scare. These movements come in many forms from the infamous People’s Temple to the also infamous, yet still intact, Scientology. However, these attempts at revival can also happen on a smaller scale and within religions centuries old. For example, the Brotherhood of Hope is a new religious movement inside the Catholic Church that seeks to revitalize faith on secular college campuses. Stemming from similar roots as People’s Temple, its critical to ask, “Does this movement accomplish what it sets out to do?” Does the Brotherhood of Hope help bring religious life to a secular campus, or is it on a course that will lead to nine-hundred and nine people to drink cool-aid in the rainforests of Guyana? The least abrasive way of going about answering this question is by doing hands-on research in the community by simply participating in the various events the Brotherhood facilitates. Secondarily, these things can be known by interviewing members of the community.
The events and texts that will be explored at length in the coming paragraphs come from research done through personal experience, from immersion into the culture of the Catholic Student Union, which the Brotherhood is heavily involved in and immersion to the various events the Brotherhood supports. However, a good deal of this information also came from an interview conducted with one of the Brotherhood’s younger members who goes by the name of Brother Brandt. This interview, which spans over two days nearly a month apart, took the better part of two hours, roughly one hour each day. Unfornutely, personal history and interviewer bias severely affected this interview; instead of focusing on the Brotherhood, Brother Brandt spent a great deal of time speaking about himself and how he found his way to the Brotherhood of Hope. Although this information is not worthless, it only serves to raise questions about the type of people that find their way to the consecrated life. Questions that are far outside the scope and intentions of this research project.
Initially, one must examine the Brotherhood of Hope, what they do, how they do it, and to what end. The Brotherhood of Hope is, just as the title entails, a brotherhood of men. Specifically, they are a group of consecrated Catholic men, who strive to do God’s work. But, what exactly does that mean? The brotherhood of hope endeavors to bring the ‘good news’ to secular college campuses, to either convert or foster the faith in the students that they encounter as described by one Brother Brandt Haglund. They do this in a number of ways, but mostly through the Catholic student union that already exists on campus. They offer their communal house on Thursday nights for men’s group, a group of nearly eighty men, for their meetings. Individually, they meet with members of the Catholic student union, and since members are considerably older than most students, they offer spiritual advising. Although the Brotherhood of Hope is a brotherhood like monastic groups before it, they are not nearly as inward facing as their benediction brothers. They are active in the community; in fact, it’s their main focus. The brotherhood of hope communicates with the outside world almost exclusively through their members, through intentional outreach or simply through providing those facilities like communal houses entrusted to them. Internally the brotherhood endeavors to build community inside as much as out. They eat several meals together a day, they pray together at least once a day, if not twice, and they spend every Saturday night and Sunday in a celebration known as Lord’s day.
The Brotherhood of Hope has a number of texts, both written books, and figurative texts, that are in widespread circulation. Of these texts, the foremost is the bible. The bible is the core document of every Catholic’s faith, and logically would be the Brotherhood’s also. Tied to the bible as a core document is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is the official document produced by the Vatican to give official guidance on those key tenants of the faith. The arguably second more important text in the Brotherhood of Hope is the Divine Office. The Divine Office is a book comprised of various psalms and prayers that are intended to be read, chanted, or prayed fives times a day. Obviously, there are not enough psalms for every reading to be unique. However, all five reading are intentionally distinct and correspond to the time of day in which they are supposed to be prayed. This text overlaps with the priesthood in that priests are also required to read the divine office. However, the Brotherhood does not require its reading five times a day but instead only three. This text, although only the second most important, contributes a great deal to the Brotherhood and way of life that these men share. Although one could attest to personal experience, there lies the truth in the fact that men when doing those things which men have traditionally done they form a strong sense of community. Disregarding the question of the legitimacy of such feeling of Brotherhood, this bonding is also displayed through the Mass itself which remains an indelible icon of the Catholic faith. But also through previous monastic groups which made praying or especially chanting the divine office a central point of their monastic life. Thirdly, the Brotherhood of Hope values the spiritual exercises by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. They use this text as a basis for their spirituality and the way in which they order their prayers, and more importantly, their lifestyle.
Moving on from the literal texts, the Brotherhood of Hope also implores the use of two other prominent texts: daily mass and the Lord’s day. Daily mass is not an unusual phenomenon, especially in devoutly Catholic circle where daily mass exists as a text also. The brotherhood emulates this by, as one might assume, going to daily mass as a group. Once again, it is unclear through the interview as to whether or not this is required. However, it can be concluded that it is strongly suggested as long as the Brothers are home, or rather, at their assigned mission. The Mass, one might argue, is an even strong bonding force than that of the divine office. The Mass is considered by most and taught by the Catholic Catechism, to be the highest form of prayer. Not only is it the highest form of prayer, but it is also substantially more sacred than praying the divine office all five times a day. The mass is considered so sacred that it was not until recently, at the second Vatican council from nineteen sixty-two to nineteen sixty-five, that Catholics were allowed to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist more than once a day. Moving on to Lord’s day, the Brotherhood celebrates it every Saturday night moving into Sunday. The tradition stems from the original sabbath celebrated by the Jews, which most people consider to be the Catholic’s spiritual predecessors. In this celebration the brothers bake break, buy wine and prepare a large meal, usually the most extravagant of the week, to be shared with the entire household. As suggested, the entire household is required to take part in this celebration, which differs from their traditional shared meals that may be missing a few brothers who are still about Tallahassee doing mission work. The meal is proceeded by what can be described as a recreation of the last supper. Bread, made from scratch, prepared the day of the celebration is passed around the brothers and any others invited who sit in a circle of chairs facing one another. Each person takes some of the bread and eats it. Next, the wine is passed through the circle, and again alluding to the last supper, and everyone drinks of it. Depending on the time of year, more small food may be passed around. Once the first foods have been finished, the brothers then move into a brief period of prayer. First, the gospel reading for the day is read aloud; then the group moves into a period of charismatic praise characteristic with most new religious movements. Finally, the group moves to have dinner together, and as part with most brotherhoods, share a single conversation at the dinner table. The following day, which is the true Lord’s day, is not celebrated nearly as thoroughly; some brothers may go back to work, and others still may continue to give glory and praise through their leisure.
Generally, these texts serve to bring the brotherhood together or to bring others to the brotherhood. For example, the praying, eating, and celebrating are all designed to bring the brotherhood closer and keep them tight. However, texts like Lord’s day is also critical in the Brotherhood's attempt to bring more people into their community. Frequently Lord’s day is celebrated with men in the community, be it students whom the brothers deem might be interested in the brotherhood or simply men from the local parishes for fellowship’s sake. It is important to note, however, that Lord’s day is not an event singularly tasked with recruitment. Quite the opposite, the Lord’s day celebration is an open door for outsiders to see the brotherhood.
By contrast, the physical texts are used for significantly different purposes and serve a different purpose and even audience. The Bible, as one might imagine, is a text nowhere near exclusive to the brotherhood. They use it for general knowledge about the faith, and it finds use in conversation with students or just generally with members or laity. The Bible, unlike the divine office, has a huge audience and is widely used by most if not all practicing Catholics. The bible also unlike the other texts, is not exclusively a Catholic text. Nearly all Christian religions recognize and read at least some version of the Bible. The next physical text is the divine office. By contrast, this is a very niche text. It has very little use outside of the consecrated life save the priesthood. The divine office’s purpose, as previously stated, is to help draw the brothers into a heightened sense of community but also to draw them to the Lord. The problem with this text is not that it is inaccessible, but instead that it requires a significant commitment both in the time to read it but also in the regiment needed in order not to forget it, thereby resigning the text to almost exclusively the brotherhood and those people already close to it. Finally, the spiritual exercises are the last text that the Brotherhood uses. This text, similar to the divine office, is niche and used mostly be those Catholic who are very serious about their faith. That being said, since Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of Jesuits, is well known. This text is used by communities other than Catholics. But even then, only those dedicated religious in other communities use the text.
With the Brotherhood and its text thoroughly explored, we can now return to the question at hand: “does the Brotherhood of Hope complete their mission?”. The prominent texts previously entertained all point to the idea that the Brotherhood completes its mission only partially. To understand this, one must look at the Brotherhood's true mission, outside of what some of their members, like Brother Brandt, say. From nothing more than their website, one can read that broadly, the Brotherhood’s goal is to, “take up the New Evangelization by serving at its forefront.
”[1] That same paragraph goes on to talk on how they do that, namely through: “foster[ing] conversion, both initial and ongoing”, “forming deep personal relationships with those we encounter”, “building communities of vibrant and joyful faith”, and being evangelists[2]. The website also claims that the Brotherhood’s “primary mission area is evangelization on secular colleges and universities”. In addition, it says they, “also serve the Church by supporting various men’s ministries, by assisting in the formation and training of seminarians, and by leading mission trips to serve the materially poor.”
[3] Based on the previously outlined texts, it is clear how the Brotherhood, at least the chapter in Tallahassee, only lives up to it partially. Looking to the first part of the mission, conversion, and fostering, the Brotherhood does little to convert. No brother meets with people outside of the Catholic Student Union or the parish of Saint Thomas More. As one might assume, it is hard to convert people to the Catholic faith that are already Catholic. If this is not the case, the information is not available at a level accessible to the non-consecrated. However, when it comes to fostering, the Brotherhood does do exceptionally well with spiritually guiding both younger and older laity. Moving on to deep and personal relationships, this part of the mission is unequivocally fulfilled. Although it is not prudent to speak from personal experience when trying to rationalize research, there exists merely some things that cannot be quantified. Without a shadow of a doubt, it can be seen in the relationship I have with Brother Brandt and from speaking to others that seek spiritual advising in the brothers, that the brothers do form deep personal relationships with those they encounter. The final two points of the Brotherhood’s broader mission of community and evangelism fall similarly short like the first. The Brotherhood does help in the building of the Catholic Student Union through things like Men’s night, Lord’s day, and so forth, but they do not play the central role in building it. Truly, they play a supporting role at most; especially seeing as how the Catholic Student Union is considered by some to be second only to the Catholic group at Texas A&M. In reference to evangelism, they do this solely through living as examples to the love they claim Christ shows through the gospels. Unfortunately, this too is not quantifiable and must be taken purely on a case by case basis.
The final part of the Brotherhood of Hope's mission is a mixed bag; this segment talks on its service to secular college communities. Although Florida State University is by no stretch of the imagination the most secular, it is no Notre Dame. Suffice to say, the Brotherhood does fulfill its mission to evangelize to secular colleges, but to secular students, they fall short. As mentioned in the previously explored texts, the Brotherhood does do a great deal to support the men’s ministry. Both in the house, they allow to be used and even the exhortations they give during the event. However, without further exploration and interviewing it would be hard to know how they assist in the forming of seminarians. The Brotherhood does lead missions trips and retreats, but few are to serve the materially poor. The most recent trip that the Brotherhood-led was to North Carolina to help young men understand the ideas of rights of passage and the formation of one’s self as a man. Obviously, not what one might describe as the materially poor.
The Brotherhood of Hope strives to do go in the communities they have inserted themselves into, the areas they feel as though they are being called to. However, based solely off the ideas provided by nothing more than the Brotherhood’s own website, they fall short. That is not to say the work they do is not good. Certainly, it is. Certainly, many have been immeasurably helped by the service they provide. But, what is service to those who are so far along in what they might consider “the path of holiness”? It would appear as though the Brotherhood fails not in serving secular communities, but in trying to convert those not already involved in the Catholic faith. They fail to evangelize, a part of the mission that some might consider being critical in the conversion of souls.
Works Cited
“Brotherhood of Hope.” Brotherhood of Hope, brotherhoodofhope.org/.
Fleischmann, Hildebrand, and Edward Eugene Malone. The Divine Office. Herder and Herder, 1959.
Ignatius. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, or, Manresa: Explained Step-by-Step for Independent Use. Tan Books and Publishers, 1999.
Lawrence, C. H. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Routledge, 2015.
Melville, Gert, and Giles Constable. The World of Medieval Monasticism Its History and Forms of Life. Cistercian Publications, 2016.
Merrill, Christopher Charles, and Brandt Wesley Haglund. “Brother Brandt and The Brotherhood of Hope.” 3 Mar. 2019.
Nancy, Bauer A. The State of Consecrated Life: Vita Et Sanctitas Ecclesiae. Catholic University of America , 2014.
[1] “Brotherhood of Hope.” Brotherhood of Hope, brotherhoodofhope.org/.
[2] “Brotherhood of Hope.” Brotherhood of Hope, brotherhoodofhope.org/.
[3] “Brotherhood of Hope.” Brotherhood of Hope, brotherhoodofhope.org/.
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