Our model is St. Brother Albert, for whom this service passed through stages of trials in the face of various social needs. It reached the infectious hospitals, the abandoned children, it went towards the working masses, so that “side by side with the workers in the factory halls, in the fields, in road construction, it filled the gap between the monastery and the world, bringing the habit closer to the workers’ blouse. The idea behind these actions of Brother Albert was to learn about the particular needs of the masses through direct contact with them. By becoming one of them, he could influence the community around him.
What is the purpose of the Congregation?
The aim of the Congregation according to Brother Albert was thus the readiness to help in places of especially high flow and concentration of human masses. The idea of the Congregation of St. Albert Brothers became bringing help where the awkwardness of the unadjusted is especially exposed to loosening social bonds, threatening human dignity and loss of God. The hospices which are now active have become the lasting fruit of his efforts, and at the same time the cradle and the place where Albertine spirituality was born. They are houses which have been set up as a result of the common work with the poor.
The aim of the Albertine Brothers’ Congregation is first of all the ‘immediate rescue’ of every poor and needy person in his basic needs. The next step is only to improve their material and moral condition. The hospices we run are houses of mercy: “a temporary refuge, a permanent shelter and work for vagrants, idlers, beggars and unoccupied workers in a constant effort to socialise and moralise them”.
Hermitages
The hermitages belong to the fullness of Alberto reality. They have grown out of prayer and sacrifice and the spirit of the Founder. Saint Brother Albert said: “If there is a shortage of hermitages, it will not even be possible to set up hospices for the poor, because there will not be enough perseverance, dedication and strength to serve them”. Both hermitages and hospices, growing out of the spirit of sacrifice and prayer of our Founder, are to be, as it were, family homes, while the hermitages are also places of spiritual and physical renewal for the brothers.
Ideas of the Albertine Congregation
Very close to St. Brother Albert was Mother of God, described by him as “the Founder and Protector of the Congregation”, and the saints – “the thread connecting us with God”. Particularly close to him spiritually were Francis of Assisi, John of the Cross and Vincent de Paul. Brother Albert enriched his spirituality till the end of his life. He passed it on to his confreres in the unwritten testament of his example, the daily principles of life and work, his personal notes, the evangelical form of the works of mercy he organised.
For the love of God the brothers should always go where the conditions are most difficult, where the abandoned person is in great need and where no one else will serve. They must do this with faith in humanity, in the goodness that lies deep within the heart of every person in danger and which can be released by a good word or a charitable sign, such as a bowl of food. The defiled face of Christ, seen in this way, must be cleansed with active mercy: to save human dignity through work and community – this became the most important ideas of the Albertine Congregation.
The most precious deposit left to our times by St. Brother Albert is his trustful, joyful trust in God’s Love and Providence. It entailed personal goodness, nourished by the Eucharist and contemplation of the life of Christ, prayer transformed into the service of sacrificial and active mercy towards people neglected materially and morally. And all this in an atmosphere of simplicity and poverty of personal and community life.