Abbey-Roads2

The novitiate that fell apart. 

Once upon a time, there was a monastery with seven novices.  They had a very nice young monk as their Father Master.  It was an odd little group, and the Father had a difficult time keeping his little flock together.  (It is just too bad I can’t tell the whole story right now.)  Suffice it to say, each novice left one by one, until the Father Master couldn’t take it any more either, and then there was only one.  Seven monks left the monastery, and only one novice remained in the community.  Hence the statistic:  only 1 in 8 men understand monastic life; as well as, only 1 in 8 persevere; and the other, 8 out of 9 men have an idealized view of monastic life.  (The Father Master may have had the most idealized view of all.)  I have other statistics as well, but the former novices are still alive.

The End.

Photo credit:  Thanks to D.J. for the photos of the novice class at a little monastery in the middle of a very big country.  Br. A. is not shown because he is taking the photo.  Novices standing are:  br. N. - the only one to persevere; br. D.J. - bearded in middle; br. B. at end with the tv glasses.  Novices seated are: br. I - also wearing tv glasses and sitting much too close to; br. C. - the very handsome novice sitting completely sideways, facing fr. R. wearing the black scapular, and then br. L.  who was the first to go.  I cannot write more because as I mentioned in the story, most of these people are still alive and probably litigious.

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And the actions of the invaders. 

Most Americans ought to be aware by now of the horrible persecutions committed against the Christians in Iraq, ongoing since the Bush “liberation” - Iraqis now say they had greater freedom - and protection- under Saddam before the war.  That said, do we ever hear of what harm the liberators have perpetrated against the Christian population?  I haven’t.  But I came across the following piece as I was searching for an image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  (I’m sure it cannot be true…  The journalist who wrote it must be anti-American!  I’m being facetious.)

From the illegal occupation of palaces, schools, monasteries and destruction of much of the world’s wonders, across the country, the US, UK and their dwindling “allies” have committed cultural war crimes of near unprecedented enormity.

Now it transpires that America’s crusading Christian soldiers are evicting the monks from the monasteries to make quarters for occupation troops, according to Azzaman, Churches too are being evacuated. Patriarch Emanuel Deli, Head of the Chaldean Community in Iraq, is quoted as saying: “U.S. and Iraqi officials are responsible … They have insulted and humiliated our temples and churches”, he said, pleading with the international community to intervene.

U.S. troops, reports Azzaman, “have turned one of Baghdad’s largest monasteries, where the Chaldeans had a theology college and seminary, into a military barracks”.

From the illegal occupation of palaces, schools, monasteries and destruction of much of the world’s wonders, across the country, the US, UK and their dwindling “allies” have committed cultural war crimes of near unprecedented enormity. America’s and Britain’s finest can only be compared to the Vandals, a Teutonic race who ravaged Gaul, Spain and in 455, Rome itself and have forever become the by-word for ignorant and wilful destruction. - Felicity Arbuthnot
 

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Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

In the novitiate, we became friends with the novices of another Trappist monastery in France.  For the Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, our Father Master asked me to do a drawing and write a letter to our brothers.  So I did an icon drawing of the Baptist, with a mounted paper icon for them to hang in the novitiate, and my letter was simply, “What did you go out to the desert to see?” [Luke 7:24]  I expected the novices would just sign their names and we would send it off.

Fr. Richard looked at it, then looked at me quizzically, blurting out, “Aren’t you going to write more?”

And I replied, “Isn’t that enough for monks?”

Father answered, shaking his head;  “Oh br. Christian!  We are not Carmelites!  Each of the novices shall write their own messages then!  Sheesh!” 

I guess you had to be there.  Merry St. John’s-mass! 

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The monk’s duty.

At the hour for the Divine Office, as soon as the signal is heard, let them abandon whatever they may have in hand and hasten with the greatest speed, yet with seriousness, so that there is no excuse for levity.  Let nothing therefore be put before the Work of God. - RSB: 43

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Simple and plain. 

I was praying all alone in the church last night and noted the sanctuary decorated for Pentecost.  The garden club of the parish purchased several planters of red geraniums for outside the church, and so these were used in the sanctuary until they get planted on Tuesday.  I was impressed with how they were arranged and filled the sanctuary, as well as by the resourcefulness of the pastor in getting a double use out of the plants.

In the Trappist monastery I lived at, flowers were never used to decorate the altar, it just wasn’t Trappist.  In the novitiate one of the brothers had a “flair” for floral arrangement.  One day while we were cleaning the church, he took it upon himself to decorate the sanctuary.  It was really pretty and rather lavish; ivy swags with assorted flowers, brother’s arms waving in the air - much like a maestro conducting an orchestra with great flourish - I thought it was spectacular. 

When the Father Master came in and saw all of the flowers, he demanded everything be thrown out, and later explained to the novices the tradition of everything plain in Trappist monasteries.  Poor brother was disconsolate.  I placed my hand ever so lightly on his shoulder to console him saying, “Brother, it was beautiful, fit for a cathed…”

Brother abruptly shrugged off my hand, turned to me indignantly, and scolding me through clenched teeth said,  “Don’t touch me ever again!”  And he stormed off.  I immediately thought of the novitiate in the Nun’s Story, when the Mistress instructed the postulants that they should never touch one another.  Brother taught me that lesson with even greater drama than the movie - in fact, he was rather Joan Crawford about it.  (Yes, a couple of the other brothers and I laughed pretty hard after he walked away.)

So.  One of the greatest penances in monastic life are the brothers - and they are better than hair shirts to show you what you are.  (When we are young, we can’t imagine anyone not liking us, but that changes as we get older.) 

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When entering a monastery.

The only thing the average man entering monastic life today gives up is his will - “sell your will and give to the poor”- as John of the Cross counsels.  In modern times, nothing is really lacking to a man who enters monastic life, although he may have left behind a career or potential success.  However, if he follows the rule of St. Benedict, he lives under obedience to an abbot and in stability within a particular house, while his primary duty remains the opus Dei - the Divine Office - to which “nothing is to be preferred”. 

“The first degree of humility is obedience without delay… this is the virtue of those who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ…” - Rule of St. Benedict.

Thus we come to understand how extremely difficult monastic life is for contemporary man; why there are so few vocations, and fewer who “persevere in the monastery until death”.

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A friend asked me about it.

Many people assume there are no fat monks - and I say, “But there are Blanche!  There are!”  Maybe not in all monasteries, but the monasteries I visited/lived in had fat monks.  And don’t forget Blessed Columba Marmion was kind of a porker. 

I did some research, and the idea of fat monks wasn’t alway so unusual.  In fact, in many respects, conventional monasteries often reflect the standards of nutrition and convenience of the upper middle class and wealthy of their day.  Today, all one need do is  visit any new or established abbey and check out their kitchens, laundry, common rooms, and in the case of some Benedictine abbeys - check out the individual cells. 

So yeah - maybe we don’t see many fat monks today, but it could be because they have a gym in the monastery, a fashionable lean diet, as well as peer pressure not to look like a slob.  Very few monks and nuns in the developed world go without anything they need, and in many cases what they want - not that anything is wrong with that.  (Of course - there are always exceptions, such as strict observance Carmelite nuns and Poor Clares, as well as other communities.)

Back to obese monastics.

I found a very interesting site that discusses this very subject.  I believe the study is factual and in my opinion and experience of contemporary religious life, understandable and believable.  I’ll post a few of the points I uncovered:

The jolly image of rotund Friar Tuck could be only partially true, according to a recent study of skeletal remains from monks that lived during the Middle Ages.

Analysis of monks who lived from 476 to 1450 AD revealed most were overweight, but perhaps not entirely jolly. They suffered from conditions associated with obesity, such as arthritis and back problems. 

The findings, presented at the recent International Medieval Congress at University of Leeds in England, has shed light on their monastic lifestyle.

The research could also help to explain civil unrest aimed against monasteries toward the latter part of the medieval age.Philippa Patrick, author of the conference paper and an archaeologist at University College London, analysed the skeletal collections at the Museum of London.    Patrick said that by the time most monks were 45 and over, they were three times more likely than the overall population to develop a condition linked to obesity known as DISH, diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis. DISH affects the spine with lesions, making it harder for the person to walk and move.  The monks also were three times as likely to suffer from weight-related forms of arthritis.

Monks were the couch potatoes of their time.

 She said the monks’ sedentary lifestyle coupled with overeating led to the weight gain. Obesity was unusual in medieval times, a period when many people suffered from poverty, malnutrition and deadly plagues.“[The monks’] diet has been classified as ‘a form of high class diet’. That would mean very few people, only the upper echelons of society, could have managed to match the monks in terms of quality and quantity of their diet … but the inactivity probably didn’t help either,” said Patrick.She added that the monks ate animals they raised and used for secondary products, such as milk, butter, eggs and cheese. Monasteries also had extensive complexes of fish ponds to supply fish. - Read the whole story.  

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Could it be?

From what I understand about Buddhism, men may enter monasteries for a period of time, only to leave, marry and raise a family, almost as if they are performing a tour of duty in military service.  No one in their culture seems to look down upon those who do not stay.  The monks who remain in the monastery, become priests and live as  celibates for life; obviously the ones who leave do not.  (As I said, I don’t know very much about Buddhist monastic life.) 

However, it seems to me, in Roman Catholicism, the unofficial  concept of a ‘temporary vocation’ may be similar to what Buddhists practice.  I for one, entered monastic life, only to return to the lay state, as have many others I know.  Each of us have a great reverence for monastic-contemplative life, and consider the months and years spent in the monastery the furthest thing from a waste of time, rather we view it as a period of tremendous grace, a time of formation for the rest of our lives.

I was reminded of these things today after receiving an email from my friend David with an attachment, an article from Commonweal written by a former Carthusian.  I found it very interesting, and perhaps you will too.  It can be found here. 

I am intrigued and edified how some people remain monks, and others do not.  For many years I felt guilty for leaving monastic life and yet I knew it wasn’t my call.  It also amazes me that someone may stay for two decades and then leave…   I once termed that as ‘abandoning one’s vocation’… however, I think it is an unfair judgment in most cases and I now doubt it can be considered in such a way.  Having said that, what never changes for me is my belief that those who do persevere until death are very blessed indeed.

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Feeling foolish?  The following can be a litany of saints who were known as “Fools for Christ”:

• Anastasia Andretevna, Fool-for-Christ (March 1)
• Blessed Andrew the Fool-for-Christ of Constantinople (October 2) (d. 936)
• Blessed Andrew of Totma, the Fool-for-Christ (October 10)
• Blessed Anthony Alexseevich, Fool-for-Christ of Zadonsk (September 29 - repose of) (1851)
• Anthony Ivanovich, Fool-for-Christ of Valaam (June 7 - repose of) (1832)
• Saint Arsenius of Novgorod, Fool-for-Christ (May 8)
• Asenatha of Goritsky, Fool-for-Christ (April 19 - repose of) (1892)
• Blessed Athanasius Adrewyevich of Orel, Fool-for-Christ (April 12 - repose of) (1967)
• Blessed Basil of Moscow, Fool-for-Christ (August 2)
• Blessed Cyprian of Suzdal (October 2)
• Blessed George of Shenkursk, Fool-for-Christ (April 23)
• Saint Isidore the Fool of Tabenna in Egypt (May 10)
• Venerable Isidore the Fool-for-Christ and Wonder-worker of Rostov (May 14)
• Blessed John “the Hairy” the Fool-for-Christ at Rostov (September 3 and November 12)
• Venerable John the Ascetic and Fool-for-Christ
• Blessed John of Ustiug the Fool-for-Christ (March 14 and May 29 - repose of) (1893)
• Blessed John of Moscow, Miracle-worker and Fool-for-Christ (July 3)
• Jonah, Fool-for-Christ of Peshnosha Monastery (June 15 - repose of) [1838]
• Blessed Laurence the Fool-for-Christ at Kaluga (August 10)
• Blessed Maximus of Totma (Vologda), Fool-for-Christ (January 16)
• Venerable Maximus of Moscow the Fool-for-Christ (August 13 - opening of his relics)
• Venerable Michael the Fool-for-Christ of the Klops Monastery (January 11) (June 23 - translation of his relics)
• New-Martyr Michael (Misha), Fool-for-Christ (April 1) (1931)
• Blessed Michael and Thomas, Fools-for-Christ of Solvychegodsk (Vologda) (July 3)
• Blessed Nicholas of Salos of Pskov the Fool-for-Christ (February 28)
• Blessed Nicholas Kochanov, Fool-for-Christ at Novgorod (July 27)
• Blessed Paisius, Fool-for-Christ of the Kiev Caves (April 17 - repose of) (1893)
• Blessed Parasceva “Pasha of Sarov,” Fool-for Christ of Diveyevo Convent (September 22) (1915)
  • Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna (Pasha of Sarov)
• Saint Paul, Fool-for-Christ (November 6)
• Pelagia Ivanovna Serebrennikova
  • Pelagia Ivanovna a.k.a. Pelagia the Holy Fool
  • Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna
• Blessed Procopius of Vyatka, Fool-for-Christ (December 21)
• Saint Procopius the Fool-for-Christ and Wonder-worker of Ustiug (July 8)
• Righteous Procopius of Usya (Vologda), Fool-for-Christ (July 8)
• Venerable Symeon of Emesa the Fool-for-Christ (July 21)
• Blessed Simon of Yurievits, Fool-for-Christ (May 10)
• Blessed Theodore of Novgorod, Fool-for-Christ (January 19)
• Saint Theodore, Fool-for-Christ (February 25)
• New-Martyr Theoktista Michailovna of Voronezh (February 22) (1936)
• Blessed Schema-hieromonk Theophilus, Fool-for-Christ of the Kiev Caves (October 28 - repose of) (1852)
• Saint Thomas the Fool of Syria (April 24)
• Saint Xenia of St. Petersburg, Fool-for-Christ (January 24)

[Taken from Orthodox Wikipedia.]

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