Monk?

Well, as you few faithful souls that actually stop by and read these little reflections on monastic life have noted, it’s been very little, and very occasional for about a year now. I was initially occupied with finding work, after losing my job at the seminary. On top of this my wife and I decided it was time to escape the city and move to a more pastoral geography. Finally, I was finishing up my studies at The Landscape Institute! Now that’s a lot more than anyone really wants to know about my quite tame life, but it all added up to very little time to devote to Monk?.

We did sell our house and located a small cabin along the Medomack River in Maine. Can’t tell you how beautiful it is here, and how it is giving us a fresh take on our lives, a much needed one. We’re renting for a year, settling in, and hoping to find a nice little place with enough land to grow some of our own food. Maybe soon we’ll be able to practice more fully the monastic commitment to stability so treasured throughout the centuries by Christian monks.

So, there you have it. Hopefully, once we settle in, there will be more time for Monk? blog, and thoughts on what such radical giving can mean for each of us willing to imagine something more than what the image producers in our society tell us. Peace!

The real monk, the one who’s deepest desire (God) is in line with the way he lives, is a smasher of idols. And the biggest idol he smashes is the notion that being called a monk means he is somehow special or different from others. He doesn’t pretend he is a monk, because he knows he’s just trying, and always will be trying to be what a monk is supposed to be. He’s on the way to being a monk, a lover of God (meaning lover also of all His creation) and never will arrive fully at his destination until he moves on to the Holy City. He can laugh at the notion that appearing different because he lives in a special sort of place, living a lifestyle different from most others, means he is actually different from anyone.

There is a wonderful meditation on this idol smashing in the book Tools Matter for Practicing the Spiritual Life by Mary Margaret Funk, OSB, where she reflects on her own life as a Benedictine nun:

If I’m serious about searching for God, I must undress before myself, knowing that really I’m not a nun, yet. I’m just pretending until the nun-form takes shape. I know deep down that all images of myself must be smashed and destroyed. I dread the process of unmasking my hollowness and all my illusions. They protect me from myself. But now thoughts that protect my illusions have to go. (Continuum 2001, p. 71)

And that’s it! All illusions about ourselves, all the tags we use define ourselves with, must go, be utterly destroyed, if we are to become our real selves, children of God, lovers of life, of all, of God. And that’s what faithful monks do, hidden away in their monasteries; they smash the idol of differentness, of uniqueness, of specialness, they smash the idol of monk.

The film Into Great Silence has finally debuted in the U.S.  In Boston it’s showing at the Kendall Square Cinema.  I haven’t seen it yet, but will sometime this weekend.  Here is a link to the New York Times review of the film.

Here is a link to a terrific interview with Mr Groening, the director of, Into Great Silence, a film of monastic life taken at The Grande Chartreuse, charterhouse of the Carthusian monastic order. In response to what his film is meant to convey Growning says,

“The film should become a monastery…A monastery is about getting rid of speech. Speech is constantly implying this logical way of structuring time and thought. Silence throws you into the present, in the sense of not thinking about how you get your key out of your pocket.

The immediate object, the presence of immediate things, becomes much more luminous. It’s really like a consolation. The material world, the creation, helps you to be in the world, it’s as if God had created the world in order for us to feel at home. But that sort of future planning capacity really drops.

This is what the monastery is about; this is what I tried in the film.

Here is the link to this fascinating interview with the man who has created a work of art that is bound to touch thousands.

Christian monastic life has been in existence for over a millennium and a half, which, as an organized expression of human cooperation, is notable. And yet, longevity is not, in itself, a badge of honor, or a sign of blessing. Marriage, of course, is the longest sustained human organization of all, monasticism a mere baby by comparison. Still, Christian monasticism is impressive in its duration.

When one considers the volatility of human society throughout history, and the vicissitudes of Church history in particular, Christian monastic life stands out as a singular human achievement worthy of admiration and respect. Nevertheless, monks and monasteries have engendered mixed and often passionate opinions regarding their value. The great Lutheran martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote critically that monasticism:

(The Cost of Discipleship, Macmillan, 1963, p.50)

Bonhoeffer had much of value to say here, for the greatest temptation of the “religious” is the constant pull of pride, the not subtle suggestion, however small the interior voice, that I have been chosen. Indeed, who doesn’t want to be chosen ?! It’s part of the fabric of the human personality to want to be special, to be noticed, to stand above, even, with tragic irony and effects, for one’s “humility”. Bonhoeffer was right when he observed that the world had invaded the cloister in the ideology of perfection which had infected its spirit. There have always, in every era, been examples enough of such monks.

And yet, monastic life endured the havoc of Luther’s revolution, and endures into our own day. Pride is a fact, a part of the very fabric of our broken spirit. The monk, as I have frequently pointed out, is no different, and, just as the rest of us sometime succumb to the lure of believing in our unique blessedness, so can he. That is an honor that only Christ can claim, and a burden only He can carry. The great gift of the monastic way is that it provides few places to hide from one’s inner truth, a picture often difficult to bear looking at in honesty. With few places to avoid the truth, the truth has a chance to do its work, a form of interior cultivation, where first the fields of weeds are painfully plowed under, only to grow again, as weeds will do, to be plowed under anew. Its an ongoing process, year in, year out, with humility the season’s harvest.

This is the great hope monastic life offers the one who senses he is called. Perhaps his efforts, though never bringing the perfection temptation offers the unwary, will at least produce enough sweat that he can moisten a cloth and cool his Lord Jesus’ face. We can all do that at least, even the monk.

A few days ago my wife and I hosted an old friend of mine from the Abbey of the Genesee. My friend has been employed at the abbey since the 1970s; “steady as she goes” would be the operative phrase to describe him. And he brought with him his 20 year old son, a cause for real joy in his life, because he had not had contact with his son for over nine years. One late afternoon about a month ago my friend heard a knock on his door, and there, when he opened the door, was his son: “Hi dad, it’s me. Can I come in?”

Still, it hasn’t been an entirely smooth ride, and some of the residual emotions surfaced during their visit with us. We had many discussions, which it was an honor to be involved in. I guess that’s what friendship is about, the ability to share the most important things in life when they are happening, assured you will be listened to and taken seriously. Our talks seemed to have a positive effect, as the two of them left our home for their camping trip to Maine very happy to be together.

A monks family is his community, and the greatest challenges he will face in his life usually surface there, with his brothers. Conflict is a given in life in or out of a monastery. Those that enter a monastery thinking that they have arrived will very soon find out otherwise. As Thomas Merton once perceptively observed:

Perfection is not something you can acquire like a hat - by walking into a place and trying on several and walking out ten minutes later with one on your head that fits. Yet people sometimes enter monasteries with that idea. New Seeds of Contemplation. New Directions, 1961. p. 101

Things take time, the spiritual life (which Merton often reminds us is simply real life) being no exception. And, as in family life, it is the community the monk lives with that most truly (and effectively!) provides the soil from which the monk’s spiritual growth will flourish. If he knows nothing of humility when he enters the monastery he will be an expert when, one day in the future, he is carried out to rest with his departed brothers. We learn to love with and through others, and the monk is no different.

A number of folks have asked me why I, a layman, would devote time to a project on monasticism. It’s a fair enough question and one that deserves an honest answer. Actually, there are, as there are in most things, a number of reasons, existing on a number of levels. I’ll try and explain.

Firstly, I spent time at the Abbey of the Genesee as a postulant and then novice. I came to know the life, for a brief time at least, from the inside. Relatively few people have had such an experience, which ipso facto makes it of value. I can only hope that the insights I express here, gained in large part from this experience, prove helpful to those who care to read them.

Secondly, it’s my belief, certainly not a novel one, that the world is in a defining period of upheaval. There is the cultural and political eruption of Islam and its confrontation with the West, which means, because this is very much a religious phenomenon, a confrontation between religious world views. Also, further complicating our situation, is the West’s widespread disillusionment with its own religious heritage, namely Christianity. There seems to me, to simplify the matter for brevity’s sake, a twofold movement in the Western Christian collapse: one internal and one external.

Internally, the Christian world is suffering in large part as a result of the cumulative effects of the Protestant revolution of the 16th century. The inability of Rome to respond to the crisis of Luther and his followers is in the final stages of playing itself out. There is less and less of a consensus answer to the question: “What is a Christian?” We are a splintered faith tradition and its effects are today fully evident in the indifference throughout Europe and large parts of the United States to Christianity as an institution. Each branch of Christianity is also undergoing internal disintegration. For Catholics in the United States, the clerical sex abuse crisis has been devastating. A veil has been pulled back and what is revealed has turned many away.

Finally, the external pressures of cultural relativism and technological revolution have become so complete that many no longer have the capacity or the will to examine their presuppositions. A cultural amnesia seems to have descended on us and we no longer remember another way. Without the ability to think clearly about the world, about truth itself, things can slip quietly away. Like a critical patient under the effect of a potent narcotic, one ceases to feel the pain, a sign one is critical indeed.

My point simply is to give some context that led me to begin”Monk?” blog. I think its a critical time and those who have something to say now have means never before available to express it.But what has a blog about monasticism got to do with the state of the world? Quite simply, I hold the belief that monasteries are one critical link on the chain of Christian health. As Christians, we have known of cloistered monks and nuns from earliest days. They have been beacons of spiritual and religious striving, proving to the world the power of the Christian message to transform lives. Christianity without men and women willing to respond to the powerful pull to abandon all and seek God alone would mean a Christianity no loner with the power to inspire and motivate people to acts of religious heroism. It would mean a faith without a message.

The Church’s message has been one word, a name, Christ. And yes, he does still call and he does still move some to pursue the invitation to take the narrow road to the monastery where he or she will be challenged to transformation in His name. My intention is simply to get the word out to some people who might be sleepwalking and need someone to open up the question hidden under all the noise of today’s world: “Is there a God? Should I care? Do I want to know? Who are those people chanting in the middle of the night? Do they know something I don’t? Should I take a look?”

I hope “Monk?” blog helps open up these questions for those who stop by. Peace!

Tim

Well, a few bits of information on my present ups and downs are in order. I’m still out of work, and devoting all my energies to looking for a decent position. I’m not a kid, so it makes it a bit more difficult. Sure, there’s no such thing as age discrimination, right?

Our sweet dog, Juni, has passed on. She was a rescued greyhound, and suffered as a result as the treatment these beautiful creatures receive at the race track. She was only seven years old. We held her in our arms as the vet administered the drug to put her under. We will never forget this gentle animal.

North Carolina is on the back burner for now. Carol’s uncle is sick with cancer and we need to be here for him. Also, the housing market here in Boston has softened so much nothing much is selling, and so we’ve decided to take it off for now.

We’re counting our blessings. There are always blessings.

Congratulations are in order for all the brothers at The Abbey of the Genesee in New York. They have just ordained two of their own, Br. Eugene and Br. Stephen, to the priesthood. A cause for joy in the community. Also, they have a new member in postulancy, and the grapevine tells me there is the possibility of more young men joining. A very great cause for joy!

Finally, our prayers go out to the community for the loss of their brother, Father Thomas. Thomas was one month shy of 100 years on this earth. His life as a monk lives on in the inspiration it gives all his Genesee brothers. Thomas pray for us.

Ginny at frontiernet sent the following update on the movie of the Carthusians made at the Grand Chartreuse. Thanks, Ginny.

The US premiere of the film will take place in NY at the New Directors New Films Festival at the Museum of Modern Art. “A U.S. distribution is not closed yet” says Thorsten Schaumann, Head of Bavaria Film International, “but we are in intense talks with various companies. This is not a normal film like a lot of other movies: Being presented, quickly sold, released and quickly forgotten again. It took 20 years to create the film and it needs to be treated with a lot of care. This is why we are taking our time to find the right partner.”

It is good that I have been out to the common work more often, even though I nearly set the whole forest on fire yesterday burning brush out by Saint Gertrude’s field on the slope nearest the lake.

Wind … flames springing up in the leaves across the creek like the spread of attachments in an unmortified soul!

So, confortetur cor tuum et viriliter age!* Here are the things to be done:
Many lights burning ought to be put out.
Kindle no new fires. Live in the warmth of the sun.

*(do manfully, and let your heart take courage. Ps 26:14)

Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas, March 10, 1951, The Saturday before Passion Sunday