THE PROBLEM WITH MONKS AND MONASTERIES, PART 2: This is a follow-up to my last entry on Monday. Again, be warned that it’s a yawner, unless you’re a semi-religious introvert like me.<\/p>\n
I have visited several monasteries and had even considered joining one. Admittedly I was influenced by those current-day writers who have rediscovered monasticism and have glorified monks as 21st Century gurus (e.g., Kathleen Norris’ “Dakota” and “Cloister Walk”, and Frank Lentriccia’s “Edge of Night”). These writers were drawn by the strange medieval beauty of the monastic ceremonies. I myself have experienced the feeling you get from standing in a circle in a dank, dark basement chapel at 4 in the morning holding flickering candles and chanting verses from the Psalms. There is something to it, something that overcomes the insult to the body of being up in the pre-dawn chill.<\/p>\n
But after watching monks live their daily lives, I decided against making a career out of it. I now think that monasticism is an idea whose time has gone. Why should a modern American or European voluntarily give up the many possibilities for human enrichment that our society offers? E.g., travel, education, career achievement, art, culture, public service, and yes, romance and sexuality? I’ll be the first to admit that society has very distorted guidelines about what “the good life” means, tainted by materialism, politics and sexual immaturity. But to deny all these possibilities for a life of severe simplicity, strict authority and repetitive worship seems to be throwing out many babies with the dirty bathwater.<\/p>\n
Monasticism has been protected and preserved mostly by the Catholic Church, because many of the Church’s social ideals stem from the medieval world where monasticism reigned supreme. I suggest that it’s time for the Catholics and Orthodox to take monasticism off life support and let it die a natural death. The days of Cluny are long gone, although the Vatican still deals with its flock as if they weren’t.<\/p>\n
However, there is something to be preserved from the monastic legacy. Being a monk for life was NOT something that Jesus would have recommended. However, Jesus did recognize the value of getting away from it all for a while, i.e the forty days in the desert. Monasticism as a permanent vow makes no sense at all; but a year or two of a disciplined, ascetic life of prayer, away from the over-stimulation of modern society, would probably do wonders for most of us. (And a week or two retreat every now and then is a good thing too). Monasticism is not in itself an authentic life, but it could well be part of an authentic life’s formation. And not just for priests or nuns or other gurus, but for everyone.<\/p>\n
And I’m not just talking about Catholics here either, although they and the Orthodox are most heavily invested in the monastic tradition. This idea works just as well for Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Moslems and Buddhists (interesting that the Buddhists have their own form of monasticism).<\/p>\n
All the major religions should make it possible for adults to “drop out” of their lives for a year or two when the time seems right, as a means of spiritual realization and inner formation. Two good years of manual work and regular chanting and getting up at 3 am and not watching TV or using the net or seeing hyped-up images of sexy strangers everywhere you look would do a lot of good. It would help put life in perspective and deepen one’s faith in this crazy universe. And you’d be doing it with others, building community and friendships that could last the rest of your life. The churches would never have a better chance to help people make the basic decisions that would help them to become better people.<\/p>\n
Sounds great. Where do I sign up?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE PROBLEM WITH MONKS AND MONASTERIES, PART 2: This is a follow-up to my last entry on Monday. Again, be warned that it’s a yawner, unless you’re a semi-religious introvert like me. I have visited several monasteries and had even considered joining one. Admittedly I was influenced by those current-day writers who have rediscovered monasticism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}