Trappist (1997)

[Music] it may be impossible to understand where a monk fits in today's world monks go against the grain of modern life they occupy a mysterious place somewhere between fear and fascination at met kanabi near Charleston South Carolina 30 Roman Catholic monks live in a community of prayer and work they are on a spiritual journey that struggles to accommodate a rapidly changing world they are Trappists [Music] the history of Christian monks goes back 1700 years their story is shrouded in myth and obscurity but how they have survived 17th centuries holds some lessons for the modern world about 700 Christian monasteries exists today 100 are in the United States and 17 of those are Trappist Trappists have tried to preserve the strict lifestyle of early Christian monasteries following a code that was born in the ruins of the Roman Empire to an outsider the Trappist life is a shock they wake every day at 3 a.m. worshiped together 7 times a day eat a strict vegetarian diet and spend much of their time in silence their rule requires that they never married never have children and leave their families behind I can see it right now we were all sitting on the porch and I'm the oldest of four I told my and my family that I was going to a Trappist monastery well my mother had no idea what this meant so she turned to my father and says well what does this mean and my father without skipping a beat said to my mother that means we'll never see him again it was very difficult for my mother my mother's belongs to another Christian community and it's one point right before I left she said do you want me to refuse you to forbid you to do it and I said if you do I'll leave at 21 but I knew I had to do this I knew within myself that God was calling me to do this and at that point I made a decision about who I was to be for the rest of my life and not just being a monk but being me my father with he experienced it as a rejection of himself and so my father wrote me off when I entered honestly I was his firstborn and he wanted me to go into the business with him and for him it was a rejection for me it was this is the way I was raised to do to do what I felt called to I went to Benedict from high school that was a military school I dated I was managing the basketball team but there was this other thing that it was just kind of always there and it became kind of the driving force for me the hardest time was my first three weeks here because it was the first time I was ever away from home I was homesick for a girlfriend after that first three weeks I've never really thought of [Music] [Applause] st. Anthony of Egypt is credited with founding Christian monasticism around 275 AD at age 20 he gave away his possessions to live a Hermits life in the desert over the years many others followed his example and eventually they came together to establish small communities that became models for true monastic life the ancient monks joined together for support because you can't do this inner journey this inner struggle alone you quickly give up the struggle or it will get so compartmentalize that so to keep keep us on the right focus monks have always come together the monks of the Roman Catholic Church traced their roots to the late 300s when Saint Martin of Tours brought the life of the Egyptian hermit to his french homeland and founded Europe's first monastery thousands were attracted to the monks life of brotherly love communal work and prayer this new way of life was a revolutionary change from the ancient pagan principle of might makes right we're countercultural because that's the way God has set up his gospel that's counterculture that's not the way it should be the least shall be the greatest the greatest so be released if you want to be the greatest you serve that's not the way any society works that's why we're chemical so it's just the gospel live to uh you know to a pretty radical degree Christian monasticism spread through Europe like sparks from a fire but by 500 AD growing number of unorganized monks was becoming a problem although they were an effective force in spreading Christianity among the pagan tribes many were becoming a nuisance and others were straying from their vows the time was right for reform and the sixth century brought a reform that would become the great unifier of Western monks the rule of Benedict we vow ourselves to this monastic way with its observances in its tradition and its built-in mechanisms of community and obedience and even at the time of Saint Benedict they had a sense of a tradition that was life-giving that pulled people out of their own individual journey and gave them a much fuller life than they could ever have on their own that addictive Nursia was an Italian monk with a gift for organization and a profound insight into human nature in his monastery cave at Subiaco near Rome he created a concise guide that laid out how a monastery should work and pray it has been followed by most castle of monasteries for over fourteen hundred years the rule of Benedict is a summation of the monastic practice and tradition from the beginning it's absolutely central in our eyes we read it or meditate or think about it every day the role of Benedict requires three lifetime vows of its followers stability obedience and conversion of manners stability is not so much pinning in people as it is providing a stable structure wherein I can sustain in community this pursuance there's something definite about my commitment to this place this piece of land is piece of geography has meaning in God's plan for me I'm going to find my world so to speak in my world is the spiritual world in the geography I'm going to find all that I need and all that I'm expected to do and to end to experience right here well with us the valve obedience concerns every aspect of our monastic life it's simply the rule that you enter and you end it voluntarily if you say huh your supp disobedience I'm sub to obedience but I voluntarily submitted myself to Athena's conversion of manners means of a gift of oneself to this particular lifestyle to this particular monastic life style and the monastic life style implies poverty and it implies chastity [Music] the rule of Benedict touches every aspect of amongst a the Trappist set MEP can Abbi follow a strict schedule of prayer work and study their day begins not with a race against the clock but with five hours of prayer song and meditation it begins in the dark at 3:00 a.m. with a quiet service all vigils we start most vigils with Psalm 95 if today you hear his voice are not your hearts when it is quite hard quite resistant at that time in the morning but if you can break open your heart then all the all the the unseen things of humanity just come flooding in and you walk outside in the river in the dark and you can hear a symphony of sounds the ancients could tell the time of night by the feel the smell the temperature and the stars that kind of sensitivity is what we we try to go if it makes all the difference between a contemplative life and some other kind of life after prayer and reading the Bible worked is the most important part of a monk's life in the early Middle Ages a strong work ethic drove the monks and created great monasteries that were centers of Commerce and learning the spectacular illuminated manuscripts from that period are just one example of what's the combination of hard work and spirituality accomplished physical work is is vitally important to keep the balance right the main focus of our intellectual life it has to be spiritual and poetic and symbolic for the sake of the concentration the best balance for that is hard physical language not just a walk in the woods for physical activity but but I mean some sweaty work well what I'm doing as you can see I'm making boxes or cartons or eggs many people would think well that's a very insignificant job and maybe I've had a certain academic background that people say well why should you even you'll be waste of your time by a very simple job that a chimpanzee almost could be trained to do well we don't have chimpanzees here and the point is that it isn't so much what we do is the intention and the love and concern for it isn't really the size of the grandeur or the seeming importance in life that matters what about the ordinary caste that every one has to do in order to earn it I think the community it comes across a lot more strongly more authentically when they're unloading egg cartons Saran loading 50-pound bags of calcium or whatever when you feel that person next to you and you know that the person is going through the same thing there is the sense that we really are in this together and that's important in the nastic life and in the spiritual journey I think Benedict was right in the sixth century when he put in his rule that there has to be a balance between work and prayer that the whole Liturgy of the hours is enhanced by that at there's times when we work physically or mentally and then we have time to pray a balanced life was not always easy for the monks to achieve successful monasteries like the great Cluny and what is now the center of French burgundy blossomed and wealth and power over the centuries but success led to extravagance than laxity the moats reaction against Queens excesses sparked another great monastic reform in the twelfth century various groups of monks turned their backs on the wealthy monasteries to rediscover the simple life of st. Benedict's rule in the year of 1098 one group of industrious monks left the prosperous monastery of lowlands to set up a new community in a marshy area of French burgundy named Seto they called themselves distortions drained the swamps for their farm land and built simple stone churches to underscore their poverty and humility Lepke na vi's church was built in 1993 but its design reflects the same modest intent of Cistercian churches built nearly nine hundred years ago the church is the most important house among the houses of the community it's privileged place more than all the others because it's the place where as a community we meet Christ in his church and so it has to it has to symbolize that that meaning it's the meeting place where the liturgy of time needs the loogey of eternity in the Cistercian symbolism according to Saint Bernie the church is also symbol of human body and it's penetrated by the light of God by grace the walls are the human person the windows are the openings for God's life in that symbolism the church becomes the intersection point between the 19th and today the church has to look like a jewel it has to be a jewel even a simple austere jewel but it has to mirror these eternal realities church and prayer alone cannot support a monastic community the reality of making a living faces all monasteries and they solve this challenge in a variety of ways Trappists are members of the Cistercian order of the strict observance their Constitution requires that the money they need to support their communities be earned by their own hands modern-day Trappists produce a wide range of goods primarily foods and agricultural products that are popular and of high quality they carefully package and market their products so that they will sell in a competitive marketplace and pay the bills when we first came here in 1949 we tried various industries to make a living we baked bread and baked cinnamon buns had a saw mill in which we cut our own timber we always had chickens for eggs from from the very beginning in the 60s the eggs became the one industry that was really doing it for us we gradually phased out all those those other industries and concentrated on you the economics dictate what what does what works and what doesn't and eggs work for the chickens produce about 30,000 eggs per day which comes out to somewhere between fifteen seventeen thousand dozen a week I have been with Memphian Abbyson our egg since 1963 I feel like that when a customer is walking out the door with a dozen that can happy eggs they're the very best that can be fought and put in a cart the people who operate the farm is fantastic do business with year after year after year they have the consistency that you're looking for in a supermarket I've talked to debt various egg producers around the country and they are all in all of the way that we handle our eggs because we do put a lot on the quality of our eggs and so therefore we do things that other people say that machines can do this better why don't you go to a different system the different system takes away that personal quality control and that is what we do not want to relinquish in addition to eggs the Mexican monks make a unique gardening product called earth healer they recycle manure from their chickens and sawdust from a nearby furniture factory to create an all-natural compost for home gardeners we're also came up with the idea of a baggie and little bags 44 composter it's a gift item but it really works we've seen the difference it makes in growing of plants all the micronutrients that plants need are in this tea so the plants are just healthier looking and the grow richer in color just through the tea we bet all kinds of testimonies come from the different people that are just amazingly a truly worth for 400 years after the reforms of Seto the Cistercians built their own network of wealthy successful monasteries but even greater reforms face of the monks of the 16th century a growing middle class bridled at the extravagance of the church the nobility was threatened by its power and by 1540 the Protestant Reformation had engulfed Europe in a storm of religious turmoil in France England and Germany the bloody vengeance tore at the fabric of Western civilization monks were dragged from their beds drawn and quartered and boiled in oil a burns were tried and hanged for treason in England monasteries were looted and dissolved the great Abbey's were in ruins there art music and manuscripts were mostly forgotten it was a new world of reformed religions all-powerful monarchies and an emerging merchant class it will be up to new generations of monks to rediscover the ancient values of st. Benedict and see if they held a place in the future you constipate us by your spirits to make us the water body of yours for today's Trappists prayer is the primary activity worship together opens and closes the day work occupies a smaller but important part of their day and the remainder is spent in a contemplative reading of the Bible call Lexi Oh Davina well there are three parts of one exercise and the exercise put quite simply as prayer but prayer not just in the way we normally think of prayer but prayer in the sense of a whole life consecrated to God the monastics call a continual prayer coming from a pure heart prayer has sustained monks for 1,700 years but how does prayer fit into modern life Harvard Medical professor and author dr. Herbert Benson explains the everyday prayers that monks do used to be part of our traditional society till we got too busy to sit quietly 10 to 20 minutes to do this they've sustained this practice going further of course but we have learned scientifically by carrying out these practices for 10 to 20 minutes once or twice a day that the health that the mental health the quietude the ability to deal with stress that the monks have can be captured by us within our regular busy lives it's a terrible error to believe that we don't have time for this because these very features can come to sustain us and protect us Kathleen Norris is a Presbyterian who spent nearly 18 months as a guest in a Benedictine monastery see his offer of the best-selling book the cloister walk I think because there is a incredible repetition of Psalms and Scripture every day in a monastery that listening is given great importance and that's where the silence between you know the Psalms and after the readings comes in and there's that incredible slow that down pace that the liturgy imposes on human nerves you know which is really good from I'm not a terribly patient person so it takes me a while to slow down but I think it's very good for me when I do that and listening is all a part of that it's all about to foster what we truly are before God to recognize our poverty to recognize our real true weakness and helplessness inside that is atmospheric where prayer is born what I truly understand the poverty with that is within me then I can understand what God is all about for trafficed s' solitude and contemplation are key to their lives of Prayer well I was in the Navy for four years aboard a destroyer and being aboard ship especially at night there's something for me to see the vast solitude of the ocean immense silence the stars at night the moon the reflection on video the ocean and the waves as they break through sort of like diamonds just ecstatic well something was happening and I get a lot of noise there was sort of an indefinable presence I suppose and I wanted it to be part of my life consider your own power brothers and sisters not many of you were wise like you extenders not many were powerful not many were of noble birth I think there's a certain sense in which all of us in even months I have to learn to be still where we are and not be thinking about what we're going to do next or where we've just done or anything of that sort but again it's it's the whole whole dynamic of being present to the present moment to the people that the person I'm working with right now being present to God to kind of slow down so we can catch up with ourselves Thomas Moore is the author of several best-selling books that comment on the state of the soul in today's world I don't think we're aware of how much noise we have around us and how valuable it can be to be quiet sometimes when people go on retreat the first thing they notice is the quiet and they're astonished by it at first they don't know how to deal with it and they feel uncomfortable and have to talk but then they get used to and realize that quiet is not really an absence of sound it's the opportunity to hear the world to hear nature just to hear a river flowing or to hear it leaves blowing in the wind or when the aspect of solitude is important in in any person's life we're just not always with other people who are going to be able to reflect on our experience our relationship with others whatever we can't always kind of be engaged it's like conversation or music you've got to have space in between the notes or it doesn't mean anything the solitude is the space in between the notes [Music] Oh [Music] the extravagance and extremes of king louis xiv marked the world of 17th century France the French church was dominated by Louis and reflected the riches and intrigues of his royal court but the spirit of reform was still alive in the monasteries in 1658 Armand de long say of the form libertine himself became the abbot of the newly forgotten Cistercian monastery of the truck there he established one of the most rigorous monastic practices in the history of Christianity the ascetic monks who followed him later became known as Trappists well in some very limited finite way the traps said French culture is decadence well we're going to live a life that's not decadence that's self denying that's discipline but is really scripturally based and maybe we can do a little bit of the redeeming of this culture the first monks ATLA trop went to extremes and their efforts to redeem their culture the grim intensity of their asceticism shocks modern sensibilities they ate barely enough food to keep alive discipline themselves with knotted cords and slept on bare boards Trappists have undergone many reforms over the past three hundred years and have shed their own sage Severus penances however asceticism and self-sacrifice are still important in the Trappist life and in most of the world's religions Christian's Hebrews and Muslims all have periods of fasting asceticism is fundamental in Buddhism and Hinduism monastic life has been seen and is seen and legitimately so is something of a protest movement I'm going to cut down on consumerism or materialism from the things that so many people think are the be-all and the end-all of life we don't judge any individual but if I go through one of the great that I won't mention the name of the store but one of these enormous stores that has literally in their inventory there must be two or three million different things in that one huge store and you move into it it's somewhat depressing when you're just overwhelmed by those things it's not the kingdom come but the thing them call asceticism in any kind of life whether it's we usually think of we usually think of it in the spiritual life but a thesis is is the Greek word which just means kind of like training or something like that and so with an athlete or with a musician or with the painter there's the Crimson kind of a thesis the same thing with monastic life it's not like you're doing them to make yourself feel bad or something you're doing it to open up a life for you it's amazing when you look down acquire we're all wearing the same Road it's the same white tunic the same black scapular the same kind of belt the genius of keeping the habit forces the individual to go deeper to find his own identity if you find it in clothes alone I mean you're not going to get very far in this life and that's precisely the point got to go deeper than that deeper than the skin I think certainly there are times when I there are people that I I miss experiences that I've had that I miss places that I've been to that I miss but I take any kind of life without that sort of poignancy just really not a life worth living because without that the choosing of this would not happen the power that it does monks choose to be celibate and chaste which may be the most difficult choice in their ascetic life celibacy is difficult for me and has been the hardest part of my life because of this great desire that is inborn in me as in as in other people for a deep personal intimate relationship with another human being with a woman with a woman with whom I would be joined and create a family and and that never goes away that desire is still there at the same time celibacy for me has been the most joyful aspect of my life as a monk because it is implied and has brought with it a very deep relationship with Christ and in becoming one with him I can relate to other people on that deeper level as well on that level that allows an exchange that is more than a superficial esteem it's a constantly growing challenge to be assembled in an austere you you don't decide that you're going to be a celibate when you walk in the door and then it's finished unless you keep pace with it constantly and it's a living and following of Christ day by day basis you couldn't pretend to live a celibate life and and grow as a human person grow as a man or as a woman unless you were receiving a lot of spiritual impetus to do this we call it grace it doesn't come naturally never never does no no how many usually never gets easy I think it is true that coming from the outside and being here just for a brief amount of time you say it is some wonderful idea of life these gentlemen are able to live however once you've been here a number of times you recognize all humanity has struggles and these Long's have the same kind of struggles once you take away the distractions of society and you put people in this setting the interior work is a is a fight sometime it's a battleground it's certainly a beautiful life but the two struggling life gentlemen struggle the call to this life could be considering the kind of call to live a life of poetry but when you're dealing with chickens and eggs and the hands are getting dirty it's certainly it's not Bruce wah it might be poetic but it is never it's kind of unrelenting there's just no break especially in our kind of monasticism you find your relaxation within those observances and and you find your intensity in those observances and over a long period of time in increments of maybe two or three years you gradually take deeper and deeper steps into this communion with God [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in the 18th and 19th centuries Europe struggled through war after war and France a cozy relationship between church and nobility grumble during the French Revolution church lands were scenes and monasteries were abolished as useless relics for nearly 250 years since the Reformation monks had kept to themselves saying their prayers and tending their farms but in the inside church atmosphere of the revolution and its aftermath monks were hounded and exiled as enemies of the state the Trappist was saved from extinction by abbot Augusto de las Tron's who led the only remaining group on a 10-year Odyssey through Europe in search of a permanent home by the mid-1800s Trappists had returned to France and a few small communities were revived but as Europe entered the Industrial Revolution new threats of war bred new fears about their survival the religious tolerance of America was seen as an alternative and in 1848 the ancient monastery of Mallory sent a group of more than forty months on a perilous 3,000 mile journey across the Atlantic their destination was a farm in the foothills of Kentucky named Gethsemane where the monks would build the first permanent Trappist abbey in America [Music] it is a deep commitment to community that has preserved the monastic way of life for so many centuries a monastery is not really a community of friends but a community based on a deep commitment to an ideal that is deeper and stronger than friendship most of these people are people that I probably would not choose as my friends just say anything about them but we've all kind of been called here it's living in this diversity very different kinds of people from very different backgrounds different countries different cultural experiences and also the different ages I think that some people can can get a very kind of myopic experience of life because they've always with people their same age or cultural background or whatever but here in the monastery it's like it's a little world I have dedicated myself to this community as a response to the call of God and not as the response to a brother's good qualities or I want to spend a lot of time with you but I'm here at this monastery because I believe that is where the Lord Jesus is calling me and and I believe that the others are responding that same way when we live together one hand washes the other and so there is this mutual support and far from confining it does expand one's own consciousness in some way it might appear to be inhibiting and restraining confining but it's not that way really on the myers-briggs I tend to be kind of right almost in the middle in terms of of being more introverted and extroverted people often think that monks should all be you know extreme introverts but if you're gonna live in community yes if you don't this is not gonna work brother helping brother we need the support there's a support system that's built in the community life that one really need to live such an austere life to respond to God in such a way of the way that that recalled the response we need the help of one another perfect example is that I hear often is and getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning I chose a very tough thing to try it but if you have 30 other people with you're getting a bit sick what kind of oil every day it becomes a piece of cake obviously we try to base ourselves on the victim of the the Word of God that do not let the Sun go down on your anger and if there is something we try to at least say hey brother we've disagreed on this let's disagree but let's not be angry to each other the impact of World War two brought a surge of new monks into America's monasteries including the great spiritual writer Thomas Merton who became a Trappist monk at Gethsemane to accommodate its growth gethsemane founded the new monasteries Holy Spirit in Conyers Georgia and Holy Trinity in Huntsville Utah wishing to deepen the religious life of South Carolina's people Bishop Emmet Walsh of Charleston invited the abbot of Gethsemane to establish a monastery in the state's low country this was the spur that created map kanabi in 1949 MEP can was originally a colonial rice plantation worked by slaves during the American Revolution it was owned by Henry Laurens a patriot leader in the war in the 1930s napkin was purchased by Time magazine founder Henry Luce and his wife Clare Boothe Luce they gave the land to the monks after the death of Claire booths daughter and Claire broke off all are buried on the monasteries land to the monks MEP Caen is a holy place made sacred by its Grace and gifts and they have committed to it forever amongst vowed to his community builds from a day into a lifetime he lives in a brotherhood with a young and the old learned to get along and stay together always monks never retire it's the concept maybe that is that is foreign to merging culture of the 1990s but we don't retire we may be forced to to slacken off but we never really simply retire the long-standing monastic tradition is to live work and die in place to live the whole lifecycle as among its the seniors the very old ones who have probably the most wisdom to pass on even in their weakness even in some cases their helplessness they remind us that that's the stance of the universe and before God Boniface is 87 still working everything and we we thank him just from a sociological point of view that it's the demands of the of the daily tasks and his his work that keeping coming he remains an icon who work hard and rest well and and be vitally interested in everything he participates vigorous very strong he's often the prophetic voice in the green why don't you face the truth till say it's looking at you in the face there it is why are we wasting this time it's wonderful given the realities of the 21st century modern monasteries like MEP kanabi are opening their doors to the outside world in many ways although their way of life may seem a displace in the computer age there has been increasing interest in monks Gregorian chant CDs sell millions of copies as a stressed-out culture begins to pay more attention to the monastic pace of life we have created something in this modern world that's quite fascinating and interesting but basically soulless and heartless we don't give much to the heart in this world we give everything to two shiny bright tools and instruments and we measure our progress by the kind of instruments that we make and the tools we have and computers and televisions and rockets and all these things that that we're so proud of now that world is pretty crazy because precisely because it doesn't have a heart to match it to give it a human dimension Meneses ism says that there is a depth of meaning there is an underside if you will a hidden almost instinctual sides everything that we do including going to the soccer game and meeting the babysitter on time and trying to cope with human needs at the same time everything that we do has meaning more so than his own service it is a paradox that monasteries have a reputation for being closed to the world the rule of Benedict has always urged monasteries to welcome guests throughout history they have offered shelter and sanctuary to both casual travelers and those with a more serious spiritual purpose at metka Nabby visitors may stay overnight in more than a dozen private guest rooms they share meals and prayer with the monks and come and go freely [Music] visitors are religious or non-religious Catholic and non-catholic men and women the monks have several furnished guest houses for groups couples even families throughout the year many people visit the monastery to worship a tender retreat or just wander the grounds in monistic guest programs monasteries welcome individuals who want to experience the monks life to a fuller extent cala myers as a retired Methodist minister who visits mep kanabi for periods of a month or more and participates in all aspects of monastic life I call found out they had a guest program where you could come and stay for a month or more and was pleasantly surprised to discover the hospitality and a welcome that I received here here you dive in with the monks singing the choir with them meet with them work with them well of course as you know we have a very intense hospitality program and therefore a lot of people come here who go through conversions over the years that I've been here I've seen many many people deeply touched by this life that they can't find really anywhere else because that's our lifestyle and so they come here and they see the word incarnate there's kind of a sense of kind of radiating rings inclusion into the monastic community this your first visit here there certainly is no longer the the sense that we try to keep people out certainly you're thinking the popular understanding of traffice there was like we were behind walls and we could never be gotten to I think the sense now is to share our experience with others Celia Sarah solely owns a busy restaurant in the city of Charleston she's a frequent visitor and helps with special events at MEP Cadabby what happens when I talked to people about MEP convey always have but I think now we're kind of funny questions they say things to me like do the brothers talk you know can you speak to them when you go out there and of course I just hoop and holler laughing because of course you can speak to them that's the whole idea you eat with them you pray with them and you worship with them and you walk with them and they're here you realize when you come here that they see a much bigger picture than we do when we're out in the day-to-day world stressed out and trying to put out fires every day and handle employees and everything else they see a much larger picture my name is f hi I'm fair I'm a rabbi and I've been in Charleston for a little over a year I've been working as a hospital chaplain I come to map gun from time to time for a day of spiritual centering and just to to relax and get away from the everyday activities I share a lot with with the monks here they are very supportive of of where I'm at there's no pressure to change who I am and there's there's a strong a strong feeling of support for for my own spiritual path John Boudreaux is an architect from Columbia South Carolina he's married and has five children he visits Meccans sometimes for an hour or two sometimes as long as five days coming to the monastery is non-threatening not frightening it's just so warm and wonderful it's an opportunity that we as normal average people just don't take advantage of it takes work to develop a spiritual life and you're not looking at the good example of perfect spiritual life you're looking at somebody's trying to try my best to get there and the months that napkins really play a large part in helping lead event monasteries have always been a refuge and they have always been preservers of learning as part of its outreach to the modern world met ken is building a state-of-the-art library to house its 25,000 volume collection of books and electronic media Barbara piers is a professional librarian who helps the monks computerize their library it's a rather eclectic library and it encompasses a wide variety of things and many old books which are very rare and very valuable I would like to think that the monks here are really saving a great deal for posterity hopefully other people will be will use these and will appreciate what they have done it's a wonderful collection the library will be open to anyone and be connected via the Internet to people throughout the world perhaps surprisingly monks have embraced computers in the internet many monasteries have sophisticated websites and the artistry that goes into their design echoes the monks work of 10 centuries ago MEP Konami uses its website for general information about the monastery as well as for marketing its products besides their books an art monasteries throughout history have contributed to Western civilization in other ways MEP Konami opens its doors for concerts and seminars at which hundreds of people get a glimpse into the life of a monastery we do not create a little ghetto here in the woods of South Carolina that's apart from the local community and so we feel we have to be open to their influence on us and our influence out there Elin Dressler morale is the director of the city of Charleston's Office of Cultural Affairs she coordinates its annual picollo Spoleto Arts Festival everything that the community does in presenting its resources and making them available not only to picollo Spoleto but they do a lot of other things there too is something that enriches the lives and spirits of everybody I have the good fortune to go there and experience them and I think that's what the church is and has been since it started thousands of years ago [Music] for 17 centuries monks have always found a place in a world that has not always been friendly to them in their mix of ancient wisdom practicality community and dreams is there something to be learned as we enter the 21st century I think the reason religious communities work especially a group like the traffice is that they have found very effective way to stop time that's the first step I would say that they have toured a really soulful style of life and because of that I think it's very valuable for the rest of us to watch them to look and say what are they doing and is there any way which I can take a piece of that for myself but I think there is a little bit of Monk in everyone it's part of what God I think is born into us called imago day or soul or spirit or whatever I think God has made that into humanity so one comes apart for a while to let God touch that part of us and once that part is touched and I think when you go back home then you begin to seek ways of incorporating that into your daily life I think that one of the reasons many people including many Protestants such as myself go to monasteries and keep going back to monasteries is that they are a reminder of what life can be they kind of bring us back to ourselves because to me anyway they they refresh me they renew my sense of who I really am and what I'm really about in the world you know I think agustín's right our hearts are restless till we find our resting on God once that for everybody the chest for monks so map can exists not forceful monks who are here certainly for them what this place exists for those who want to come apart and have God touched them [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Keywords: Trappist, monk, monks, solitude, contempation, Thomas Merton, priest, brother, Catholic, Catholic Church, hermit, hermitage, alone, contemplate, God, God Alone, Jesus, Jesus Christ, desert, Christianity, Holy Spirit, Christian, sacred, OCSO, Cistercians, St. Benedict, Rule of St. Benedict, South Carolina, Mepkin, Mepkin Abbey, Fr. John Geaney, John Geaney, WTVI, Charlotte, Paulist Media Works, Paulist, Paulist Fathers, priesthood, religious life, abbey, abbot, Robert Maier, monastery

Id: ohzS11DZJJw

Length: 57min 19sec (3439 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 07 2019