A
monk or nun is a person in search of God, and in
some way a person who is called to monastic life
will be someone who is at least beginning to realise
that he needs to make this search a priority in
life. They are people who are able to let God give
meaning to their lives.
Our search for God is already a response to the fact
that God is calling us, and one of the signs that
he is calling us to be a monk, will be our sense
of attraction to monastic life. People find monastic
communities attractive for many reasons. The community
context of a life of faith and prayer is often the
reason people will give when asked. For some it will
be the dedicated life of service that appeals to
them, for others it will be the life of contemplative
prayer. Not many newcomers will see themselves as
school teachers, but the value of a life of study
and the desire to share their love of faith and culture
may well be things that will grow during their early
years in the monastery. If they had wanted to be
parish priests, they could have gone to a seminary,
but the sense of solidarity they find in a monastic
community, and the way a monastery puts itself at
the service of a much wider community can awaken
a strong sense of the place of a monastery in the
pastoral life of the Church.
In general the monastic path combines a serious desire
to pray with a readiness to give one’s life
generously to serve God in the practical ways of
a community’s life and work, so that God may
be glorified in all that we are and do.
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