{"id":24351,"date":"2009-02-20T19:54:41","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T23:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/02\/life-in-the-abbey-today\/"},"modified":"2013-10-18T11:36:55","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T15:36:55","slug":"life-in-the-abbey-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/02\/life-in-the-abbey-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Life in the abbey today"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the monastic world one can sometimes be sheltered from some of the concerns of “outside world”: the “fast life” for example.\u00a0But for many of us\u00a0the true living of reality never goes away. How\u00a0could it? \u00a0Like the rest of the world\u00a0the monks\u00a0have to be concerned about some external\u00a0things like family, friends, keeping the apostolate\u00a0alive if it is\u00a0for God’s great glory, concern\u00a0for one another, etc.\u00a0The added feature to our life, as it is similar to all serious Christians is that we have\u00a0see the about the seriousness of living the balance of prayer, study, work and\u00a0holy leisure, the\u00a0monastic way of life while keeping\u00a0reality (God & humanity) in front of with the concern for the healthcare for the elderly, formation of the young, the maintenance of the buildings and grounds, diet and exercise, communication of the charism to our students, colleagues, benefactors and alumni, concern for the welfare of the poor and the ill, care for the environment and so on. As I progress in this life I am learning better the dynamics of interpersonal relationships, my own need for happiness, love, development of the intellect & affect, and other\u00a0things that contribute to happy and truth-filled living.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday (Thursday) we met for our weekly meeting with the abbot to discuss Lectio Divina, a practice of reading\/praying\/contemplating the Scriptures from within the heart of the Church’s Liturgy. We are reading the book Praying the Bible: An Introduction to Lectio Divina<\/i><\/strong><\/a> by the late Archbishop Mariano Magrassi, OSB. It is a wonderful synthesis of all the elements that contribute to this experience of coming to know Christ through the ancient yet ever contemporary practice of holy reading of Scripture.\u00a0 I am ever mindful of Saint Jerome’s didctum: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” More on this topic later but I have to say, read this book!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

House work is never done, ask my mother, or ask anyone who owns a home. We spent the last week painting various parts of the abbey and today we spent the morning preparing the guest rooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Caution<\/a><\/span>This afternoon we went to the US Olympic training facility for white river rafting. It was a very pleasant afternoon away from the monastery with confreres enjoying time in the fresh air and sun with a brief walk in nature before having a beer and kettle chips.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tonight, we are watching the 1964 classic “Becket” with Sir John Gielgud, Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole; this is one my favorite movies of all time. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

These are the things which make life\u00a0in the abbey.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the monastic world one can sometimes be sheltered from some of the concerns of “outside world”: the “fast life” for example.\u00a0But for many of us\u00a0the true living of reality never goes away. How\u00a0could it? \u00a0Like the rest of the world\u00a0the monks\u00a0have to be concerned about some external\u00a0things like family, friends, keeping the apostolate\u00a0alive if … Continue reading Life in the abbey today<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1976],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28921,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24351\/revisions\/28921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}