Monastic Life

During my drama filled, hormone incited teenage years, I’d often joke to this one red headed guy that I was going to become a nun. We’d dated for a while. Afterwards, we maintained a quasi friendship, but I took the breakup hard and thought my life was over. I’m sure you can relate.

That’s when I thought that a monastic life would be a solution. Perhaps Maria in the classic movie “The Sound of Music” inspired me, but the only catch in the situation would be that I’d have to be a nun in a men’s monastery. How shockingly inappropriate!

Monasteries are rather serious places where the inhabitants devote their lives to the Divine, prayer and simplicity, cut off from the mainstream. They’re located in desolate, unpopulated areas, although the scenery is breathtaking.

I’ve traveled to two Russian Orthodox monasteries in my day -- one in Jordanville, New York, the other in South Caanan, Pennsylvania and found them to be peaceful places in the midst of nature, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Unfortunately, although I’d love to visit Mount Athos in Greece, I would not be allowed. Why? Because women are still considered to be the root of some sort of original evil/sin and my presence would disrupt the holy atmosphere.

For visits to other monasteries, it’s still requested that women cover their heads and wear modest clothing such as long sleeved shirts and long skirts. Men are asked to wear long sleeved shirts and long pants as well.

At any rate, the tradition of monastic life does have rules and a schedule that the monks adhere to. Meals, mostly vegetarian and certainly meatless, are eaten in silence while one of the brothers reads from the “Lives of Saints.”

In addition, the monasteries I visited are also seminaries: they teach and prepare students for a life in clergy or monastics. Upon completion of the five year course of study in Jordanville, one receives a Bachelor of Theology degree -- the seminary is accredited by NY state.

The daily schedule begins well before sunrise with prayers and veneration of icons in church, followed by breakfast and more prayers. Then, there are work periods with each monk being assigned to a duty in the monastery or outside if there are farm chores to be performed. The chores run the gamut from feeding the chickens and collecting their eggs, feeding and milking the cows or goats, cleaning the barns to tending the vegetable gardens and beehives. Some monasteries have their own printing presses and publish books, pamphlets and magazines. Beautiful icons, an art in itself, are also created by the talented.

The monk’s day finishes as it started: with prayers, vespers and matins services in church.

This simple life is not for everyone. It’s filled with silence, for in silence and in meditation the mind can be quieted and a connection with the Divine made.