Trisha Day - Inside The School Of Charity: Lessons from the Monastery

Among the many changes in Trappist life since Vatican II, one of the most notable has been the search for ways monasteries can assist other people in their quest for God. To some extent this new openness to the world is a departure from past practice; flight from the world is a monastic theme with a long pedigree. Although the phrase is distasteful to most of us now, the reality it enshrinesconstructing an alternative environment in which Gospel values predominatefinds a modern analogue in the more popular term countercultural. Fidelity to their countercultural vocation to hiddenness, silence, and prayer has always meant that monasteries erect boundaries between themselves and their culture. The monastics primary contribution to human society is, and must remain, the presence in the world (however hidden) of lives given to adoration and intercession.

On the other hand, hospitality too has a long monastic pedigree. First of all, the eschatological witness of monasticism, even without any outreach to the world, is a social service the monastery performs in the here and now. Beyond this, monasteries of the Benedictine family (which includes the Trappist/Cistercian branch) have nearly always welcomed guests into a special section of the monastery church, where they could participate in the liturgy, at least by hearing and interior prayer. There is usually a guesthouse too, where guests may stay for some days, sharing in the prayer and silence.

But now it seems that God is asking something more of us. The primary characteristic of one called to monastic life, according to St. Benedict, is that the person be truly seeking God. Yet desire for God is the most basic human drive, not limited to those called to be monks. In our time it seems particularly hard to find understanding, assistance, and companionship on this difficult yet rewarding journey. Sometimes parish life is not sufficient to lead people to the depth of prayer and union with Christ they deeply long for. Many monasteries have sensed the depth of this longing, sensed a kinship with these fellow-seekers, and felt called by God to respond.

Here at Mississippi Abbey, in addition to the forms of hospitality already in our tradition, we have added two new forms: lay associates, and long-term guests. Formal association with lay groups, while long a component of Benedictine life, is a new phenomenon in the Trappist world. In the mid 1980s the monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, under Dom Armand Veilleux, began the first such group in the United States. In 1994 our brothers at Conyers invited the other American Trappist houses to send a sister or brother and lay friends to a meeting, if they were interested in starting such a group and wished to benefit from the experience of the Conyers group. While we could not spare a sister at the time, our brothers at New Melleray Abbey, just twenty-five minutes away from us, sent two monks, and with them went Trisha and Dennis Day.