The Monk’s of St. Joseph’s Abbey

I was on a retreat this week with the monks of Saint Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. They’re cloistered Trappists who gather in the monastery chapel every day at 3:30 and 6AM, with Mass at 6:40, then again at 2, 5:40, and 7:40PM. Together with some other priests and laymen, I entered into the rhythm of their communal life, taking meals separately, but joining them for prayer.

They live on a very large piece of hilltop property, hundreds of acres, which they till and tend themselves. They also make and sell vestments and jams. And though the monks live apart from the busyness of the town, locals love to come by to pray with them in the visitors chapels (two always-open sections where people join the monks for Mass and listen to them chanting the psalms).

As soon as I arrived on Monday and joined them for Vespers (Evening Prayer) at 5:40, I was overcome by a sense of these men being right there at the place of encounter with God, presenting the Church and all of humanity to Christ, that He might present us to the Father. That’s what it felt like. And that’s what it is. These monks worship Christ constantly on earth, and we are all the richer for it.

And the attraction to the prayer of the monks, which is very beautiful (some 40 men singing gently in slow, deliberate syllables and tones), also filled me with confidence to join in and be taken up to God with them. So I entered in. And while in, I felt like a spiritually poor man being invited to take a higher place at a banquet of contemplation.

The poverty of my own soul, seen in the light of the monks’ abundance of prayer and fidelity, wasn’t easy to accept, but their invitation for me to join them was so gracious that I perceived in their hospitality Christ looking at me, not with disappointment, but with hope that I might learn from His humble flock. And the word that Our Lord spoke to me this week through them was discipline.

Lately, it hasn’t been easy for me to know what to ask of God. I get by because I’m comfortable leading formal prayer and working. However, I haven’t been comfortable praying from my heart. What has been missing, I was given to understand, is the discipline of my will. God wants me to love Him by choosing the better part (praying) constantly.

I’ve always had a strong faith in the Church, but I’ve also learned to be charming and presidential, and a man is neither saved by his faith nor by his speech; he must love God with his heart - that is, with his will. Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” enters the kingdom, but even a suffering thief, if he overcomes his pride, can be with The Lord.

Holy monks live in that secret paradise known, even on the cross, by those who humble themselves daily through discipline of the will. I want that too. +