Monks, Monasteries and Discovering a Thread

As a pre-adolescent youth growing up among Baptists, I had no exposure to monks and monasteries so my contact with them may seem surprising. It’s a challenge to appreciate and even more so to understand how they came my way, and the formative influence they’ve had in my adult years.

As a boy I enjoyed the stillness, silence, simplicity and solitude of being in nature sans theological overlay such as walking in the woods alone. Years later I heard there are two books of revelation: scripture and nature. As I would learn, these qualities are often found in the lives of monks and in monasteries. In late adolescence I wondered if I was meant to become a monk and join a monastery? Fast forward - it didn't happen.

Our Lady of Gethsemane - Trappist Kentucky. During college I had been seeing a psychiatrist in my home town of Lexington Kentucky. He had introduced me to Hindu mantra meditation. In the winter of 1970 I was home from college and he invited me to join him for a weekend retreat at Our Lady of Gethsemane Monastery in Trappist Kentucky. I said sure.

The retreat was unstructured except for meals when other men on retreat gathered, ate in silence and listened to tapes of a Thomas Merton. Merton had lived at the monastery for many years and was famous for his writings on a wide range of topics. I’d never heard of him until 25 years later when I came across his books on contemplative spirituality.

Otherwise our time on retreat was our own and I spent mine attending a few services from a balcony in the cool, early morning darkness, hiking in the brisk cold winter air in the foot hills, meditating and reading G.I. Gurdjieff’s book, “Meetings with Remarkable Men”.

At the time I was studying Gurdjieff’s teachings on man’s possible evolution. Gurdjieff describes a monastery, a real but perhaps fictitious one, where the monks had formerly belonged to various religions (Buddhist, Christian, etc.) but now lived as one brotherhood. Yet, Gurdjieff says he could not discern to which religion any given monk had belonged.

He tells of two elderly monks who gave sermons. Listening to the smooth, liquid, seductive eloquence of the one was greatly anticipated by the monks. However, what was said failed to leave a lasting impression. When the other elderly monk spoke, it with an awkward, somewhat coarse and rough delivery and it didn’t seem at first to have an impact and so was less appreciated, until later. Apparently the first monk spoke only from his mind to the minds of others while the latter spoke from his being to the being of others and therefore it had a greater, more lasting affect on their understanding. Since then when speaking I’ve tried to remember to speak being to being.

St. Benedict’s Monastery - Snowmass Colorado. A 30 minute drive from Aspen, this monastery was the location of many visits to attend silent 10 day group meditation retreats of centering prayer. Other visits included Board meetings of Contemplative Outreach (CO), a non-profit organization established to teach the contemplative practice of centering prayer, and advanced teaching retreats on the contemplative dimension of the Christian gospel.

Thomas Keating (1923-2018), a former monk would sometimes lead an event or if home from his travels I would take such opportunities to visit with him. The last time this occurred was when my flight to the East Coast had been cancelled due to a hurricane and we shared the afternoon in his room. We talked about “all and everything” and as he was fond of saying with his trademark humor, “what it is can’t be said but you have to say something”.

William Meninger (1932-2021), also a former monk at Snowmass, speaks of the Monk as a Jungian archetype. He had observed the strong interest and appeal that monks and monasteries have for many people. He suggests it is because there is something of the monk and the monastic environment that resides in everyone, an archetype monk - silence, stillness, simplicity and solitude are experienced on their visits and it resonates with those qualities that pre-exist already, alive in each person, even if they are unaware of them.

Note: Unfortunately, as of 2023, this monastery is closing due to an insufficient number of men who are seeking monastic vocations. I understand this is a common problem in the Christian religion but contemplation and related practices are alive and well as they are increasingly prevalent among lay people.

St. Walburga Monastery - Elizabeth New Jersey. Home to Benedictine Sisters, this urban monastery was the site of administrative meetings of the Board of CO. The only interaction we had with the Sisters was at meals when we ate with them. As guests we were careful to respect their various protocols at meals including silence.

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I was vividly aware that there were certain Sisters who I’d pass in the halls or see at meals for whom I felt a special resonance. While no words were exchanged it seemed there was a type of unspoken recognition that occurred between us.

This was especially true of a certain elderly Sister who had been the Abbess. I always looked forward to seeing her and exchanging a nod and a smile. On one of my last visits I learned that she had died. I knew not her name but I missed her. Another Sister from that time is now active on Facebook and I’ve enjoyed our ongoing exchanges. While these visits of the Board had an administrative purpose we were aware of the Sisters commitment to the values of a contemplative life and felt they supported us in their prayers and best intentions.

The Garrison Institute - Garrison New York. The Institute had at one time been a large Capuchin monastery. It overlooks the Hudson River near West Point. The Institute was founded to explore the intersection of contemplation and social action.

It also serves as a location for meditation retreats, especially of Buddhist and Christian persuasions. Most of my visits included meditation retreats in centering prayer and one visit for a CO Board meeting. Besides the silence in meditation as I was walked the halls the silence and stillness were noticeable. It was as if the Capuchins has left some type of residue.

In closing, the following poem from William Stafford well expresses the appearance and relevance of monks and monasteries in my journey.

The Way It Is

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

Things that change, But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.

In sum, for me the monastic thread has been a consistent inner attraction to my own experience and to people and places when I resonate with stillness, silence, simplicity and solitude. Monks and monasteries are places where such resonance have occurred. These qualities have been key gateways for my becoming whatever I was destined to become - always a work in progress and at times a definite surprise!

References

G.I. Gurdjieff. Meetings With Remarkable Men. Penguin Compass, New York, 2002. First published 1963, Routledge, London.

William Meninger. St. Benedict’s Monastery, Snowmass Colorado. Lantern Books, New York, 2005.