Asceticism and the Replacement Talk

Before I get into the prepared, more prepared remarks, I’d like to comment just a bit on the introduction. When we founded the monastery in Marin County, it was basically two hovels and a magnificent little chapel. Eventually, God was gracious enough, especially through the prayers of St. Demetrius (that’s a whole story in itself) to enable us to purchase a facility in northern California, at 3,000 feet in the mountains. One of the things that has always been a huge challenge in the life of the monastery is to try to figure out how you support it. Especially since [?] had a $4,000 a month mortgage, which we had not had to deal with before. One of the most important things about monasticism and I would say, about, I would hope it that is also characteristic of any very integral Christian [?] life, is that monasticism shows that work is sanctified. It is holy. The leitourgia, the common work, the liturgy, of the monastery is not simply begin and end in the chapel. It continues on to the trapezea, to the dining hall, and it continues on to the workshops. Because the liturgy of the monastery is the common work of the monastery is to support one another out of love, and to work for the sake of the other. And, thus, all work is sanctified. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the making of the candles, or elevating the host, or whether it’s cleaning the bathrooms or, actually,  most of the food actually came from Costco. [laughter] Because, at that elevation in the mountains, the monks would be real ascetics indeed. [?]  How do you run an institution where it costs about $1500 per person per month? And how do you raise that kind of money? It’s a huge challenge.

But it’s a challenge that is, that I think was presented to the monastery in an incredibly valuable way, because not only were these various handicrafts, but also the special ministry of hospitality. A ministry of hospitality, not only just of a guest house where the monastery was constantly overrun with pilgrims but also guided retreats, something a little unusual in the Orthodox world, and chances for young people, especially young men, to come and to enter into the life of the monastery, in what we affectionately called a summer novice program. You got all of the benefits of the monastic life. You could enter into all the services.  You lived with the monks. You prayed [bathed?] with the monks. You worked with the monks. You did everything with the monks. The monastery benefited from all of the sweat and the labor of a bunch of 20 year olds, and we only had to feed them. And that was a challenge. For up to three months. That was quite a challenge.

What it does is it shows the Christian attitude towards work. And, it shows what life is in a non-secular, completely non-secular, context. Because what happens in our context in our life as Christians so often living in our very secular American society is that we compartmentalize everything. You’ve got church here. You’ve got work here. You’ve got family here. You’ve got other things here. And you’ve got this over there.  And you’ve got that there. And very seldom are they integrated. But the life of the monastery manifests that total integration of work and prayer, of service to the other, of self-sacrifice for the other, of real asceticism, and all in a context of repentance. And one of the things that I think is,  I want to clarify is the term repentance, because I’m going to be using it in a way that is rather different.

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