Do you feel called to the monastic life?

St. Benedict’s Monastery offers you two paths

to follow:

 

• A short-time commitment of not less than six months (subject to withdrawal or renewal by agreement with the Abbot) and lived as a member of the community as an oblate [Latin: ”to offer oneself”] without vows but sharing fully in the daily life and prayer of the monks, If this is your interest, Read more.

• A life-time commitment lived in the community as a candidate for monastic profession beginning with the novitiate and moving through simple vows to solemn profession. If this is your interest, Read more. ✜

 

Thomas Merton's Snowmass

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In 1964, the superior of St. Benedict’s Monastery, Joachim Viens, invited Fr. Thomas Merton of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky to create an information booklet for those interested in the monastic life. As Merton himself briefly described it, Come to the Mountain was “a meditation on monasticism in its twentieth century context,” composed of five brief chapters focused on its essential qualities and observances.

After more than half a century, Merton’s characteristically clear and concise description of monastic life speaks of the ideals, values and principles which it continues to offer today.  “The monk is not so different after all,” Merton writes, “and has a very definite role to play in the modern world.”

Photographers Ferenc Berko and David Hiser provided the illustrations which accompany the text, and preserve a visible record of life at St. Benedict’s Monastery. Although all of the monks who appear at work and prayer have since passed on into the kingdom of god whom they loved and served at St. Benedict’s Monastery, their legacy continues to motivate and inspire those who follow them today. Read more. ✜