This weekend I went on a mini-retreat at Mepkin Abbey which is not too far from Charleston, South Carolina. To learn about this abbey or about who these Trappist monks are
click here. I went down there with Deacon Dan Goulet who will be a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore next June and is in my Army Chaplain School class. We had the weekend off so we figured that a weekend of quiet prayer with these Trappist monks was just what we needed.
Here you will find some pictures I took of the Abbey. You see the guestroom I stayed in--simple but comfortable. The picture of the building is the guesthouse where my room was located. We were a short 5 minute walk from the chapel. The other three pictures are of the main part of the chapel and the small chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was reserved.
We had the privilege of praying the
Liturgy of the Hours with the monks. I did not quite make it up for the 3:20am Vigil service, but I made it to all the rest. The greatest honor I had was to concelebrate Sunday Mass with them. The whole life of these monks is work and prayer. At Mepkin, these men run a farm where they produce eggs which is how they sustain themselves. Outside of their daily work, they live under the
Rule of St. Benedict by dedicating themselves in service to God and the Church through prayer. The peace one feels at an abbey where they are none of the normal stresses of time, worries, money, status, fame, or any of the other trappings of life. Here I found a place of pure peace and prayer. Often the monks accused of not living in the "real world". Maybe they are living in the "real world" and we should model them in their lives of peace, simplicity, humility, prayer, and community. In stead of the monks being more like the rest of the world, the rest of the world should live more like these monks. May their prayers and witness transform our world, starting with your hearts and mine.
# posted by Fr. Mark Beran : 15:17
This weekend I went on a mini-retreat at Mepkin Abbey which is not too far from Charleston, South Carolina. To learn about this abbey or about who these Trappist monks are click here. I went down there with Deacon Dan Goulet who will be a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore next June and is in my Army Chaplain School class. We had the weekend off so we figured that a weekend of quiet prayer with these Trappist monks was just what we needed.
Here you will find some pictures I took of the Abbey. You see the guestroom I stayed in--simple but comfortable. The picture of the building is the guesthouse where my room was located. We were a short 5 minute walk from the chapel. The other three pictures are of the main part of the chapel and the small chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was reserved.
We had the privilege of praying the Liturgy of the Hours with the monks. I did not quite make it up for the 3:20am Vigil service, but I made it to all the rest. The greatest honor I had was to concelebrate Sunday Mass with them. The whole life of these monks is work and prayer. At Mepkin, these men run a farm where they produce eggs which is how they sustain themselves. Outside of their daily work, they live under the Rule of St. Benedict by dedicating themselves in service to God and the Church through prayer. The peace one feels at an abbey where they are none of the normal stresses of time, worries, money, status, fame, or any of the other trappings of life. Here I found a place of pure peace and prayer. Often the monks accused of not living in the "real world". Maybe they are living in the "real world" and we should model them in their lives of peace, simplicity, humility, prayer, and community. In stead of the monks being more like the rest of the world, the rest of the world should live more like these monks. May their prayers and witness transform our world, starting with your hearts and mine.