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adawgj
Guest
Are there any Catholic monks on this forum?
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Elostirion
Guest
There’s a Fransiscan who goes by the name of JReducation (spelling?). There are a few more I think, but I can’t remember their names.
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Domnall
Guest
I’m not sure, to be honest. We have plenty of Oblates of Monastic communities (such as our own OraLabora) but I’m not sure I’ve run into any monks that post regularly.
Brother Jay is a Franciscan Friar, not a monk and Friar David is a Carmelite friar, not a monk.
Brother Jay is a Franciscan Friar, not a monk and Friar David is a Carmelite friar, not a monk.
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TimothyH
Guest
As Domnall stated, Brother Jay is not a monk. Brother Jay is a Franciscan Friar.
Monks (and nuns) are cloistered. Monks and nuns rarely leave the enclosure of the monastery. Friars however, are active religious. Friars live in a community house with other Brothers but they are often out and about in the secular world. Friars are not cloistered in the monastery. Benedictines and Cistercians (Trappists) are some of the cloistered monastic orders - these are monks and nuns - all cloistered. Monks live a life or prayer, pennance, solitude and silence, all in great love for the brothers in their community.
A monk will sometimes pop his head into the forums and make a post or two but monks generally don’t spend significant time on the Internet except, for example, if they have to read email for some aspect of the monastery and maybe to communicate with family. They may only watch one hour of TV each week and then a documentary. Monks live a very structured life inside of the monastic cloister.
Brother Jay is the superior of a Franciscan religious community. He is Franciscan, vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience. Brother Jay is an extremely well educated man with an advanced degree in Mystical Theology. You can see his community’s website at brothersoflife.wordpress.com/.
There used to be a Carmelite Friar named David but last I heard he was sick. The only monks I ever saw on the forums was a Benedictine (Order of Saint Benedict) who poked his head in on Christmas Eve right before midnight and posted “He is risen. He is truly risen!” and another who responded “They will know we are Christians by our love” to some thread.
There are lots of lay Franciscans, lay Dominicans and lay/oblate Benedictines on the forums but you will not find many monks because of the nature of what it means to be a monk.
-Tim-
Monks (and nuns) are cloistered. Monks and nuns rarely leave the enclosure of the monastery. Friars however, are active religious. Friars live in a community house with other Brothers but they are often out and about in the secular world. Friars are not cloistered in the monastery. Benedictines and Cistercians (Trappists) are some of the cloistered monastic orders - these are monks and nuns - all cloistered. Monks live a life or prayer, pennance, solitude and silence, all in great love for the brothers in their community.
A monk will sometimes pop his head into the forums and make a post or two but monks generally don’t spend significant time on the Internet except, for example, if they have to read email for some aspect of the monastery and maybe to communicate with family. They may only watch one hour of TV each week and then a documentary. Monks live a very structured life inside of the monastic cloister.
Brother Jay is the superior of a Franciscan religious community. He is Franciscan, vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience. Brother Jay is an extremely well educated man with an advanced degree in Mystical Theology. You can see his community’s website at brothersoflife.wordpress.com/.
There used to be a Carmelite Friar named David but last I heard he was sick. The only monks I ever saw on the forums was a Benedictine (Order of Saint Benedict) who poked his head in on Christmas Eve right before midnight and posted “He is risen. He is truly risen!” and another who responded “They will know we are Christians by our love” to some thread.
There are lots of lay Franciscans, lay Dominicans and lay/oblate Benedictines on the forums but you will not find many monks because of the nature of what it means to be a monk.
-Tim-
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Aramis
Guest
Brother JR, FFI, is a friar. Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate, as I recall.
Brother David, O. Carm, is a Carmelite Friar.
Friars are not monks. Friars have a different work style - both are consecrated religious. Monks properly live in seclusion from the world, being defined as such by St. Benedict, whether they be cenobites, anchorites, or hermits.
Friars have public ministries, but are otherwise living much like monks - shared prayers, solemn vows, communal life.
Likewise, those in communities which do not take solemn vows are generally not considered monks nor friars.
It would be rare for western Monks to be participating on a BBS. Most of them are contemplatives, isolating themselves off from the outside world, either to ministries to the outside that can be done from the monastery with limited outside contact (wine making, host making, raising seeing eye dogs), or which have no need of outside contact (sometimes totally self-sufficient). Some even include hermitages who only join together for prayers and for matters affecting the whole community.
Eastern monks (especially of the Byzantine Rite Churches) may have public ministries, like friars, but often do not. Like friars, they remain in the world, at least some of them. Unlike friars, the public ministry is seldom the charism of the community, but may be, as in the case of hieromonks and hierodeacons, a particular charism to serve the local faithful in parish ministry.
There have been several Eastern Monks who have been posters; one that come to mind was a hieromonk “Independent Orthodox” monastery. They were, as far as can be told online, part of one of the splinter groups from the Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox, but they came into union with Rome as an individual, but continued to live their monastic vows. I’ve not seen them on lately. Their specific individual ministry was specifically on-line evangelization.
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