What is a monk's purpose?

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How does one know that one is called to be a monk? Is it primarily a matter of personality or disposition, or is it more a very open-hearted choice one makes, regardless of disposition, to follow God in this way? What does God ask of monks?

I’ve always struggled understanding this sort of thing. Additionally, some recurring thoughts come back to me that I can’t shake. I’ll share them here. Any thoughts?

NTG
  1. I’ve heard that “the final goal of a monk is the Kingdom of God…”. What does this mean specifically? What does that mean—“the Kingdom of God”? Is this the goal of any other people in life, or monks only? Does the faithful monk necessarily achieve the Kingdom of God more fully than say a faithful Jesuit who perhaps divides his time up and searches for God in other ways?
  2. We seem to be a people who have countless means and methods and technologies and experts on this, that, and the other thing at our fingertips, and yet, no real sense of what we’re actually doing. The question, “yes, but what’s it all for?”, posed in the face of this activity is seldom asked. It’s like having a car with a million special features and a zillion road maps, but no destination to travel towards. More and more I ‘feel’ in my being this overabundance and instead of filling me, it wears me out. And yet, I have this bizarre guilt feeling about my draw towards contemplation, that somehow it would be selfish to spend more time in prayer and spend more time perhaps ‘doing nothing’, just sitting in front of God at an adoration chapel and keeping my mouth shut if I can. Often, this thought comes to mind that I don’t want to say anything or hear anything, that I’ve had it with the noise, I see no point in all of it and this sense that I must do this and do that in the world is something that seems completely mistaken. Can you make heads or tails of something like this? Have you had any experience like this?
  3. Can one become a monk if one is not a very good singer?
  4. I have always been deeply struck by Nietzsche’s “Parable of the Madman”; that someone renowned as an atheist and so much touted for the raising up on mankind in this kind of eruption of willpower, that for all of that, he still managed to portray, it seems to me, a very accurate portrayal of our world today and that he seems to ‘get it’, to know what it is worth:
THE MADMAN----Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!”—As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?—Thus they yelled and laughed
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
“How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us—for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.”
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves.
It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

**Where are our Catholics going, those 85% or so that no longer come to Mass? What are our faithful looking for? How in the world is one supposed to live without God and in this world that has all but forgotten Him? **
  1. What ‘place’ does a monk hold in the Body of Christ?
 
NotThatGuy said:
How does one know that one is called to be a monk? Is it primarily a matter of personality or disposition, or is it more a very open-hearted choice one makes, regardless of disposition, to follow God in this way? What does God ask of monks?

I’ve always struggled understanding this sort of thing. Additionally, some recurring thoughts come back to me that I can’t shake. I’ll share them here. Any thoughts?

NTG
  1. I’ve heard that “the final goal of a monk is the Kingdom of God…”. What does this mean specifically? What does that mean—“the Kingdom of God”? Is this the goal of any other people in life, or monks only? Does the faithful monk necessarily achieve the Kingdom of God more fully than say a faithful Jesuit who perhaps divides his time up and searches for God in other ways?
  2. We seem to be a people who have countless means and methods and technologies and experts on this, that, and the other thing at our fingertips, and yet, no real sense of what we’re actually doing. The question, “yes, but what’s it all for?”, posed in the face of this activity is seldom asked. It’s like having a car with a million special features and a zillion road maps, but no destination to travel towards. More and more I ‘feel’ in my being this overabundance and instead of filling me, it wears me out. And yet, I have this bizarre guilt feeling about my draw towards contemplation, that somehow it would be selfish to spend more time in prayer and spend more time perhaps ‘doing nothing’, just sitting in front of God at an adoration chapel and keeping my mouth shut if I can. Often, this thought comes to mind that I don’t want to say anything or hear anything, that I’ve had it with the noise, I see no point in all of it and this sense that I must do this and do that in the world is something that seems completely mistaken. Can you make heads or tails of something like this? Have you had any experience like this?
  3. Can one become a monk if one is not a very good singer?
  4. I have always been deeply struck by Nietzsche’s “Parable of the Madman”; that someone renowned as an atheist and so much touted for the raising up on mankind in this kind of eruption of willpower, that for all of that, he still managed to portray, it seems to me, a very accurate portrayal of our world today and that he seems to ‘get it’, to know what it is worth:
THE MADMAN----Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!”—As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?—Thus they yelled and laughed
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.
“How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us—for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.”
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves.
It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

**Where are our Catholics going, those 85% or so that no longer come to Mass? What are our faithful looking for? How in the world is one supposed to live without God and in this world that has all but forgotten Him? **
  1. What ‘place’ does a monk hold in the Body of Christ?
Click to expand...
As I understand it, the monastic vocation is primarily aimed at getting that individual to Heaven; that is what is meant in pt. 1).

It is an inward focused vocation, unlike the priesthood, or the active religious life, which are more concerned with helping others achieve holiness.

God Bless
 
the goal of everybody must be the Kingdom of God. but everybody goes in different way. somebody active in city life, trying to do the God’s will for the business, science or arts. others, more in meditation, more separated by the daily life.
if you believe in the strength of the prayer, than you will understand the meaning. if i am spiritually clean and clear, my prayer will be stronger. there are such people, that talk easier with God. like Moses in Numbers.
so, the monks must be more in spiritual life, than in our everyday life. business and family will distract them. that is why, they are not involved in such activities.
they are the " spiritual accumulators " of the humanity. nobody, except God, can say, how much calamities they saved to the world…
their prayers are the similar like those of Moses, when he saved his people from God’s punishment…
so, we need them, very much !
 
The point of being a monk is to contemplate and grow closer to God through a life of prayer. The prayers monks provide for all those outside the monastary are of immense value. Hence why St. Theresa of Avila, a contemplative monastic, is the patron saint of Missions. Without monastics praying for the active vocations, then they would be having a much more difficult time. : p
 
Welcome to these Forums, NotThatGuy:thumbsup:

Another purpose of the contemplative enclosed life, is that not only at every moment somewhere in the world is Mass being offered…but also somewhere in the world at every moment The Church sings (some recite) the Praises of God in The Divine Office in contemplative enclosed monasteries. These same contemplative religious live a life not only of prayer but one of penance and on behalf of the whole Mystical Body of Christ, The Church…on behalf of all of us and the whole world. At every moment hence The Church is praying the Praises of God … and also offering penance for the sins of The Church and the whole world. Petitioning God for all our needs …
All in the spirit of The Our Father.
At every moment of every single day somewhere in the world.
The Doctine of The Mystical Body in Christ is a particularly beautiful and awesome one…as well as consoling…and also most sobering indeed.
Blessings - Barb:)
 
Formosus said:
The point of being a monk is to contemplate and grow closer to God through a life of prayer. The prayers monks provide for all those outside the monastary are of immense value. Hence why St. Theresa of Avila, a contemplative monastic, is the patron saint of Missions. Without monastics praying for the active vocations, then they would be having a much more difficult time. : p
Click to expand...
Therese of Liseux, the Little Flower, whose feast is today, is the patron saint of missions, not “big” Teresa (whose feast in Oct 15).
 
A monk prays. He prays in poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability. he prays the psalms with his brothers and works. In silence, usually…
 
Joannm said:
Therese of Liseux, the Little Flower, whose feast is today, is the patron saint of missions, not “big” Teresa (whose feast in Oct 15).
Click to expand...
Ah my bad. I get all those Carmelite Theresas confused : p
 
The aim of a monk and of a Christian living in the world are identical:
theosis and reaching the Kingdom of God.
 
bilop said:
As I understand it, the monastic vocation is primarily aimed at getting that individual to Heaven; that is what is meant in pt. 1).

It is an inward focused vocation, unlike the priesthood, or the active religious life, which are more concerned with helping others achieve holiness.

God Bless
Click to expand...
I know this is wrong but it seems like this motive is “selfish” - shouldn’t we always be looking out for others and putting ourselves last? I know we should be concerned for our spiritual progression, but isn’t dwelling on self the whole time selfish? I know that I am just not understanding it right so I hope someone can explain it to me. Thanks.
 
Monastic life is totally selfless. It is not a focus on self. The end of monastic life is to reach perfection. But the way that a monk reaches perfection is by giving up everything that the world has to offer for love of God. There is nothing selfish with this.

Giving up one’s life and everything that is natural to being a man or woman for the sake of the Beloved and to be in constant union with the Beloved, without any distractions, is a life lived like that of the angels in Heaven where God is the centre of one’s existence and nothing else matters.

Fraternally,

JR 🙂
 
if i give myself to the flames without love, then i am nothing. the monk who leaves the world to focus on himself is like the fool who blinds himself to escape the darkness. the darkness is the trap of self. the monk turns from trap this utterly and the world that perpetually hold up mirrors to reassure the self of its existance, independence, and importance or to assure the self that it will escape its sense of inadequacy and purposelessness if only it does what the world suggests. more of everything: distraction, ease, appetite fulfilled.

the monk lives for God alone. in Him we find love and see the hollowness of the promise of the glamour and pomp of the liar and self. put your hand to the plow and don’t look back.
 
The Church has always believed that monastic life is the most intimate possible relationship that a man can have with God. It is a way of life where everything is taken out of the middle so that all there exists is the individual and his God.

Family, society, career and relationships are not bad things. If they are properly used, they can lead to great holiness. This is not the message of manasticism. It is not a negative spirituality.

The message of monasticism is that through the union between the soul and God the monk climbs the cross with Christ and offers his life. As scriptures says, the greatest thing a man can do is to lay down his life for his friends.

In addition, a monk not only lays down his life for his friends, but like Martha and Mary, the monk is Mary. Instead of living in a world of constant activity, he has chosen the better part. He sits to look at the Lord. Hence he is a contemplative 24/7. He fulfills what Christ says, when he said that unless a man loses his life he will not find it. So a monk loses his life in the world to find his life in the Lord. In doing so he enjoys a foretaste of Heaven on Earth and like the angels and saints in Heaven, he applies the graces of this life toward the salvation of the world.

Finally, a monk is the light on the hill. He speaks to men, without words, of a better way of living. His life proclaims peace, justice, respect for all creation, detachment from everything that distracts us from God and of perfect charity through a life in community where all are one body as Christ calls us to be.

Monks are solitary, because they are lighthouses. The problem is not with monastic vocation. The problem is that society has stopped appreciating the value of a lighthouse. We, even Catholics, do not look toward these men and women for example. But God and the Church have given them to us to learn from them.

We have to change. We have to look elsewhere for our example on how to live the Gospel. It would help us all very much to pick up a book on monastic life and read. Even if we’re involved in raising families or serving the poor, monks can teach us how to go about it without being trapped by the fallacy of doing over being. Many great saints never became monks, but they borrowed from the monastic life what they needed in order to live in the world without being part of the world.

Fraternally,

JR 🙂
 
Any Christian, but especially a monk, is an affront to the world of things ahead of people, power before love, getting instead of giving. He turns his face from that world toward God, toward Mary, and toward the crucified Christ and weeping, prays for the world and the people trapped there in the slavery to self-will they call freedom. Filled with good things, they go away empty. Dead, they bury their dead. Within sight of the temple of the Lord and the joy of contemplation there, they watch television and fight for treasure that is stolen, rusts to nothing, and is eaten away by the moths of time and old age.

The things of the world are nothing to a monk and the monk is useless in the eyes of the world. Pray. Work. Rest. Know that the power of God is at work in us and through us who have sinned and by his mercy turned from our sin- again and again.
 
I’ve been quite “impressed” (though not in that fancy, “hey, nice car!” way) by some monks I have talked to. They seem to radiate a joy and a sense of solid-ness, if you will. They seem to be grounded in the peace of God, the peace that the world cannot give, which is not suprising given that they have given up “the world”.

Merton said that the monk is rather scandalous to the world and even to some Christians I believe too, for their afformentioned simplicity and uselessness. I think to myself about this and about my tremendous confusion over my vocation and what to do and I I wonder, perhaps God wants me to really “do nothing” in that extraordinary sense, but simply to be one of those “lighthouses” though I cannot understand this at all.
 
If you haven’t yet, I would take a weekend or more and make a visit to a monastery for a few days. My first Lent as a Catholic, a friend and I drove to Oklahoma to visit St. Gregory’s Abbey. There we were invited to live as the monks do, singing of the Divine Office, daily Mass, recreation, and of course work. Ora et Labora, work and pray, the motto of the Order of St. Benedict. And they worked us, I assure you.

At St. Greg’s, as the locals call it, the monks teach in the university, serve as chaplains to the students, work in the stables of the equine therapy program for special needs children (run by one of the priest monks), give retreats, counsel visitors, etc, etc.

This particular abbey isn’t known for it’s strict adherence to the Rule, but that is changing since the arrival of the Clear Creek Benedictines in nearby Tulsa. Still, these are remarkable men who are not cut off from the world as much as you might think. They know what is going on and they offer the best service they can, prayer. I even spoke with one monk there who still follows his beloved Cubs season after disappointing season.
 
If anyone wants to see monasticism in its purest form one should watch the film INTO THE SILENCE. It’s about the Carthusian life.

There is an interview with one monk that I found particularly moving. I have to paraphrase, because I didn’t wite down what he said. But it went something like this. The only way that the world is going to find what it needs is when it finds Christ. The monk is someone who is dedicated to that mission.

It is no coincidence that the Church considers monastic life as the highest form of consecrated life.

Monastic communities of men and women are well aware of what’s going on in the world. They know about abortion, discrimination, violence, war, poverty and other evils. They don’t downplay those evils.

They physically removed themselves from the secular world not to avoid it, but to sanctify it through their own sanctifiction. As members of the Mystical Body, the grace of one affects the life of the body.

JR 🙂
 
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