Nice Video: When a man is called to the monastery

[DameAgnes]

http://aleteia.org/2016/01/26/when-a-man-is-called-to-the-monastery-video/  The Benedictine Monks of St. Bernard Abbey

[Guest]

Haven't got time just now to watch the video, but will be doing so tomorrow.  It is wayyyy past my bedtime just now.....11.42pm here in Adelaide Sth Australia.  Thank you for posting.

I think it is truly wonderful and a work of The Holy Spirit that religious and monastic life is coming right out of the secrecy that once enveloped it.  Those thinking about or aspiring to the life (discerning their vocation) can now know so much more about it in intimate type of details and ask all the questions that might concern them - and get answers...........far more than pre V2.  We went in blind (well to my experience anyway).

[Swami Mommy]

What a lovely, well-rounded video that describes the monastic life this is!

This is what I find so interesting about my own response to these types of vocation videos.  I am typically more drawn to the life of a monk as portrayed, as opposed to that of a nun, even though both have the same aim.  When I watch videos of nuns working and praying together I often have the subconscious reaction of thinking that I would find it difficult to live with so many women and their complex, emotional natures, whereas when I watch videos of monks, the men feel so much more straightforward and uncomplicated and appear easier to be silent with. (But then, in general, I have always found men much easier to work with in the employment sector too.  With men, I have always usually felt that 'what you see is what you get' without a lot of undercurrent, drama, or unspoken nuance.) It's so odd to observe this in myself.  I wonder to myself if it has to do with the focus and presentation styles of the videos themselves, or if my own personality quirks jive more with male emotional styles.  At this stage of my life, I'm looking for simplicity, solitude, quietness, and an environment which supports my need/desire to turn within.

[Pax17]

As a retired communications professional, I've noticed that many of the sisters' videos show a lot more action, while the monks' appear quieter...there are exceptions, of course (the CFRs for instance).  And we know from posts on this forum that there is drama in men's communities, personality clashes, etc.  As women, we look at things from a different perspective than men.

Swami Mommy, I'm also looking for simplicity, meditation and purpose at this time of life.

[Gabriela]

On 8/8/2016 at 11:25 AM, Swami Mommy said:

This is what I find so interesting about my own response to these types of vocation videos.  I am typically more drawn to the life of a monk as portrayed, as opposed to that of a nun, even though both have the same aim.  When I watch videos of nuns working and praying together I often have the subconscious reaction of thinking that I would find it difficult to live with so many women and their complex, emotional natures, whereas when I watch videos of monks, the men feel so much more straightforward and uncomplicated and appear easier to be silent with. (But then, in general, I have always found men much easier to work with in the employment sector too.  With men, I have always usually felt that 'what you see is what you get' without a lot of undercurrent, drama, or unspoken nuance.) It's so odd to observe this in myself.  I wonder to myself if it has to do with the focus and presentation styles of the videos themselves, or if my own personality quirks jive more with male emotional styles.  At this stage of my life, I'm looking for simplicity, solitude, quietness, and an environment which supports my need/desire to turn within.

I SO know what you mean. So often I look at monks' communities and think, "If I were a man, I'd enter there today." But just as often I encounter nuns' communities and think, "Sheesh. Why do you have to be so controll-y and uptight?" It's my impression men tend to give one another more room to be themselves, more freedom to do things their own way in the monastery. Whereas women tend to want to control every single little thing.

It's maddening.

[Antigonos]

I think, perhaps mistakenly, that women were perceived as being less capable of being relied upon to be serious and disciplined, that they are in need of greater control, in previous ages.  That they need to be "protected from their own flighty impulses" and their chastity protected as well, whereas men, the "stronger sex" can be trusted more not to do something incompatible with their vocation.  In an age when convents were not infrequently used as dumping grounds for girls without dowries, and women in general were chattels of their husbands, scandals were not unknown, hence the greater strictness.

In fact, religious life was often the only way for a woman to have even the slightest independent existence in olden times.  Not only did abbesses and prioresses wield considerable power, convents usually contained women with a variety of skills not generally found among women in the secular society of the time.

[Swami Mommy]

Gabriela--YES!  That's exactly how I feel!  I live relatively close to the Abbey of the Genesee in western New York State where Henri Nouwen lived for some time and wrote about, and I'd join that community in a heartbeat if I was a guy!  They make monk's bread to support themselves which looks like very interesting, stable work, they have a great library and a beautiful vista overlooking the Genesse Valley and wooded grounds, and their intimate, stone-walled chapel absolutely vibrates with the potent energy of so many years of prayers and Masses celebrated there.  The men spend their days in silence, and as they go about the grounds amidst the visitors, they exude a grounded contentedness and sense of self-contained independence that feels so comfortable to me.  I'm sure the monks have their petty dramas too, but men, on the whole, appear to be more adapted to living compatibly in a group.

[AveMariaPurissima]

13 hours ago, Gabriela said:

I SO know what you mean. So often I look at monks' communities and think, "If I were a man, I'd enter there today." But just as often I encounter nuns' communities and think, "Sheesh. Why do you have to be so controll-y and uptight?" It's my impression men tend to give one another more room to be themselves, more freedom to do things their own way in the monastery. Whereas women tend to want to control every single little thing.

It's maddening.

So I'm not the only one who's noticed that?!?! 

[Gabriela]

5 hours ago, AveMariaPurissima said:

So I'm not the only one who's noticed that?!?! 

Nope. It makes it smell of elderberries to be a woman.

[NadaTeTurbe]

Other catholic women who think like me ! I've got the same feeling. Add to that a few years of boarding school with other girls, and the idea of having to live with women is frightening. Sometimes, you visit women communities (specially monastic one), and you really wonder if they're allowed to have their own personnality, or if there's an unspoken rule of "you shall all smile the same way"