Monasticism

My two week stay at the monastery is cut a little short as the monks were on their way to a retreat house near Budapest. They offered me a ride back to Budapest as they were passing through on their way. They were eager to practice a little English  and wanted  to hear more about my travels. We had an opportunity to discuss life as a monk.

Monks are somewhat liberated from the routines, pressures and desires of the world.  They are not defined by their task.  The same monk I found cutting vegetable’s in the kitchen also spends the afternoon translating Hungarian into Hebrew and Latin. They have a wonderful balance of physical work in the mornings and intellectual work in the afternoons and of course 5 hours of spiritual prayer and contemplation each day.  They move at a slow pace, with seemingly no worries or deadlines and as soon as you enter the grounds you feel this “ahhhh” feeling come over you.  Most of all there is no unnecessary chatter or small talk but always polite and warm conversation. They seem to be free from what William Faulkner once described as the “frantic race” toward “nothing”.

They practice living in the moment and yet still manage to attend to the day to day work of operating the organic herb farm and of course remain faithful to their prayer life. Living in the future leads to worry and anxiety and living in the past leads to regret and depression.

When they dropped me at the metro station, all 5 got out of the van, kissed me on each cheek and pressed their forehead to mine to bless me.  Every night after compline prayers the 3 boys and I would bend down in front of the alter and one of the monks would dip a fresh evergreen sprig in holy water and wet our heads with a blessing.