OUR PASTOR
Pastor Keith Weatherford
Mystics, Monks, and Spiritual Leaders-- those who live a Godly life in solitude and silence, with their days spent in contemplation and meditation. They are removed from the daily grind, hidden away behind the protective walls and locked doors of the monastery. These ancient figures, such as Mechthild of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich, Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, and I’d even include Martin Luther, are etched in Christian history. They lived their lives committed to God, holiness, and the gospel message. Not only time, their way of living, make them seem so distant, so far removed from our way of life. There certainly does not seem to be a rush of folks currently headed toward monastic life. Would that even be possible in our current context? Our calendars are full and overflowing with the demands of family, work, and social activities, leaving little or no room for there to be Mystics, Monks, or Spiritual Leaders in the 21st century. Do we have to look at these holy dwellers as people who could only exist in some longago time? Or perhaps, we too can be the Mystics, Monks, and Spiritual Leaders of our time, in our ways, and in our communities.
Spiritual teacher Beverly Lanzetta considers what constitutes a “new monk”. In this devotional she describes how “new monks” practice their spirituality outside monastic enclosure:
Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a hermit, who remarked, “Monasticism is ancient. It hasn’t changed. What’s new about it? It’s the same—you empty yourself; you sit in your cell [small monastic room].” This is the issue, isn’t it? Is there really such a thing as the “new” monk?
Let me first say that the aspiration to monkhood is intrinsic to human life—a universal quality of being that continually draws us into silence. The concept of the “new monk” includes … monks in religious orders to participants without religious affiliation, … the person who chooses to live out a monastic vocation of one religion or a hybrid … or has no formal desire to be a monk, but lives by the universal call to contemplation. In each case, the deep self seeks something more radical and intense from life, and longs to be united with its Source. This is the monk within.
Monasticism is not new. Through generations of life on Earth, humans have sought solitude and silence. The monk’s journey is the Spirit’s fire born with and into us that ignites the pulse of the untamed heart. It is the insistent call to go deeper, to reach higher, and to search more ardently for our original home. And so, while perhaps we have not been trained to name or recognize the monk within, it has been awake in the center of being all along. We, then, can speak of the new monk as a person who consciously cultivates the interior monkhood, and who lives out an experimental and daily-renewed vocation.
New expressions of monasticism are not only authentic, but also offer a vital and necessary counterpoint to secular society. This is especially true because the monk in the world is bound by his or her vocation to be a self-reflective person— one who seeks higher meaning and dedicates his or her life on Earth to its pursuit. It is arduous work to dig deep into one’s soul, bringing forth hidden or unconscious motives contrary to a spiritual life. I find that the younger generations are especially drawn to the movement of new monasticism, as many were born with awareness of a new religious sensibility and a global Earth community.
For all of these reasons, this monastic orientation is “new” because it is taking place in the daily routine of a person’s life, and not in a monastic setting apart from the world.… He or she recognizes that monkhood is not the special preserve of the traditional vowed religious, but the universal heritage of humanity.…
The challenge of being “new” monks consists in the attempt to expand monastic wisdom into the wider personal and social circle of our lives, while also fiercely protecting the centering point of silence and solitude in our souls.1
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Keith
1. Beverly Lanzetta, The Monk Within: Embracing a Sacred Way of Life (Sebastopol, CA: Blue Sapphire Books, 2018), 23–24, 41–42
Please contact the church office for more information or if you would like to schedule a visit.
Email pastorkeith@helenastjohns.org or call (406) 442-6270
