continued from the previous entry…
After my hike on Friday afternoon, the rest of the weekend was filled with pretty much the same stuff. I did some reading, worked on a couple poems and reflected in silence. All the while keeping the monastic hours.
The monastic day officially starts at 4:15am with Vigils and ends at approximately 8pm with Compline. It was surprisingly easy to adjust to this schedule with the relaxed nature of the weekend. Despite getting up at 4am each day, I woke up refreshed.
I didn’t really come out of the weekend with any answers (though I didn’t really expect to either). I’m fairly certain that the trappist ideal is not a possible vocation for me. While I am perfectly comfortable in the silence, I think part of me needs to have a connection to the community at large. I identified one of the major reasons that it would be difficult for me to ever consider converting to the Roman Catholic church. It is my belief that mass should be shared with everyone, whether they of a different denomination or even if they aren’t Christians. If someone wants to come to the table, they should be able to participate fully.
I’ll definitely do something like this again, it was a great way to recharge.
