male version of nuns

CountrySteve · #1 Jun 23, '11, 4:11 pm

is there Catholic monks, and if so can someone help me find a monk order in southern ohio cause i feel a calling to live my life completely to God I'm not entirely sure yet cause idk if i want to get married or not i'd have to think it over more

SuscipeMeDomine · #2 Jun 23, '11, 4:39 pm

There are monks as well as male religious who live more active lives.

I see some Benedictines in Cleveland: http://csnmail.net/~bocohio/index.htm
In Indiana there are monks at St. Meinrad: http://www.saintmeinrad.edu/
In Pennsylvania there are monks at St. Vincent: http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/

There are Trappists in Kentucky at the Abbey of Gethsemani: http://www.monks.org/

Depending on your interests there are many other religious orders and congregations both in the Midwest and elsewhere.

PJM · #3 Jun 23, '11, 4:57 pm

Quote:

=CountrySteve;8027244]is there Catholic monks, and if so can someone help me find a monk order in southern ohio cause i feel a calling to live my life completely to God I'm not entirely sure yet cause idk if i want to get married or not i'd have to think it over more

CONTACT the Archdiocese director of Vocations.

Look on the USCCB website for contact information,

God Bless,
Pat

**Dale_M** · #4 Jun 23, '11, 5:07 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by PJM

CONTACT the Archdiocese director of Vocations.

Its hard to beat that advice.

Offhand, the cloistered monastic orders that spring to my mind are Cistercians (Trappist) and Carthusians. CountrySteve may also want to do some web investigating about those orders. There are several Trappist monasteries in the US, with the one in Kentucky the closest to him.

The only Carthusian monastery in the US is in Vermont.
http://transfiguration.chartreux.org/

Aelred Minor · #5 Jun 23, '11, 5:30 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dale_M

Its hard to beat that advice.

Offhand, the cloistered monastic orders that spring to my mind are Cistercians (Trappist) and Carthusians. CountrySteve may also want to do some web investigating about those orders. There are several Trappist monasteries in the US, with the one in Kentucky the closest to him.

The only Carthusian monastery in the US is in Vermont.
http://transfiguration.chartreux.org/

There are other thoroughly contemplative, enclosed monks as well, for example the Benedictines (especially the Solesmes Congregation, who have a monastery in Oklahoma) and the non-Trappist Cistercians (Order of Cistercians, as opposed to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance), also the Carmaldoese, who apparrently have a place in Ohio: http://www.camaldolese.org/

Aelred Minor · #6 Jun 23, '11, 5:37 pm

Here is something about discerning a call to the monastic life from the webpage of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, a community of Trappist monks. I don't think they would mind me posting it:

God's desire is first. God always makes the first move toward us. God in Christ is always drawing us, beckoning us. But how to know, how to recognize God's nearness, God's desire? Perhaps the best way is by noticing my deepest desires. What do I long for? What do I dream about? What attracts me? What has seized my imagination? It takes time, prayer and patience but once I get in touch with this deep down place of my desire, everything will be changed, transformed. I will want to follow and pursue what I love with my whole heart, with all my strength. For, indeed, God speaks to us through our deepest desires- desires for happiness, wholeness, holiness. "His desire gives rise to yours," says our Cistercian father, Saint Bernard, "and if you are eager to receive his word, it is he who is rushing to enter your heart; for he first loved us, not we him."

Clearly then the first question in any vocational discernment always will be, "What do I really desire?" Some may notice the first stirrings of a desire for the monastic way of life. They may have read about Cistercian monastic life; they may have visited our Abbey and been attracted by the beauty of this place, the beauty of the Liturgy, the joy and meaningfulness of the lives of the monks they see. Indeed, the attraction to our life may be experienced by many, but the life of an enclosed monk is meant for relatively few. These are the ones who will acknowledge the continuing desire for monastic life in their hearts. These are the ones who will want to respond to the divine invitation to remain in the monastery hidden in Christ, following him in a way of life that is "ordinary, obscure and laborious."

http://www.spencerabbey.org/begin.html

Aelred Minor · #7 Jun 23, '11, 6:14 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountrySteve

is there Catholic monks, and if so can someone help me find a monk order in southern ohio cause i feel a calling to live my life completely to God I'm not entirely sure yet cause idk if i want to get married or not i'd have to think it over more

I've noticed, from your "Religion" designation, that it seems you are in the process of converting to Catholicism.

I likewise was raised outside the Catholic Church, and I likewise felt an attraction to monastic life while in the process of converting. In my case, this attraction continued and strengthened after my reception into the Church, and notwithstanding many twists and turns it has continued to this day, seven years later, though I am still hesitant to take the next step and contact a monastery for a variety of reasons.

Anyway, my main piece of advice would be to take your time in your discernment process, especially since you are such a new convert, not even fully received into the Church yet.

It is natural and normal to feel an attraction towards the sacred at this time. A call to prayer, to peace, to holiness, to wholehearted devotion to Christ. In the monastery these things are more visible than perhaps in any other part of the Church. The monastery is the contemplative heart of the Church, the vision on earth of the life of Heaven, the spiritual center of the world if I may make such a bold original statement, or a gathering around the center, anyway. But relatively few people are actually called to live there, devoted to contemplation in the freedom of the evangelical councils. It is a beautiful vocation, but a hard one (naturally speaking), and often a very prosaic one. It was probably never God's intention for it to be the vocation of the majority of Catholics.

Most people will be called to some form of active vocation, whether as a married or single layperson, a member of an active religious order (or an order which considers itself fully active and fully contemplative, which in my opinion is just a prayerful way of looking at the active vocation), or an active priest. The attraction you feel towards monastic life may actually be rooted in the universal call to holiness, and your true vocation may be to bring that holiness out into the world, to order temporal or ecclesial affairs according to God's design, spreading the Gospel in word or deed, while keeping a sort of little monastery in your heart. Or you may indeed be called to the monastic life. Or even to something in between, such as being a Benedictine or Cistercian oblate.

My own initial discernment process has probably been too extended, through my own fault. I don't hold myself out as a role model in this. Nevertheless, giving yourself time to grow in your new Catholic faith before attempting to discern a religious vocation may be prudent. Don't reject the feeling of a call, but direct it for now towards the process of becoming Catholic and growing in your understanding and living of that faith. When a few years have passed since you became Catholic (not necessarily as many as seven!), that will be the time to start seriously considering contacting and visiting monasteries, if you still feel called to that way of life.

SuscipeMeDomine · #8 Jun 23, '11, 6:37 pm

Something that I should have mentioned in my first response and that I haven't seen in the other replies is that a spiritual director is extremely helpful in discernment. If you move beyond the "thinking about it" stage, seek out someone who can help with this.

Aelred Minor · #9 Jun 23, '11, 7:31 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuscipeMeDomine

Something that I should have mentioned in my first response and that I haven't seen in the other replies is that a spiritual director is extremely helpful in discernment. If you move beyond the "thinking about it" stage, seek out someone who can help with this.

Very good point. Makes me think of a question I might start a new thread about.

CountrySteve · #10 Jun 24, '11, 11:42 am

ive always been interested in the Jesuits or the knight of St.John but i dont know much about them yet and yea Aelred Minor i'll take your advice im not going to shown the idea all together but im not going to focus on it first things first i need to become Catholic

TimothyH · #11 Jun 24, '11, 12:20 pm

I went to a vocations retreat at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. This is the monastery which was started by the monks at teh Abby of Gethsemane in Kentucky which some on this thread have mentioned.

Based on my experience, I would urge you to go to a retreat.

First though, I would point you to the video about life at the monastery at http://www.trappist.net/TheCall.

-Tim-

VivaCristoRey27 · #12 Jun 24, '11, 4:41 pm

The Benedictine abbey in Oklahoma, Our Lady of the Annunication (popularly simply called "the Clear Creek monastery") is very wonderful. If you can get some time off of work, spend a week there. You will be able to live in what is almost like a monk's cell (except you get your own bathroom), eat with the monks, go to the Daily Office and two Masses (Low and High), and help the monks work in the garden and do other things. They use the traditional Mass and Benedictine Office and follow the Rule strictly but are far from being stuffy or stiff, they exude Christian joy from every pore!

It is an amazing experience and good whether or not you think you might be called to it. There are many faithful attached to the monastery, who regularly attend the Major Hours and Mass.

Monks and lay faithful in Rogation procession.

CountrySteve · #13 Jun 24, '11, 5:46 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimothyH

I went to a vocations retreat at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. This is the monastery which was started by the monks at teh Abby of Gethsemane in Kentucky which some on this thread have mentioned.

Based on my experience, I would urge you to go to a retreat.

First though, I would point you to the video about life at the monastery at http://www.trappist.net/TheCall.

-Tim-

hey can you help me find a monastery in ohio? like a website or somethin

paul11b · #14 Jun 24, '11, 6:28 pm

There are definitely Catholic monks. I like the Benedictines and the Franciscans, the Benedictine abbey at Gethsemane is beautiful, I have been there and it is great, there website is www.monks.org . I also recommend a book for you to read if you are planning to be a Benedictine monk called the rule of St. Benedict. This book lays out all of the rules for life that all Benedictine monks have to live by. Here is a link to that book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814612725

SuscipeMeDomine · #15 Jun 24, '11, 7:22 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountrySteve

hey can you help me find a monastery in ohio? like a website or somethin

I found only one Benedictine monastery in Ohio -- and I know nothing about them personally. I gave you the link in my first message. There aren't any Trappists in Ohio. The closest ones are in Kentucky and again the link is in my first message. If you are interested in the Trappists in Georgia they are at www.trappist.net