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go here to buy my stock photography Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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 I was talking to our community about this not long ago. In these two or 3 years since this vision was fairly clear, the more and more I think about it, meditate and pray about it, the more one part grows and the rest fades. This rural monastic community becomes, really, all I want to do, all I truly believe I have a real vocation to do. The other parts were good ideas maybe, and are definitely for someone, but not me. So any urban monastic community in Lexington won't be a Vine & Branches one. It won't be one started by or overseen by me. That is not to say that I am somehow devaluing urban life or the idea of an urban monastic expression. I think it's awesome. I really do. I have twinges sometimes of desire in that direction - more like twinges of thought about what a positive thing it could be (and is in some places already) - but that does not equal a calling for me to go in that direction. And the suburbs, yes the suburbs. I live there now. I'm doing that here already in that hybrid idea of a "monastic parish." And that, also, is great and can be an amazing and needed thing. If there is any part of something other than a rural monastic life that could possibly remain, in some paired down fashion, it would be this I think, I think. Maybe it's just that some folks who still live here will be connected in some way with what we do in the country - not sure about that one. We shall see. I truly believe, with no reservations, that everything that I have done, that we have done, as Vine & Branches in any form, has been leading to this, is still leading to that rural monastic reality to be. Elements of traditional cenobitic monasticism ala Benedict and his spiritual descendants? Certainly. Franciscan inspired "mountain and valley" active contemplative monasticism? Sure, maybe even a little more. A little bit of a newer notion of an integrated monastic community - men and women, married, single and celibate? Yes. Again, ask Brother Abbot John about that one. And even a slightly different twist - the idea that this will be a very small community of permanent dwellers with the addition of an unknown number of rotational live-in members who come and commit to being in community with us, living and working in that rural contemplative setting, for periods of perhaps one or two years. Many, many people may possibly be formed in some very important ways during a time like this.  I also see this place as offering hospitality and rest to many guests who may come there for retreats of shorter periods of time: a few days, a week, etc. This is, of course, in the long tradition of open hospitality called for in the Rule of St. Benedict, and ultimately in the "Rule" of Jesus Himself for all of us in our own contexts. Hopefully, this will help flesh out a bit more of what our rural monastic vision is for the not-too-distant future. We're getting there. God continues to lead us there and strengthen us as we walk with Him. What we are now and what we do, will not always be the same. But that's not a bad thing. If it's a right thing, it is ultimately very good. Father, give us Grace to be and do what you have called us to be and do. Father Francis, Father Patrick, Father Benedict, pray for us. technorati tags > neo monasticism, monasticism, monastic community, rural life Labels: community, monasticism, spiritual formation :::
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three quotes |:: "Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." "Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." "...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
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