Work
The call to monastic life flows naturally into the call to serve others for the love of Christ. Saint Benedict's rule says simply “Let the brothers serve one another.” Work at Saint John’s Abbey, and any Benedictine monastery, is intimately united with prayer. This is not to say that every job in the monastery is such that one may recite the Jesus Prayer or the Rosary while working, though some such employments exist. But rather, living a life steeped in prayer informs and guides a life in service to others. A heart focused in prayer towards God, towards conversion and love, is tested, challenged and perfected in daily life as realized in the needs of our neighbors and brothers. When the heart is devoted to God in prayer, it may then lead and define monastic labor, so that every form of employment, every job little to great, is first and foremost informed and shaped by prayer and conversion.
What type of work may I do at Saint John's Abbey?
Opportunities for employment develop and expand as a monk discerns and explores his vocation to monastic life at Saint John's Abbey. The relationship between prayer and work plays a fundamental role in the discernment process, for new community members and well as senior monks.
A novice work schedule is decided and supervised by the {title} and is divided between morning and evening work periods each lasting three and a half hours. One work period will include tasks around the monastery such as gardening, housekeeping, caring for older community members, aiding in the work of senior monks, and a variety of assignments necessary for the upkeep of the monastery. The second period will introduce the novice to a variety of employments offered by Saint John's Abbey including {list/links} This introduction to a field is pursued for a month before a new field is explored.
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It is not enough to enjoy the prayer life found in a monastic vocation to Saint John's Abbey; a prayer life must also have a means to manifest in service to others, since faith without works is dead. The year a novice spends praying with the community and exploring the work available as a monk of Saint John's provides one of the first tests and confirmations as to whether or not he has a vocation to this community. Do both the prayer and the work match the call? One without the other is insufficient, but when there is a match a vocation is one step further confirmed.
After a year of Novitiate and the novice is accepted as a junior monk, the relationship between prayer and work is taken to a further challenge and exploration. As a member of the community living under the Rule of Saint Benedict, the monk will explore prayer and work at a more personal level. No longer does the {work boss} determine how the monk will labor, but rather the needs of the community and the interest and talents of the monk. A full-time job is given to match his full-time prayer for a minimum of three years of discernment. The skills and interest of the monk demonstrate the growth, development and conversion realized in prayer. The work and success of Saint John's depends on this intimate relationship. Work that is not guided by the Spirit, not united with prayer does not serve the needs of a community devoted to Christ and service of the Church.
Br. David Paul Lange
Though the monastery has daily jobs demanding attention, the particular talents of each member of the community are encouraged and given opportunity and means to develop.
Fr. Colomba Stewart
