The Unexpected Monks

“Some evangelicals turn to monasticism, suggesting unease with megachurch religion - and the stirrings of rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.”

This is an interesting piece just published in the Boston Globe about Evangelicals developping sorts of religious communities - The Unexpected Monks.

Especially interesting is how we have seen this before. John Michael Talbot (though his conversion came first), Anglican Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, Frère Roger of Taizé, the venerable souls of the Oxford Movement all come to mind. It has been done, there is precedent to varying degrees.

Invariably, monasticism of one stripe or another is the conclusion many an honest deep-thinking scripture reader. To live the beatitudes and commands of the Gospel, there seems to be little choice but to consider that it may be the case community life and the total dedication of celibacy will be required for some. Wheel re-invention seems to be too maddeningly common.

Some of them sound, blessedly, rather Romeward bound. If I had a few boxes of the Divine Office laying around, I would ship them over, post-haste…

Let us keep them in our prayers!

H/T: CVSTOS FIDEI

This entry was posted on February 5, 2008 at 5:02 am and is filed under Ecumenism, Education, Religious Vocations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “The Unexpected Monks”

  1. ant Says:
    February 5, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    Dear Simple Sinner,

    I just wanted to say that I know some of the Franciscan Brothers of Atonement. Wow, what a great group of people!

    Just as an aside, they are friends of our bishop in our diocese, and I believe he had some of them as professors during his studies.

    In Christ,
    Anthony

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