A vocation in a vocation

Quote: Wizard

If there is an option to give it a try for three months or so, I would go that route. Personally, I would get bored silly contemplating my navel all day long.

This is actually a requirement. You have to go multiple times to try it out for extended period of time. This is wise because it helps you determine if you are called to that type of life and it also gives you a chance to know the community and for them to know you. It might not be a good fit.

In regards to the Biblical verses one can look at the story of Elijah or John the Baptist who sort of removed themselves from the main way of life and drew people out to them to repent, learn about the Lord, and be baptized. You can also see in the Acts of the Apostles the earliest Christian communities lived together and shared all that they had. Finally, people often quote the teaching of Christ about poverty, chastity, and charity. They see the monks living a radical form of these virtues called the Evangelical Counsels. It is important to note that no order I know of is strictly contemplative. They all do some kind of work or service. Some are much more active than others. For example some monasteries run schools, give retreats, run parishes, serve as chaplains to prisons or hospitals, make caskets, beer, bread, etc.

Quote: FrGamble

T They all do some kind of work or service. Some are much more active than others. For example some monasteries run schools, give retreats, run parishes, serve as chaplains to prisons or hospitals, make caskets, beer, bread, etc.

How are they funded?

Quote: petroglyph

How are they funded?

In Buffalo there is a product called "Monk's Bread" which is like a buck more than regular bread. It is a healthy option, high fiber, low raw sugars, etc. I believe it is made by real Monks, but i could be wrong.

I recall one monestary in NY state that raises service dogs.

As for wine, bread, cheese, beer etc. it is probably the old story about quality is fine but most people buy based on price.

Heck all those restaurants that opened up with on premise beer making soon learned that nobody wanted to pay for high quality fresh beer when they could buy Budweiser real cheap so mostly the on site breweries became idle and they trucked in the beer that was served.

Quote: FrGamble

You make it very clear over and over again that there is no God and you say this with such conviction even though you have no evidence to support you..

Because it's on the people who claim
there is a god to produce the evidence.
And you haven't and you can't. If you
could, there would be no atheists, just
deniers. Like the people who claim the
Holocaust never happened. There is
absolute overwhelming evidence that
it very much happened. What do we
call those that don't believe the evidence?
'Holocaust deniers'. If there was proof
of a god, undeniable proof, I would be
called a god-denier, not an atheist.

Quote: SOOPOO

In Buffalo there is a product called "Monk's Bread" which is like a buck more than regular bread. It is a healthy option, high fiber, low raw sugars, etc. I believe it is made by real Monks, but i could be wrong.

I would guess it is a really good product. Bread is funny, if it doesn't have the modern additives in it, it goes stale pretty fast. I don't like bread that will sit on the counter for a couple weeks and still be soft with no mold. But then again, dark and hard bread is unpalatable.

I wondered if this monks retreat was self funding or they received something from the larger church?

Quote: petroglyph

. But then again, dark and hard bread is unpalatable.

Not when turned into a kvass. (Strong ale, NOT for diabetics or gout sufferers).

Dough conditioners are the worst thing we have in these cotton wool breads.

Quote: Evenbob

Because it's on the people who claim
there is a god to produce the evidence.
And you haven't and you can't. If you
could, there would be no atheists, just
deniers. Like the people who claim the
Holocaust never happened. There is
absolute overwhelming evidence that
it very much happened. What do we
call those that don't believe the evidence?
'Holocaust deniers'. If there was proof
of a god, undeniable proof, I would be
called a god-denier, not an atheist.

It is on anyone making a definitive claim to produce evidence. If you deny the Holocaust you have to give reasons for why you deny it and give evidence that counters the overwhelming evidence that it did happen. If someone denies it just because they want to or because they don't like the idea of the Holocaust then we wouldn't take those people serious would we? We wouldn't call them Holocaust deniers we would call them crazy or ridiculous. I put atheists like you in this category. You refuse to even offer any evidence to your own definitive claim that there is absolutely no God and you claim evidence like the impossibility of an infinite regress, the scientific consensus that the universe had a beginning, the fine tuning of the universe, the miracles, the personal experiences and testimony, the fact that there is something rather than nothing, consciousness, objective and universal morality, motion in the universe, and many more - you simply dismiss as not evidence at all without making a rational argument or countering with anything. You are a God-denier and I have never heard any rational reason for anyone to truly be an atheist. When push comes to shove most so called atheists with a brain will admit that their position is really more agnostic and that they don't really know for sure that there is not a God.

Quote: SOOPOO

In Buffalo there is a product called "Monk's Bread" which is like a buck more than regular bread. It is a healthy option, high fiber, low raw sugars, etc. I believe it is made by real Monks, but i could be wrong.

At Wegmans?

Quote:

Since 1848, when 44 Trappist monks from western France made themselves a new home in the hills of central Kentucky, Gethsemani has been a hardworking community. Supporting themselves through farming, the monks now sell homemade fruitcake, fudge, and more.