The Church owes a great debt to monasticism. This often represented the refuge and salvation of faith from the persecutions it was subject to. Monasticism also manifested under various forms, such as literature, painting or Christian art in general.
Monasticism does not create anachronisms or antagonisms in the life of the Church; by the contrary, monasticism constitutes a natural way to manifest the mission of the Church: that of complete and unconditional devotedness to fulfill the divine Love. In his prayer, the monk includes the whole world. If the disciple suffers and dies only once, the monk does this daily – both for himself and, as Saint Paul the Apostle says, for the rudiments of this world, for the whole world in its integrity.
Paradoxically, the more monasticism is blasphemed and misunderstood, the more the Church reinforces through it in its mission in saeculum. A Church without monasticism is seen in Orthodoxy as a nonsense. Monasticism is constituent of the Church and as such, of its mission. That is why, nothing in this world is foreign to the monastic world, for the whispers and sorrows of this world break as insurgent waves against the walls of the monasteries spread through the world.
What are the place and role of a monk today? What is the work of a monastery in contemporary world? What role can monastic spirituality, especially the eastern one, play in this world? These are just a few questions we would like to explore together.
