Visit to Holy Cross Monastery

Riding the Mini-Bus to Rostrevor

On Monday our YAV group travelled south of Belfast through the rain and wind to a town called Rostrevor.  We visited the Holy Cross Monastery in Rostrevor, where we joined the Benedictine Monks for their Eucharist and their afternoon prayers.  In between the prayer services we had the opportunity to visit with Brother Thierry about his background of becoming a monk, his lifestyle as a monk, his beliefs on reconciliation and ecumenical worship, and his thoughts on Christianity.  His words were truly inspirational and sent me away thinking about a lot of things.

Holy Cross Monastery

The lives of the monks are centered on three things:  community, prayer and work.  These are three aspects of life that we all should focus on as Christians and as human beings.  Living in community is about living in harmony with the people around you and acknowledging that we cannot live on our own.  Brother Thierry stressed that we should treat everyone whom we come in contact with as Christ and realize that everyone has something to offer to a relationship.  We cannot try to be self sufficient, only then will we stop growing and learning from others.  This concept of self sufficiency being the end of growth can also be applied to the church.  Brother Thierry said, “Self sufficiency is the death of the church.”  I agree with his statement.  If the church insists on using only the resources and individuals it has here and now and is not open to having conversations with those who are different, it will cease to grow spiritually and physically.  We must reach out to the people and resources around us in order to live as one body in Christ.

Sanctuary

Prayer and work are the other pillars of the monks’ lives in the monastery.  They spend their days working to sustain their living quarters and are diligent about breaking for prayer at set times throughout the day.  Prayer is vital to their daily lives, as it allows them to bring themselves back to God and to confront who they are and with what they are struggling each day.  As people of faith, we must be able to be comfortable in ourselves as God has made us and be able to dwell within ourselves – prayer helps us to do so.

Brother Thierry also addressed some questions of ours about conflicts between different faiths.  Conflict and differences of faith will always be present in our world.  The major conflict between churches isn’t theology, it is about learning to love one another and be able to accept each others’ differences.  When we are able to love and respect one another, then we may open up in dialogue about differences in theology.

Brother Thierry answered many other questions of ours and was very passionate about what he was sharing.  The issues I wrote about today really resonated within me, and I wanted to share a bit about my reflections on the visit.  It was wonderful to be able to escape from the busyness of work and the city of Belfast to worship and join in conversation with the monks at Holy Cross Monastery.