monastic life

Today, our work includes the manufacture and sale of ceramics, hospitality and thinking and training. All in all, we count on the invaluable collaboration of the “Shemà” Voluntary Association.

We propose:

– Monday prayers online.
– Monthly meditation meetings.
– The Syncletic Monastic School.
– The Montserrat Focusing School.
– Seminars, courses and recesses.

In almost all the great religions there are men and women who distance themselves from the conventional life of the society of their time and set themselves wholeheartedly into the knowledge and practice of their own spiritual tradition to the last consequences.

Hindu ascetics, Buddhist monks and nuns, Sufi masters, live alone or in community but they all have in common that the Absolute penetrates and completely guides their lives. The community of believers recognizes in them men and women bearers of peace and wisdom, connoisseurs of what is human and what is divine.

A path of inner unification.

For the first Christian generations, the experience of the Resurrection, the openness to the Spirit, the dynamism of the communities faced very quickly with the persecutions evoked a temperament, a strong and radical style when it comes to living the faith : Christians who, in the midst of their weakness, feel impelled by the strength of the Spirit: they are drawn by the good news of Jesus.

At the end of the third century, when Christianity becomes the official religion, it begins to “water down” at the same time, it is good to be a Christian but conformity and mediocrity grows. In the meantime, men and women begin to invade the solitudes of the desert, especially in Egypt: this unstoppable movement is gradually spreading throughout the Christian East. They are non-conformist Christians who want to live the gospel to the fullest, with radicality, thirsty for a personal encounter with God: they are the first Christian monks. Some were true loners, hermits like Saint Anthony; others organize new forms of community life such as Saint Pacomi, Saint Basil and Saint Augustine. Women were also present in this monastic movement: Sara, Syncletica, Mary of Egypt, Melania, Paula and many others were the first nuns, teachers in the Spirit and disciples of the Word, followers of Jesus and his gospel .

In our baptism we were incorporated into the family of seekers of God, of those who walk the paths of the gospel, of those who thirst for living water, of the disciples of Him who is the Way, the Truth and the life

It is a path of inner unification.
A path in which you have to keep quiet and listen to your own reality, learning to live “awake”. A path of “coming home”, back to the heart, of deep humanization… because “The Kingdom of God is within us”.

“Where was I when I was looking for you? I had you in front of me but, being far away and outside of me, I couldn’t find myself and much less You”.
— Saint Augustine

It is a path of communion with others.
A progressive path to free love, to universality. An ancient monk expressed it this way:

“Blessed is the monk who considers every man as God after God”.
— Evagrius Ponticus

It is a path of union with God.
A path of filial trust towards the Father, following Jesus and openness to his Spirit.

“Thus in the monastic life solitude becomes communion, silence becomes word, prayer becomes commitment”.
— Pedro Alurralde

It is a path for all because it is the path of the gospel, but the first monks took this search, this thirst, this path very seriously and devoted themselves fully to making it their life’s work. And many men and women felt called to this office until today. Among them was one who left an indelible mark on later monasticism and who was regarded as the Patriarch of the monks of the West. It was Saint Benedict.