Each Tuesday and Thursday evenings the monks gather for about 20 minutes for a period of “recreation,” as it is called in monastic culture. The time consists of simply relaxing and speaking, enjoying one another’s company in what is usually lively conversation. We have recently remodled one of our classrooms near the church to be the place for recreation periods. It seems to be working well.
Today’s photo includes our youngest and oldest brothers, ranging in ages from twenty-six and ninety-two years old.
In the days of yore, they used to say: “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” In our context it might be modified to “all work, prayer and reading and no play makes the monk a dull man.”
At the conclusion of recreation we go to church for the Office of Compline, the final prayer of the day.
Abbot Christian and the monks.
