On October 8th we were honored to welcome a group of Cistercian-Benedictine monks (today’s photo), from the Abbey of the Assumption of Mary in Ava, Missouri.
The monks came on pilgrimage specifically to see our monastic life and to share their adventures of coming from a large abbey in Vietnam to re-found Assumption Abbey, a monastery of formally belonging to the Trappist-Cistercian Order.
The main income-producing work of the monks of Ava is the production and online-sales of high quality fruitcakes, which keeps them busy all year round. They even brought us some of their fruitcake to enjoy!
Besides their work, they chant the Divine Office in choir each day, celebrate Mass, and welcome guests to come for private retreats. In that we share a common monastic vision.
As some has described it, the “function” of monasticism today is the “apostolate of the supernatural.” By what we monks do, say, wear, produce, hopefully expresses to others that Christ is in our midst and guides our lives to a “deeper union, a fuller communion,” in the words of the 20th century poet T.S. Eliot.
Abbot Christian and the monks
