On January 15 I will leave with 10 others to fly to San Jose in the Central Valley of Costa Rico. After landing, we will be taken by bus to the community of Concepcion. There we will be quartered at Mt. Sanai Methodist Church by Pastor Alex Sanchez. Our quarters consist of 2 inch thick mattresses laid out on a concrete floor; our clothes remain in the suitcases as there is no other place to store them. We have chairs that we borrow from the dining table and need to carry them back and forth. Showers are some 50 to 75 feet across the courtyard. Hot water is questionable because of the strain on the electric breakers. We are going to pour the concrete floors of classrooms; we erected the walls last January. We will also be building and placing the bond beams for the second floor. All this work is done in concrete as termites never hibernate in Costa Rico and wood structures have a very short lifespan, there is also the earthquake factor. All work is done by hand for two reasons; one, equipment is too expensive, secondly most equipment cannot be brought into the courtyard. We will eat meals prepared by local women of the church, a large portion of which will be rice. All materials and food are purchased by the team so as not to be a burden on the local church. Complaining is not allowed or tolerated. The work day is 7AM untill around 5:30 PM. The church is used seven days a week for education and worship.

Every day starts with devotions and prayer. There are services three times during the week. Quiet time is provided for Bible reading and daily reflections. After 13 days, such a short time, we return to the states and our normal daily lives, having gained just a small idea of what it would be like to actually be a monk living in a monastery where if it gets done you do it. God asked Moses, “What is it that you have in your hand?” My answer is a shovel, a trowel, a hammer; all to use for the glory of God. Your answer?

Richard J Gould, OblSB

“We feel really blessed that she is coming,” conference organizer Pat Borba told CNA on Nov. 29. “That in itself is a miracle that we got her. We thought that since she’s cloistered that that would never happen.”

The conference, the 15th annual event of its kind, will take place at the Paso Robles Event Center at a Mid-State Fairgrounds auditorium in Paso Robles, Calif. from Jan. 14-15. Its theme is “Faith That Moves Mountains!”

Mother Dolores’ scheduled speeches are titled “How a Career in Hollywood Led Me to Faith” and “The Ear of the Heart: When the Master Speaks the Disciple will Listen.”

Before Mother Dolores became a nun, she acted for the stage and screen. She starred in the 1960 teen classic “Where the Boys Are” and played St. Clare in the 1961 film “Francis of Assisi.” She also played the lead role in the movie “The Inspector.”

She won a 1959 Theatre World Award and a Tony Award nomination for her role in the Broadway production of “The Pleasure of His Company.” She has remained a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is presently the only nun to vote for the Oscar awards.

Conference organizer Gertrude McMasters explained that it is “highly unusual” for the cloistered Benedictine nun to address a conference.

When Mother Dolores received the request, she thought it would not be possible for her to go. She asked her prioress anyway.

“Her superior just looked at her and said ‘Are you ready to go?’ She was really surprised too, that she was able to come,” Borba said. “That’s why we feel there’s really a reason that she’s going to be here.”

The conference focuses on the Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Catholic teaching.

Other conference speakers include Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, who is known for his retreats, conferences and television appearances; Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, a school safety expert; Fr. Patrick Martin, a legally blind priest and author; California vocations director and youth minister Fr. Joshua West.

Irish vocalist David Parkes will emcee the event and offer a Saturday afternoon concert.

Bishop Richard J. Garcia of Monterey will celebrate Mass at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Borba said that the organizers considered ending the conference until they reflected on how much fruit it has borne.

“We’ve talked to many people who have come. We were approached by so many people on how it had affected their lives and changed their lives, that we decided that we really needed to continue. Even the youth approached us and said ‘please don’t stop it.’”

“We’ve gotten many wonderful letters on conversions and how people have come back to the sacraments through the speakers that we have. That’s why we have actually continued,” she explained.

Attendance has varied from 400 to 2,000 people, and usually averages from 600 to 800.

For more information on the 2012 conference, visit http://www.ccmec.org.

Cistercian presence in the U.S. has since expanded to include 17 monasteries across the nation. Yet recently, monastic membership has drastically decreased-50 percent since the 1940s-leading those 17 communities to explore more modernized means of fostering new membership.

Young, single individuals still in the process of discerning their life's vocation represent the ideal demographic of monastic candidates. But Trappist monks and nuns have found it challenging to connect with such a group immersed in today's largely secular society.

Father Alberic, member of New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, Iowa, identified secularism as the number one factor generating the 50 percent decline in membership over the last 70 years. He describes secularism as "a radical setting up of life and relationships without reference to God."

In contrast, Trappist monks and nuns structure their days with prayer, communal liturgy and Scriptural study, striving to maintain mindfulness of God in all that they do. "Our life doesn't make sense to people who live without conscious reference to God," said Father Alberic.

The secular "setting up of life" common in present times "has never been tried before in the history of the world," Father Alberic observed.  Families used to pass down faith traditions from generation to generation and their religious beliefs dictated how they should live their lives day to day. Today's culture indicates that continuity between parent and child has since dwindled.

According to Father Alberic, most people nowadays enter monastic life in their 30s or 40s-much later in life than ever before. "It just takes people longer these days to mature and leave their parents and decide what they want to do with their lives," he said. "With the cultural conditions we are in now, it's harder for people to make such a long-term commitment. Very difficult for young people especially."

In response to the changing cultural conditions, Cistercian communities across the U.S. are reaching out in new ways to revive awareness and interest in the monastic vocation. To help answer the needs of men and women discerning a call from God to become a monk or nun, the Trappists have developed creative online resources.

Father Alberic, the regional secretary for formation, leads development efforts for trappists.org,  coordinating content contributed by fellow Trappist monasteries. As a way to incorporate dynamic, engaging content on the site, Father Alberic established two blogs, "A Nun's Diary" and "A Monk's Diary."

Although it's not common practice for Trappist monks and nuns to keep records of daily events, much less publish them online, regular updates to these blogs come from the personal journals of an actual monk and nun for the purpose of giving others insight into an otherwise hidden vocation.

The website also includes a feature called the Twelfth Century Chat Room. While not a chat room in the modern sense, this portion of the site shares a modernized transcription of a "chat" that took place 900 years ago between Aelred, one of the great wisdom figures of the Cistercian tradition, and a young man who just entered the monastery. "Candidates have told me again and again that that conversation had addressed some of their questions and concerns about becoming a monk," Father Alberic said.

Father Alberic and his Trappist brothers and sisters hope that the chat room, diaries and other information on the site will engage people's curiosity. The very nature of a monastic community that spends much of its time in silence and solitude creates a level of mystery. The unknown makes it difficult for those seeking a deeper purpose in life to learn about or understand the Trappists' ascetic lifestyle.

Ultimately, Father Alberic's goal with the information on trappists.org is to encourage people to visit a monastery. "Vocation in life always comes from relationship," Father Alberic said. "You meet a community and feel a sense of solidarity."

From the day a visitor arrives, he or she lives the life-rising before dawn to pray the first of seven Liturgy of the Hours prayers, participating in community liturgy, studying and meditating on Scripture, and working side by side with the other monks or nuns doing manual labor.

While taking part in the community dramatically increases the chance of someone staying, many people decide

it's not for them, Father Alberic explained. Only a very small percentage of the people go on to take the solemn profession of vows, in which a monk or nun makes a lifetime commitment before family, friends and God to live the monastic way of life. "It's not a life many people are capable of living," he said.

In fact, according to the Rule of St. Benedict that guides Trappists' beliefs and practices, the process should be difficult for someone to enter into monastic life. "It requires a testing of one's spirit and motivation," Father Alberic said. "You have to make sure they have the right motivations and deep motivations."

Those who do enter always do so in response to God. Father Alberic was 26 years old and studying in New York City when cancer turned his life upside down. "It was just the jolt I needed to see what was important in life," he said. "In the wake of that, I heard God address me and call me by name." In response, he gave up all his possessions, marriage, children, travel-everything-to devote his life to God.

Many who enter monastic life have previously held successful careers but find themselves asking what it means and what significance it has for their future. They begin to think, "There must be more than this," and start seeking ways to deepen their relationship with God.

For those that seek a meaningful life, fully devoted to God, Trappist monks and nuns offer their personal stories, their community and their prayers to assist one's discernment process. Intending to engage and inform rather than persuade and convert, the resources at trappists.org or a monastery visit give a unique glimpse into the Trappists' contemplative religious tradition.

"We all have a human capacity for contemplation," Father Alberic said. "There's a monk in every human being. That doesn't mean they're called to be a monk in a monastery, but it's part of our human nature. There's a monk in all of us."

To learn more about Trappist spirituality, Google search "Trappist".

Original Post: Catholic On-Line

“Retiring into silence and solitude, man, so to speak, is ‘exposed’ to reality in his nakedness,” said the Pope. This allows man to experience “the fullness, the presence of God, of the most real Reality that there is, and that is beyond the dimension of the senses.”

The Pope joined the monks for Vespers, the evening prayer of the Church. Before entering the monastery, he remarked that the ancient monastic life is a rebuke to a certain modern mindset “that is not Christian, or even human, because it is dominated by economic interests,” or is only concerned with earthly and not spiritual things.

A society based on such a mindset, he said, “not only marginalizes God, but also our neighbor, and we do not strive for the common good.” The monastery, though, is instead “a model of a society that focuses on God and fraternal relationship.” This is something for which we have “so much need in our time,” said the Pope.

While some may think it “impossible to remain for life in a monastery,” said the Pope, “a lifetime is just enough to get into this union with God.”

He concluded by telling the Carthusians that their vocation is in “the heart of the Church” and puts “the pure blood of the contemplation and love of God” into its veins.

Click here to view the embedded video.

William of Saint Thierry