When stories like this pop up it appears that the New Monasticism is just a recapiculation of monastic communities that have grown out of tough times, revival and desperate measures.

Richard Woodward writes in a travel account about beguines in Belgium.  The beguines,

Unlike sisterhoods that required a life spent apart from society under vows of chastity, these Catholic women looked for holiness outside monastic norms. Although they lived and prayed together within an enclave, partly as a form of mutual protection — some historians believe they banded together after losing their men to the Crusades, which left behind mainly criminals and louts — beguines were not confined to the cloister. Many ministered to the poor and sick outside their walls. Lifelong celibacy was not required either. They could leave the order and marry (but not return). ... more

So I finally watched Into Great Silence, the acclaimed documentary about French monks who take vows of silence. I fell asleep during it. But not because it wasn't beautiful, it was just, well, silent. The images were amazing, and they were that: just images, no music, narration, or accompaniment, just images and the sounds of shoes on the ancient stone of the monastery.

Their prayer was silent.

Their reading was silent.

Only their common worship, their chanting, was spoken.

Until Sunday came, when they spoke together and rejoiced in one another's company as a "family."

At one point toward the end of the movie, I woke up from one of my intermittent cat naps (the movie is 160 mins and I slept through about 30 mins. of it, just a guess) to a sound---the wonderous sound!---of monks young and old sledding on a mountainside.

I was most touched by what the father of the abbey said to a novice just entering the monastery. He asked him, (I paraphrase) "are you ready to serve God in this way, through vows of silence and joyful penance?" He did not say, "this is the best way to serve God," or "this is the most spiritual way to know God," but instead "in this way." Though we idolize them as spiritual demi-gods, monks do not see themselves as superior to those outside the abbey walls. They desire that we serve God as best we can as they serve God as best they can.

May we all find ways to serve God with all our being! ... more

A few years ago, I became aware of a movement in North American Christianity which referred to itself as ‘’New Monasticism.'’  A website representing those who associate themselves with that movement defines new monasticism as ‘’an attempt to discern the Holy Spirit’s movement in the abandoned places of the Empire called America.'’ At the time, I was generally interested in the idea and even considered perhaps buying an old house in the middle of a run-down neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, beginning to hold the daily office (according to the Book of Common Prayer as I was an Anglican then) and trying to meet the needs of the people around me. I have come to look with a bit of healthy suspicion on my own desires to do such though after conversations with traditional monastics and much spiritual reading, mainly because of the threat of delusion, a mixture of vainglory and deception that often overtakes those who attempt to live something of a monastic life without the formation one gains within the framework of cenobite monasticism. (Without spiritual direction or under self-direction, the risk is very high as the Fathers always say ‘’He who has himself for a spiritual director has a fool for a spiritual director.'’) ... more