The Monastery

I finally have started watching a BBC series called The Monastery. It was a 3 part series which was broadcast in 2005 and brought 5 men to a Benedictine monastery for 40 days with challenge for both communities to meet each other in a meaningful way through the disciplined life of a praying and working community away from the distractions and pace of 21st century life. It was through the grace of a Brother James that I can see the complete series.

The strange thing was listening in on the conversations and also the realization that the abbot and monk responsible for novices were teaching very simple spiritual truths and challenging exactly the academic/scientific/materialist approach to faith and belief which has no real meaning. My favourite philosopher Gabriel Marcel posits that the real issue is we are trying to turn a mystery into a problem (problems can be solved, mysteries not). The real issue is that we are standing on the sense data and therefore cannot actually separate ourselves from the very subject we're trying to understand. More about the series and the monastery itself here.