Apr 10 – Dollars and Cents

Today we had our annual financial update. Our accountant reviewed the 2017 financial report for the monastery and Trappist Caskets with trends relative to past years. As contributors to and beneficiaries of the New Melleray’s financial resources, we have a decided interest in the financial health of our community. By our monastic vows we renounce individual ownership and income and depend on the community for all of our needs.

Acts of the Apostles 2:44-45

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.

from The Rule of St. Benedict
Chapter 33. Monks and Private Ownership

No one may presume to give, receive or retain anything as his own, nothing at all . . . For their needs, they are to look to the father of the monastery.

Chapter 48. The Daily Manual Labor

When they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks.