Witness

“Life at New Melleray looks nice enough, quiet and peaceful. But really, what good are monks for?” you might ask after a day at the monastery. Yet the monks of New Melleray, like all the baptized, are commissioned for the New Evangelization. Our Order’s Constitutions tell us, It is the contemplative life itself that is our way of participating in the mission of Christ and his Church. Our monastic life itself has an apostolic fruitfulness. It doesn’t matter that we, or you, often don’t see its fruit. Clothed with faith and the performance of good works, we simply set out on this way with the Gospel for our guide, as Saint Benedict advises us to do. As a monk you preach by your faithful abiding and by your silence—we are always here, and we are good at listening. We can note two other ways that monks participate in the New Evangelization: Our care for others, and our stewardship, that is, in Pope Francis’s words, our care for our common home.