To whom would the Oscar go? Which car would look fancier? Would it be OK to wear cheap clothes? When they will increase the minimum wage? When to find the perfect partner?
These questions concern the vast majority of human beings on this planet except for a certain group. I was given the opportunity to spend a whole week with Benedictine monks at the Saint Anselm’s Abbey monastery in Washington DC in December 2013.
It would not be exaggeration to say that this week changed my worldview and how I see things. When I first arrived in the United States, I started to observe people and compare them to people in my home country – Egypt. But when I stayed in the monastery, I started to compare between the monks, who are American, and the rest of Americans outside the monastery.
It is controversial and at the same time undeniable that religion plays a pivotal role in the culture of America since this country was founded. However, modern life, technology, capitalism and materialism have resulted in changing this religious element in the US common sense to a great extent.
The change can be illustrated in that religion has withdrawn somewhat to give more space to reason and technology. Thomas Jefferson’s “Wall of Separation” between the State and religion got higher and higher. People have also become more materialistic – less sociable and more robotic.
The extreme opposite can be found in Saint Anselms’s Abbey monastery where 15 monks who entirely dedicated their lives to God are living together. Their monastic life is distinguished by love, obedience and dedication. They love God, one another and the rest of the humanity. They obey God, the Vatican Pope, and one another. They also dedicate their lives for God since they have become monks. Once they are monks, they are dead by the earthly standards; their ambitions, relations or any ties to the outside world are gone until they die by the earthly standards, then put in the monastery graveyard.
They have a year-round fixed schedule of prayers, starting every day at 6:15 a.m. and ending at 7:30 p.m. They take all meals together in silence except for the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday. The monastery is very quiet, clean and organized. Once you walk into it, you feel very safe and peaceful. The place even smells fragrantly.
The monks, regardless of ranks, take turns in serving the food of the rest of them every week. They also work: Some of them are taking care of the crops planted around the Monastery, some are teaching in the Monastery-owned Saint Anselms’s Abbey School, which is located right in front of the monastery, and some others, who hold PhDs, teach at Howard University School of Divinity in the vicinity of the monastery as well.
The monastery is located in the southwest of DC, a place that is not recommendable to go. The founders of the Monastery chose it intentionally so that they could be able to reach out the poor, the marginalized and the “lost sheep.” Saint Anselm’s Abbey welcomes guests to join the monks in prayers, meals, and residence.
When I arrived there, Father Christopher cordially received me and offered lunch and I surprisingly found my name on the napkin. When I was led to my room, I also found my name on the door. No-one asked me for identification when I arrived or money before I left.
This experience has taught me a lot; at least how I, and many others, give things very much more than what they really deserve. Now I see things smaller and not worth it at all. The modern life negatively affected how people are, how they see themselves, and how they are supposed to live this life. After this week in the monastery, I do think that people, including me, should reconsider.