The future is bright, the future in Monastic.

 Happy Feast Day of St Benedict!

Today is the first of two Feasts of St Benedict, the other being on 11th July.

St Benedict, Father of Western Monasticism and one of the Patrons of Europe. 

I think that St Benedict's vision is not really understood by most Catholics. Sure, he is known as the Founder of the Benedictine Order but his actual vision is not known.

However, to understand the future of the Church we need to understand that vision. At its heart the Catholic Church is Monastic, therefore so will its future.

When we look back over History, especially European History, we see how the Benedictines basically built Europe. Monasteries became centres of beauty, Liturgy, art, culture, music, language and academic learning. Around these glorious monasteries many villages, towns and cities grew. 

People instinctively knew the value of Monastic life. The monasteries became the hub around which their lives revolved. Minds, hearts, souls and bodies (the Monasteries provided work and food) were nourished. It was, and still is, a harmonious system. It still continues in certain Traditional monasteries today. 

It is so important that one just needs to look at how desperately ugly and impoverished England became on so many levels after Henry VIII destroyed Monastic life during his reign. He left the country devasted and bereft. He ripped out its heart and left the ruins of many Monasteries as stark reminders of the shell that England had become.

But we take heart. Countless Catholic prophecies point to a Golden Age, the Age of Mary wherein Monasticism will flourish anew. Indeed, many visionaries state that at the end of the world only two religious orders will prevail: Benedictine and Carmelite. These two Religious orders are and have been the main pillars of the Church's spiritual life.

Furthermore, many visionaries also state that during the Age of Mary, the era of Peace, there will be so many vocations and many monasteries and churches will be built that people will struggle to keep pace.

So why Monasticism?

Traditional monasticism distils the very essence of the Catholic Faith. A life lived rooted in a noble and beautiful Liturgy. This is central to the spiritual life. A right ordered adoration of God. The justice of giving God what He is due. A right ordered adoration which, when we cooperate with it, we become right ordered ourselves.

A life of the Glory of God's beauty made manifest in the Traditional Latin Mass and Gregorian Chant. This is the nourishment of the heart and soul, where the Sacraments are celebrated with reverence and are imbued with Tradition. Nothing compares with it. The most beautiful thing this side of Heaven. A true foretaste of the Beatific Vision.

The mind is nourished with Sacred Learning. The writings of the Saints and the Sciences rightly ordered to God's glory and the benefit of man. 

A harmonious relationship with the earth. Yes, Traditional Catholic Monasteries were the original "Green movement" properly understood. Not this superficial, false ideology that you find peddled by the likes of Greta Thunberg. No. What I am talking about is man living in his true environment. Working by the sweat of his brow. Working in harmony with nature just like the Traditional Monasteries do. A truly organic life where nature is respected by those who till the earth. 

Like our grandparents and great grandparents, monastic life wastes nothing. A frugal life filled with simplicity and gratitude was the true "recycling mentality". Our forefathers and the monasteries never polluted the earth.

Truly, pollution only became an issue when modern man moved away from a simple, God centred and ordered lifestyle. Big cities, big bucks and Godlessness took precedence.

So, picture the scene. 

The green countryside. An enormous Benedictine Abbey. The sun is shining. It is the month of May, Mary's month. There are flowers everywhere. Monks and lay people are outside, ploughing the fields, tending the crops and flocks. Honey bees, free from modernistic man's pharmaceutical pesticides, buzz around the medicinal herb garden.

The people are sweating. They are working hard. No one is dropping dead from Myocarditis from any poisonous vaxx.

Families cooperating with each other to educate their children with a Godly, Classical education.

In the distance, the Abbey bell rings out the Angelus. The people pause to pray together.

They gather up their tools. The Monks make their way back to the Abbey in order to pray Sext in their beautifully hand carved Choirstalls.

God imbues everyone, everything, everywhere.