Can you imagine, right now, what it would be like to live a day in the life of a medieval monk? Perhaps a small vision of what it might be like? Let me assist you in your imagining. Picture this. Living in a monastery, completely apart from the outside world; wrapped in silence, work, and prayer. Day after day. Harsh discipline for any action or word not within the bounds of priory rules. Not to mention toiling all day, hard physical labor in order to provide for yourself, community, and poor; in between long periods of intense prayer. Where every couple of hours you were required to pray, as it was your job; because for them, work and prayer were virtually synonymous.
I found this quite daunting, almost impossible actually. Especially with the way my life is currently structured. Marriage, work, school, there seems to be little time left over for prayer. Let alone fixed-hour prayer, where at the same time every day, to the minute, I must stop to pray. To be quite honest, I failed horribly this week. In an attempt to explain without seeming too excuse-seeking, I feel like I have a lot more on my proverbial plate than the average medieval (or present day, for that matter) monk.
Being a monk is totally voluntary. I tried my hand at it for a time, but ultimately I have chosen a different path in my Christian maturity: marriage (among other things, of course). Fixed-hour prayer takes lots of discipline, hard work, and time. Yes, it would be nice to leave this busy world and hide away in monastery in complete silence with God. However, this is not me. And the world changes. I tried my hand at it for a week, and have developed a deep respect for it. I intend to revisit the practice often. It had taught me self-control and humility, and has more well-rounded my view of Christian practices. What’s more, it taught me that not only was I not wasting my time; its that it was never mine to begin with.
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