{"id":5618,"date":"2013-03-13T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T06:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/?p=5618"},"modified":"2013-03-14T06:26:18","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T12:26:18","slug":"so-why-should-i-care-about-monks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joeljmiller\/2013\/03\/so-why-should-i-care-about-monks\/","title":{"rendered":"So why should I care about monks?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There is probably no figure so countercultural today as the monk. Having retreated from the world he gives himself wholly to pray for it. Actor Jonathan Jackson brought some unexpected attention to these misunderstood intercessors as he received his fifth Emmy award. Watch:<\/p>\n

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Who are the monks of Mount Athos? TV news magazine 60 Minutes<\/em> wondered the same question and wangled an invitation for their crew to go and find out more. It\u2019s a good start for understanding why Christians of whatever stripe \u2014 not just Orthodox and Catholics \u2014 should appreciate the prayerful labor of the monastic.<\/p>\n

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Foreign as the life of led by these monks may seem, a person doesn\u2019t have to travel halfway around the world to encounter monasticism. I live in Nashville, Tennessee. Several hours away is the Hermitage of the Holy Cross. I know one of the monks who lives there, and several men in my church visit regularly. <\/p>\n

But what is surely foreign to most of us is the life of prayer, self-renunciation, and single-minded spiritual pursuit. I can barely remember to pray some days. These men live to pray.<\/p>\n

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However foreign that sounds, some of it is undeniably true. This line hit me: \u201cIf we had nothing but consolation all the time, we really wouldn\u2019t grow. In fact, we\u2019d grow weaker.\u201d God gives us both consolation and a cross, no matter what our vocation.<\/p>\n

Most of the monks on Athos, at Holy Cross, and elsewhere are cenobitic \u2014 that is, they live together in small communities of prayer. But some monks are hermits or anchorites, largely pursuing a solitary life of prayer. Here\u2019s a documentary about Fr. Lazarus, a Coptic monk who lives in very the birthplace of Christian monasticism.<\/p>\n