Life
Monastic life is distinct from the "religious orders" such as the friars, canons regular, clerks regular, and the more recent religious congregations. The latter have essentially some special work or aim, such as preaching, teaching, liberating captives, etc., which occupies a large place in their activities. While monks have undertaken labours of the most varied character, in every case this work is extrinsic to the essence of the monastic state. Both ways of living out the Christian life are regulated by the respective Church law of those Christian denominations that recognize it (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church, or the Lutheran Church).
Christian monastic life does not always involve communal living with like-minded Christians. Christian monasticism has varied greatly in its external forms, but, broadly speaking, it has two main species (a) the eremitical or solitary, (b) the cenobitical or family types. St. Anthony the Abbot may be called the founder of the first and St. Pachomius of the second. The monastic life is based on Jesus's exhortation to "be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). This ideal, also called the state of perfection, can be seen, for example, in the Philokalia, a book of monastic writings.
Monastic asceticism is a means to removing obstacles to loving God. Monks remember that: "The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them" (John 15:13)CEV, for, in their case, life has come to mean renunciation. Their manner of self-renunciation has three elements corresponding to the three evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience.
Monks and friars are two distinct roles. In the thirteenth century “…new orders of friars were founded to teach the Christian faith,” because monasteries had declined. While friars take vows, they live outside of a monastery.
Read more about this topic: Christian Monasticism
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I have heard a good many pretend that they are going to die; or that they have died, for aught that I know. Nonsense! I’ll defy them to do it. They have n’t got life enough in them.... Only half a dozen or so have died since the world began.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“We hear a great deal of lamentation these days about writers having all taken themselves to the colleges and universities where they live decorously instead of going out and getting firsthand information about life. The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)