Monastic orders.

[mortehoe]

Do you think that the people who devote their life to God and join a monastic orders would do more good as priests of something else instead of being behind monastery walls or do you think that the life of prayer benefits us all and we should be thankful for their sacrifices?

[NewInHim]

I think God may call people to certain times of life when he wants intense study/focused prayer from them (I think of Paul), but I doubt that He calls people away for a lifetime of prayer/study inside walls. I think he wants us to be servants of Him and of each other. I know intercessory prayer is serving others, but I don't see in Scripture where He calls people to do just that their whole lives. What do you find in Scripture about it?

[Revinius]

It's hard to be a light to the world when there is a wall in the way.

[HisLeast]

Can you blame someone for wanting to be cloistered away from the cesspool we call a world? Some of the world's greatest intellectual works were done from behind the walls of a monastery. If I weren't married, I'd strongly consider the life myself.

[crossnote]

Can you blame someone for wanting to be cloistered away from the cesspool we call a world? Some of the world's greatest intellectual works were done from behind the walls of a monastery. If I weren't married, I'd strongly consider the life myself.

Luther tried it only to find that the real cesspool was in his heart. For him, monasticism only sunk him deeper.

[SweetSomber]

Can you blame someone for wanting to be cloistered away from the cesspool we call a world? Some of the world's greatest intellectual works were done from behind the walls of a monastery. If I weren't married, I'd strongly consider the life myself.

God has called us to love and help others - christians and non-christians. You may be able to think behind a wall, but I believe that God wants us to be out there making a difference. Being a missionary like Paul, preaching like the OT prophets, showing hospitality, helping and praying for those who are sick, discipling people, sheltering orphans.

You can't do that if you are living in seclusion. I admit it can be tempting, because this world is full of evil and pain. But hey - we get all eternity to be happy with God, and safe. Right now is the only time when we can help others, or effect their eternal destiny. Right now is the only time we can protect others, rescue them, or help to heal them.

To neglect that, to seclude yourself, would be to put your light under a bushel.

[Scruffy Kid]

Ordinarily, I think, a call to belong to a set-apart religious community is not supposed to arise from a desire to escape the world and its corruptions, but from a desire to focus one's energies entirely upon God.

Different people are called by God to different things. To dedicate oneself to a life of prayer and worship is certainly an important calling.

Many monastic communities have also taken an active part in the life of their societies, by reclaiming land and improving it, by copying or printing works of literature, by scholarship of various kinds, by offering hospitality, a space for spiritual reflection, and counsel to people who come there for briefer periods, and in many other ways. Many modern monastic communities are involved in helping the poor, and youth, and the elderly, and soon. So monastic communities vary in how, and in the ways in which, they are set-apart.

Even in the case of a fully cloistered wholly contemplative community, however, or in the case of a hermit who dedicates his or her life to the contemplation of God, the call is a holy calling. There's little we can do, in principle, that's better than to praise and worship God. If people are called to such a life -- and it is not an easy life! -- we can be thankful.

And of course the Christian life of prayer includes intercession. Such people are (among other things) often "prayer-warriors."

In addition, those who dedicate themselves in a set-apart way to the worship of God serve as a sign to an unbelieving world of what is of highest value, and in their willingness to give up many worldly goods and pleasures in doing so.

But it is not a life for everybody, obviously. Most of us don't have the patience, or the calm. It's a difficult life!

When people were critical of John the Baptist (who had lived a very set-apart lifestyle most of his life) Jesus said,

What then shall I compare the men of this generation to? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned to you, and you have not wept.

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and you say, He has a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking; and you say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winedrinker, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!

35 But wisdom is justified by all her children.

There are many different callings God gives to different people.
Wisdom is justified by all her children.

[HisLeast]

Luther tried it only to find that the real cesspool was in his heart. For him, monasticism only sunk him deeper.

I'm not Luther
(15 characters)

[HisLeast]

God has called us to love and help others - christians and non-christians. You may be able to think behind a wall, but I believe that God wants us to be out there making a difference. Being a missionary like Paul, preaching like the OT prophets, showing hospitality, helping and praying for those who are sick, discipling people, sheltering orphans.

You can't do that if you are living in seclusion. I admit it can be tempting, because this world is full of evil and pain. But hey - we get all eternity to be happy with God, and safe. Right now is the only time when we can help others, or effect their eternal destiny. Right now is the only time we can protect others, rescue them, or help to heal them.

To neglect that, to seclude yourself, would be to put your light under a bushel.

Better for some that they have light obfuscated by a bushel then to have it snuffed out entirely by the world.

[His Bride]

Monasticism goes against what Jesus commanded in the Bible. He told us to go out into all the earth preaching the gospel, not hole up in some community where no one speaks except to chant mantras at specific times during the day. We are to live out the Word of God in the fellowship of other believers, witnessing to others about forgiveness of sin and salvation found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

That said, there is nothing wrong with taking time every now and again to spend away from the world in prayer and bible study. It is good to refresh the soul. But not as a way of life.

[crossnote]

I'm not Luther
(15 characters)

That's right but not my point.

Would you agree that our hearts apart from the grace of God are cesspools of sin?

[apothanein kerdos]

Do you think that the people who devote their life to God and join a monastic orders would do more good as priests of something else instead of being behind monastery walls or do you think that the life of prayer benefits us all and we should be thankful for their sacrifices?

There's some benefits and some downfalls.

For one, most monastic orders do help the community around them, have communities form around them, or have enough visitors that they can talk to people. The other positive is it allows us to focus on God.

At the same time, it really comes from a Platonic understanding of the world and puts too much emphasis on personal piety and not enough emphasis on "loving your neighbor as yourself."

There has to be a balance.