Hello from Greece! My son is a monk in Mount Athos (Agion Oros)... I can soooo relate with all this!! All I can say is :"If God had blessed me with 100 children, I would want all of them to be monastics!!!"... It is a great honour and a beyond words blessing to look at your child wearing the monastic robes, understanding what they mean (even the belt which monastics wear has a spiritual meaning) and knowing WHOM they serve!! God bless!
I enjoyed this dialogue very much - I am seeking to find a monastery, but there are not many that accept older women. It would be wonderful to see some instruction on how to go about finding the right "home, " when you know this is your calling. Thank you.
Aiming for humility so well explained here. Our materialistic world tends to think that humility is stupidity and therefore nothing interesting. But at the same time it has the subconscious knowledge that humble people have less desires. In other words, they are bad consumers; people who are not interested in buying more of everything all the time.
All Orthodox Christians are called to be ascetics, monastic or lay. How we work that out may look different on the surface, but...is it really? All are called to be sober, modest, humble, etc.
A wise woman. I can relate to her explanation about why one would want to become a monastic. I feel that had I known the things about Orthodox Christianity at a young age and about monasticism, I would have become a monk.
Reasons for leaving the world, often portrayed by historians: to avoid arranged marriages, likely death in childbirth. Hundreds of years ago, the options were limited. Choose monasticism or be a lifelong spinster. Women needed protection more then, also. The convent provided that, except during wars and raids.
