Manual Labor
Brother Pierre making popcorn.
The final monastic discipline (along with the Liturgy of the Hours and Lectio Divina) is manual labor. This discipline has both a practical and spiritual dimension. From a practical vantage point, a community can only function efficiently when every member is contributing to its daily demands. Like every household, there are a great many tasks that need attention: preparing food, washing dishes, weeding gardens, mowing lawns, cleaning floors and windows, repairing automobiles and other machinery, to name but a few.
In addition to these varied household activities, a monastery must also look to sustaining itself economically by engaging in some profitable venture. Among the many activities Trappist monasteries engage in are the making of jams and jellies, baking cookies, raising breads and fruitcakes, cultivating bonsai, hand crafting burial caskets and making liturgical vestments. The Abbey of New Clairvaux is self-supporting through the planting, maintaining and harvesting of the vineyard and walnut and prune orchards.
Necessary activity can easily become nothing more than a business enterprise if not infused with the spirit of God. It is God's presence in every activity that makes the labor holy. It is the spirit of God with which the monk approaches every task, whether it is enjoyable, fulfilling work or downright boring and distasteful, that makes the discipline of manual labor so different from the world's view of work.
In the final analysis, then, manual labor is a labor of love. Rooted in God's love the monk views every task as the work of God and an opportunity to serve his brother monks as well as the people of God he encounters each day.
In addition to these varied household activities, a monastery must also look to sustaining itself economically by engaging in some profitable venture. Among the many activities Trappist monasteries engage in are the making of jams and jellies, baking cookies, raising breads and fruitcakes, cultivating bonsai, hand crafting burial caskets and making liturgical vestments. The Abbey of New Clairvaux is self-supporting through the planting, maintaining and harvesting of the vineyard and walnut and prune orchards.
Necessary activity can easily become nothing more than a business enterprise if not infused with the spirit of God. It is God's presence in every activity that makes the labor holy. It is the spirit of God with which the monk approaches every task, whether it is enjoyable, fulfilling work or downright boring and distasteful, that makes the discipline of manual labor so different from the world's view of work.
In the final analysis, then, manual labor is a labor of love. Rooted in God's love the monk views every task as the work of God and an opportunity to serve his brother monks as well as the people of God he encounters each day.
