Monastic Journal - Day 14(the last)

1/20

Today was our last day. We had to get up at 6am, which feels a lot different than waking up at 8. Shortly after breakfast and morning prayer, we went with Ed to the Capuchin soup kitchen he helps out at. We got the chance to sit in on an AA/NA meeting that Ed facilitated. That was fascinating. Many of the people at the meeting were very open, vulnerable, and humble about the situations they were in. It was really cool to see that. After that, we went to the Capuchin monastery across the street, where we were given a tour by Brother Malcolm, an 80-something year old man who had trouble getting around, but who had a great sense of humor and was a lot of fun to talk to. The lifestyle of the Capuchins was more along the lines of what we were expecting when we came up with the idea to live with monks. They lived in this traditional (although, very nice) monastery, wore brown robes, etc. But even these monks had become somewhat modernized, as Brother Malcolm showed us his room, equipped with a TV, laptop, CD player, along with his eclectic collection of books. That was kind of funny. We watched the presidential inauguration there at the monastery with Malcolm, the cook, and another old monk who kept on making snide remarks about Bush and Cheney finally leaving the White House.

We got back to the house and had a few hours to catch up on reading or nap before our last session on our Desert Fathers book. The last two chapters of that were actually really interesting stories. So I guess the book wasn't so bad, overall.

After dinner, we packed all our stuff up, said our goodbyes, and left for a UCO prayer meeting in Ann Arbor. The prayer meeting was an awesome time of worship, and the speaker, a priest, gave a great message about the power of the Spirit in evangelizing. After the meeting, we tried to get out pretty quick and got back on the road for our trek back to good ole' HU.

Overall, this experience was a really great one, and definitely worth it. I feel like I learned a lot and grew a lot closer in my relationship with God. I'm sure I'll post more on here about the things that I've learned or grown in.

*SDG