Categories: uncategorized
Date: 25 May 2005 08:01:04
Well last night was the last episode of The Monastery .
Final episode was interesting. The tension between two participants grew and so it became much more of a real reality tv programme, how the spirituality also increased, with one of the participants having what I suppose one can only call a kind of conversion experience. He said, "This morning when I woke up I didn't believe and well now something has happened" (think that is about right for wording).
They went to visit a heavy duty monastery (Carthusian) which they described as making Worth Abbey seem like centre parks.
I found the discussions around "searching for your voccation" really interesting. As was the part when one of the participants spiritual guide was talking about us all having a "white stone name", a concept I'd never come across before.
So at the end of it what were the results:
5 participants, varying levels of experience, but seemed to increase belief - if not practice in all. Most apparent seems to be the guy who had the "conversion" for want of a better term who it said at the end had left a career in the soft porn industry and was still visiting the monastery regularly.
The monks said they had benefitted and all learned from it.
The viewers, well I can only comment for this one. I found it interesting and useful:
I got an insight into a type of spirituality and lifestyle I knew very little of.
I was given new ideas / a starting point to think (again) about ideas on silence, voccation and how to interpret / use the bible, white stone names - (might actually read Revelation at some point) and handling singleness.
I realised that the "hippy" version of Christianity I first really encountered at Spring Harvest last year (yes you did read that right - I went to the reflective type stuff) was much wider and relevant than I kinda thought.
I was encouraged that you can have real Christian spirituality and experience without the hype and (at times) manipulated emotion that appears to have to accompany it in some circles.
I was pleased to see that if people stood back, having given people tools to help them on the journey God still broke in in amazing ways into lives.
Finally got an idea of what Spiritual Direction is, in practice.