The Benedictine
Bed & Breakfast
ALL GUESTS who present
themselves,” Saint Benedict
of Nursia wrote in his Rule
for monks, “are to be welcomed
as Christ, for he himself will say:
‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25: 25).”
Fifteen hundred years later, the
monks of the Monastery of the
Holy Cross are continuing the
Benedictine tradition of hospitality: a Benedictine Bed and
Breakfast.
The Benedictine B&B has
won national awards from the
hospitality industry and is listed
on several travel and food websites. Most nights from spring
through early winter the bed
and breakfast, which is housed
in a former parish complex the
monastery occupies, operates
at full capacity. It is also available year-round. Drawing on an
international as well as national
and local clientele, the B&B has
welcomed guests from countries
on almost every continent.
PRIOR PETER Funk
kneads dough that will
be baked and served
with meals. Manual
labor is as central to the
Benedictine lifestyle as
prayer
REVERENCE for the Word
of God has been at the
heart of monastic spirituality for many centuries,
as monks copied biblical
manuscripts, preached
homilies, and composed commentaries.
also welcomes people who wish to
make retreats to its two 19th-century
houses on the monastery grounds.
The monks also offer spiritual direction.
The work of love
“What is all of this like?” Father
Peter writes. “At first it can be a bit
overwhelming if someone is not used
to a strict schedule like this. Even after many years it can take real effort
to get out of bed to sing joyfully. Like
everyone else brothers go through
periods where they are excited about
prayer and times when they are not.
But no matter how we feel, we go to
the Divine Office! This is a wonderful privilege and really helps the
monk to get ‘outside of himself’ and
to learn to turn over his own desires
and feelings to God.
“The other hidden part is community. We see the same brothers
much of the time, every day. It is so
very important to learn humility, to
learn how to treat brothers in a way
that is supportive and encouraging
. . . and like all people, we have some
personalities that clash and some
that perhaps get along too easily. So
quite a bit of the ‘work’ we do would
not be recognized by others, but it
is the important work of loving one
another.”
VISION 2009
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