Priests who don't like monasteries

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Dorothea

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***ORTHODOX ANSWERS ONLY PLEASE!***

What is it with some priests discouraging their parishioners from visiting monasteries?

I've heard different stories about this. I've heard it said that the priest might be nervous that parishioners will tithe to the monasteries instead of their parish. Or, that they will stop attending their home parish altogether and swap to a parish affiliated with a monastery. I've also heard that priests have horror stories of over-zealous people becoming infatuated with what they imagine the monastic life to be, instead of the reality, so they are nervous about a spiritual disaster for their flock.

Any experience or thoughts on this?
It's always been encouraged by the priests at the parishes I've attended, to go to monasteries. In fact, they plan trips once or twice a year for their parishioners to go visit ones closest to them in my experience.
 
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GreekOrthodox

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You may enjoy reading this article which might give some idea of why some people seem slightly anti-monastic at times: Five Good Reasons NOT to Visit a Monastery- By: Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA

Mind you, this is written by somebody who was, at the time, the abbot of a monastery.

Met. Jonah does get "the whole more Orthodox than everyone else" bit :)

“Oh, so you too are continuing to persecute that righteous man! I know in my heart he is truly Orthodox! Besides he baptized me yesterday, making up for what you did not do by chrismating me. Actually,” getting excited, “why am I here anyway? I should really go be with him as the true criterion of Orthodoxy. . . Not in this modernist, ecumenist jurisdiction. My spiritual father may have been defrocked, but he is obedient to God, not those godless bishops! I know it because I feel it in my heart.
 
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SeraphimSarov

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I think priests can be wary of people seeing how monastics live and don't want their parishioners to think that what monks do is what they should be doing. I've looked into becoming a monk (in both Orthodoxy and Catholicism), and it really is not for everybody. It wasn't for me, that's for sure, and I was sure God was calling me to be monk! (In fact, I'm still not sure He isn't. Maybe just not at this point in time.)
 
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E.C.

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Met. Jonah does get "the whole more Orthodox than everyone else" bit :)

“Oh, so you too are continuing to persecute that righteous man! I know in my heart he is truly Orthodox! Besides he baptized me yesterday, making up for what you did not do by chrismating me. Actually,” getting excited, “why am I here anyway? I should really go be with him as the true criterion of Orthodoxy. . . Not in this modernist, ecumenist jurisdiction. My spiritual father may have been defrocked, but he is obedient to God, not those godless bishops! I know it because I feel it in my heart.
Given that he had his start in California it isn't surprising how commonplace such crazies are over there :rolleyes:
 
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California Orthodox are a real bunch of nutjobs. Stay away from that rabble at all costs! :sorry::sorry::sorry:^_^

Given that he had his start in California it isn't surprising how commonplace such crazies are over there :rolleyes:
 
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What diocese do you belong to?

Met. Jonah does get "the whole more Orthodox than everyone else" bit :)

“Oh, so you too are continuing to persecute that righteous man! I know in my heart he is truly Orthodox! Besides he baptized me yesterday, making up for what you did not do by chrismating me. Actually,” getting excited, “why am I here anyway? I should really go be with him as the true criterion of Orthodoxy. . . Not in this modernist, ecumenist jurisdiction. My spiritual father may have been defrocked, but he is obedient to God, not those godless bishops! I know it because I feel it in my heart.
 
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GreekOrthodox

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What diocese do you belong to?

Converted from Lutheran Missouri Synod to Greek in 2001. I've attached our chrismation picture. Tonsured as a reader in 2005 but started singing as soon as we joined. I attended HCHC in 2006-7 but due to family issues was asked to leave the seminary. Now I serve as a psalti at our local parish.

I hope you recognize the goodly bishop who chrismated us, Met. Kallistos Ware.
 

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I know, thread resooorecshiooone! However, it wasn’t long ago that I was dating I hadn’t been to any American monasteries….

Today I went to the beautiful Dunlap Monastery Holy Convent of the Theotokos.

The nuns were great! I asked if I could take a few pictures to share. They said as long as it’s not social media and it might encourage visitors rather than using photos instead of visiting, photos are great to share.
 
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I’ll have to try later. Every photo I try to upload goes literally horizontal :sigh:
 

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prodromos

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I know, thread resooorecshiooone! However, it wasn’t long ago that I was dating I hadn’t been to any American monasteries….

Today I went to the beautiful Dunlap Monastery Holy Convent of the Theotokos.

The nuns were great! I asked if I could take a few pictures to share. They said as long as it’s not social media and it might encourage visitors rather than using photos instead of visiting, photos are great to share.
Its one of the monasteries we hoped to visit when we were over there but didn't get the opportunity. Now we get to visit vicariously through your family :)
The website says the first two nuns came from the Monastery of the Archangel Michael in Greece. Do you happen to know any details? We have visited a monastery on the island of Thasos by the same name and wonder if that is where they came from. We experienced a great miracle through the Holy Spring at that monastery, so it means a lot to us.
 
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***ORTHODOX ANSWERS ONLY PLEASE!***

What is it with some priests discouraging their parishioners from visiting monasteries?

I've heard different stories about this. I've heard it said that the priest might be nervous that parishioners will tithe to the monasteries instead of their parish. Or, that they will stop attending their home parish altogether and swap to a parish affiliated with a monastery. I've also heard that priests have horror stories of over-zealous people becoming infatuated with what they imagine the monastic life to be, instead of the reality, so they are nervous about a spiritual disaster for their flock.

Any experience or thoughts on this?

May the Lord keep us and defend us from ourselves, for we don't even need enemies these days.
 
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E.C.

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I know, thread resooorecshiooone! However, it wasn’t long ago that I was dating I hadn’t been to any American monasteries….
I know the feeling! Up until this year the only monastery I'd been to was All-Merciful Saviour on Vashon Island, WA. These last couple months since moving to the DC area I've been to St Tikhon's Monastery where I ended up having to drive back in a U-Haul box truck. And this last weekend I visited Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, PA founded by former Princess Iliana of Romania. Wonderful monks and nuns at both places.

At Holy Transfiguration they had Liturgy in an outdoor chapel with three bishops serving! Archbishop Melchizadek, Archbishop Nathaniel, and Bishop Andrei. What I really liked was how Mother Christophora, the abbess, communicated the agenda with the crowd, for example, right before Communion she announced "we'll have three chalices this morning. One on the left, the right, and in the back. Please commune at your respective chalice". Then after Liturgy she announced, "we have food here, there, restrooms that way, and in a few hours we'll have the Holy Unction service in the outdoor chapel". Loved that monastery.
 
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ArmyMatt

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I know the feeling! Up until this year the only monastery I'd been to was All-Merciful Saviour on Vashon Island, WA. These last couple months since moving to the DC area I've been to St Tikhon's Monastery where I ended up having to drive back in a U-Haul box truck. And this last weekend I visited Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, PA founded by former Princess Iliana of Romania. Wonderful monks and nuns at both places.

At Holy Transfiguration they had Liturgy in an outdoor chapel with three bishops serving! Archbishop Melchizadek, Archbishop Nathaniel, and Bishop Andrei. What I really liked was how Mother Christophora, the abbess, communicated the agenda with the crowd, for example, right before Communion she announced "we'll have three chalices this morning. One on the left, the right, and in the back. Please commune at your respective chalice". Then after Liturgy she announced, "we have food here, there, restrooms that way, and in a few hours we'll have the Holy Unction service in the outdoor chapel". Loved that monastery.

two of my favorites
 
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Our priest that was at our parish some years was not against monasteries. He even made arrangements with some parishioners who made regular visits to take a few others of us who had no way to go.

He did caution me against confessing at a monastery when I was first baptized. He said the confessor there would likely be more severe than a parish priest, and it could be possible to receive instructions that might be more difficult to follow than a parish priest might find wise. But that he would be unable to change them, once received in confession.


My only experience with these things was asking for a prayer rule very early on from an Abbot, and he gave me one which might have seemed easy to him for a beginner, but it was very long and structured, and I couldn’t do it. Yet then several years later I had a discussion with a spiritual father (though not my spiritual father) at a monastery about prayer, and he encouraged a very gentle and unstructured but frequent prayer life.
 
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xenia

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If I had to speculate, I would suspect that there are some lax parishes out there with lax priests who don't encourage keeping the fasts or going to confession, or observing other Orthodox disciplines. Such a priest would not be too happy about a member of his parish visiting a monastery and encountering genuine Orthodox practices and making uncomfortable comparisons with the home church. I was a member of a parish for a few years where no one kept the fasts and never went to confession. People with this mindset sometimes think monasteries are cults. Every priest I've ever had, even the priest of the less-than-strict parish, liked monasteries, though.
 
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