My Moral High Ground

On 14th of February this year, I was surprisingly not inundated with cards and flowers (for a change), there was no candlelit dinner, no romantic serenade, this Valentines day I instead found I had a date with a monk (or at least the Christian union did).

I was, at the least, surprised on arrival. I had been expecting some cringey but light hearted talk about Gods love on Valentines day not the fully robed and bearded character who could well have stepped straight out of Robin hood that stood before me . Needless to say I was utterly relieved that I was being spared the cheesy talk, but I was also intrigued as to what this monk would have to say.

It turned out he was a Franciscan Monk who had been converted after years of drug induced turmoil. To be honest I don’t remember a great deal about the rest of his testimony, but I was immensely challenged buy his commitment. On initiation to his specific order of monks he had to make 3 vows.

• Poverty: to physically own nothing.
• Chastity: to remain chaste
• Obedience: to obey the guidelines of their ‘manual’ based on biblical teachings

These were no new years resolutions, these were real lifelong vows, sworn in front of God, and these monks weren’t locked away in their monastery, they were making an active difference in the roughest areas of America and the UK. That is some commitment, I won’t even deny myself a sixth packet of pom bear, let alone all personal belongings. Stunned by this amazing way of life, I asked whether his decision to sacrifice all those things for life, made things more simple. He replied “I have never been so free”.

Imagine not worrying about all the crap we surround ourselves with, living off only what was donated to us, no media distractions, no manipulative advertising to worry about, no money to stress over, and out of choice not necessity. Though I don’t think the monks life is the one for me, I couldn’t help but fall in love with this kind, loving man’s values and was deeply challenged as to how I could free my life a little form worldly distractions. Perhaps stopping on the 5th bag of pom bear would do it.