How would you explain monasticism to Protestants who feel Christians should be out in the world, seeking to convert lost souls? To them, monks/nuns are hiding from society’s ills, not helping to mend ...

Part two of a three-part series. The dwindling number of vocations to priesthood, religious orders and monastic life make it clear that traditional religious life no longer speaks to newer generations ...

The monastic alternative, at least in the West, has become so deeply unfashionable that most people no longer consider the possibility, but there is, at least to me, something deeply appealing about ...

When Judith Valente, a Benedictine oblate, leads contemplative retreats both online and in monasteries around the country, she has been noticing that laypeople — whether Catholic or ...

This is part one of a series. Although the term "new monasticism" has been floating around ether of the contemplative world for several decades, it has remained difficult to define. Catholic ...

"The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love." The first monks who tried to live under Benedict's direction hated his ...

There's a growing movement of people using monastic traditions in everyday life It’s hard to open a newspaper these days – particularly health supplements – without reading about the benefits of ...

It was a joy to spend the month of June at my alma mater in Atchison, Kan., as my husband continues his formation with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (Focus). Nearly every classroom ...

A joint Egyptian archaeological mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Faculty of Archaeology at Cairo University has unearthed the remains of an ancient monastery dating back to the ...