My Monastic
Vocation
A sixteen year
old's call to monasticism
My paternal
grandfather built a lakeside home during his summer vacations and weekends
while I was in high school. My brother Dwayne and I spent many summer days
camping in tents on that property, a newly opened area previously owned by the
Idaho State Forest Service. Priest Lake was a few hours drive from my
grandfather's city home in Spokane, Washington. Every moment of my
grandfather's free time, was focused on that lakeside home. When he'd completed
the house our whole family celebrated with a picnic near the dock where he kept
his motor boat.
My very first
thought of becoming a monk came to me on that property. At sixteen years of age
I remember sitting on my grandfather's dock in a lawn chair reading the classic
Lutheran theological work, The Book of Concord. That part of the lake was
rather remote, the perfect place for sitting in silence with my thoughts on
God. I remember thinking that I would like to spend the rest of my life right
there in that house, nestled in the forest on that beautiful lake.
I was aware of
a Lutheran monastery, Saint Augustine's House, located in Michigan. My pastor,
when hearing of my interest, dismissed it as something we Lutherans just did
not do. It was a foolish Catholic idea, and certainly something that I should
put out of my mind. He told me I should find a nice wife, and live my life as a
Lutheran minister.
Still, every
time I went to my grandfather's lakeside home I would think about how wonderful
my life could be if the house were a monastery and I could live out my life in
prayer and spiritual study.
My father was a
golf pro, so my brother and I grew up playing golf and living a family life
that was centered around the country club. Yet my desire to become a monk and
dedicate my life to God grew stronger and stronger and I'm finally living that
very life I've been drawn to for most of my life.
I still think
about the game of golf once in a while and how much I use to enjoy playing with
my dad and my brother. We have a country club about three miles from the
monastery that we drive by whenever going to town to get our mail. As much as I
enjoy seeing people playing golf, I could not imagine a life happier and more
fulfilling than the one I am living.
My grandfather
and father are both long gone, and the lakeside home is no longer owned by our
family, but the joy I felt during those solitary moments with God, on that dock
fifty-seven years ago, are still with me today.
With love in
Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photos: Priest
Lake in Northern Idaho, where I first received my calling to become a monk. My
grandfather's dock was the very location of this calling.
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