Why Monasteries are Important. A Benedictine oblate blog

An Oasis

St. Leo Abbey is a Catholic Benedictine monastery for men in Florida, USA. (Location map & directions) My wife and I are oblates there.

In this month’s oblate newsletter from St. Leo Abbey the abbot asks us to answer the following question,

“Why is the Benedictine presence here in Florida important?

The abbot also asked that we send him our answers.

So, yes in a sense, this is a Help-with-Homework Blog!

I have been thinking about a response for a few days. My answer to the abbot’s question will be centered on why the monastery is important to me.

My view of this monastery’s importance grew from the transformation of my perception of whether it was the surrounding culture or the monastery that creates a spiritual place of rest in the desert.

I am still working on my answer that I will e-mail to the abbot, but I welcome any ideas. I learn a lot from comments and now you can even help with my oblate homework.

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Footnotes:
The picture is "An Oasis" by madpai.

Personal note: This past month is when our daughter had twins. A girl (5 lbs. 9 oz) and boy (5 lbs. 11 oz) — mother, dad, and babies are home now and doing fine (their first children). However, the boy spent 10 days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after he was born. For the first couple of days we did not know what was wrong, but then the doctors said it was Pulmonary Hypertension in Newborns a relatively common and treatable condition that responds well to about a week of ICU care and monitoring. There should be no lingering effects, but the poor little guy had tubes and needles all over him and we could tell he was struggling. We spent the time at the hospital and have also been helping at our daughter and son-in-law’s home so the parents could sleep. Things are almost back to normal. But every additional moment this past month was, as you might have seen, not used for blogging.