60 Minutes
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Easter Sunday, 60 Minutes featured Bob Simon's report on Mt. Athos* - the holy mountain in Greece, home to Orthodox monks - for centuries. Monastic observance unchanged for centuries - the closest observance to the earliest monks, the desert fathers, the world has today. Even the Carthusians have made some reforms since Vatican II, but not these monks. They do not have television or Internet, they do not go home for funerals or weddings, and they pray without ceasing - literally.
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The Carthusians and a few monasteries of Discalced Carmelite nuns would be the only monastics I know of in the West to hold a candle to this type of monasticism, all of the others have made extensive compromises with the world. Interestingly the monasteries on Athos do not advertise for vocations, yet they keep coming. I know of a Carmelite monastery of nuns who have no access to the Internet, nor do they advertise for vocations. They never have and continue to resist all outside interference to do so, and the community thrives.
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I'm guessing it is the monastics of the Orthodox Church who would be most resistant to union with Rome, since they fear they would have to modernize according to the legal dictates of Roman canonical laws and discipline. Perhaps even admitting women to the Holy Mountain... thus opening themselves to the world and Western decadence.
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I found the report to be edifying. It left me wondering how one can become holy while living in distraction with media - especially the Internet and all the controversies, rash judgement and gossip it engenders.
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"Pay no attention to the affairs of men, whether they be good or bad, for besides the danger of sin, this is the cause of distractions and the lack of spirit." - John of the Cross
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*Simon's report was excellent and beautifully done and quite appropriate for Easter.
