The Pope visited the US in the early 1990s or so. A nunnery in the northeast was thrilled and decided to make a sacrifice in honor of the papal visit. The sacrifice, and I’m not making this up, was to stay at the nunnery and not go see the Pope.
A life of sacrifice can get silly in a hurry.
I had the privilege of staying at an Orthodox monastery in Ohio in the early 2000s, and I got to know the two monks in residence: I worshipped with them, helped them in a local store which presented their works, and in turn got to amicably debate various differences between Orthodox and Lutheran doctrine. Unfortunately the monastery closed after one monk suddenly died and the other fell into sin. Whether they would have eventually persuaded me to enter Orthodoxy is a question for which the answer must remain unknown.
I spend nearly every Sunday at a Benedictine monastery up in the mountains near me. It has continued to grow since Superior set the first foundation stones in @1991. It is a wonderful resource which I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to partake of and support. People who think the monastic life is not a worthy endeavor, truly do not understand it.
Excellent article, NRx. Our monastics are true spiritual Olympians. Creation can be transformed into its pre Fall state around some of them as can be seen on Mount Athos.
Met. Isaiah is a great hierarch, in my opinion. He was, btw, a Marine and it shows.