Monks give lives to God
Forty-one years ago, a young accountant headed to Los Angeles where he lived in the sun, joined a social club and went to dances every week. Today, this same man lives in a monastery in Huntsville, Utah, and instead of doing office work and dancing, he spends his life in prayer.
“The idea of going to the monastery here would not leave me. I found my happiness and completion here,” said Father David Altman, who was elected the sixth abbot at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in July.
After graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia, Altman went looking for a girl while he worked for a year and a half as an accountant.
“I fought it for years,” he said. “I met a lot of good girls. They’re all grandmothers now for sure. It wouldn’t let me go, so I wrote a monastery in California and they suggested I come here. So I wrote the abbot who’s still alive here at 91. It wasn’t how I planned it. When I was working I would travel in California as far east as Arizona and work with aerospace projects. It was very futuristic in those days.”
Joining the monastery wasn’t easy for Altman because the rest of his family is not Catholic, he said. They did not react well at all, he said, but after a couple of years they better understood. His father visited him the second year he was in the monastery and realized monks are just various people with a common vocation, Altman said.
Mornings for Altman and the rest of the monks at the monastery begin at 3:15 a.m. when they arise and get ready for chanting at vigils, which reminds the monks they they must watch and be prepared for the coming of Jesus at all times, according to the monastery Web site. Altman said they get up early to teach themselves discipline. Giving up sleep and food for fasting are just a couple of sacrifices monks make, he said.
At 6:20 a.m. the monastery holds sacrament for the community, although Altman said they usually don’t get very many people to come out that early. The rest of a monk’s day is spent mostly in quiet solitude, at work or at meals until they retire at 8 p.m., Altman said. Because they follow the Rule of St. Benedict, a set of prescriptions for monasteries from the Dark Ages, they believe they must provide for themselves.
The monastery leases 1,878 acres of land, 730 acres of it used to cultivate hay. Until recently, the monastery also had 100 beef cattle that they used to earn money, but they have all been sold, Altman said. The monks also make honey, which is sold in their bookstore and online across the country, especially around holidays. They make 15 different varieties and can make 1,000 cups in a morning, Altman said.
Reasons men enter monasteries are different for each person, Altman said, and some may wonder how they can turn their lives over to God the way they do.
“If you really believe in Heavenly Father and that one prayer can help someone, think of how much a lifetime of prayer can help the world,” he said.
Individual monks do not own anything, said Father Alan, who has lived in the monastery since 1953. They live in 8-by-10-foot rooms with a bed, desk and maybe a few books. For monks to be able to worship as much as they do, the halls of the monastery are kept very quiet.
“There is never a vow of silence,” he said, “just an understanding that a life of prayer requires much silence.”
The education level of the monks continues to grow, Altman said, as they continue reading and receive U.S. News and World Report.
“We know what’s going on in the world,” he said. “There’s a lot to pray for.”
The monastery is not very big, and for the most part it is very simple. The monks have their private rooms, two kitchens, a church and bookstore, but not much more. The most elaborate structure is a giant and colorful stained-glass window of Mary holding baby Jesus in the church.
They also have their land. Altman said there is no escape from nature in the monastery as it is surrounded by fields of grass and hay. They usually expect snow for five months of the year and while it is beautiful at first, he said after a while it seems a little dull.
The monks are vegetarian by choice and get their protein from fish and milk, Altman said, except for one day of the year in July when they celebrate the founding of the monastery. On that day, the monks drive into Ogden and order 100 pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken, he said.
BECOMING A MONK
Nineteen monks currently live at the monastery, the youngest being 60, the oldest 91.
“Everybody has their own story,” Altman said. “Some guys know at an early age and come as teens. One came when he was 40 after he had a wife and kids, but his wife was out of the picture by then. His kids come to visit him still and they are in their 40s.”
Deciding to live the monastic life is not easy. Altman said there are a number of probationary periods before a man can become a monk. For 30 days, a man lives in the monastery in his street clothes. When he leaves, he and the other monks decide whether or not the person will be happy there. The man has to be psychologically stable, and the monastery receives health reports to confirm that. The man cannot be joining the monastery as a form of counseling or therapy, Altman said.
If the man chooses to return, he is in a postulancy period for six months to a year and serves two years as a novice. Then he makes vows for three years and can extend up to 12. He must vow to live a close community life, including celibacy, chastity, obedience and a life of intense prayer, Altman said.
No one is ever forced to stay, and if a monk wanted to leave he could, Altman said. But to become monks, men go through several interviews and classes plus complete the probationary period and vows, so for a monk to leave is pretty unusual, Altman said.
Some see the monastic lifestyle as an escape, but Altman said that is a misconception.
“There’s no escape,” he said, adding that when people do want to escape, it is usually from relationships. “The relationships here are so intense, and it’s only through challenges that people grow.”
The monastic life is not lonely, Altman said, because of the community lifestyle. He said monks don’t go into isolation in a monastery, that they go into solitude to gain a spiritual connection with the Lord.
“Everyone makes a statement with their lives. Ours is a prayer,” Altman said. “We say (to Heavenly Father) I love you so much that I want to offer my life you. At the end of our lives, the relationship that we build here with God will be the same after this life.”
-manette.n@aggiemail.usu.edu