Community connections
The brothers and sisters of Saint Brigid of Kildare Monastery welcome you to our community connections page. Here you will find our community blog, where once a month, a member of our community reflects on the question of what it means for them to live their Benedictine call in the world. You will also find links to the webpages, blogs, and ministries of many of our members. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into our community.
About the Author:
Originally from central Indiana, Michael has been serving as a United Methodist pastor since 2005. Michael holds a BA in Religious Studies and Classical Languages from Ball State University and received his Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. His interests include music, theater, gaming, reading, and his dog Barley.
In his ministry to the church, Michael believes that the center of the Gospel is learning to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself. All persons should be welcome to discover God and serve the needs of their community with compassion and friendship.
April 2024 Community Blog
It was my first week of seminary in 2001. I went to the library and found an article posted on the seminary message board about an article in the United Methodist Reporter. An article about a Minnesota woman, Mary Stamps a United Methodist protestant, who had taken vows as a Benedictine Monk. In a grand new experiment and an act of holy cooperation, the United Methodist Church and the Benedictine Confederation were coming together. No one knew where it would go, how it would work out, what the future would look like, but it sounded so compelling to me, that I immediately wrote down the email from the article and sent my first message to Saint Brigid of Kildare Monastery.
In the beginning, I sought monastic wisdom as a means of cultivating spiritual discipline. The form and structure I was missing from my spiritual life. Though becoming an oblate of Saint Brigid’s has helped me cultivate daily prayer, connection to the liturgical year, and divine reading (lectio divina), I found more in the monastic life than I ever bargained for.
Always in front of me, and always behind me, and always beside me, there is a welcoming coterie of people who have been gathered together in the monastery. They teach me holiness by their example, by their lives, in our gathering together and our prayer. As Saint Benedict would say, we are “running on the path of God’s commandments” together.
In monasteries the community is the backbone of all the practices and disciplines that are within it. It is the building of community that really teaches us and reveals to us the mysteries of God. As our Lord Jesus taught, we are to love God and love one another. Somehow it is in the interchange of these two, God and Community, that we are changed and transformed.
Now that I have been seeking Christ through the way of Saint Benedict for a few years now, I cannot imagine my life without the people one the journey with me. I want to be there with them as best I can, knowing that they likewise are hastening toward our heavenly home with me.
It was my first week of seminary in 2001. I went to the library and found an article posted on the seminary message board about an article in the United Methodist Reporter. An article about a Minnesota woman, Mary Stamps a United Methodist protestant, who had taken vows as a Benedictine Monk. In a grand new experiment and an act of holy cooperation, the United Methodist Church and the Benedictine Confederation were coming together. No one knew where it would go, how it would work out, what the future would look like, but it sounded so compelling to me, that I immediately wrote down the email from the article and sent my first message to Saint Brigid of Kildare Monastery.
In the beginning, I sought monastic wisdom as a means of cultivating spiritual discipline. The form and structure I was missing from my spiritual life. Though becoming an oblate of Saint Brigid’s has helped me cultivate daily prayer, connection to the liturgical year, and divine reading (lectio divina), I found more in the monastic life than I ever bargained for.
Always in front of me, and always behind me, and always beside me, there is a welcoming coterie of people who have been gathered together in the monastery. They teach me holiness by their example, by their lives, in our gathering together and our prayer. As Saint Benedict would say, we are “running on the path of God’s commandments” together.
In monasteries the community is the backbone of all the practices and disciplines that are within it. It is the building of community that really teaches us and reveals to us the mysteries of God. As our Lord Jesus taught, we are to love God and love one another. Somehow it is in the interchange of these two, God and Community, that we are changed and transformed.
Now that I have been seeking Christ through the way of Saint Benedict for a few years now, I cannot imagine my life without the people one the journey with me. I want to be there with them as best I can, knowing that they likewise are hastening toward our heavenly home with me.
A Few of Our Community Members' Websites and Ministries