The New Monastery

These customs are helps to our way of life in the New Monastery. As a complement and companion to the Guidelines for the New Monastery, they can serve and express our Spirit of life and values.

1. Love for Mary

Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is Patroness of the New Monastery. She serves as a model for us in many areas of our lives. For example, Mary always did -- and still does -- the Will of God: "I am the Lord's servant . . . May it be to me as you have said" (Luke 1:38). Mary is the model of faith: "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her would be accomplished" (Luke 1:45). She is also the model of prayer and love, especially for contemplatives: ". . . Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). Christian monastic tradition has long found Mary to be a source of inspiration and fruitful contemplation.

Mary has proven herself to be a very great help in the lives of the members of the New Monastery; therefore, love for Mary is encouraged. Authentic love for Mary and devotion to her always lead to greater love for -- and a deeper relationship with -- her Son, Jesus Christ. She always says to us, "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2:5). Indeed, Mary leads us to a deeper relationship with each Divine Person of the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2. Simplicity of Life

Simplicity should characterize the lives and possessions of members of the New Monastery. Riches, wealth, the desire for earthly possessions, and the love of money can be a great hindrance to the Christian life, especially the kind of fervent Christian life desired in the New Monastery. Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matthew 6:24). Therefore, a life of extravagance and outward show of riches and possessions is to be avoided in the New Monastery. Instead, we are to give faithful witness to Christian simplicity in the way we live and in our use of the possessions given to us by God.

Simplicity can be expressed in the New Monastery by our clothes, our possessions, our homes, and our chapels or churches. Our liturgies and liturgical appointments should also be characterized by a "noble simplicity." This does not preclude the use of beauty in the Christian arts and environment that leads us to adore the beauty of our God Who made all things.

Striving for simplicity of life, we will sometimes be tempted to worry about our future and our resources. In such times, let us recall and hold dear these words of our Savior, Jesus Christ:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:25-34)

Customs of the New Monastery

1. Love for Mary

2. Simplicity of Life