Following the television success of the English reality show “The Monastery”, and to respond to growing demand, two Catholic monasteries one Benedictine and the other Franciscan have decided to offer a series of residential packages this summer to propose “an experience of genuine spirituality”. The first offer comes from the Benedictine abbey of Worth in West Sussex itself. This is the abbey in which “The Monastery” is actually set. In this programme broadcast on the BBC2 channel since 10 May, five volunteers accompanied by the 22 monks of the abbey are shown coming to grips with the Benedictine Rule of “Ora et labora” (“pray and work”) (see SIR n.36/2005). The abbey is now giving television viewers the chance to undergo a similar experience by proposing three weekend retreats. “On returning home says the abbot, Father Christopher Jamison it is to be hoped that our guests will be able to give to their life a pattern based on the monastic tradition of work, prayer and rest”. You don’t necessarily have to be monks or nuns to derive benefit from it”. A community of Franciscan friars in Wales is making a similar proposal. They are offering to their guests moments of meditation “to explore what direction and purpose to give to their own life” with a programme of meditations, talks and trekking in nature. The offers are called “Catholic Experience Weekend” and “Exploring Christian Faith”. “Our hope says Friar Loarne is that people will return home with a clearer sense of life and with a new joie de vivre”.
