The Works of the Monastery...
The work of God in the monastery is centred on the Divine Office or the Liturgy of the Hours, those set times throughout the day when our community comes together for prayer recited or sung in choir in the Abbey Church.
A Monk's Work...
We must also earn our keep...
This is done primarily through our educational and parochial apostolate, running schools and parishes. At the moment, we are involved in the running of Ampleforth College and St Benet's Hall - a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford. We also work in a number of parishes and in 1997 our community established the Monastery of Christ the Word in Macheke, Zimbabwe, where four or our monks are currently resident.
In his Rule Saint Benedict wrote that any guest "should be received just as we would receive Christ himself." Hospitality, therefore, is an important work of our community, with a number of our monks devoting their time to offering retreats and courses throughout the year. There is also a Visitor Centre, Abbey Shop and Tea Room open to all visitors and guests. Find out more about these works here.
We also fulfil a range of roles within the monastery: Abbot, Prior, Novice Master, Guest Master, Infirmarian, Sacristan, etc. Some of us also practice crafts (such as candle-making and book-binding) and do gardening or other outdoor work.
Idleness is the enemy of the soul, so the brethren ought to be employed in manual labour at certain times.
- The Rule Of St Benedict 48