Virtual reality + We are all monks now

The photo below is from a recent Post-Dispatch story, “Priest fills St. Louis County church with photos of congregation to unite, despite pandemic.” It profiles the Rev. Bob Evans of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Maryland Heights, who has filled his church’s  pews with images of more than 400 photos of members of the congregation.

"I saw an Italian priest who did this and I wanted to do this in my parish," said the Rev. Bob Evans, who celebrates morning mass in front of photos of parishioners on Saturday, April 4, 2020, at Holy Spirit Church in Maryland Heights. Evans asked parishioners to email him family photos so he could see them during live-streamed mass. Photo by Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Today I received a link from a monk with whom I work to an interesting piece titled, “We are All Monks Now.” The school where I work, St. Louis Priory, is under the auspices of a monastery of about 25 monks who follow the Rule of St. Benedict, the same rule as followed by the Cistercians profiled in the story.

The story, from the Jesuit publication America, contains this startling yet quite convincing claim:

“Because of Covid-19, many of us are living, in a way, like monks, enclosed and isolated in our homes. But unlike the monks, we did not ask for or want this situation, nor it is one for which many of us were spiritually prepared.”

The story also mentions in passing that this monastery - the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky - is where famed writer/activist/monk Thomas Merton was based in the 1940-60s. (TW)