My Monastery Experience- by Tom Anderson

well, the monastery was interesting. One of the first things I noticed was a book entitled "Swedish Yokes" on the coffee table. Some of you may have read it- edited by Paul F. Anderson. Yes, it's true. Also, there was a total of three monks at the monastery and since it is the only Lutheran monastery in the country, that means that there are three Lutheran monks in the U.S. They had a swedish connection and I drank coffee out of a 101% Swedish mug that they had.

They monks weren't so holy either. Two of the three smoked and drank coffee all day (between services). It was a great experience though and I did a lot of reading and praying. Here was our daily schedule:

5:10 (am) Vigils
6 Lauds
8:15 Terce
8:30 Eucharist
12:00 Sext
2:30 None
6 Vespers
8:30 Compline
bed.

The services were basically a liturgy that was chanted or sung. Alot of it was based on the psalms.
All around it was a good week and allowed me to not do school work for a week. So, now it's back to the daily grind.
that's all for now-
Tom.