My Monastic Calling

A sixteen year old’s call to monasticism

My paternal grandfather built a lakeside home during his summer vacations and weekends while I was in high school. My brother Dwayne and I spent many summer days camping in tents on that property, a newly opened area previously owned by the Idaho State Forest Service. Priest Lake was a few hours drive from my grandfather’s city home in Spokane, Washington. Every moment of my grandfather’s free time, was focused on that lakeside home. When he’d completed the house our whole family celebrated with a picnic near the dock where he kept his motor boat.

My very first thought of becoming a monk came to me on that property. At sixteen years of age I remember sitting on my grandfather’s dock in a lawn chair reading the classic Lutheran theological work, The Book of Concord. That part of the lake was rather remote, the perfect place for sitting in silence with my thoughts on God. I remember thinking that I would like to spend the rest of my life right there in that house, nestled in the forest on that beautiful lake.

I was aware of a Lutheran monastery, Saint Augustine’s House, located in Michigan. My pastor, when hearing of my interest, dismissed it as something we Lutherans just did not do. It was a foolish Catholic idea, and certainly something that I should put out of my mind. He told me I should find a nice wife, and live my life as a Lutheran minister.

Still, every time I went to my grandfather’s lakeside home I would think about how wonderful my life could be if the house were a monastery and I could live out my life in prayer and spiritual study.

My father was a golf pro, so my brother and I grew up playing golf and living a family life that was centered around the country club. Yet my desire to become a monk and dedicate my life to God grew stronger and stronger and I’m finally living that very life I’ve been drawn to for most of my life.

I still think about the game of golf once in a while and how much I use to enjoy playing with my dad and my brother. We have a country club about three miles from the monastery that we drive by whenever going to town to get our mail. As much as I enjoy seeing people playing golf, I could not imagine a life happier and more fulfilling than the one I am living.

My grandfather and father are both long gone, and the lakeside home is no longer owned by our family, but the joy I felt during those solitary moments with God, on that dock fifty-seven years ago, are still with me today.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Photo: Standing on the dock of my grandfather’s lakefront home, where I first heard God’s calling to the monastic life.

Saturday May 19, 2018 / May 6, 2018
Afterfeast of the Ascension. Tone five.

Righteous Job the Long-suffering.
Venerable Micah, disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh (1385).
Venerable Job, abbot and wonderworker of Pochaev (1651).
Martyrs Barbarus the Soldier, Bacchus, Callimachus, and Dionysius, in Morea (362).
Martyr Barbarus the former robber in Epirus (9th c.).
Translation of the relics (1675) of Venerable Pachomius of Nerekhta (1384).
St. Edbert, bishop of Lindisfarne (698) (Celtic & British).
Venerable Seraphim of Mt. Domvu (Greek).
Translation of the relics (1238) of Venerable Sava I of Serbia (Greek).
Venerable Sinaites of Serbia: Romil of Ravanica, Romanos of Ravanica, Sisoje of Sinai and Sisojevac, Martirije of Rukumije, Grigorije of Gornjak, Zosim of Tuman and Gregory of Sinai.
Sts. Mamas, Pachomius and Hilarion, monks (Greek).
Martyrs Demetrius, Danax, Mesiurs, Therin, and Donatus (Greek).

The Scripture Readings

Acts 20:7-12

Ministering at Troas

7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. 9 And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” 11 Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. 12 And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.

John 14:10-21

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority;but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

The Answered Prayer

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Jesus Promises Another Helper

15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Indwelling of the Father and the Son

19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and [d]manifest Myself to him.”