#submonk

Simplicity - contentment, emptiness, fullness, the blank slate, beauty, God - designer of the human soul, rightful owner of its largest portion, and lover of all mankind in all ages.

Humility - sinful, saved, redeemed, smallness, human, created thing, God - giving grace to the traitor and the rebel, adopting them permanently into his family.

Order - goodness, rightness, margins, decuttered, freedom, melody, justice, mercy, times, seasons, morning, night, God - in all, moving, changing, and ever always the same. (Rhythm is absorbed into Order)

The act of fasting today is going quite well, but I have been convicted lately that I am not fulfilling the original intention of Submonk - that is, a father leading his family into a deeper relationship with God via the monastic elements: Rhythm, Simplicity, Humility, and Order. I've mostly focused this season of Advent on my own spiritual state, and even that not so well (especially with regard to my morning office...).

On days when I work and fast, the Fast fits in well with the Rhythm of the day - until I get home. These evenings I have yet to celebrate Advent with the whole family, and simply disregard it. I would like to change that - and my son is getting old enough to start participating in a more directed Evening Office.

My vocation is to be a husband and a father, but I think it’s good to seek wisdom from outside my vocation. I am not a monk, so in that way I am ‘sub-monk’, or less than monk.  I live in a bizarre community known as the suburbs, and so in that way I am a ‘suburban monk’.  Whichever interpretation you take - I am exploring and experimenting with incorporating traditional monasticism into suburban family life.

In my studies I see the monastic vocation offering wisdom to a man like me in four main areas:

Rhythm

Simplicity

Humility