The Maronite Monks of Adoration, Most Holy Trinity Monastery

Most Holy Trinity Monastery, Petersham, Massachusetts

. . . live the traditional contemplative life following in the footsteps of our monastic father St. Maron, of St. Sharbel (a Maronite hermit canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1977), and St. Nimatullah al-Hardini (a teacher of St. Sharbel, canonized May 16, 2004 by Pope John Paul II )

Like other cloistered orders, our principal work in the Church is a life of prayer and sacrifice consecrated to God, in union with Jesus Christ—a life of silence, "solitude in community", liturgical prayer and work. But the special orientation of our form of monasticism is Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, so characteristic of St. Sharbel and St. Nimatullah al-Hardini’s spirituality.

"In the East, monasticism was not seen merely as a separate condition, proper to a precise category of Christians, but rather as a reference point for all the baptized, according to the gifts offered to each by the Lord; it was presented as a symbolic synthesis of Christianity." (Pope John Paul II: "The Light of the East", no. 9)

In any truly contemplative vocation there is the Marian dimension. We strive to imitate the Blessed Virgin of the Scriptures who lived a life of silent adoration of her Divine Son, all the while pondering the meaning of His life "in her heart." (Lk. 2:19)

Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks to us through the Church which He established. Therefore: We submit to our Holy Father, the Pope, and to the Magisterium and the Canon Law of the Church. At the very heart of our monastic life is full fidelity to the Roman Pontiff. Therefore, life at this Eastern Catholic Monastery is to be seen first and foremost as Roman Catholic, though not of the Latin rite; a life in which one strives for the perfection of Gospel living as a Roman Catholic Christian. Further, we give homage, respect and obedience to His Beatitude, the Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, and to the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Maronite Catholic Church and their instructions and directions.

As monks of the Maronite Catholic Church, we chant daily-in-English the Divine Office and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Maronite rite.

Dwelling at One

". . .always seek what is good for each other and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thes. 5:16f)

The first purpose for which we come together in a monastery is to live in unity in the house of the Lord so that we may love the Lord above all things, then our neighbor as ourselves.

"The monastery is the prophetic place where creation becomes praise of God and the precept of concretely lived charity becomes the ideal of human coexistence; it is where the human being seeks God without limitation or impediment. . . ." (Pope John Paul II: "The Light of the East", no.9)

The charism of our vocation is the enclosed, contemplative, monastic life. Living in solitude, seclusion, and with the help of brother monks, we strive to reach the perfection of the contemplative life, as exemplified by our holy father St. Maron, and our holy monastic patrons.

Solitude, silence, prayer and fraternal life provide a living testimony to the effective and transforming love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Most Holy Trinity Monastery, with its spacious grounds situated in the center of Massachusetts, in a quiet area of a quiet town, stands as a conspicuous witness to the power of a life hidden in Christ.

"Precisely in gradual detachment from those worldly things which stand on the way of communion with his Lord, the monk finds the world a place where the beauty of the Creator and the love of the Redeemer are reflected. In his prayers the monk utters [a petition that the Holy Spirit come and overshadow] the world and is certain that he will be heard, for this is a sharing in Christ’s own prayer. Thus he feels rising within himself a deep love for humanity, that love which Eastern prayer so often celebrates as an attribute of God, the friend of men who did not hesitate to offer his Son so that the world might be saved." (Pope John Paul II: "The Light of the East", no. 14)

Our Gospel Form of Life

". . .these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His name."
(Jn. 20:30)

We come to know Christ through the prayerful reading of the Sacred Scriptures and by the testimony of His Church. In our own daily life, we discern His presence and respond to Him through a serious application of Gospel precepts. We devote ourselves to living that Gospel as our First Rule.

Adoration, cloister, eremitical orientation: these essential marks of our charism, penetrated by the fervor of authentic gospel living, become avenues through which the light of Christ is radiated out to the entire Church.

The monk wishes first of all to follow Christ, to live the life of the Gospel in a community of brothers, and to live the evangelical vows of obedience, chastity and poverty.

The Church desires that the monastic communities of the Catholic Eastern Churches . . . "let the glorious traditions of the Fathers shine again, in order to share the riches of grace, which were common to the age-old Churches and to give back to the entire Church today, a testimony deeply rooted in the Christian East, a high place at which to contemplate it in all its beauty. [To the degree that community life,] which gives visibility to the ecclesial communion, becomes flourishing and prophetic, in such a measure it is hoped to have a new development of the ascetical life and of the eremitic experience. The monks would then be, as they were once in the past, guides and spiritual masters . . . ." (Pope John Paul II).

Centered on the Eucharistic Christ

"This is my Body. . . . This is my Blood . . . ." (Mt. 26:26;28)

The Blessed Sacrament

Our cloistered, monastic life is focused on Adoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, so characteristic of the spiritual legacy of St. Sharbel and St. Nimatullah al-Hardini.

The Church has repeatedly expressed the need for Eucharistic Adoration: "The Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic worship. Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of love. Let us be generous with our time in going to meet him in adoration and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the world. May our adoration never cease." (Pope John Paul II:" The Mystery and Worship of the Eucharist", no. 3)

"Since the abiding Presence of the Divine Savior in our tabernacles is a constant and welcome summons for each one of us, as it was for our monastic Fathers and for all the saints, there is no better use of time for ourselves and for the Church than that spent in the fervent adoration of Jesus Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist." (Rule, no. 50, d.)

Over and above the time given to the chanting of the Divine Office and the daily sung Mass, each monk spends two full hours of private prayer before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, in three forty minute periods each day. We believe that by this response, many graces are shed upon souls.

Our Life of Interior Silence

"Mary kept all these things and reflected on them in her heart." (Lk. 2:19; 51)

Monastic life is an integral, even essential part of the Church's witness and presence to the People of God. The deep, rich, ongoing contemplative dimension complements the active ministries in the Church and supports them by the spiritual dynamics of Prayer, Adoration, Reparation and Union with God.

"In order to converse with Christ and to follow Him throughout the day, the spirit of silence is indispensable to the contemplative atmosphere of the monastery." (Rule, no. 25)

"[The monk] turns to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, living persons tenderly present, to whom [he] utters a solemn and humble, majestic and simple liturgical doxology. But [he] perceives that one draws close to this presence by being taught an adoring silence, for at the culmination of the knowledge and experience of God is his absolute transcendence. This is reached through the prayerful assimilation of scripture and the liturgy more than by systematic meditation." (Pope John Paul II: "The Light of the East", no. 16)

Our Life of Spiritual Reading

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for. . .training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16)

Maronite Monk
"Due to the ever-present necessity of feeding his mind with the Word of God in order to sustain his prayer, his work and his life in the monastery, each monk is duty-bound to be faithful to spiritual reading." (Rule, no. 58,a.)

Scripture

Fathers of the Church

Monastic Fathers

Theology

"The starting point for the monk is the Word of God, a Word who calls, who invites, who personally summons, as happened the Apostles. When a person is touched by the Word obedience is born, that is, the listening which changes life. Every day the monk is nourished by the bread of the Word. Deprived of it, he is though dead and has nothing left to communicate to his brothers and sisters because the Word is Christ, to whom the monk is called to be conformed." (Pope John Paul II: "The Light of the East", no.10)

Our Life of Work

"My Father is at work until now, so I am at work." (Jn. 5:17)

"Manual labor is to be highly esteemed and engaged in by all the monks in some measure. Our holy monastic Fathers left us an example and a warm recommendation of it. All the monks, ordained or not, are to cooperate, according to their abilities, in the cleaning and all the other necessary tasks of the monastery." (Rule, no. 126)

Icon of St. Maron painted by one
of the monks.

Aramaic altar inscription
Monk carving Aramaic inscription
on front of main altar.

"The work and activities of the monastery should be arranged so that each monk is able to develop those gifts of grace and nature over which God has given him personal stewardship..."(Rule, no.130)

Our Life in Hermitages

"After he had dismissed the crowds,
he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
When evening came, he was there alone. . . ." (Mt. 14:23)

Hermitage at Most Holy Trinity Monastery

"With the permission of the superior, monks may spend shorter time in solitude or make days of recollection, living the hermit’s way of life whether in their cells or in hermitages which may be available for this purpose..." (Rule, no. 42, a.)

"The monk, no longer in the first fervor of his spiritual life but after long probation and perseverance and now able to live in a community of brethren, may, as he advances, go out from time to time to the solitary combat of the hermitage." (Rule, no. 12)

The Spirit of Monastic Life

"One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord, and contemplate His temple" (Ps.27:4)

Monastic life at Most Holy Trinity Monastery is characterized by a traditional approach: it is a life of prayer, fidelity, simplicity—and joy, the fruit of monastic living.

Library at Most Holy Trinity Monastery

Our Place in the Church

The Church has spoken to us through the Second Vatican Council:

"The venerable institution of monastic life must be carefully preserved and must shine forth increasingly in its true spirit in both East and West.

. . . The principal duty of monks is to present to the divine majesty a service at once humble and noble within the walls of the monastery.

. . . While preserving, therefore, the nature of their own institutions, they should renovate their ancient beneficent traditions and should so adapt them to the present-day needs of souls that monasteries will, as it were, carry in themselves the seeds of the growth of the Christian people." (Decree on the Renewal of Religious Life, no. 9).

"There are institutes which are entirely ordered towards contemplation, in such wise that their members give themselves over to God alone in solitude and silence, in constant prayer and willing penance. These will always have an honored place in the mystical Body of Christ, in which 'all the members do not have the same function’ (Rom. 12:4), no matter how pressing may be the needs of the active ministry. For they offer to God an exceptional sacrifice of praise, they lend luster to God’s people with abundant fruits of holiness, they sway them by their example, and they enlarge the Church by their hidden apostolic fruitfulness." (Decree on the Renewal of Religious Life, no.7)

The vocation to a cloistered, monastic life of Eucharistic adoration is an invitation not given to many. It is a call to enter upon the universal apostolate and ministry of prayer and reparation for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The inner meaning of this life is essentially hidden.

The Maronite Monks of Most Holy Trinity Monastery were founded in 1978. Canonically approved by the Holy See and established on September 8, 1989, we are under the auspices of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy (diocese) of St. Maron of Brooklyn.

| Home |