A Monk's Diary

“Thank you Lord Jesus because you are God and you are here and you have made me yours. One person in history speaks and acts in the very person of Almighty God and I know Him and have given to him my life and all I possess. But every gift I ever gave you was your gift to me. Thank you for this moment of time outside of time, and for this joy outside of time that has no beginning or end, and whose fullness is the life breath of the eternal God breathed into my soul!

Dear “Monk's Diary” readers,

The above lines were posted on Thanksgiving Day in 2010 not long after I began the "Monk's Diary".  After about two and a half years of posting entries to “Fr. Raphael's” diary I believe it has served its purpose of providing visitors to our website with a close up view of the life of a Trappist monk. Just about one year ago, (March 24), I described for you a monk waking early in the morning and over the course of subsequent months, accompanied you slowly in great detail through the course of a monk's day. My recent posts describe this “monk's day” coming to an end and it seems an opportune time to “put Fr. Raphael to bed”. It is hoped that another U.S. Trappist monk will take up the diary and introduce you to the description of life in a monastery other than New Melleray Abbey. Thanks for your interest in the diary and please pray that our monasteries receive new vocations so that this beautiful witness to Christ and his church may continue in the United States. God bless you!