Summer Monastic Visitors

After a period of three years of building construction at Glencairn Abbey, it is wonderful to enjoy the peace and quiet of our monastic environment and share this peace once again with others.  With our newly opened community residential block we have been able to offer hospitality to monastic visitors from the Benedictine family from different parts of the world, making short stays with us as well as day visits to the community.  This is always a joyful and encouraging meeting for those following the Rule of St. Benedict in similar traditions.  We were also graced with the company of two Buddhist monks from Thailand who made their way to Glencairn for a visit this summer from their temporary home in Cork where they have come to learn English.   St Benedict urged his monks to greet everyone as Christ; even in the 6th century, as St. Benedict’s Rule reveals, monasteries were ‘never without guests’.