May 18th, 2011

By Darren Barefoot

Filed under:
The Long View

Brother Paul at the Abbey of Gethsemani

In 2009, I had the chance to visit the Abbey of Gethsemani, a still active Cistercian monastery in Kentucky. I was fortunate to have dinner with Brother Paul, a monk who’d been at the monastery for 52 years. He’s also a poet and a photographer, and so is a pretty fascinating man.

I recently encountered this eight-minute news piece about Brother Paul and the contemplative life. It’s rare, especially in the West, to hear from somebody who’s spent so much of his life seeking solitude and a life close to God:

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Comments: 3 Responses so far

It was truly an honour to meet Brother Paul and to spend an afternoon with him at Thomas Merton’s hermitage at Gethsemani.

A beautiful tribute to a beautiful man!

I so enjoyed that. Thank you for posting it. Now I have a visual image that helps to see the stories you told after your visit.