Brother Joseph

Brother Joseph of Mepkin Abbey


The human person is on a pilgrimage of the heart. The human heart is a desire seeking fulfillment; an emptiness that longs to be filled full; a journey that moves toward rest. O Lord, you’ve made us for yourself, and our poor heart is without rest, restless till it rest in you! (St Augustine, Confessions I:1). The human person is created in the image of God. The biblical locus for this image, and the source of this unlimited thirst for its Creator-Source, is the human heart. Deep is calling on deep, in the roar of waters (Ps.42:8). The depths of God call out to our depths. The Mystery calls out to the mystery of each person. The Presence first seeks us. Love first loves us. This love is an absolutely free gift. We cannot earn it; we cannot buy it. Love only asks for love in response.
Monks are not unlike other people whose hungering hearts are in search of that Mystery who alone draws them beyond a life that is merely useful, to one that is full of meaning. Neither are monks unlike other Christians who have known the Gospel glance of love which Jesus gave to the man seeking the way to eternal life. Monks are those for whom this desire expresses itself in the language of constant prayer.

The monk is the one who has heard the inner call of Christ. "Seeking his workman in the multitude, the Lord cries out...`Is there anyone here who longs for life and desires to see good days?’" (Rule Prologue,14). The voice of Christ rouses the person from an unexamined malaise to the possibility of a deeper awareness of human destiny