Spirit and Origin of Christian Monasticism

The Catholic ideal is the ascetic life. The true monk is the perfect Christian. “This”, says Thomas Kempis, “is the highest wisdom, by contempt of the world, to make for the regions of heaven.” Possession of property, marriage, and fatherhood blind a man’s eyes to life’s greatest possibility, the beatific vision of the King in His beauty. The monk’s complete renunciation of all, which the world ho...