Religious Life sidebar

The monasteries, religious institutes, and societies of apostolic life noted in the "Religious Life" sidebar are all places with which I am familiar, either through personal experience or through extensive research. I think it is fair to say that any young man discerning a religious vocation would not be harmed by investigating any one of them further. The list is not exhaustive, but I think it comes close.

One thing to note is that religious life (i.e. non-diocesan life) in the United States is for the most part in shambles. Abstractly, this is because American pragmatism and individualism militate against the strong contemplative elements that are the foundation of communal religious existence. French idealism works the other way: the French have no problem spending hours in prayer, but are not particularly good at doing stuff. I shall try to expand on this thought later.

The last thing to note is that while most of the groups I have listed are in contemporary nomenclature "traditionalist", not all of them are. Sept-Fons, for example, is without a doubt the best Trappist monastery in the world, where by best I obviously mean the most authentically adapted to the spirit of the Cistercian reform, even though it is not traditionalist in the standard sense. The same goes, in measure, for the two Dominican provinces I have included.