As a monk, he took a vow of poverty. But he learned that didn’t mean money wasn’t important.
![Spiritual Wealth](https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/4085/358772/5d27f2ee76f88/Spiritual-Wealth.jpg)
Right after graduating from college with a math and philosophy degree, I decided to enter a Benedictine monastery. I was searching for meaning in my life. I thought that if I was ever going to find it, a monastery would be the place. I’d replace the material things in my life with the spiritual.
In the Benedictines, I discovered a remarkable community filled with loving kindness. Each day was rich with meaning and prayer. I was the junior monk by almost 30 years, so I was the lowest person in the pecking order, just a happy grunt trying not to screw up.
I assumed the senior monks knew about bookkeeping and managing a budget. Within a few years, it was clear that something was wrong with the community’s finances, desperately wrong. We all worked full-time—I taught math at a private school—and we took in guests, but somehow there wasn’t enough money to pay the bills. Calls were coming in from creditors. These monks were actually getting dunned. So I volunteered to take charge of the monastery’s finances.
What I discovered was that we were under an avalanche of debt. Not just a couple of missing payments. We were deep in the red. Our religious order had a commitment to self-sufficiency. How had we gotten into this mess?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2019 من Guideposts.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2019 من Guideposts.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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EVERYDAY GREATNESS: Jessica Manfre
Uniting military and civilian communities through acts of kindness
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The Cake Mixer Mishap
I should’ve listened to Mom
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Star Turn
I worried about my introverted daughter. Then Olivia flipped the script
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Unearthed
I pulled the overgrown remnants of my herb garden, putting it to bed for the season, and went over a mental list of all the things to do before winter began—change out the screens for storm windows, finish the yard work, bring down the draft blockers from the attic.
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Confidence Builder
My five boys didn't need me to homeschool them anymore. Now I wanted to be good at something else. But could I?
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Ordinary People
The story behind Norman Rockwell's celebrated painting
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A Woman of Courage
After I was widowed, fear took over my life. How could I trust anyone if I couldn't trust God?
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Keep on Truckin'
How to bring a couple back together: share a long-haul drive in an 18-wheeler
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My Answer to Pain
Inflammation was wreaking havoc with my health. Was God trying to show me a better way to live?
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Letters From Phil
My older brother and I went our separate ways: he to the Air Force, me to a marriage that didn't last. He lived a rough-and-tumble life, but that's not what really worried me