Monasticism

Monasticism is a specific way of life. Monastics choose to live in a place which has many strict rules. When people decide to have a monastic life, they know that they have to leave back their families and their lives practically.

The first meaning for the word monastic comes from "dwelling alone", as it is said in an article of New Advent Encyclopedia page, related to monasticism. The word comes from the Greek monos.

“Dwelling along” means that people who decide to become religious people have to leave their usual life behind because the monastic life implies rules that they have to abide. Monastic people have to pray almost all day and they cannot see their families nor their partners.

Monastic women are known as nuns or sisters and men are called monks and brothers, but not all of the nuns or monks have to live in a monastic center. In monasticism people have a strict life because they have to get up before three a.m. and go to sleep around ten or eleven p.m. These people pray everyday; besides they work a lot in their monastic houses.

The article mentioned above says that “it would be wrong to say that the earliest Christian asceticism was monastic”. That is because there are no evidence that shows people when the first monastic asceticism started.

People who choose to be the rest of their lives in a place just praying must have vocation because not all of us have been made to be a monk or a nun. Because of this reason, there have been many monks accused of raping others specially children. In the year 2002, there were many monks accused of rape, or homosexuality as it was written on the page Christian Inheritance which has a subject related to sex, aborting, raping and sodomy in Christian Church. In this page there are articles which talk about this topic. There are articles since the year 2001 until the year 2003.