Monks’ Outreach Is Part Of New Evangelization

 
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Even before retired Pope Benedict XVI set up a pontifical council for new evangelization and convoked a world Synod of Bishops on the theme, a new group of Benedictine monks was using Latin and liturgy to reach out to those whose faith was weak or nonexistent.
 
Now they’ve added beer to the blend, and people are flocking to the monastery in Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, about 70 miles northeast of Rome in the Umbrian countryside.
 
But for the 18 members of St. Benedict’s monastery, life is still about prayer.
 
“If the prayer doesn’t come first, the beer is going to suffer,” said Father Benedict Nivakoff, director of the Birra Nursia brewery and subprior of the monastery.
 
The monks in Norcia initially were known for their liturgical ministry, particularly sharing their chanted prayers in Latin online– http://osbnorcia.org/blog — with people around the world.
 
See more at themessageonline.org.