Another Batch in the Oven

by Elena Coe

Welcome to a new year of the long-term Monastic Immersion Experience! The nine-month program for 2013-2014 has three participants, and we are finally all here together at the Monastery of St. Gertrude, beginning our work, prayer, and classes. In other words, the ingredients have all come together into ooey-gooey delicious dough, and now we're popping into the oven. Who knows how it will all turn out, right? (I'm guessing pretty good.)

This blog is meant to be a place for the three of us to divulge our thoughts and experiences while in the program, and I hope that you may find some of it interesting. I feel like giving a little disclaimer about my personal faith journey might be prudent, since much of this blog will consist of musings and questions that will make a lot more sense in the context of my life. So, if you’re interested, please, read on!

Growing up in a non-religious household, I was never one to actively seek out church. My mom would sometimes take us to various protestant churches, but those events were so rare that I suspect I could tell you about each one. I never particularly disliked church—I especially enjoyed the goodies that were provided in the lobby out front after the service—but I never looked forward to it either. So when I found myself surrounded by religious friends in high school, I began to wonder what I might have been missing out on. There seemed to be such a comfort in the community of church, the ritual of prayer, and the love that often emanated from religious people. Intellectually, I still didn’t agree with religion, but I began to be fascinated by it.

When I was deciding on a university, my first impulse was to rule out religiously-affiliated schools entirely, convinced that I would be judged and left out by a community so focused on something I wasn’t a part of. But somehow, through a combination of serendipity and practicality, I ended up deciding to attend Seattle University, a Jesuit school in Seattle’s hippest neighborhood, Capitol Hill. Admittedly, as far as Catholic schools go, Seattle U is not strict about its religious aspects. In fact, the faith of my school became one of my favorite things to talk about because it was so incredibly open-minded and open-ended in its practice. I began to see faith and spirituality differently through the variety of expressions I witnessed every day on my campus. Singing choral music, in particular, brought me closer to religion than I had ever been before. Additionally, working on retreats through my campus ministry gave me an increasingly vivid idea of the potential of my own spirituality. But still, I didn’t consider becoming Catholic—or any religion. And, I still rarely attended any church services.

So when it came time for me to decide what to do after college, with a double major in English and Digital Design and very little certainty about how I wanted to “set the world on fire” (thanks, Jesuits), I found myself called to a period of exploration.

Exploration can, of course, mean a lot of different things, and there are certainly a multitude of areas I want to explore while I’m young, able-bodied, and relatively free-spirited. But after finding the Monastic Immersion Experience and considering it for a year, I felt like my spiritual journey might be the perfect first step in this exploratory time. If faith could be my rock, as it is for so many, I would rather start to find my footing before venturing out into the rest of my exploration. I also knew I could use some healing and refocusing after the crazy whirlwind that is the urban college student experience.

Now, I’m almost a month into my stay at the Monastery of St. Gertrude, and I am already learning and experiencing beautiful things. Given how much I do not know, I am not surprised. So, go easy on me. I am sure to mix up terms once or twice, and I most certainly will come to conclusions that millions of people have already reached. But, my hope is that I may be able to express my unique journey in a way that inspires or touches even those who have long since walked the road I’ve just started.