St. Andrew's Abbey

I'm John Gillum, and today I'm speaking with Father Luke Dysinger.

Father Luke is a Benedictine monk of St. Andrew's Abbey in Valle Yermo, California.

He trained as a physician, practiced family medicine, and at the age of twenty-seven walked away from it all and entered a monastery because, as he puts it, he fell in love.

In this conversation, Father Luke and I think out loud about why a trained doctor abandoned medicine for a life of prayer, how the monasteries saved Western civilization, not by planning to, but by praying, what England lost when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, why secular institutions trying to save civilization without prayer will always feel hollow, and the foundational question that monastic prayer forces every human being to confront: Do you believe you are loved by God? This episode is supported by Aquinas Tuition, bespoke academic tutoring for children who deserve to be stretched and not managed.

It's also I will choose to continue living with these people.

Um, and I think there's an interpersonal aspect to it that is, um, uh, fascinating.

I remember I, I had the privilege of having a spiritual director, Father Joseph Worrall, who was a monk of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight.

Um, brilliant and lovely man, and I remember visiting his abbey a couple of times and, um, speaking to him and, and asking him at one point, uh, having experienced the way of life of that community, "Joseph, do you ever have a talking meal here at Quarr? Do you ever have a meal that isn't just with table reading?" And he looked at me kind of in horror, and I said, "Well, yes, perhaps Saint Benedict or Christmas or Easter." And he said, "Oh, no.