Cistercian takes next step on vocation journey

by Br JONATHAN CRAVEN

A few days ago, I made my simple profession as a monk. It’s a step on the vocation journey where we naturally look ahead. But it is good to look back too.

I’ve been at Kopua monastery for three years, and one of the things that has impressed me is the story of the first monks who came out from Ireland in the 1950s. It must have taken a lot of courage and faith to come all that way. They were pioneers.

Their courage met with great generosity from the locals. The first benefactors of Kopua were a married couple. They gave their land and farm, where they had lived and worked their whole lives, to the Church for the building of a monastery.

The ordinary at the time, Archbishop Peter McKeefry, played a significant part as well. He showed considerable fortitude, vision and calmness, which helped make the foundation of the monastery a success. He encouraged the resourcefulness and determination of the first monks, who set about acquiring buildings from a former refugee camp that was no longer in use. Those structures, simple and humble, proved to be ideal for the monastery, and they are still in use today.

The local community and Church still rally around Kopua. Local tradespeople enjoy coming to the monastery when needed, and lay companions, as well as the numerous people who come to share in the spiritual life of the monastery while on retreat, all make up the human fabric of Kopua.

I’m very grateful to God for all that Kopua is. A living story of challenges and hardships overcome through the generosity of many known and unknown people who have believed in the vision of monastic life.

They have made it possible for me to seek God in a Cistercian monastery, living in New Zealand.

www.kopuamonastery.org.nz