So when I heard about a day-trip to several Benedictine monasteries, I signed up!
The first, an abbey near Montreal, isn't very far. It's called l'Abbaye Sainte-Marie des Deux Montagnes or the Abbey of Saint Mary of Two Mountains.
Encircled by a developing community on the St. Lawrence River, it is still a peaceful place, offering a sense of tranquility. They do offer accommodations to guests who desire a quiet retreat. We noticed several staying there. (There was a time - in my busy working days - that a weekend retreat in a quiet place like this would have been a welcome change!)
The abbey is cloistered, so the nuns don't leave to work elsewhere. In fact, most of them don't talk to visitors.
We had to TRY to talk quietly - and in some parts of the building - observe silence. (So counter-culture!)
We heard the sisters sing their noon liturgy - psalms and prayers in Latin. I did study Latin in high school and again in university. But I didn't understand anything!
It's hard for me to imagine spending a lifetime cloistered in a quiet building like that!
In the abbey gift shop I bought chocolates made in a Trappist monastery in Northern Ontario. (I had no idea that there was a Trappist monastery in Northern Ontario! My trip was full of surprises!)
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