Sounds kind of New Age, Mother Earthy vocabulary, doesn’t it? It would be a serious misinterpretation of monastic life and the tools we work with to say that working with the backhoe is just like praying the Mass. Understanding the link between work and prayer, between the iron tools of the monastery and the sacred vessels of the altar — this requires an understanding of the very Catholic concept of Sacrament and sacramentality.

There are, and there will always and only be, seven Sacraments — Baptism, Penance, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders and Anointing of the Sick. These Sacraments are the “channels” by which Jesus communicates and bestows his redemptive Sanctifying grace to His people. Sacramentality is the perception or awareness or worldview that recognizes God’s presence in ordinary experiences of everyday life.

This awareness of the Divine Presence in the most ordinary actions of our daily routine leads to a beautiful reverence for work and the tools we use to do the work. For a monk, this sacramental — you might say, liturgical — quality of life means viewing the ordinary material world as a sacred opportunity, and care for the iron tools takes on a spiritual value.

It’s very important to notice that when the big bell rings (and you can hear it miles away), those iron tools are put down and parked because it’s time for the Work of God. As you can imagine, however, those “iron tools” of the monastery are expensive to maintain. And while the monks do most of the heavy lifting, it costs thousands of dollars every year to keep the Abbey looking beautiful and safe.