Monks learn about God through dogs

CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. — After he and his fellow monks sang morning prayers at their woodland church, Brother Luke returned to his residence to be greeted by a different choir.

Lucy and Iso cried with emotion when they saw the Orthodox monk, who runs the monastery’s German shepherd breeding program, coming to take them and 10-week-old Pyrena on their morning walks.

For nearly six decades, the monks of New Skete in upstate New York have financially supported their community and deepened their spiritual lives by raising German Shepherds and running weeks-long on-site training programs for all types of canines.

“One of the things a dog teaches is about God: forgiveness, love and connection, those are attributes of God,” Brother Luke said on a sunny October morning, as Lucy sniffed through the fallen leaves and Iso he kept a watchful eye on his monk. . “In the turbulence of life, we do not always exhibit the love of God as well as the dog does.”

Catholic to Orthodox

The small community, which today comprises 10 monks and about the same number of adult German pastors, was started by Franciscan friars seeking a more contemplative but grounded spiritual structure than what Catholic orders provided, said Brother Marc. One of the founders, now 82, directs the New Skete choir along with brother Luke.

They were inspired by the “explosion of wonders” of the Second Vatican Council to return to ancient but simpler and more accessible practices, such as those of the first ascetics in the Egyptian desert, from whom the name skete derives, and who also welcomed pilgrims and performed other community services. The monks officially joined the Orthodox Church in the United States more than four decades ago; Icons of saints from Eastern and Western Christianity adorn the gilded walls of the larger of the monastery’s two churches.

In the late 1970s, what had begun as a gift from a German shepherd, Kyr, to protect and keep the small group of siblings company on a forested mountainside where New York and Vermont meet, was revolutionizing its monastic life.

“It became part of the emotional life of the community. All these celibate men living together, where is the heart of it all? Brother Marc remembered Kyr and how his presence brought joy and eased any tension.

When Kyr died, the monks decided to get more dogs and breed them to help support the monastery, which like most convents around the world needs to pay for its own upkeep. Then they had to take it upon themselves to train them, so that the growing pack could peacefully share the dormitory, the refectory, and even the church with the brothers.

Training begins

The visitors were impressed by the good behavior of the German shepherds and asked the brothers to also train their dogs. One of the first clients turned out to be a publisher who encouraged the monks to write about his training philosophy, which was much kinder than the norm at the time.

More than a half-dozen wildly popular books and a television series later, the monks today train about 120 dogs a year at the monastery, said Brother Christopher, prior and director of the training program.

“Training the dogs became a means for me to see more broadly the mystery of God’s presence in creation,” said Brother Christopher, who joined the monastery in 1981. “Dogs are absolutely innocent, they do not lie. . “They reflected myself back to me in a way that was very helpful for my own self-knowledge.”

Building a sustainable relationship between dog and owner, based on connection but also structure, is key to training. Far beyond obedience to basic commands like sit or follow, pets (and their humans) need to learn the balance between letting dogs be dogs while also providing them with the affection and emotional support their owners seek.

The vast majority of the 100 million dogs in the United States do not need a professional trainer. But many do so if their owners want their company in public places or if they have problems with behaviors ranging from chewing furniture to lashing out at neighbors, said Marc Goldberg, a trainer in Chicago and former president of the International Association of Canine Professionals.

The monastery, certified by the association, is the only religious institution among its thousands of members, he added. And while owners of all faiths or none are welcome, the monks infuse their spiritual principles into their relationship with dogs, in line with a tradition of including animals in spirituality that ranges from Native American practices to medieval legend of St Francis taming a wolf depicted in the New Skete refectory.

“The monks work very hard, but there is a peace in life that is palpable,” said Goldberg, co-author of several training books with the brothers.

Dog training is expensive: The monks charge about average for boarding and training, $3,500 for two and a half weeks, which has become a more reliable source of income than the breeding program. The latter is kept small to pay attention to all the dogs and avoid turning them into a puppy mill, Brother Christopher said.

Lessons learned

Whether in the breeding or training program, the dogs bring the community closer to God’s creation, encourage attention to each present moment, and naturally model Christian virtues, the brothers say.

“A relationship with a dog can sensitize us to a deeper connection with all of creation. That is humbling,” Brother Christopher said. “We are just part of this wonderful world that is ultimately interconnected.”

For Brother Luke, who had never been around dogs before joining the monastery in 1995, the first raucous welcome from the German shepherds bounding past the dormitory came as a shock. Today, he is amazed to witness “the reality of life” up close, whether watching competition in mating season or the birth of one of his dogs.

“They are forgiving, they are perfectly natural, they are what God created them to be. “Those are lessons we could learn,” he said. “Over time, dogs teach us a lot about ourselves. “They think we are better than we are.”

And among all the hard work that goes into maintaining a monastery—welcoming visitors, supporting community services like a food pantry in the nearby town of Cambridge, studying the scriptures, and praying intensely—dogs offer simple, loving affection.

Most monks keep their dogs in their rooms, so they come back furiously wagging their tails and melting their eyes, indicating that it is the happiest time of the dog’s day.