A Retreat at La Trappe [pp. 862-883]

A RE TREA T A T LA I TRAPPE.
engaged in their labors the monks are grouped in parties of five
or six, and one of their number is placed in temporary authority.
He indeed may speak to the others whenever the nature of the
work imperatively requires his doing so, but they cannot under
any circumstances speak to him, even to ask him for directions.
_ _ /
THE RULE IS OF ALL RULES
THE MOST SEVERE.,
The officers of the monastery are permitted to speak to stran gers in the course of their ordinary dealings with the outer
world, and the guest-master is not only allowed to speak to the
guests of the monastery, but is even obliged by the rule to
make himself as entertaining to them as possible. But there
are five places in the monastery-the dormitory, the refectory,
the chapel, the cloister, and the chapter-where even the few
exceptions I have enumerated do not prevail, and where the silence may not be broken even by those in authority, unless,
of course, in a case of urgent necessity.
The time of the Trappist is divided between prayer, manual
labor, study, and sleep. An hour, or even a moment, devoted
to recreation is a thing entirely unknown to his calendar. I
might add eating to the list, but he devotes so little time to that
very necessary occupation as to make it hardly worth mentioning.
His meals vary in number and time with the various seasons
of the year. In summer, when his out-of-door work is of course
the hardest, rising at two in the morning (as he does all the
year round), he takes his first meal, which you may call as you
please either breakfast or dinner, at half-past eleven; partaking
at four of a light collation, consisting as a rule of a little dry
872
[Mar.,