Monks are those who choose to follow with singular devotion and obedience the call of Christ, those who live the life of the Church in a direct and immediate manner. They are thus the models in which the Church sees her perfect icon: a communion of souls wholly living the life in Christ. They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is, personal intimacy with Christ as his beloved spouse. You don't have to be a monk to live like one.

The San Damiano crucifix is the Byzantine icon through which Jesus spoke to St. Francis of Assisi, saying, “Rebuild my Church, as you see, it is falling to ruins.” It is the primary symbol for MONKROCK as well as for all Christians who are called to be the "living stones" of God's house for the renewal of the Body of Christ.

"Monasticism is an angelic order and state achieved in an earthly and soiled body. A monk is one who holds only to the commands of God in every time and place and matter. A monk is one who constantly constrains his nature and unceasingly watches over his senses. A monk is he who keeps his body in chastity, his mouth pure and his mind illumined. A monk is a mourning soul that both asleep and awake is unceasingly occupied with the remembrance of death. Withdrawal from the world is voluntary hatred of vaunted material things and denial of nature for the attainment of what is above nature." - St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step I - Renunciation

"Monasticism is an angelic order and state achieved in an earthly and soiled body. A monk is one who holds only to the commands of God in every time and place and matter. A monk is one who constantly constrains his nature and unceasingly watches over his senses. A monk is he who keeps his body in chastity, his mouth pure and his mind illumined. A monk is a mourning soul that both asleep and awake is unceasingly occupied with the remembrance of death. Withdrawal from the world is voluntary hatred of vaunted material things and denial of nature for the attainment of what is above nature." - St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step I - Renunciation

"Monasticism is an angelic order and state achieved in an earthly and soiled body. A monk is one who holds only to the commands of God in every time and place and matter. A monk is one who constantly constrains his nature and unceasingly watches over his senses. A monk is he who keeps his body in chastity, his mouth pure and his mind illumined. A monk is a mourning soul that both asleep and awake is unceasingly occupied with the remembrance of death. Withdrawal from the world is voluntary hatred of vaunted material things and denial of nature for the attainment of what is above nature." - St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step I - Renunciation

"Monasticism is an angelic order and state achieved in an earthly and soiled body. A monk is one who holds only to the commands of God in every time and place and matter. A monk is one who constantly constrains his nature and unceasingly watches over his senses. A monk is he who keeps his body in chastity, his mouth pure and his mind illumined. A monk is a mourning soul that both asleep and awake is unceasingly occupied with the remembrance of death. Withdrawal from the world is voluntary hatred of vaunted material things and denial of nature for the attainment of what is above nature." - St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step I - Renunciation

“Between two thieves Thy Cross did prove to be a balance of righteousness: wherefore one of them was dragged down to Hades by the weight of his blasphemy whereas the other was lightened of his transgressions unto the comprehension of theology. O Christ God, glory to Thee.”

One of the famous 16th century Stavronikita Festal set of icons painted by the monk Theophanes the Cretan, this icon depicts the Crucifixion of the God-Man Jesus Christ on the Cross, previously the symbol of man’s greatest shame and degradation, reserved for the execution of the worst criminals under the Roman Law. Prefigured by Moses’ Staff at the Red Sea, and the lifting up of the bronze serpent in the Wilderness, the Cross is the new Tree of Life for all Christians and has great power against all forms of evil. The Virgin Mary, with the Myrrh-Bearing Women, St. John the Beloved, and the Centurion Longinus look on. 

"By offering fresh fruits (teachings) from thy book, O wise one, thou dost delight the hearts of those who in a state of inner wakefulness heed them; for it is a Ladder that leadeth from earth to heavenly and abiding glory the souls of those who with faith honor thee." - Kontakion, Feast of Saint John Climacos (March 30th)

“O Glorious Prince of the heavenly host, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle and in the terrible warfare that we are waging against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits. Come to the aid of man, whom Almighty God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of Satan."

“By the grace of God I am a Christian, by my deeds a great sinner, and by my calling a homeless wanderer of humblest origin, roaming from place to place. My possessions consist of a knapsack with dry crusts of bread on my back and in my bosom the Holy Bible. This is all." - The Way of a Pilgrim

The term Pantocrator is Greek and means the “Ruler of All” for Christ is set to rule over all of Heaven and Earth, for as it says in the Acts of the Apostles, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is my footstool.” (Acts 7:49)

Of the “Eleusa” or “Merciful” type of icon of the Mother of God, here the Compassionate Virgin holds the Divine Infant up to her face and He lightly holds on to her veil, both looking within. The sweetness of expression of Mother and Child reminds us that God is most personal and real.

The iconic image of Christ Pantocrator ("Christ, Ruler of All") was one of the first images of Christ developed in the early Church and remains a central icon of Eastern Christians. The oldest known surviving example of the icon of Christ Pantocrator was painted in encaustic on panel in the sixth or seventh century, and survived the period of destruction of images during the Iconoclastic disputes that racked the Eastern church, 726 to 787 and 814 to 842, by being preserved in the remote desert of the Sinai, in Saint Catherine's Monastery.

This 1579 A.D. icon is of the “Panagia” (the Greek term for “All-Pure”) Virgin Mary for she was truly all pure and ever Virgin, for the catholic Church has taught in every generation of its history (from the Day of Pentecost) that Mary the Mother of God was pure from sin by her choice over her entire life. Icons of the Passion refer to the revelation to Christ of His coming Passion (rejection, beating, Crucifixion, and Death) at the end of His life, and here He looks up to see two angels showing Him the instruments of His Crucifixion. He holds the Virgin’s hand tightly, and his sandal falls off as His very real humanity recoils.

The Icon of the Savior, image "Not-Made-By-Hands" is one of the earliest icons witnessed to by the Church. Acheiropoieta, literally "not-handmade", or Icons Not Made by Hand (and variants), are a particular kind of icon, ones that are alleged to have come into existence miraculously, not by a human painter. Invariably these are images of Jesus or the Virgin. The most notable examples are, in the Eastern church the Image of Edessa or Mandylion, and in the West, the Veil of Veronica, the Shroud of Turin and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help - also called Theotokos of the Passion - who is "The Refuge & The Hope of Sinners". "Behold at thy feet, O Mother of Perpetual Help, a wretched sinner who has recourse to thee and confides in thee. O Mother of mercy, have pity on me. I hear thee called by all the refuge and the hope of sinners: be then, my refuge and my hope." The Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is commonly prayed every Tuesday. The feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is June 27.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart (also known as Most Sacred Heart of Jesus) is one of the most widely practiced and well-known devotions, taking Jesus' physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity. The devotion especially emphasizes the unmitigated love, compassion, and long-suffering of the heart of Christ towards humanity. 

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all persons, as well as to her physical heart. The two elements are essential to the devotion, just as soul and body are necessary to the constitution of man.

The Lord is shown here as the Good Shepherd, and He carries on His shoulders the Lost Sheep symbolizing all of us who have strayed from the perfect path of righteousness in thought, word, and deed. "Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?" (Luke 15:4)

In the 1930's, Sr. Maria Faustina received a message of mercy from Jesus that she was told to spread throughout the world a message of God's mercy to each person individually and for humanity as a whole. Jesus asked that a picture be painted of him with the inscription: "Jesus, I Trust in You." She was asked to be a model of mercy to others, to live her entire life, in imitation of Christ's, as a sacrifice. She commissioned this painting in 1935, showing a red and a white light shining from Christ's Sacred Heart.

O God, Whose Only-Begotten Son, by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life: grant, we beseech Thee, that by meditating upon these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

"If we endure things patiently and with gladness thinking on the sufferings of our blessed Lord, and bearing all for the love of Him: herein is perfect joy." - St. Francis of Assisi

"Before the canonization of the saint, Pope Gregory IX of happy memory, of whom St. Francis had foretold would be pope, was inclined to doubt the wound in Francis' side. Then one night, as the pope himself used to relate with tears, Saint Francis appeared to him in a dream. His face was hard and he reproached him for his doubts. Then he raised his right arm and showed him the wound and told him to get a glass and catch the blood that was streaming from his side. The pope got the glass and it seemed to fill up with blood to the brim. After that night, the pope was so devoted to the stigmata and such a strong believer that he could never allow any one to call these wonderful signs into doubt by attacking them in their pride, and he corrected such people severely." - St. Bonaventure, Major Life II.2.

"The Rule and life of the Friars Minor is this, namely, to observe the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ." - The Rule of St. Francis of Assisi

"My brothers, the Lord called me into the way of simplicity and humility, and this way He has pointed out to me for myself and for those who will believe and follow me.... The Lord told me he would have me poor and foolish in this world, . . . God will confound you by your own wisdom and learning, and, for all your fault-finding, bring you repentance whether you will or not." - St. Francis of Assisi

"We adore you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all your churches in the whole world, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world." - St. Francis of Assisi

The San Damiano crucifix is the Byzantine icon through which Jesus spoke to St. Francis of Assisi, saying, “Rebuild my Church, as you see, it is falling to ruins.” It is the primary symbol for MONKROCK New Monastic Community - Oblates of the Last Martyrdom - as well as for all Christians who are called to be the "living stones" of God's house for the renewal of the Body of Christ.

The Jerusalem cross is a heraldic cross consisting of a large cross potent surrounded by four smaller Greek crosses, one in each quadrant. The four smaller crosses are said to symbolize either the four Gospels or the four directions in which the Word of Christ spread from Jerusalem. Alternately, all five crosses can symbolize the five wounds of Christ during the Passion.

“Founding a monastery is a continuous process of sawing to build your design and trying to dispose of the sawdust, while you're always being forced to reconstruct. You have to give it your all and it's never done.” - St. Benedict of Nursia

"Girded with a faith, and the performance of good works, let us follow in Christ's path by the guidance of the Gospel; then we shall deserve to see him 'who has called us into his kingdom.' ... No one should follow what he considers to be good for himself, but rather what seems good for another. Let them put Christ before all else; and may he lead us all to everlasting life." - from the Rule of Saint Benedict

Rule for Monasteries : The Cross of our holy father Benedict. May we be strengthened by his presence in the hour of our death! (From holy Monte Cassino, 1880)

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” - St. Thomas Aquinas

"A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil." - St. Dominic Guzman

“Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends. Speak to Him often of your business, your plans, your troubles, your fears - of everything that concerns you. Converse with Him confidently and frankly; for God is not wont to speak to a soul that does not speak to Him.” - St. Alphonsus Liguori

"Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the lover of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself. The latter in the Lord." - St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God

"In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a victim of holocaust to Your Merciful Love, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!" - St. Therese of Lisieux

"I shall do everything for Heaven, my true home. There I shall find my Mother in all the splendor of her glory. I shall delight with her in the joy of Jesus himself in perfect safety." - St. Bernadette 

"I am the broom which the Virgin has used. What do we do with a broom when we finish using it? We put it away, behind the door. That is my place, I am happy there. I will stay here." - St. Bernadette

"The Immaculate alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan. She seeks souls that will consecrate themselves entirely to her, that will become in her hands forceful instruments for the defeat of Satan and the spread of God's kingdom." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

"No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hetacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?" - St. Maximilian Kolbe

"The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain." - St. Padre Pio

“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.” - St. Basil the Great

"I bind unto myself today The strong name of the Trinity, By invocation of the same, The Three in One and One in Three." - St. Patrick’s Breastplate aka The Deer’s Cry (Faeth Fiada)

The flag of the Vatican City consists of two vertical bands, one of gold (hoist side) and one of white with the crossed keys of Saint Peter and the Papal Tiara centered in the white band. It is one of only two square country flags in the world, the other being the flag of Switzerland. The Vatican City coat of arms can be found in the white half. The yellow and white of the flag also refer to the keys – in heraldry yellow represents gold, while white represents silver.

"They tell us this is the Church: Like a great river, the gentle flowing of hope. And that this is the Eucharist: Like mate, no one is excluded and there is always enough." - Argentina Comparte el Mismo, Pan (Hymn) 

“The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has the courage to touch it and say: 'You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be converted.'” - Oscar A. Romero, The Violence of Love

"Christ is the measure of every age. In His divine, human, and priestly today, the conflict between Traditionalism and Progressivism, once so hotly debated, finds it ultimate resolution. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” [Heb. 13:8] - Bl. Pope John Paul II the Great, Gift & Mystery

"Solidarity is undoubtedly a Christian virtue. In what has been said so far it has been possible to identify many points of contact between solidarity and charity, ... In the light of faith, solidarity seeks to go beyond itself, to take on the specifically Christian dimension of total gratuity, forgiveness and reconciliation." - Bl. Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis

"The Message of Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to me… which I took with me to the See of Peter and which it in a sense forms the image of this Pontificate." - Bl. Pope John Paul II

“It is not therefore a matter of inventing a 'new program'. The program already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition, it is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has its center in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem.” - Bl. Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte

“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.” - Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Life Guard is our best selling pro-life tee. Now available in our popular 1" buttons. Life Guard was originally designed for a Lock-In For Life and a March for Life pilgrimage in Washington DC. This is a great button to wear while you and your group pray at abortion mills, political events, and in everyday life. Pray and work to end abortion. Promote the Culture of Life - Be Pro-Life.

This Justice For All design, which was created for the 2008 Lock-In For Life, is now available in our popular 1" buttons. Wearing this button - humbly and courageously - will serve as reminder to the Culture of Death that the most fundamental duty of men and women is the protect the life of others, especially the most defenseless - the unborn. Pray and work to end abortion. Promote the Culture of Life - Be Pro-Life.

“We must repeat with the utmost energy in these times of social and intellectual anarchy when everyone takes it upon himself to teach as a teacher and lawmaker: the City cannot be built otherwise than as God has built it; society cannot be setup unless the Church lays the foundation and supervises the work…it is the Catholic City. It has only to be set up and restored continually against the unremitting attacks of insane dreamers, rebels, and miscreants. Omnia Instaurare in Christo! (To restore all things in Christ!)" - Pope St. Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique

Humbly we pray Thee, O God, be pleased to make this same offering wholly blessed , to consecrate it and approve it, making it reasonable and acceptable, so that it may become for us the Body and Blood of Thy dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Who, the day before He suffered, took bread into His Holy and venerable hands, and having lifted up His eyes to heaven, to Thee, God, His Almighty Father, giving thanks to Thee, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying: Take and eat ye all of this: For This Is My Body.

“Mortification is good, but only when it is done out of love of God. A 'saint' who spends his or her life sizzling on hot coals or reclining on railroad spikes would never be canonized by the Church. Asceticism for asceticism’s sake is actually a form of egotism, for self-discipline is only a means, the end of which is greater love of God. Any form of asceticism that disrupted charity would be wrong-this was the mistake of the monk who decided to live only on crusts and upset the whole monastery, turning it into one vast crust hunt to satisfy his idiosyncrasies.” - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul

"The first effect of not believing in God is that you lose your common sense." - G.K. Chesterton

"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." - G.K. Chesterton

“In Catholicism, the pint, the pipe and the Cross can all fit together.” - G.K. Chesterton

"Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.” - Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood

“Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.” - Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order, of union with God, the principle of all perfection.” - Thomas Merton, The Seven Story Mountain

“Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves. They never get around to being the particular poet or the particular monk they are intended to be by God. They never become the man or the artist who is called for by all the circumstances of their individual lives. They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other poet, some other saint...They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody else's experiences or write somebody else's poems.” - Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

“Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily.” - Dorothy Day

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next… It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost Of Discipleship

“Christianity is not just involved with 'salvation', but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever, and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that. Man has a value because he is made in the image of God.” - Francis A. Schaeffer, Art & the Bible

"Those who have truly decided to serve the Lord God should practice the remembrance of God and uninterrupted prayer to Jesus Christ, mentally saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." - Seraphim of Sarov

"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved." - Seraphim of Sarov

“The monastic life, indeed, even in our times of feeble faith, is still above all the love of Christ, the Christian life par excellence, experienced with many patient sufferings and much pain.” - Fr. Seraphim Rose

“Everything in this life passes away - only God remains, only He is worth struggling towards. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching.” - Fr. Seraphim Rose

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. You don't have to be a monk to live like one.

Inspired by the religious ideals of monks (poverty, chastity, obedience) and the necessary norms for monastic contemplation and apostolic action (a distinctive garb of dress, a sacred space, and a rule of life) we have formed a secular “habit” of sorts for modern traditionalists, new monastics, hip non-hipsters or those who simply want to live more like a monk  – a new kind of habit for a new kind of monk. - MONKROCK 101

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, emerging new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. "It's a religious experience."

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, emerging new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. You don't have to be a monk to live like one. Established 4 October 2002 (Feast of St Francis of Assisi)

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. You don't have to be a monk to live like one. "Pick up your weapon!" - Blessed Virgin Mary to St Padre Pio

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. You don't have to be a monk to live like one. The San Damiano is the Byzantine crucifix icon that spoke to Saint Francis of Assisi saying, "Rebuild My Church, as you see it is falling to ruins." It is a symbol for all Christians who dedicate themselves to the work of renewing and restoring the Church.

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. You don't have to be a monk to live like one.

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. You don't have to be a monk to live like one.

MONKROCK is a company, a culture, a community for modern traditionalists, new monastics, hip non-hipsters, or those who simply want to live more like a monk. You don't have to be a monk to live like one.