Ancient Christian Wisdom
for Everyday Life
Wisdom for those with the wild ambition of getting as close to Jesus as they can on earth and living the kind of life that God desires every single day
Welcome to the Daily Monastic. I’m Barnabas the Monastic.
I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I attempt to do that by learning to become a modern monastic. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in my modern everyday life. I write about it here. Feel free to write to me about your own journey. I currently reside in the “Great White North.”
Contemplation versus Consumption
I spend a lot of time engaging in contemplation. It's not unusual to see me at a coffee shop for a couple of hours with my journal in hand. Or to find me in the middle of my thoughts while sitting in my favorite chair at home. I consider these…
God Speaking through Contemplation
I believe that God desires to speak to each of us. This may sound a little bit crazy if you don't believe in God. But it's not such a crazy idea to anyone who actually has a friendship with Him. A natural consequence of having a friendship with God is that…
Aiming to Please the Lord
I want to please my Lord and Savior Jesus every single day. It's not because I think this will grant me salvation. I believe that eternal life has been gifted to me by the grace of God and through my faith in Christ alone (see Eph. 2:8-9). Jesus has already saved me through His death on the cross. I need not add anything to the precious work that He has done. But as a person who…
Stillness Takes Time
Coming before the Lord in stillness is hard. Even after several months of training myself to spend lots of time with Christ in prayer and meditation every day, I still find it challenging every single time to…
The Spiritual Practice of Reflection
Reflection is a spiritual practice I regularly engage in where I think through various things and situations in life. As I think on these things, I believe God provides me with ongoing understanding in these various matters. It's one of the key ways for me to…
The Secret Weapon: Contemplation
One of the key tools in the modern monastic's tool bag is contemplation. Contemplation is the spiritual practice of deeply observing and thinking about various things and events in our lives. We might contemplate about a challenging situation that just happened. Or about our attitude towards a certain person. Or about how…
Turning Information into Insights
Pastors and Christian leaders are purveyors of spiritual insights. We want to help people live a life that is most pleasing to God. We want to help them serve effectively in God's Kingdom work. One of the things we do to…