Issue Vocations Awareness Week Monks and friars are not the same Community living involves public ministry By Fr. This question is asked of me several times a week as vocation director of the Assumption BVM Province of Franciscans headquartered in Pulaski.
People have all sorts of ideas and assumptions regarding religious life.
When young people see me at youth gatherings in my long, brown habit with its hood and sandals, they see me as a monk outside monastery walls. I'm quick to point out that we are friars, not monks. A monk lives in a monastery, and takes a vow of stability, meaning he is committed to living at that particular monastery for life. As friars, we minister in various ways , usually living in small communities in a friary. With the reforms of Vatican II, religious orders were challenged to return to the vision of their founders.