I'm nowhere near spiritually progressed enough or educated to tell if all of my statements are true and not heretical. If I do spew out any heresy then forgive me, I trust and believe what the Church says.
In case you didn't get it from all the quotes I have plastered on this website I'm an Orthodox Christian. I was born into this faith, at some point it got challenged but now it's stronger than ever. I'm still a very bad christian however and I daily displease God with my actions. I might write about myself some other time but now let's get into the topic of this post. Monasteries, I believe that everybody should visit one regularly.
Monasticism is the backbone of Orthodoxy, without it the faith would have probably been long dead, monastics keep the flame of Orthodoxy alive. Many holy men came out of the monasteries of Mount Athos and from all around the world. St. Paisios, St. Porphyrios, Elder Ephraim of Arizona, Father Seraphim Rose and many more made a huge impact on the christian world by helping thousands if not millions in both spiritual and worldly matters. Monks go to monasteries in order to serve God with all their might and strength. Obviously nobody is perfect but they strive towards God with minimal worldly worries.
You can start to see that visiting a monastery can be greatly edifying. Getting to converse with monks or better yet the Abbot, men that are experienced in spiritual battle and have acquired great wisdom, can greatly benefit you. If you get the chance to confess that's even better. Some monasteries allow for guests to stay for a few days and you should definitely use that option.
Recently I stayed at a monastery with a few friends for 2 nights and it was amazing. I stayed at the monastery of St. John the Forerunner in Cyprus, a monastery I used to visit quite often about 5 years ago but for some reason stopped for a few years, thank God I'm back on track now. We arrived in the evening, went to the Vespers service and later were given some really nice food. We then settled in our room and I believe that was it for the day. The next day we went to Liturgy and then had breakfast with all the monks. Afterwards we got to help with making sweets, we had some nice conversations with the monks there while helping. When we were not conversing we were saying the Jesus prayer out loud. We confessed to the Abbot and received some personal advice. Later there was some other service and then lunch. After lunch the monks rest for a few hours so for about one hour we took over the bookstore of the monastery until a monk replaced us. During that time one of my friends showed me how to make a prayer rope and until the end of the day I got myself my very own handmade prayer rope bracelet. After about an hour we took a walk in nature near the monastery. In the evening we had some food and at night there was a vigil (it was kind of weird though, it stopped before liturgy). In the morning there was, liturgy (the continuation of the previous night's vigil). We then helped sell a few things the monks had baked and even got to taste them (10/10 would eat those again), had lunch, said our goodbyes, took a few photos, bought a bunch of sweets from their store and that concluded our stay.
For one of my friends this was his first time visiting a monastery and on the night of the first day he was pretty skeptical but he really enjoyed it and has already asked me when we are going again. So I urge everybody even non believers to go visit and even better stay at a monastery for a few days. The monks are really friendly and it will largely benefit your soul. My only pointers would be to dress modestly and be respectful.
