Faith features

Living Faith is an opportunity for people living in Gloucestershire to express how their beliefs impact on their everyday lives.

In Gloucester alone there are more than 60 different nationalities embracing many different forms of worship from Buddhism to Baha'i and Roman Catholicism to Rastafarianism.

A monk's tale

Father Stephen, a monk from Prinknash Abbey in Cranham, explains what its like to have time in solitude and live in peace and quiet:

"My name is Father Stephen and I’ve been a monk of Prinknash Abbey for 30 years. I joined the monastery when I was 25 years old.

The point of becoming a monk is very hard to put into words, because from the outside it looks like a group of people living together and praying together.

But the point of being here is to relate to God and to get to know him.

Talking to God

The purpose of Prinknash Abbey, is quite simply to seek God through prayer, the celebration of the church liturgy and community life.

During Lent I cut down on things like food and recreation, and enter into a very special time of solitude, where I begin to let God speak to me.

I can speak to him at anytime, but I’m not so good at listening to what God may be saying to me.

So Lent is a special time of solitude, when I go to my cell and enter into a deeper awareness of God's presence in my life.

A typical day

An average day for me in the monastery begins at 4.40am, when the buzzer goes off.

Throughout the rest of the day, I do various different prayers. It’s quite a biblically-based way of life.

The time I spend on my own is difficult to quantify, it depends of the duties of the day.

When I announced that I wanted to become a monk, my family thankfully were very supportive to me.

When I entered into the monastic way of life, the most difficult thing is not so much going into my cell and being on my own, but the hardest thing is to come out of my cell and to relate to others."

This article contains user-generated content (i.e. external contribution) expressing a personal opinion, not the views of BBC Gloucestershire.