Peter (right) and Father Bohl, who oversees life at the monastery, sit together and talk about the voluntary year and what it means to the monks. Photos: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
Peter Roberg, 18, kneels down in a graveyard overshadowed by the baroque monastery church on the Frauenberg hill in Fulda, central Germany.
He takes a paintbrush and freshens up the inscription on a gravestone in the monastery cemetery with some white paint.
He moved in at the Franciscan monastery in October, and has been living and working alongside eight Franciscan monks at the Frauenberg monastery ever since.
Peter is among seven young people undertaking a voluntary religious year at German monasteries. Anyone aged between 18 and 75 can sign up to spend from three to 12 months praying, working and living in one of 50 monasteries and religious communities taking part.
So far, 51 people have completed a religious year in the project set up in 2019 by the German Conference of Superiors of Religious Orders (DOK), the body representing Roman Catholic religious orders, according to the project's coordinator, Maria Stadler.
"I want to find myself a bit more, expand my religious side and maybe find my path for the future," Peter says. He is combining his religious year with voluntary service at the Antonius civic foundation, which has been running a training and work project on Frauenberg since 2016.
Roberg helps run the conference and guest house in the monastery, in exchange for a monthly allowance of €420 (RM2,036).
"I'm a bit of a gofer for everything in the conference house," he says, summing up his job.Peter sets the tables for conferences, helps serve meals at lunchtime and looks after the guest rooms. He also drives the brothers to the doctor and helps with the monastery's household.
"We want him to experience our life the way it is and get an insider view of the community," says Father Cornelius Bohl, who heads the Fulda monastery.
"Religious life is becoming something that seems almost exotic to many people. Often, people know hardly anything about monasteries or they're surprised they even still exist. I see the project as a chance for monasteries and religious people to open up and for people who are interested to get to know a bit about how we live," says Bohl.
Peter plays some music in his room in a monastery in Germany, where he is spending a year working as a volunteer.
Together with the monks, Peter starts his day at 7am with a morning prayer. They have breakfast together then he starts his service in the conference house at 8am.
After work, he rejoins the monks at 6pm for evening prayers before they have dinner. Often, they talk afterwards about religion and everything else under the sun.
"The brothers are very open about everything," says Roberg, though when they talk about some issues, the generation gap becomes clear.
"We are not an ageing convent now, but we brothers could at least be Peter's father or grandfather," says Father Bohl. He wants Peter to have space and freedom.
"Basically, he's there for everything that makes up our life, but we don't expect him to attend every prayer and every Mass.
"So Peter spends his free time outside the monastery, playing trombone in the local music society or enjoying regular visits by his family and friends.
"They were all surprised about my decision to go to the monastery, because that is unusual for someone my age. But they think it's cool," says Peter, who comes from Kempen, a four-hour drive away.
Peter first heard about the opportunity from his religion teacher.
"I grew up Catholic and am already more or less religious. But at my school I couldn't live it out so well," says Peter, who went to boarding school in the sixth grade.Peter did some research online and liked the pictures of the Fulda monastery best.
"So then I had a trial stay, I spent my winter holidays here in February and prepared for my high school graduation exams."He then opted to spend a religious year at Frauenberg and moved into an attic room, kitted out with a desk, bed and wardrobe.
The large wooden cross and picture of the Virgin Mary next to his bathroom door highlight the fact that this is a monastery.
"My room is twice as big as the one in the boarding school. The only thing is that the WiFi is sometimes annoying here, it doesn't always work," says Peter.
Other things that bother him?
"Sometimes the getting up early."
Peter dresses in regular clothes, unlike the eight Franciscan friars, who wear brown robes and a white cord. He still feels integrated and part of everything, he says.
"I experience a great sense of community. Some of the brothers already address me as Brother Peter."
The monks appreciate him too.
"Our religious community is invigorated when someone comes to us with an outside perspective," says Bohl, his supervisor.
However, he does not want people to feel obliged to spend the time in the monastery.
"The religious year should not be instrumentalised for recruiting young people. We don't want to create the feeling that we have hopes and expectations that Peter will join us one day," says Father Bohl.
However, two months into his stay, it is already something Peter would consider.
"I can imagine living in a monastery," he says.
However, he says he is also considering studying classical archaeology, philosophy or theology first.
"The other option would be to have a family of my own. For me, it's human, the need to be close to other people," says Peter. "That already raises the question of physical contact." – dpa
