Thought anchor forged

This thought object from the monastery forge of the Königsmünster Abbey is quite simple: an iron block and a small "anchor", also made of iron and equipped with a magnet. What can you do with it? Quite practically, hold on to important notes. Attach important affirmations and meditate on them, placing them under the block after they have been internalized. Consider the object as such, think through ...

According to an old Latin verse, the Cistercians preferred valleys, the Benedictines mountains, the Franciscans small towns, and the Jesuits large towns for their monasteries: “Bernhardus valles, montes Benedictus amabat, / oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes”. The Benedictines of the Königsmünster Abbey have certainly kept to this, for their monastery towers high above Meschede, town in the mountainous Sauerland region. From a bird’s eye view, you’ll easily spot that the monastery’s buildings build up a small town on their own: in the foreground the grammar school and some of the monastery buildings, flanked by the House of Silence and the “Oasis”, further back the workshops with a smithy and carpentry plus the agricultural buildings – all this embedded in a park-like garden.