The Monastery

Tom Kramer:
You can be a monk here, but try living like a monk in LA.

Tom Kramer:
Its like that expression, send in the marines? But you just don't send them into a monastery.

Brother Joseph-Gabriel:
What';s the alternative?

Jonathan Willoughby:
Right. No faith isn't much of an alternative. I guess it comes down to are you going to believe in something you can't see feel, hear or touch.

Brother Joseph-Gabriel:
Its not scientific proof like e=mc2 you know, but who's going to give their life for e=mc2? Or that we know the world is round and that if I throw that stone in the air its going to fall because of gravity. You're going to give your life to that kind of scientific principle? So what! The really important things, the things that REALLY speak to the human heart, are on this completely different level, completely different dimension. That, yes, in the end demands a leap of faith. And say I don't know if this is... That's why I say you sort of have to be crazy to be a person of faith. You certainly have to ba crazy to live THIS life, because this life makes no sense without faith. You know, we're all a bunch of FOOLS. But on a completely different level we're at the very heart of what it is to be a human person.

Abbot Philip Lawrence:
My goal is not to convert them or to get them to return to the church, but simply to help them grow.

Alex Nicoll:
This is like two different worlds colliding. And you're just going to see what happens.

Alex Nicoll:
My kind of God don't think you need to be in here, eight hours a day, chantin'

Tom Kramer:
I don't think you've genuflected once. Missing a leg isn't much of an excuse.

Alex Nicoll:
It is for me. I use it all the time.

Tom Kramer:
I didn't want to live.

Alex Nicoll:
At 23?

Tom Kramer:
At 23. How old are you now?

Alex Nicoll:
23

Brother Rodrigo:
Expresso! This is my drug. My only drug. Some cream. OK. Time to... mmmm!

Jonathan Willoughby:
So how do I find the truthiness of religion?

Brother Rodrigo:
Oh, that's a good one!

Jonathan Willoughby:
I need truth so strong that it defies the physical physics, that it defies logic.

Brother Rodrigo:
I need more.

Jonathan Willoughby:
You need more to talk about religion?

Brother Rodrigo:
Can we talk about another thing? Can we talk about other stuff.

Alex Nicoll:
His whole life is religion. He doesn't want to talk about it!

Jonathan Willoughby:
Too much for ya? Too much religion? You know what? What if She wasn't a virgin? I just find it hard to believe She was married and She never had sex.

Brother Rodrigo:
Well. Its very delicate, you know, all this. To talk about that, you know. Making fun of the things I do, the praying or something, is really bad. Its very bad. You have to be really respectful. that's why we kneel and so on. If you start to say bad things about the Virgin Mary thats blasphemy. She's the Mother. She's the one. And we love Her. And I love Her. And She loves me. And that's it. And, well, She's our Mother.

Brother Joseph-Gabriel:
He's preening and he's fluffing up his feathers, and you know there is a part of me that wants to get on that level with him, and really duke it out. And I'm really resisting doing that because that's exactly what he wants and I refuse to give it to him! - talking about Alex

Tom Kramer:
If it escalated any further I thought Alex was going to go out swinging and take that monk down, and I'd have to jump over the chairs and break 'em apart.