LaserMonks Offer Prayer, Printer Cartridges

Minnesotan writes "According to a Twincities.com article: If you need discounted inkjet- or laser-printer cartridges, Wisconsin's LaserMonks say they'll give you a doozy of a deal while you 'support prayer for the world'. The Cistercian priests - yes, they're actual Catholic monks - oversee a novel e-commerce enterprise out of their rural abbey. Proceeds go to maintain the monastery and finance charitable works around the world."

It gets weirder

[Pflipp]

I heard some of these monasteries actually make money off brewing beer!

(Next, they'll be back at handwriting Bibles again for the lack of printing ink...)

Re:time honored tradition

[terraformer]

Yeah, I went to catholic HS and I wil tell you, there is no better fund raiser than a catholic organization. As you said, they have a long tradition of "charitable" works and they just update them for the times they are in.

Re:But ALL religion is faith based.

[Aeolusz]

Boy, could we ever have some fun with this one! Can you prove that Caesar existed? Can you prove that Napoleon tried to conquer much of Europe? Did these things happen: Absolutely! Why? Because there is a great deal of evidence. But how do you prove these things? Impossible! You must weigh the evidence. Saying that Christianity is a fairy tale because of a lack of proof is pretty lame -- not really worthy of slashdot if you ask me.

New twist on an old idea.

[mikeophile]

Monks used inks to copy and illuminate manuscripts throughout the middle ages.

Now they are selling us the ink to copy and illuminate whatever manuscripts we want.

Since I'm pretty sure those ancient monks never had permission to copy any of the works they did, does that make them the original data pirates?

1 0WnZ0r y3 0ld 4$5

Re:With These Guys

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Refilling your Lexmark cartridge isn't just a DMCA violation -- it's a sin!

Joke apart, those monks could do it : can you imagine Lexmark dragging them to court over this? Sure they'd be guilty, but Lexmark's sales would take a big dip, so they'd never do it. How's that for a DMCA circumvention scheme?

Re:time honored tradition

[Anonymous Coward]

This is an updated verson of a very old (middle ages) tradition of monastaries doing some specialized task (and doing it well) ....

And a particularly appropriate task. After all, one of their primary functions was copying books.

Re:time honored tradition

[Eiki]

This is particularly true of the Cistercian order, to which the lasermonks belong. In the middle ages, they were a sort of poor newcomer compared to the Benedictines or Dominicans, and therefore were given only marginal, hilly lands for their monasteries. Thereby short on income, they developed their monasteries into high-tech medieval factories, doing things like textile production or metalwork with waterpowered machines (water power being one asset they did have in the mountains). Cistercian cloth was among the finest in Europe, and overall the order was one of the leading technological or commercial organizations of the time.

They make their own way to do their own thing!

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of you have complained taht TV ebvangelists have begged for money. here are a bunch of Godly men who are working so they can help someone else! I say its great. They are making their own way and trying to offer everyone a good deal on stuff people actually need.

Help these guys out and I bet they even bless the toner. you will notice they dont hit you up for an offering to pray for you. They pray for you because they love God and they care.