PLAIN AND SIMPLE Meets Grand and Glorious By Carla Morris
For decades, GU students and faculty have enjoyed retreats at St. Meinrad’s Archabbey in southern Indiana. Tyler Boyer ’96 remembers the trip well, right down to the extra “baggage” he carried into the abbey—his certainty that Catholics weren’t Christian.
Photo courtesy Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Used with permission.
One of many regular prayer processionals at St. Meinrad’s.
The idea flowed from his “plain and simple” upbringing in the Mennonite church. “I was raised to greet Catholicism with a great deal of skepticism,” he recalls. Against the elegant backdrop of the archabbey’s vaulted ceilings, marble pillars, and polished floors, Boyer encountered exquisite serenity that helped him move from talking to God to listening for God in prayer. “Entering a place that was so grand and ornate that it made you want to be quiet, was stunning,” he says. Hearing the monks pray, praise, and chant left no doubt about their love for God and the scriptures.
If you miss a prayer time, even for several days, begin again.
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“I had trouble praying once a day, and the monks I encountered at Meinrad allowed prayer to interrupt their day at least four times,” he recalls. “It was an amazing experience that I will always cherish.” The monks also extended warm hospitality to Tyler and his classmates. “[They] treated me, their guest, as though I was Jesus.” The discovery turned his world upside down. Today, Boyer pastors the Knox Knolls Free Methodist Church in Springfield, Illinois, and serves as adjunct instructor in GU’s Bastian School of Theology, Philosophy, and
If you find yourself “prayerless” and feel embarrassed by your prayerlessness, begin again.
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Ministry. He recently authored Thou My Best Thought: A Free Methodist Prayer Book (Ignite Press, 2019), a daily guide inspired in part by his experiences at St. Meinrad. Out-of-classroom encounters like the St. Meinrad trip help students develop empathy for others and understand new perspectives. Echoes of the exquisite serenity Boyer experienced at St. Meinrad reverberate today in his gentle encouragement for others who struggle with prayer. With warmth and welcome, he invites them to just begin.
If you tend to pray only for yourself and your needs, begin to pray for one other person.
If you feel like you don’t spend enough time in prayer, begin to pay attention to God’s presence even in the shortest prayers.
