Ksmonks summer 2007

Summer 2007

A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF ST. BENEDICT’S ABBEY

Kansas Monks

SUMMER 2007

VOLUME 2

No. 2

Fr. Gilbert

A hundred years and still afloat

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Table of Contents From Abbot Barnabas 4

Tiny Tither

Abbey’s youngest benefactor is learning early lessons of stewardship.

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Naming Opportunities

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Waters of Life

10

Classmates

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Persistence pays

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A dose of Reality

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Pilgrimage

Donors can leave their mark on Abbey.

Father Gilbert finds joy, confidence in 100th year.

Abbot Owen, longtime friend celebrate golden anniversary together.

Monks launch sesquicentennial year Prior, students drink from cup of service.

Abbot to lead trip to “grandmother abbey”

Friend may be among artists invited to exhibit in new abbey gallery

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t the end of a sabbatical year, in the spring of 1991, I was riding in the dining car of an Amtrak train, returning from a visit to my twin brother in Boston and my sister in Falls Church, Virginia. I was discouraged at the behavior of young people in the dining car, being loud and crazy. I sat beside a woman with whom I shared my frustration. She commented, “It all depends on what you focus on. Just look at other things.”

With that invitation, I offered to show her three albums of photographs I had taken while on sabbatical in

Europe. She complimented me on what I had photographed.

Her name was Zita Sodeika, an artist from Ohio. I hope friends of St. Benedict’s Abbey will in the near future be able to view her work here in Atchison.

On the train that day, Zita asked me if she might have one of the pictures, that of a plaster angel peering out over the top of a pillar in a church in Rome.

“I’ll make you a drawing inspired by this picture,” she promised, “and whatever else I do with it is mine.”

“OK”, I responded.

When the drawing arrived in a mail tube after several

Freshly graduated designer joins Abbey staff

Sophia Harrison, a 2007 graduate of Benedictine College, has joined the St. Benedict’s Abbey Office of Development as a graphic designer and to assist in the Abbey’s communications efforts. Harrison, who has a degree in mass communications and Spanish, first worked with the Abbey earlier this year when she and fellow B.C. student Lawrence Brown redesigned Kansas Monks for academic credit. Following that successful effort, Abbot Barnabas Senecal and Director of Development Dan Madden hired Harrison. Brown returns to B.C. next year for his senior year.

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“We are fortunate to welcome Sophia to our staff,” Madden said. “She is a talented artist with refreshing personality who will help improve the ways in which we communicate with friends and benefactors of St. Benedict’s Abbey.”

Harrison hails from Shawnee, Kan., but is now residing in Atchison.

This chalk work by Zita Sodeika was a gift to Abbot Barnabas Senecal. It is an interpretation of a photograph he took of a plaster of Paris angel in a church in Rome.

Summer 2007 weeks, I knew that I had gained a trusted friend.

She had encouraged me to continue taking pictures and I have shared with her various pictures and writings.

We exchanged letters for several years. She shared stories of her work and of her Lithuanian heritage. Her letters were written on the back of floral wrapping paper, in a beautiful hand. She is an artist, even in letter writing.

Zita is a native Lithuanian.

She and her family were forced to abandon their home in 1944 and seek refuge in Germany as the Red Army advanced. Five years later her family moved to the U.S. and a new life in Chicago.

She treasures her roots in Lithuania. She once mailed me a book entitled The Hill of Crosses. It relates the resistance of the Lithuanian people to the attempts of Communist governments to suppress the Catholic faith.

More crosses appeared on the hill as persecution continued.

These crosses were placed in dense arrangements, testimonies to the endurance of the people.

Zita’s largest work, a multicolored drawing consisting of nineteen eight-foot-high panels, totaling 84 feet in length, is titled “The Wall.”

It was exhibited in 1983. It depicts the deceptions and repression practiced by communist regimes. This mural is now a part of the permanent collection of the Lithuanian Museum of Art in Vilnius, Lithuania. She had threatened to destroy the painting if the Berlin Wall itself did not come down by 1989. It came down in 1989.

Currently, Zita Sodeika lives and works in Apple River, Ill. She uses drawing, painting and collage in her work. Zita describes her art in

Kansas Monks

these words, “I like to place images in different contexts to arrive at different moods. By rearranging points of view and by bringing back to the present the decorative elements of medieval, Byzantine, and Persian art, I create different realities, which are forever closing the ring with the past and the future.” Her biography and professional history are available on-line, including 49 of her works and a listing of her exhibits and awards, at virtualmuseum.us.

She recently opened a show of 67 art pieces in the Sinsinawa Dominican convent in Madison, Wis. Zita will be invited to exhibit her work in an art gallery we recently created in the crypt of the Abbey church, part of our nearly completed Hospitality Project. JE Dunn workmen fashioned this gallery in the Tower Area in what had been home for four altars. One of the four altars is now the altar of sacrifice in the crypt’s Guadalupe Chapel.

Another is at the south end of the garden floor in the monastery. A third will be placed in the Maur Hill Mount

Academy chapel.

We want to display art that we have in our possession.

The watercolors of Father Victor Gellhaus will make a fine exhibit; we can include paintings that we have here with the many that his family and friends have in their Nemaha County homes and elsewhere. The portable art of Dennis McCarthy would make another fine exhibit. The

black and white photographs that Gordon Parks shot of the monks in 1958 when he did a pictorial study of Benedictine life for Life magazine would be attractive to a wide Kansas audience.

It would be an honor to display the works of my friend Zita Sodeika in our gallery.

We welcome your comments: development@kansasmonks.org

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, OSB

Photo by Megan Bickford

Summer 2007

Kansas Monks

Abbot Barnabas poses with Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame University football coach who was the commencement speaker for this year’s graduation ceremony at Benedictine College.

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Kansas Monks

Tiny tither learning early about family’s commitment to stewardship

The following features of Phase I of the Journey Forward capital campaign are available as naming opportunities for benefactors.

The suggested gift is provided with a description of the project.

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Kansas Monks

Journey Forward naming opportunities

By Dan Madden

Abbey Church Elevator $100,000 Part of the Abbey Church narthex expansion, this elevator will provides full and easy access to the church’s main level and crypt.

Photo by Dan Madden

tepping out in her Sunday best, the petite young benefactor enjoyed the April 29 celebration of the sesquicentennial of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

The compliments on her hair and her pretty dress were abundant… and certainly warranted. Although the speeches made her eyes heavy, there was enough accompanying splendor to hold her attention.

Not yet 2 years old, little Nora Colwell did not understand the distinction she held as the youngest benefactor to St. Benedict Abbey’s Journey Forward capital campaign.

But it is the hope of her parents and grandparents that some day she will understand and embrace the act of giving.

Nora’s grandparents, Jim and Dorothy Brophy, Colorado farmers, established a limited partnership, a legal agreement through which they share the profits of their farming operation with their children and 21 grandchildren while also ensuring that the operation cannot be sold as long as at least one family member has the desire to keep farming.

“Young people can’t get into farming these days and I wanted to keep my farm in the family,” Jim says. “This way, the farm will last as long as my grandkids last.”

But the Brophy’s also wrote their values into the

Summer 2007

Little Nora Colwell, the youngest benefactor to St. Benedict’s Abbey’s capital campaign, was on hand April 29 to celebrate with the monks the opening of the Abbey’s 150th year.

agreement, providing that 5 percent of each descendant’s share would be tithed to the Catholic Church. They have further encouraged their family members to tithe another five percent to a charitable cause of their choice.

When little Nora’s five percent from this year’s profits came to almost exactly $150, the choice was obvious, says her mother Joni, Jim and Dorothy’s daughter. With the monks celebrating their 150th anniversary, she said, it seemed “meant to be.”

“My husband and I have both been blessed by this community,” says Colwell, an alumna of Benedictine College. “My husband grew up in Atchison and his father was an alumnus who taught and coached at Benedictine.”

Joni and Tom first met when she was a freshman at the college and then met again years later when she was working

for the college’s alumni relations office and Tom’s parents were receiving the prestigious Cross of the Order of St. Benedict. Soon thereafter Joni and Tom were married.

With such history and urging from her parents, there seems a good chance that soon Nora will be making her own choices to contribute to St. Benedict’s Abbey appeals.

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, for one, is confident that she will certainly be generous to someone, as he wrote in a thank you letter to his abbey’s tiniest tither: Dear Nora, One day you will read this letter and understand that from a very early time in your life you have had many who love you and want you to be a happy child and a happy adult. What you have learned at an early age will be part of you throughout life.

You have generous parents and grandparents, generous sisters and a generous brother. You are growing up in a family that knows the practice and the fruit of giving. They know that God loves them and they show their love in return by loving others.

Always make Mom and Dad proud of you. You will be proud of yourself in doing that.

With gratitude, Abbot Barnabas OSB

Senecal,

We welcome your comments: development@kansasmonks.org

Abbey Church Entrance Ramp $75,000 The stone ramp with iron rails fulfills Benedictine hospitality by providing access to all who wish to enter the Abbey’s house of prayer.

Crypt Art Gallery $150,000 The crypt level of the tower altar area in the Abbey Church has become a secure exhibit area for Abbey artwork and that of visiting artists.

Art Gallery Endowment $250,000 The monks hope to establish a perpetual art gallery endowment to provide for the purchase of religious artwork and funding for visiting exhibits.

Narthex Gathering Space $250,000 The main component of the Hospitality Project, this major addition to the Abbey Church provides a more spacious gathering area and more accessible restrooms in the narthex of the Abbey Church.

Abbey Crypt Gathering Space $150,000 Also part of the Abbey Church addition, this area provides more gathering space and additional accessible restrooms on the Abbey Church’s crypt level, just below the Narthex addition.

Abbey Church Interior Side-Mounted Lift $50,000 This self-operated lift gives complete access to people wishing to enter the sanctuary and the monastic choir sections of the Abbey Church, which were previously accessed only by a series of steps.

Abbey Church Interior Two-Step Ramps $15,000 These ramps allow wheelchair passage from the choir to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and to the sacristy.

Abbey Dedication Crosses (12) $1000 each Twelve wall-mounted crosses/candle holders in nave of the Abbey Church commemorate the dedication of the church during the 150th anniversary year of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

Guest House Lounges (3) $20,000 each These three rooms are used daily by monks to welcome guests and provide spiritual direction to retreatants, visitors, and Benedictine College students.

Guest House Porter Apartment $50,000 This is home to a monk who lives near the entrance

of the guest house in order to provide a ready welcome to guests. It has been expanded, carpeted and painted.

Gift Shop $25,000 A gift shop has been built in the guest house reception area to provide religious items with an emphasis on Benedictine books and gifts.

Guest House Ramp and Accessible Entrance $50,000 A stone ramp with iron rails and a larger, more accessible entryway welcomes guests who seek information or accommodation from the monks. (Benedictine Sisters of Mount Saint Scholastica) Guest House Lobby and Information Center $100,000 An expanded lobby, with a switchboard and reception area, better serves Abbey and Benedictine College guests.

Guest House South Entrance $25,000 A new, more accessible doorway and large window offer a view of the Missouri River valley beyond the Abbey overlook.

Monastery Bell System $5,000 A new electronic system of bells has been installed to call monks to the guest house to meet visitors. The melodic bells are less disruptive to the cloister than a voice intercom system.

Monks don’t ask for help every day Join the Journey Forward

The $10.7 million Journey Forward capital campaign is the first such effort at St. Benedict’s Abbey in 50 years. Its goal is to raise money to pay for construction and renovation of the Abbey Church and Guest House that has made both buildings more accessible to all guests. It also will fund the replacement of the monastery’s 75-year-old roof, and replacement of windows in the monastery and guest house with more energy-efficient windows.

The campaign also provides for an art gallery and art endowment, and endowments for long-term needs of the monks, such as vocation promotion, education of young monks, health care of elderly and ill monks, retirement, and maintenance of the Abbey Church and other facilities.

For more information about the campaign or to contribute, please contact the Abbey Office of Development at (913) 360-7887, or send an e-mail to development@kansasmonks. org. Contributions may also be sent to: Office of Development St. Benedict’s Abbey 1020 N. 2nd Street Atchison, KS 66002

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Summer 2007

Kansas Monks

Father Gilbert swims through memorable century

By Dan Madden

F

ather Gilbert Wolters shakes his head in disgust and thumps his cane on the ground when memory fails him. “Dang it,” he grimaces helplessly. At 100 years old, he can’t always finish the tales of days gone by that fill his head.

But there was a time when Father Gilbert’s memory was legend.

Retired Abbot Owen Purcell was just a wet-behindthe-ears freshman at St. Benedict’s College when he came to know the famed Dean of Students. “There were 500 students on campus then,” Abbot Owen recalls. “And Father Gilbert knew each of them by name. That was his reputation.”

A memory like Father Gilbert’s was developed through frequent exercise.

On April 2, Father Gilbert reached his 100th birthday, the first monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey to ever reach that milestone. In another nugget of abbey trivia he is the only living monk who has known all eight of the community’s abbots.

Along the way, Father Gilbert has remembered the names of a lot of people. He mentions 941 in his autobiography, Reminiscences, published nine years ago.

The book also mentions whole families – the Costellos, the Frankenhoffs and the “Murphys of Calumet,” to a name a few – and recounts visits with countless people of entire parishes and religious communities.

He knows the nice people down at the YMCA, where he still swims laps three times 6

a week. (He swam 10 on his centennial day) In his book Father Gilbert remembered the workers who constructed the Abbey Guest House. A lifelong athlete and sports fan, he gave kudos to the 1954 and 1967 St. Bene-

dict’s College basketball teams that won national championships. He even named the altar server at a crowded Mass on May 26, 1991, at St. John parish in Doniphan, Kan.; the boy’s name was David.

Father Gilbert made friends on his travels in India, met countless people during his nine summers as a marriage

counselor for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

And who knows how many students Father Gilbert knew – by name – in those halcyon days between 1938 and 1977 when he was a teacher, department head, dean, chaplain

and residence hall director for St. Benedict’s/Benedictine College.

Father Gilbert was known on campus for more than his memory. “When I came here in 1949, I hadn’t been here very long when I heard that his nickname was ‘Slick,’” Abbot Owen says. In the style of the day, Father Gilbert’s

handsome, dark hair was smoothed straight back on his head “almost like a helmet,” Abbot Owen remembers.

But it was something more substantial than hairstyle that impressed the young man who was later abbot.

“In those days, Father Gilbert lived in the top floor of the administration building with the seminarians, or the ‘Hilltoppers’ as they were called,” Abbot Owen remembers. Even though, as a faculty member of the college, he was excused from the early morning monastic prayer schedule of matins and lauds, Father Gilbert made the morning trek each day to join the monks in the Abbey for the dawn prayer schedule. He then returned to celebrate Mass at a side altar in the Ad building chapel and hear confessions for the Hilltoppers.

“As a student, that always impressed me,” Abbot Owen says. “And in later years, when I had some experience of what it was to be a working monk, I really came to admire it even more.”

Born Francis Wolters on April 2, 1907, the fourth of eight children of John Wolters and Nellie Vandeloo Wolters, the future Father Gilbert was a “River Rat,” the derisive term locals attached to families living on the Missouri River flats that today are home to the Atchison Casting works. John Wolters managed the family’s business, Wolters Brick Yard.

Perhaps Father Gilbert’s gravitation to the peace and quiet of monastery life was in some part an escape from the clamor of his childhood home, which sat right on the main line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, less than a block from

Summer 2007 the railroad’s “Lower Yard,” where switching crews were on duty around the clock.

“The railroad was our environment,” he wrote in his autobiography.

“Passenger trains, especially coming in from the south, would almost literally shake one’s teeth – they really roared in upon us.”

A presage of the good-natured priest he would become, young Francis took his noisy home life in stride.

He wrote that he and his family got used to the noise and even learned to sleep through it.

Still, he admits it was probably best that in a house crammed with children the Wolters hosted few overnight guests to suffer the “railroad environment.”

“Switching went on day and night,” he recalls, “with the train’s bell being in constant use.”

For schooling, the Wolters children climbed through the railroad yard and up a steep hill to reach the grandly named St. Louis College, which still gives Father Gilbert a chuckle.

“It seemed,” Father Gilbert recalls with a smile, “that any school that boasted more than eight grades and had courses to prepare students for the business world – typewriting, business arithmetic, shorthand – deserved to be a college.”

The school, named after Bishop Louis Mary Fink, a Benedictine, was located at 8th and Kansas Ave., and occupied a full half block. Built in 1890, the building was constructed from soft brick and wood, a “fire trap,” as Father Gilbert recalls. It had high ceilings to improve ventilation. Each grade school room held about 30 students.

The school served until 1926 when St. Benedict’s School

Kansas Monks

Father Gilbert Wolters visits with acclaimed author and sociologist Father S.C. Dube whom he befriended during Dube’s studies in the U.S. and later visited in India. Indian Village, the book that Father Gilbert is holding, is considered one of Dube’s classics.

was erected across from St. Benedict’s Church at 2nd and Division.

Father Gilbert fondly remembers his first day of school – the coarse paper of his “Big Chief” tablet, the snowy morning recess and “laying out a wheel” in the school yard, and meeting for the first time Sister Lucy Dooley, or “Mother Lucy” as she was called after being elected the Prioress of the Benedictine Sisters at Mount Saint Scholastica.

The Missouri River, in muddy proximity to the Wolters’ front door, was a source of fun – and fear – for young Francis. His love for swimming began in the muddy waters, where he paddled with other “River Rats.”

However, not all memories are as pleasant, as he recounted in his autobiography:

“One day when I was four or five there was a crowd gathered upon the bank just north of the brickyard. I was inquisitive naturally and worked my way through lots of legs to see what the point of interest was. What I saw and smelled almost made me sick – it was a cadaver that had been in the river for some weeks... a ‘floater’ as such were called.

Of course, I was fascinated and looked and looked on this poor fellow. I had some bad dreams for some time.”

When he turned 7, young Francis was allowed to swim alone in the river beyond the brick yard fence, and it didn’t take him long to find trouble.

While swimming he was caught in a current called a “boiler” and despite furious paddling made no headway in his attempts to return to shore.

His brother, Norbert, spotted

his younger brother tiring and hailed a bigger boy, named Johnny Lehman, to help.

“Johnny was quickly at my side to help me,” Father Gilbert recalls. “By the time we were coming in nicely a railroad engineer who had been watching us jumped in.”

A short story in the next Atchison Globe claimed that the engineer had saved both boys!

At Sunday Mass, the parish priest, Benedictine Father Gerard Heinz, chided, “I guess you won’t be going into the river anymore, will you?”

“He said I looked at him as if I had been asked if I was ever going to eat candy again,” Father Gilbert recalled.

The River was also a breeding ground for diseases that mystified the best docContinued on next page

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Kansas Monks

Gilbert

Continued from page 7

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downtown theater. The film industry’s transformation to “talkies” would occur soon

thereafter, during his novitiate year.

Father Gilbert arrived at St. Vincent for a one-year novitiate.

Father Gilbert Wolters earned the affectionate nickname “Slick” for his hairstyle when he was a sociology teacher at St. Benedict’s and Benedictine Colleges.

“I no longer recall much about my feelings,” he would write decades later, “but I wasn’t happy in spite of being determined to give it a fair trial, even if I had my good times as well as low times.”

Daunted by his new surroundings, Father Gilbert remembers kneeling before the archabbot in the choir chapel during a short ceremony. At the conclusion, the master of ceremonies, “an old grouch” in Father Gilbert’s memory, growled, “Get up!”

“Then,” Father Gilbert says, “We were officially novices.”

Father Gilbert would never grow accustomed to such brusque treatment. When recently asked what he prized above all about being a monk, he responded, “Waking each morning, knowing that God has chosen me for this life.”

However, when asked what he disliked most about being a monk, he grumbled, “Taking orders.”

For Brother Leven Harton, the Abbey’s youngest monk, at 23, the Abbey’s oldest monk is an example of perseverance and hope as he embarks on a fresh vocation.

“Until he was 99, Father Gilbert was still attending all of the prayer services,” Brother Leven noted. “When I think about missing, I have to ask myself, ‘What’s my excuse?’ His level of integrity is inspiring.”

Brother Leven also sees true joy in Father Gilbert each day.

“He always has a smile on his face,” he says. “He seems pretty secure with the decisions he’s made with his life.

He doesn’t ever seem lonely or unhappy. He’s run the gauntlet and is still a confident and happy man. That gives me great hope in my vocation.”

In choosing monastic life, along with vows of obedience and conversion of life, Father Gilbert took a vow of stability. In other words, home has always been St. Benedict’s Abbey. Thus, home has always been Atchison. He is the only one of his siblings who did not move away from the home town on the river.

His autobiography is a detailed look into the histories of Atchison, St. Benedict’s Abbey and College, and Benedictine College. He recounts the glories of St. Benedict’s College’s greatest teams and his own playing days in the “Twilight League” baseball games.

He remembers joining crowds at the railroad terminal to welcome back Kansas’s “Happy Warrior,” Governor Alf Landon, after he endured a landslide defeat at the hands of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the presidential election of 1936. He tells of his own social activism in Topeka

on behalf of Missouri Valley Authority legislation during Roosevelt’s New Deal. He recounts working diligently with the Catholic Rural Conference and later helping to establish St. Benedict’s College’s Sociology Department, which he chaired for many years.

He remembers grape vineyards where the Benedictine College Administration Building (St. Benedict Hall) now stands, and recounts the changing face of the campus.

He saw the dedication of a new “vehicular bridge” across the Missouri River and the move to a new Abbey up the hill from the old one.

Abbot Owen is 75 now and 55 years a monk, but he remains as inspired by Father Gilbert today as he was as an

Kansas Monks

18-year-old freshman.

“I look at him and I see that one can lead a long life that is beneficial to many people by being a monk,” he says.

Father Gilbert, he notes, is a man who has lived the monastic life the right way. “After you’ve been around here for a few years you find that this life is not for everyone. You have to roll with the punches and adapt to change. That is, by no means, easy.

“Father Gilbert is like cork.

He always stays afloat.”

We welcome your comments: development@kansasmonks.org

Photos by Nick Padley

tors of the region. He recalls that during quarantines he and his siblings studied in the mornings at home under the watchful eye of their mother.

“If I haven’t mentioned it, we were in quarantine several times because of scarlet fever, small pox and the 1918 influenza epidemic. I must have had scarlet fever when I was in the second grade when I was about as sick as I’ve ever been. I was delirious with nightmares in one of which I was being sucked down in a black whirlpool, causing me to scream in terror so that my father had to come into the sick room and hold me.”

In his autobiography, Father Gilbert writes with matter-of-fact starkness about his family’s sicknesses: “My father died when I was eight. Along about this time, too, my oldest sister, Clara, almost died with diphtheria. But evidently the then-new vaccine worked and Dr. Lilly saved her.”

A strong Benedictine presence in Father Gilbert’s Atchison childhood gently guided him down the only path he ever considered for himself.

“Benedictines were all I knew,” Father Gilbert says.

As a boy, Father Gilbert saw Abbot Innocent Wolf, St. Benedict’s first abbot, from the distance of a church pew.

“I always saw him at the Pontifical High Mass,” Father Gilbert recalls.

“He was an old, venerable

man with a big beard.”

In 1921, as a schoolboy, young Francis learned from a group of monks on a street corner that Father Martin Veth had been elected to succeed Abbot Innocent as the abbey’s second abbot. Six years later, at the age of 21, Francis would enter the novitiate and take the name Gilbert. He would be party to the elections of the next six abbots, including his current superior, Abbot Barnabas Senecal.

The novitiate provided Father Gilbert’s first opportunity to take a lengthy trip on one of the trains that had filled his childhood with noise. His destination: St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Penn., the oldest Benedictine abbey in North America. In those days St. Benedict’s Abbey sent young men to its motherhouse for their novitiate formation.

Before embarking from Kansas City, the 21-yearold Francis watched a modern silent movie in a fancy

Summer 2007

Top and Above: Father Gilbert Wolters, 100, who first learned to swim in the Missouri River as a toddler, still swims laps at the Atchison YMCA pool three times a week. He counts each lap, as seen here, by moving a coin from one pile to another.

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Summer 2007

Kansas Monks

Classmates’ roads diverge, but both lead to priesthood

By Marc and Julie Anderson

Special to Kansas Monks

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

“The Road Less Traveled,”

by Robert Frost

O

Photo by Br. Jeremy Heppler

Abbot Owen Purcell visits with Benedictine College alumnus Don Lueger and his wife Diane during a reception following the mass celebrating the abbot’s 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.

been renamed Benedictine, and even John has a new name – “Owen” – Father Frank Krische and Abbot Owen Purcell both recently celebrated their golden anniversaries as priests.

As the two classmates drew close to graduation, you see, they both discerned vocations

to the priesthood. But there their paths diverged. Young Frank went on to Conception Seminary in Conception, Mo., while John became a novice – taking the name “Owen” – at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison.

Father Krische was ordained an archdiocesan priest on April 6, 1957; Father Owen, a Benedictine, on May 30, 1957.

Photos courtesy of The Leaven

A family tradition

Father Frank Krische’s path diverged from his classmate and friend Abbot Owen Purcell, but both men celebrated 50 years of priesthood this year.

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It was no surprise to anyone in the Krische family that young Frank decided to pursue a vocation in the priesthood.

“I guess it’s in my genes, so to speak,” Father Krische said.

Several family members entered religious orders, including: his great-aunt Sister Mary Romana, with the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Mo.; his

great-uncle Father George Moritz, with the Capuchin Franciscans in Germany; and his uncle Father Otto Krische, a Franciscan in the Province of Cincinnati.

“My Uncle Otto used to be a pastor at St. Joseph Parish at 16th and Paseo in Kansas City, Missouri,” said Father Krische. “He also was a pastor at St. Peter Claver Parish in Wichita and developed a ministry to African-Americans. Then, he moved to New Mexico, where he ministered to Native Americans there.

I used to visit him a lot, so I was attracted to the priesthood from an early age.”

When he was in the eighth grade, Msgr. Anthony Blaufuss encouraged him to consider a high school seminary.

So the future priest went to the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, and, after graduation, to St. Benedict’s College. Despite having family members

who followed their vocation into religious orders, Father Krische entered Conception Seminary with the encouragement of Bishop George Donnelly of the then-Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

Like Father Krische, the seeds of Abbot Owen’s vocation were planted in childhood.

“I began to feel an affinity or closeness to St. Benedict’s Abbey,” said Abbot Owen.

“Because I was an altar boy, we often came to the abbey for picnics. Also, some of the monks from there served at my home parish. So, it seemed an attractive lifestyle to me.”

“Also, Father Florian Demmer (OSB), who later served as my novice master, was a friend of Msgr. Joseph Selting – my pastor back home – and often Father Florian would come to my parish,” the abbot continued. “Later, as a priest, I was able to assist him in that same parish at Easter and Christmas.”

When he broached the subject of his vocation with his family, there were no objections.

“My mom died when I was a sophomore in high school, so she did not live to see me become a priest,” said Abbot Owen. “There was no opposition from my dad, though in some ways my absence was difficult for him.”

Abbot Owen fell a year behind Father Krische in his studies when he entered the novitiate — a time when he learned more about monastic life. His time was shortened, however, when he was ordained a priest “simplex,” which meant he did not have faculties to preach or hear confessions. Thus, the friends were ordained to the priesthood only a month apart.

Kansas Monks

A parish life, an abbey life Because their paths diverged, the two men also had very different experiences in their priesthood.

The vocation of the diocesan priest is parochial work.

During his years, Father Krische has served in nine parishes, the longest stint being at Most Pure Heart of Mary Parish in Topeka for an astounding 24 years.

what demanding. He has, however, been blessed with a “great staff,” he said.

The vocation of the monk is to serve in community, so an integral part of Abbot Owen’s priesthood has always been the charism of the monastic life – even when he served as a pastor in parishes beyond the monastery walls.

“The service I have been able to give has been done in the context of teaching at Maur Hill-Mount Academy in Atchison and administrative

Photo by Father Gerard Senecal

nce there was a time when, if you wanted Frank, all you had to do was find John.

And vice versa.

Almost since the day the two became “Hilltoppers” – students of St. Benedict’s College in Atchison, living on the top floor of the Administration Building – Frank and John were always together.

They shared a dorm room and ate together. They took the same classes and exams. They prayed and played sports together.

Now, more than 50 years later, the two are together again – at least in spirit. For although the Administration Building is now called St. Benedict Hall, the college has

Summer 2007

Abbot Owen Purcell greets Celina Shriwise and her children in the vestibule of St. Benedict’s Abbey Church. Abbot Owen traveled to Canada to officiate at the wedding of Celina and her husband Tom.

One of the most significant changes he has observed over the passage of time has been the increasing complexity of the administrative aspect of parish life. For example, as pastor of Most Pure Heart of Mary Parish, Father Krische was responsible for a $3 million budget. With a school, a parish center, and a variety of parish ministries, the administrative aspect can be some-

work in the monastery – like being junior master, novice master, abbot and chair of various committees,” he said.

“Much of the labora [of the Benedictine motto ora et labora – pray and work] could not have been done but for the fact that I was an ordained priest,” said the former abbot.

“In that sense, my monastic life was changed. Had I not been a priest but remained a

brother, much of this article would be different. We are all monks, some ordained and some not. Sometimes I feel I have taken the more, not the less, traveled road.”

The great public landmark of both their priesthoods, agreed the men, was the Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965.

“I was ordained a priest eight years before the Second Vatican Council [ended], and I was really enthused with it,” said Father Krische. “I truly thought it was needed. As much as the survival of the church depends on the clergy, it also depends on the laity becoming holy people.”

Abbot Owen remembers the full significance of the council taking a long time to sink in.

“It took a while for me to realize the impact of Vatican II,” he said. “Accepting the thrust of it has made a huge difference in my life, my approach to the monastic life and to the life of the world I live in. To have experienced a bit of the Great Depression and to have lived through World War II have given me what I consider a good historical perspective.”

It’s a wonderful life Sacrifice is a part of any vocation, but so, too, is joy and reward. Both men have experienced the joy and reward of their priesthoods in ample amounts.

Just one reward and joy known by Father Krische was the opportunity to help St. Ann Parish in Chimaltenago, Guatemala, the sister parish of Most Pure Heart. Another was witnessing the entry of a man into the full Christian faith before he died.

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Kansas Monks Continued from previous page

Just the instrument Even as they cherish the memories they’ve gathered in their years of priesthood, the two men hope that those whom they’ve served will have good memories of them.

“I hope the people that I have attempted to serve both within and without the monastic community of St. Benedict’s Abbey will say of me, ‘He listened, he was very human, and I feel he loved as best as he knew how,’” said Abbot Owen.

Father Krische hopes that others will see — through the countless Masses, baptisms, funerals, weddings and confessions – that his work has been Christ’s work.

“I hope people remem-

ber me as a man for others, because that’s the key to the priesthood – as Christ was a man for others,” said Father Krische. “It’s God’s work.

I’m just the instrument, and I hope people realize that.”

Quoting the poet and priest Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, Father Krische added this coda to his own experience of the priesthood: “My God, what a life! And it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ.”

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in The Leaven, newspaper of the Archdiosese of Kansas City in Kansas.

Other monks celebrating milestone anniversaries

Photo by Abbot Barnabas Senecal

Brother Robert Heiman celebrates a golden jubilee this year, marking 50 years as a professed monk. Brother Robert has been a man of the earth for the entirety of his monastic life. He grew up on a farm near St. Benedict, Kan., later ran the farming operation at the abbey’s foundation in Brazil, and also operated farming operations for the Abbey in Atchison.

Brother Robert is caught by the camera where he is most comfortable, working with plants, this time with an abundant tomato crop.

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Profession anniversaries: 65 Years – Father James Downey 60 Years – Father Jude Burbach 60 Years – Father Regis Hickey 60 Years – Father Kieran McInerney 35 Years – Father Michael Zoellner 35 Years – Father Aaron Peters

5 Years – Brother Lenilson Moraes Rezende (Brazil) Ordination anniversaries: 55 Years – Father Bertrand LaNoue 55 Years – Father Kieran McInerney 45 Years – Abbot Ralph Koehler 45 Years – Father Roderic Giller 40 Years – Father Duane Roy 40 Years – Father Hugh Keefer 30 Years – Father Aaron Peters 25 Years – Father Joaquim Carlos Carvalho (Brazil) Abbot Barnabas Senecal also celebrates the fifth anniversary of his re-election as abbot.

Kansas Monks

Friends crowd around persistent monks for booming celebration

By Dan Madden

T

he monks at the motherhouse in Pennsylvania used to call their confreres on the frontier “Kansas Monks.” Yet it might have been more precise to call them “Persistent Monks.”

For on April 29, when more than 500 people gathered at St. Benedict’s Abbey to celebrate the community’s 150th anniversary, an unofficial theme kept sprouting to the surface like a young sunflower in too much Kansas soil.

The moment during the mass in which celebrant Archbishop Joseph Naumann rolled up his sleeves and slathered the altar with chrism oil was itself rich with persistence.

The story is that 50 years ago, when the Abbey Church was completed, the monks opted not to dedicate the altar until the church was paid for. The bills were of course eventually paid, but the occasion for a grand dedication never arose.

Persistently, the monks waited for just the right time. They waited for five decades and for Archbishop Naumann.

In his homily, Archbishop Naumann spoke of the persistent spirit of Father Henry Lemke, “a restless and adventurous missionary,” who along with two companions founded what would become St. Benedict’s Abbey. One of those companions, Father Casimir Seitz, was the first man ordained to the priesthood in Kansas.

“The beautiful and substantial altar that we consecrate today stands in stark contrast to the temporary altar that Casimir Seitz built from

Photos by Susan McSpadden

“While I was at Wamego, there was a man who always said he wanted to be a Catholic,” said Father Krische. “One day, I got a call [that reported that] he had been involved in an auto accident. When I got to the hospital, a neighbor told me he’d used water from the ditch to baptize the man, and we buried him from the [Catholic] Church. It was a particularly gratifying experience in that the neighbor fulfilled a longtime dream of this man.”

Abbot Owen, too, has experienced many joys and rewards from his vocation.

“Mine has been a grand life,” said the abbot. “I’ve been blessed to be part of a truly human religious commu-

nity, and I have few regrets.

I’ve been thankful that as part of our community’s ministry, I’ve been able to travel to Brazil five times and assist with the work down there.

“Most recently, I spent four weeks in White River, Ariz., and ministered alongside the pastor there to the White Mountain Apache tribe,” he said. “While there, we prayed a lot for snow to prevent forest fires due to the dry conditions that had been prevalent for so long... Most importantly, it was a real change for me to minister to people who barely exist as human beings on the lowest rung of the American social ladder... And yet the Apaches I met managed to show lots of love and joy.”

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Archbishop Joseph Naumann pours chrism oil on the altars in the Rite of Dedication as (left to right) Prior James Albers, Father Meinrad Miller, Abbot Barnabas Senecal and Brother Jeremy Heppler look on.

‘four fence posts and two old boards’ in order to celebrate his first Mass,” the Archbishop noted.

Life seldom has gone smoothly for the “Kansas Monks.” In fact, in his history of the Abbey, Father Pe-

Archbishop Naumannn recalled that when St. Benedict’s monk Louis Fink was appointed second bishop of the archdiocese, a fellow bishop scoffed, “Why waste the oils of ordination,” because with Father Fink’s history of

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, and Sister Ann Shepherd, prioress of the Sisters of Mount Scholastica, share a laugh during the festivities.

ter Beckman wrote, “The first twenty years demonstrate how not to found a monastery.”

illness he probably wouldn’t last long as bishop.

Bishop Fink – persistently

– served a term of 33 years, which remains the archdiocese’s longest tenure.

As the Archbishop recounted, St. Benedict’s monks shared “the common fate of the early Kansan residents,” battling grasshoppers, bankruptcy and diphtheria. Yet they also shared the tenacity in overcoming hardship “by reaching for the stars through hard work.”

When the Depression forced the monks to delay both the Abbey Church and Guest House, the monks halted with gritted teeth, only to return to the projects with zeal.

“Now,” the Archbishop smiled, “50 years later we celebrate the renovation and enhancement of both.”

Following the Mass, Benedictine College held a short ceremony to name its AdminPlease see Sesquicentennial on page 17

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At River’s Bend

Summer 2007

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Celebrating 150 years

Photos by Susan McSpadden, Background photo by Dan Madden

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Sesquicentennial Continued from page 13

St. Benedict’s Abbey Sesquicentennial prayer

by Fr. Meinrad Miller

Confirm by your Holy Spirit their desire to love you and give them good zeal.

Continue to draw many new men there to teach, preach and live the gospel of your son Jesus Christ as it comes to us within his holy Church.

We ask this in Christ our Lord.

We welcome your comments: development@kansasmonks.org Right: Father Meinrad Miller annoints a consecration cross during the dedication of the Abbey Church.

Below: Prior James Albers fires a genuine Civil War cannon during the first of several celebrations this year of St. Benedict’s Abbey’s 150th anniversary. Cannons were fired to replicate the cannon fire that met the election of the Abbey’s first abbot, Innocent Wolf.

Photo by Dan Madden

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River, but one smaller weapon stubbornly refused to fire, despite repeated attempts.

After several minutes the crowd slowly relaxed. Considering the heart-pounding concussions finished, people turned away–unflinching faces, drooping hunched shoulders, pulling fingers from plugged ears–and returned to quiet conversation. But one shouldn’t breathe easily around persistent monks and a dud of a cannon.

BOOOMMM!

Photo by Susan McSpadden

Blessed be your name, O Lord, you make this place holy, and you have called men to find you in the monastic community of Saint Benedict’s Abbey for 150 years.

istration Building St. Benedict Hall in honor of the long service of the monks to the college.

Built in 1910, at a cost of $161,000, the newly named St. Benedict Hall was a “major leap of faith” by the monks, college president Steven Minnis said.

“They had faith that this small and growing college, founded only 53 years before, would thrive and expand for years to come,” President Minnis said. “This faith has been realized.” The college will celebrate its own sesquicentennial next year.

“Over the past 150 years, the monks have been ever diligent in their sacrifice and support of the college,” he continued. “It is only proper that they be formally recognized.”

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, noted the scope of change from the days when Brother Marko Slat “used to walk this area with his scythe and hoe, working the beautiful flower beds that were on the slopes that are now occupied

by Westerman Hall,” to the thousands of yards of dirt that have been moved to create nearby buildings and state-ofthe-art baseball and softball facilities.

Noting that the election of the abbey’s first abbot, Abbot Innocent Wolf, was marked with the Civil War cannonfire, President Minnis turned the crowd’s attention to the crest of the nearby river bluff where a row of vintage cannon were aligned to commemorate the act, with monks at the trigger ropes.

One by one, the cannon burped thunderously out into the space over the Missouri

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Prior, students taste ‘Reality’ on trip to El Salvador Spring Break a drink from chalice of Christian service

Prior James Albers and a young boy watch dancers following the celebration of Mass in the village of La Realidad, El Salvador.

By Prior James Albers

A

s Jesus began his journey toward Jerusalem, he explained to the Apostles what would happen to him there – that he would be condemned, crucified, and die, yet he would rise on the third day. James and John then asked him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” “Can you drink of the chalice that I drink?” Jesus put to them, further telling them, “You will indeed drink from the chalice that I drink… whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.”

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Every Christian is called to be a servant. We each are called to lay down our lives in some form to serve others and ultimately serve God. Christ grants to us as monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey many opportunities to be challenged in our service, to drink from the cup he offers, the cup of sacrifice.

One such opportunity came during Benedictine College’s Spring Break in March, when I accompanied 14 of our students to El Salvador on a mission trip. We traveled to Central America to work with the organization Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) in building houses for impoverished

families and visiting various underprivileged communities.

We first visited the community of “La Realidad” – The Reality – a district on the northern outskirts of the city of Santa Ana, built around an elevated, abandoned railroad bed that serves as the road into the community. On either side, about 15 feet below, a mixture of houses built of cardboard and plastic lines the road; there were a handful of families who had the luxury of having tin-shed houses.

Only a few had electricity and there was no running water or sewage system.

We were there to build two, single-room, tin-shed houses– measuring about 10x15 feet – for two separate families.

The Ortiz family is an elderly couple, Elba and José, whose daughter and grandchildren live with them. The Aquilar family is a family of five: the parents, Julio and Antonia, and their three children, Catherine, Andy and Bladimir. Julio works in the nearby coffee processing plants earning 50 cents per 25 pounds of coffee beans he harvests. Both families lived in houses constructed of plastic and cardboard.

We spent three days with the community of La Realidad, and very quickly formed a bond with the people. The leader of the community, Santiago, was with us helping with the construction of the houses. To be with us those days, he took off from work, meaning no pay for four days.

Santiago’s work has him on the streets of Santa Ana for ten hours a day selling ice cream.

When CFCA first came to La Realidad two years ago, Santiago and his family were

slated to receive the first tinshed home. The night before the construction was to begin, the shack of a neighbor – an elderly woman – caught fire.

Santiago insisted that the home intended for his family would go to the woman.

On our fourth day in the community of La Realidad, we were to have Mass for the community and bless the houses. Our leader with CFCA, Henry Flores, was expecting at most 25 people to be present on this Wednesday afternoon; however, the power of Christian sacrifice and charity is remarkable. The charity our students offered in constructing the houses, in being with and listening to the people, yet also the charity the students received in being ministered to by the people of La Realidad, made an unexpected impact.

Word quickly filtered through the community of the interaction between the people and our students. When we arrived for Mass, there were nearly 150 people welcoming us with applause and music. It was incredible to see the great joy found in the interaction between the people and our students. As dusk approached, however, reality reared its head as our leader showed signs of anxiety about our presence there. Night in La Realidad is treacherous.

The second community visited was Las Piedras. Las Piedras served as a refuge for people in the 1980s during the Salvadoran civil war. It is located high in the mountains; to reach the community we rode up the side of the mountain in

Students of Benedictine College, led by Prior James Albers, ventured to El Salvador to help villagers build homes, but still found time to play with children and laugh with families on what turned out to be a rewarding and educational Spring Break. Photographs on this page were provided by the students and the CFCA Santa Ana Project.

Continued on page 20

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Kansas Monks Continued from page 18

the back of 4x4 trucks. The community of Las Piedras has no running water, sewage system, or electricity.

We made the trek to Las Piedras to celebrate Mass with the people, the first Mass they had celebrated in two years.

A young man from a nearby town comes in on a regularly for catechetical teaching and to help lead liturgies of the Word and communion services. During Mass we baptized young José Manuel and anointed 7-year-old Bladimir, who had a heart defect and would soon have surgery.

This was the first Mass I ever celebrated in Spanish, and it was the first Spanish I tried to speak in 17 years; the people were kind and forgiving toward my mistakes.

At the end of each day our group gathered to reflect on our experiences. The insights that were offered by the students showed that their interaction with the Salvadoran people was life changing, as it was for me. What has remained with me since our return, however, is a comment made by our CFCA leader, Henry Flores: “Your vocation might not be as a full-time missionary here in El Salvador or another part of the world. If not, know that you are called to be a missionary back home. There are people in need in your own communities, people who long to know Christ. God is calling you to minister to them.”

In any vocation, we are called to attend to the needs of others. Through our discernment of vocation we come to understand how God is asking us to minister. We come to recognize our gifts and ask God to use them as his instruments to bring others to Christ, to share his mercy. As monks 20

we daily come to appreciate our call to the monastic life.

In doing so it is important for

St. Benedict we do this daily in our personal and community praying of the Psalms,

ments – in chapel and outside of chapel – that we fulfill together our call as Benedictine monks, as Kansas Monks.

As we answer this call, we hear the words of Christ: “Whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Please pray for the perseverance of all our monks, especially for those young men in formation, those who have applied for entrance to our community, and those who are considering a monastic vocation to St. Benedict’s Abbey. May God answer our work and prayers for vocations with men willing to drink from the chalice of service and mercy that Christ offers to us.

During his Spring Break trip with Benedictine College students, Prior James Albers celebrated Mass before the same altar at which Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980.

The archbishop was gunned down shortly after his homily following his outspoken criticism of human rights violations in El Salvador. His death provoked international outcry for human rights reform in his country.

There is currently a sainthood cause in his name.

us to distinguish the difference between practicing our faith and our vocation and living them. At first thought there appears to be only a subtle difference in words, but in reality there is a crucial difference in meaning.

As Benedictine monks living our vocations we are called to tend first and foremost to God’s Church through prayer, lifting up the Church and her members to God’s care. St. Benedict would say we minister to Christ in our care of his body, the Church. As sons of

and in our celebration of the Eucharist. Our resulting work from this life of prayer, then, is our ministry to those who have been placed directly under our stewardship: our students at Benedictine College, Maur Hill Mount Academy, the grade schools of our parishes, as well as the people of the parishes we serve, the religious communities where we are chaplains, the people we encounter everyday who visit the Abbey or our Priory in Brazil for spiritual guidance.

It is in these places and mo-

Summer 2007

Abbey Notes

“We are formed by those we love and by those who love us.”

News of Members Father Marion Charboneau participated in a Steubenvillle St.Louis/Mid-America 1 Youth Conference in Springfield, Mo., July 13-15.

He drove Atchison Regional Youth to the conference, which was held on the campus of Southwest Missouri State University. The speaking team included host Ennie Hickman, music ministry by Adam Bitter, and entertainment by Righteous B. Speakers were Father José Robles-Sanchez, Father Michael Butler, Mary Bielski, Melanie (Welsch) Pritchard, John Beaulieu, and Brian Kissinger.

Brother Lawrence Bradford and Brother Jeremy Heppler accompanied Abbot Barnabas Senecal to Holy Trinity parish, Lenexa, July 14-15 to represent the Abbey and its Capital Campaign after each of the Masses. Alumni of the area were also recruited to be present in the lobby of the church to explain the projects and offer handouts to parish members.

A hug goodbye from little Maria.

Kansas Monks

Father Gabriel Landis and Father Meinrad Miller visited with invited guests at

the home of John and Terry Gillcrist following Capital Campaign appeals by Abbot Barnabas Senecal at the weekend Masses at Holy Spirit parish, Overland Park, Kan., June 30-July 1.

Father Meinrad Miller participated in the funeral service for Sister Lenora Bolte, O.P., on July 10 in Great Bend, Kan. Sister Lenora, the superior of the Dominicans of Great Bend, died in a car accident near Syracuse, KS, on July 4.

Brother Dominic Cason participated in the Monastic Institute, June 30th – July 5.

The Saint John’s University School of Theology·Seminary sponsors the Monastic Institute to provide continuing education and spiritual enrichment for American monastics and all interested in monastic spirituality and practice. This year’s Institute was devoted to interreligious dialogue. Among the presenters were Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America, Kusala Bhikshu of the Los Angeles Buddhist Meditation Center, and Fr. Pierre-François de Béthune, Secretary General of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue.

Father Louis Kirby welcomed a four-day visit by two priest friends from Colorado.

Father James Purfield is pastor of All Saints parish. Denver, where he has served the past 23 years. Father Purfield and Father Louis worked together in the state of Hidalgo in central Mexico serving a large parish and several mission churches for one year.

The other guest at the Abbey was Father Manuel Gabel, a retired Denver Archdiocesan priest.

Father Bernard Gervais welcomed visits from Sister Marilyn Carpenter, a Benedictine of Benet Hill in Colorado Springs, who used to do chaplaincy work at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver, along with Father Bernard. Sister Marilyn was in Atchison to celebrate her 50th anniversary of vows.

Health Concerns of Abbey Members Father Bernard Gervais was admitted to Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, Mo., July 10. Doctors have determined several concerns and will develop treatment plans for low sodium count, thin blood, low kidney function and electrolyte imbalance. Heartland has

requested that religious or priests who are admitted for treatment designate on their admission papers that they are Father, Brother or Sister, since their system will accept such information and they find it helpful to share this on visitation lists and with Eucharistic Ministers Brother Dominic Cason is preparing to have total knee replacement in his right leg.

This surgery will be done in Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence, Kan., July 30.

Father Michael Santa was admitted to the Atchison Hospital recently for a severalday stay to help him fight an infection.

Father William Thompson and Father James Downey have fallen in recent days.

Neither suffered any broken bones but each has experienced bruising and soreness.

Abbot Owen’s Homily for the 50th Anniversary of His Ordination The readings for this Sunday speak of “call,” the call of Elijah and the deepening call of the apostles. T.S. Eliot speaks Please see Abbey Notes on page 27

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From the Abbey Altar

Another Chapter in history

Bearing a little foolishness: Henry came to Kansas

Editor’s Note: The following homily was delivered by Abbot Barnabas Senecal at the meeting of the abbots and delegates of the General Chapter of the American Cassinese Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, which was hosted June 17-22 by St. Benedict’s Abbey.

“I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness…

I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles.”

2 Cor 11:1,5

Top Left and Bottom Left: The 49th General Chapter of the American Cassinese Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict met at St. Benedict’s Abbey June 17-22. St. Benedict’s had hosted the 30th General Chapter in 1950 and an earlier General Chapter in 1929. There are 20 independent houses in the American Cassinese Congregation, and each superior (abbot or prior) and a delegate elected by the respective houses, attended the event in Atchison. Participants were housed in Ferrell Hall and held their sessions in the Abbey Chapter room, joining the Atchison monks for prayers and noon and evening meals in the Abbey. The dining room tables used for this meal were built by our monks for the meals served to the 1950 General Chapter.

Above Right: Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, who attended the meeting of the abbots and delegates of the American Cassinese Congregation, demonstrated his mastery of the flute with a concert, accompanied by Dr. Ruth Krusemark, chair of the Benedictine College Music Department, on piano, and Father Blaine Schultz, professor emeritus of music, on organ.

2007 may be last chance to ‘protect pension’ There is still time to take advantage of the Pension Protection Act, which allows people over 70½ years old to donate as much as $100,000 from their individual retirement accounts to charity.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the distributions are tax-free and count toward the required minimum required distribution that IRA holders in that age group must take 22

Kansas Monks

from their accounts each year. This rule, which the government calls “qualified charitable distributions,” was implemented last year and will end Dec. 31, 2007, unless Congress extends it.

The maximum contribution is $100,000.

St. Benedict’s Abbey does not provide professional financial advice. Please consult your financial advisor.

Henry Lemke might have said similar things. His little foolishness was to come to Kansas, abandoning his post in Pennsylvania, leaving the “midget” in charge of the Priory in Carrolltown, dejected over the stupidity of the Prior whom the “Lord Superior,” Boniface, now in Rome for the sole purpose of being named an abbot, had left in charge.

Lemke said in his memoirs, “It is better to attain an end in fear than to have fear without an end.” His end was to come to Kansas to assist Bishop Miege, then a friend of Dr. Rodrique, who had practiced medicine in Ebensburg, Penn., and had already built a home for his family in Lecompton, Kan., the pro-slavery capital.

The doctor offered to have Henry come with him. Henry did fear a bit that his actions would be misinterpreted, that the monks and his friends might think that he intended to leave the Benedictines or

the priesthood itself.

Henry came to Kansas and accepted assignment by Bishop Miege to Doniphan, in 1856. After the Kansas – Nebraska Act of 1854, folks came from the free states of New England and warred with folks from the neighboring slave states and from Carolina, each side wanting to build a citizen base in favor of its attitude.

A young man of a border ruffian gang of slave-staters had been wounded in one of these skirmishes. Henry heard that the man would die without attention. Henry experienced indifference among the people, who were badly divided over this political issue of slavery. He finally convinced two Irishmen and the bearer of the news to come with him to the fallen man. Henry brought him to his unfinished house, cared for him and discovered he had been reared a Catholic but had not kept up the practice. The man’s feet had been frozen and he had a disgusting physical sickness. Henry tended to him. He heard his confession and gave him frequent communion before he died two weeks later.

Henry was not allowed to live with Augustine Wirth and Casimir Seitz, by Abbot Boniface’s orders. He was not our founder in that sense. But this story about Henry’s genuine concern for persons and his assisting the other in developing a relationship to Christ is a heritage that inspires this house. The story inspired the artist, Jean Charlot, who read our history and then decided what to paint in this magnifi-

cent fresco. The upper right hand picture tells that story.

In the DVD that was distributed to you yesterday, there is a quotation toward the close by our Brother Martin.

“We are a tender community.

We may not always show it, but it is there.” We celebrated his 91st birthday last month.

He’s been here many years, and helped paint pigment into that fresco (the main fresco of the Abbey Church) when it was being created. He remembers when we hosted the General Chapter in 1950, when the brothers made the tables for our dining room. Perhaps that is what inspired Charlot to put the tools in the hands of the monk in the lower picture.

Yes, there were priest circuit riders and there were brother laborers. Priests and broth-

ers have taught many like the child in that painting.

May that valuing of relationship to others, in the community and outside of it, be important in each of our communities. We look forward to our second 150 years in Northeast Kansas where we can carry on that commitment, with gentle, tender hearts.

We welcome your comments: development@kansasmonks.org

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No day at the office Prayer sanctifies each day

Sometimes a little history helps others to better un-

derstand a person’s approach to a topic, so I will share with you some background for my personal devotion to the Liturgy of the Hours.

As a college student I worked at Loretto Heights College in Denver, where I often attended divine office with the sisters. From the beginning I knew this was a form of prayer like no other.

I bought my own copy of “The Short Breviary” and frequently joined the sisters for prayer. They even reserved a place for me to sit. The provincial superior pointed out to me a spot in the back pew of the chapel. I shared it with an elderly sister who assisted me when I got lost. As a result I

am still attached to the back pew to this day. So began my journey of praying the Liturgy of the Hours for the past 47 years.

The Liturgy of the Hours sanctifies each day, as one pauses to pray in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at night. Praying at specific times gives a rhythm to the day. As my first abbot told me, it makes the day seem much less weighed down by time.

Throughout each day in the monastery there is always an hour of office to be prayed.

Indeed, to me, one of the greatest attributes of the divine office is the rhythm it creates throughout the church year. Each day is all its own, whether it is a ferial day in July or during the solemnity of the Easter Octave. If one prays the

words of the psalms faithfully life takes on new meaning.

For example, I note the invitatory psalm each morning.

Although it usually remains the same from day to day, it takes on new life because of the antiphon assigned to it each day. There is strength to be found in each hour for facing what lies ahead.

Morning Prayer asks for guidance during the coming day. Evening Prayer is offered in thanksgiving for what Brother John Peto has transpired since morning.

Oblate Director Night prayer begs protection during the dark hours when other vowed religious. Now, the devil is most often present. nearly four decades later, I see The final hymn to the Blessed college students joining us for Virgin reminds us of she who the Liturgy of the Hours with said, “Yes.” And thus it re- regularity. The Council called minds us to continue echoing Morning and Evening Prayer that response as monks and the hinges of the day. oblates.

The other day I prayed EveThe Second Vatican Coun- ning Prayer aloud with some cil called for wider prayer of college students who are obthe divine office, insisting lates. It took only 10 minutes that it is no longer strictly the for a prayerful recitation,a domain of priests, monks and brief diversion for something so important to our spiritual health. Just ten minutes, twice a day, and one has brought a rhythm of prayer to life.

We become prayerful only by praying. Whether we feel up to prayer or in the mood is not what matters. It is the rhythm.

The oblate is asked to pray the office each day if at all possible. In doing this we are united with other oblates, with our monastery of affiliation and with the entire church.

We welcome your comments: development@kansasmonks.org

A group of Benedictine College students and personnel made their final oblation March 21 in the Abbey Church. Pictured from left to right are Amy Minnis, Christen Jones, Pat Asher and, at the podium, Jeff Schinstock. Those who also made final oblation but are not pictured are Justin West, Beth West, Sarah Schinstock, and Bill Ramsey.

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Summer 2007

Kansas Monks

Abbot to lead Sesquicentennial Pilgrimage to Bavaria, Austria In celebration of St. Benedict’s Abbey’s 150th anniversary, Abbot Barnabas Senecal will lead a pilgrimage April 7-17, 2008, to the “grandmother abbey” of St. Benedict’s Abbey. The pilgrimage will include a beautiful journey from Munich, Germany, through Bavaria and Austria, including the famous Austrian cities of Salzburg and Vienna.

Below is the itinerary of the pilgrimage, which will cost $2,795 per person (sharing a twin room), plus air taxes, which are presently $235. A $415 supplementary price is charged for anyone requiring a singe room.

Monday, April 7 – We depart from the U.S. for an overnight flight to Munich.

Dinner and breakfast served aboard the transatlantic flight.

Tuesday, April 8 – We arrive in Munich this morning, clear Customs and are met by our multi-lingual tour escort.

After arrival at our hotel for check-in, we have time at leisure. We can familiarize ourselves with and explore this capital city of Bavaria so rich in history. We have dinner together this evening.

Wednesday, April 9 – We drive west from Munich to the venerable Ottobeuren Abbey, originally founded in 765. Here we will celebrate Mass and visit this marvelous Benedictine Abbey. Next we continue on a tour further south into the Bavarian countryside, stopping near Hohenschwangau to view King Ludwig’s mystical Neuschwanstein Castle. We will also stop and tour the nearby Lin-

derhof Palace – an elaborate Neo-Rococo styled “royal cottage.” Next we drive to the town of Wies for a visit to the beautifully elaborate Rococo Wies Kirche. Back in Munich we have dinner together.

Thursday, April 10 – Today we travel south in Bavaria to the tiny resort town of Ettal. Here we visit and celebrate Mass in the Benedictine Abbey. Next we head to nearby Oberammagau, which is world famous for its Passion Plays (performed every ten years) and its folk art. In the afternoon we drive further south to the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, site of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games. This day provides a wonderful opportunity for appreciating the alpine beauty of this region as well as acquiring local arts and crafts. On our own, this evening in Munich we can sample tasty German cuisine.

Friday, April 11 – This morning we venture southeast into Austria, traveling to the city of Salzburg. As we stroll though the streets of Amadeus Mozart’s hometown and setting for the filming of that classic movie “The Sound of Music,” our guide will point out the fascinating and colorful features of this city. We continue to explore on our own until late afternoon, when we assemble in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter (Stift St. Peter) for the celebration of Mass. Relics of Saints Rupert and Vitalis are preserved in this church. Dinner will be served after Mass in the Saint Peterskeller.

Abbey of St. Michael, Metten, Germany.

Saturday, April 12 – This day is devoted to the city of Munich. We begin with Mass in the gothic Frauenkirche.

Our city tour will include such sites as Marienplatz with the Old and New Town Hall and a visit inside the grand Nymphenburg Palace – former residence of Bavarian royalty.

Afternoon and evening are unscheduled, allowing ample time for personal sightseeing or shopping and dining at any one of many great restaurants.

Sunday, April 13 – We spend the day east of Munich on this special Sunday in celebration of the 150th Anni-

versary of our St. Benedict’s Abbey. First we journey to Altoetting, renowned as one of the earliest destinations for pilgrimages in Bavaria. Since the 1300’s pilgrims have traveled here to venerate the Miraculous Statue of Our Lady.

We will visit the Shrine, and, after time for lunch, will embark for Metten to the Abbey of St. Michael, the “grandmother abbey” of our St. Benedict’s Abbey. We will be formally received by Abbot Wolfgang.

After the reception, brother monks of the Abbey will show us their exquisite library (over 170,000 precious volumes) Continued on next page

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Abbey Notes

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and the Abbey Church. We will celebrate Sunday Mass in the Abbey Church and partake in the Vespers Service that follows. Before returning to Munich, we conclude our celebration with dinner in Metten in a restaurant just next to the monastery.

Monday, April 14 – As we drive from Munich eastward into Austria, we experience the pastoral beauty of the countryside as we make our way to Vienna. About midway we reach Melk and there will celebrate Mass in Melk Abbey. Later we change our mode of transportation from motorcoach to river boat as we cruise for a short while on the Danube River. In Vienna we check in an have dinner together this evening.

of “call” in the quote from Little Gidding. “With the drawing of this love and the voice of this calling we shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive at where we started and begin to know the place for thefirst time.”

Ettal Abbey, Germany.

wonderful overview of the city with vistas of Prater Park with its giant Ferris Wheel, then a drive along the Ring Boulevard, passing the State Opera House, the Belvedere Palace, National Museum, City Hall and Parliament, and the Hofburg Palace that holds precious treasures of the Hapsburg dynasty. Our morning concludes inside the great St. Stephen’s Cathe-

Photos by Prior James Albers

Tuesday, April 15 – This morning we go on a city tour of historic Vienna, once the center of the mighty Hapsburg Empire. We will be given a

dral, where we celebrate Holy Mass. This afternoon and evening are free to explore on our own. We could visit the marvelous and majestic interior of Schoenbrunn Palace on the western outskirts of the city. In the heart of Vienna is pedestrian-only Kaertnerstrasse, a bustling shopping street that features all the best shops, restaurants and coffee houses. We can find many

very fine restaurants for dinner on our own this evening.

Wednesday, April 16 – This morning we drive northwest of Vienna to visit Goettweig Abbey, whose foundation dates from 1065. At first the local bishop established it as a monastic community following the rules of St. Augustine.

Later that century the monks adopted the Rule of St. Benedict, beginning a long history of holy Abbots, including a few who were later canonized. In the monastery church dedicated to the Mother of God, we celebrate Holy Mass.

We will be given a tour of this beautiful and historic monastery. Returning to Vienna in the afternoon, we can again pursue our own interests, perhaps to visit the Museum of Fine Arts that contains works

by Jan Van Eyck, Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael and more. This evening we dine together at our Farewell Dinner.

Thursday, April 17– Arrive at the airport for our travels home.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany.

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The path to this day officially began here at the abbey but the call to exploration began long before. At this stage of the exploration it is certainly true that I am beginning, just beginning to know the place where I am. I mean the place where I am physically and the place in my heart and soul.

Therein lies the excitement and the profound mystery.

Love draws; the voice calls, exploration continues. I am a restless monk though vowed to stability, often seeking, sometimes at rest, finding real and pseudo-peace here and there. The journey, the exploration, begins anew each day the feet hit the floor – one day at a time.

Kansas Monks I am happy that you are here this day and happy that there are people who wanted to be here but were unable. I am grateful for the seen and the unseen. I am grateful to the monks of the Community of St. Benedict’s Abbey, all the abbots I have known, those here present and those I can write about when I work on the Necrology. Each has given me something, some food for the journey, and were companions as we all explored.

I am grateful for their love, concern, and respect as I was called to serve them. I ask forgiveness when I failed to understand or appreciate.

As I have explored, been on pilgrimage, walked the walk, a loving God of my understanding has put persons and places along my path. In addition to my monastic community there have been two other groups of people that continue to sustain me, to walk with me, one group shall remain anonymous. The other is the Community of Mount Saint Scholastica Monastery. Both groups were there when noth-

ing else would do. My debt to them remains eternal.

I am grateful to all those who have knocked on my door and asked to see me, all fellow explorers who have sought peace along with me. We sought together and often the seeker became the leader, the teacher became the taught. There have been times when I may have been more an obstacle than a help. Please forgive me.

Soon I will be 76 years old, or young, and I am grateful for the times in which I have been blessed to live. The Great Depression touched the first years of my life; World War II touched the second third.

The Second Vatican Council has touched the last one third.

I am so grateful for the real breath of fresh air that enlivened the Church when John XXIII opened the windows.

Glorious years when it was a thrill not only to appreciate the past but build on the return to sources, to seek the future, return to the roots, water them anew, and follow where the growth led. Jesus tells the

Apostles and us in the Gospel for today, “Do not look back.”

Look back, though, in gratitude, but Forward, Always Forward!

More could be said but as we all look at the next 50 years one day at a time, one hour, one minute at a time, we all can let a God of our understanding lead us, confident that the end of all our exploring will be to arrive in the full presence of the Giver of all Life and know the fullness of life for the first time.

150th Observance for Sisters for Charity The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth will initiate their observance of 150 years of service on November 11, 2007 and will continue with a number of local observances through November 11, 2008.

The weekend of July 4-6, 2008, is the date for a major celebration in Leavenworth.

Monk CD climbing charts with a bullet Surprising even the monks who recorded it, the musical CD, “On a Musical Journey,” a collection of sacred music recorded by Abbot Barnabas Senecal and the St. Benedict’s Abbey Schola, is now in its third edition and still selling quite well.

The recording, which has drawn fans of the “Singing Abbot,” opened with a modest release of 500 CDs, which sold out in a matter of weeks.

A second release of 1,000 CDs also sold out, and Father Maurice Haefling, Abbey business manager, reports that “were more than half way through the third thousand.”

Numerous orders have been received from as far away as Massachusetts, Florida and California after feature articles on the recording were released on the Catholic News Service national newswire.

CDs are still available and another edition is not out of the question. The cost is $25. To order a CD by cash, check or credit card (Visa, MasterCard), call the Office of Development at (913) 3607897. There is a $2 charge for postage and handling. All proceeds go to the Journey Forward capital campaign to benefit St. Benedict’s Abbey.

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Photo by Dan Madden

Psalm 32: 6 –The floods of water may reach high but Him they shall not reach.

Rains this spring brought the Missouri River to within one foot of the devastating flood waters of the infamous 1993 floods. This view north from the roof of St. Benedict’s Abbey shows the Missouri’s backed-up waters overwhelming Independence Creek.

Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage PA I D Atchison, KS Permit No. 3 1020 N. 2nd Street, Atchison, KS 66002

Kansas Monks USPS 290-760 Abbey Offices 913.367.7853 www.kansasmonks.org

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