Kansas Monks Fall 2011

Fall 2011

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From the Abbot

Kansas Monks

03 . . . . . .

4 . . . . . . . . .The Profession Brother Leven Harton makes his Solemn Profession, a permanent commitment to the monastic life.

We remember Abbot Martin Veth the second Abbot of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

Father Daniel McCarthy “The liturgy nourishes us all along the process of our human maturation.”

A Grateful Response (10)

Abbot Owen Purcell “It’s all a day at a time.”

Marked by a Sign of Faith (9)

10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Obl ate s faith 11 . . . . . clothed with God’s Will In Our Lives 12 . . . The facebook Effect

Dan Madden discusses social networking and technology and how the it blends with monastic life.

lucky henry

Abbey friend and benefactor Henry Moll discusses the good life he has led.

16. . .The abbey newsdesk News and photos from the recent past.

20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From the Desert 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SomosweIrmãos are brothers 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . in aWord 2

From the Abbot (3) | Abbey Notes (23)

Oblates (8)

liturgy & the life of the church

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Abbot Barnabas Senecal “Monks ‘live alone’ and with others.”

Brother John Peto “A Christian is known by his happiness in the Lord!”

6 . . . . . . . . a Grateful Response 8. . . . . . Marked with the sign of Faith

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contributing writers:

Prior Duane Roy “Working at the daily task of being a monk” Somos Irmãos (21)

Father Meinrad Miller “Whatever you have done to the least of these you have done to me.”

Clothed With Faith (11)

Father Gabriel Landis-

Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before; he that unto God’s kingdom comesmust enter by this door. • From the Desert (20)

Father Aaron Peters “We are all of us, inside a very great story, God’s story.”

In a Word (23)

Catholic Press Association Award Winner General Excellence 2009 2010 2011 Publisher: Abbot Barnabas Senecal, O.S.B., bsenecal@kansasmonks.org Editor: Dan Madden, dmadden@kansasmonks.org Art Direction: J.D. Benning, jbenning@kansasmonks.org Photography: Brother Joseph Ryan (cover), Abbot Barnabas Senecal, JD Benning, Father Daniel McCarthy, Dan Madden Kansas Monks magazine is published by the Office of Development.

For a free subscription: 913.360.7906, or development@kansasmonks.org.

B e i n g ‘ at

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From the Abbot

Fall 2011

home’ with our friends

onks are defined as persons who “live alone.” The word monk comes from monachos, to live alone. This living alone challenges individual monks to be “at home” with themselves. It challenges them to engage in significant work with others, and to find community with other monks and with other folks.

At the beginning of each school year, the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey host the faculty of Maur Hill Mount Academy and Atchison Catholic Elementary School to a noon meal with the monks in our dining room. They also welcome the faculty, staff and families of Benedictine College to a picnic on the lawn east of the guest house.

Community members set up 225 chairs for the picnic. They were filled.

The large lawn between the monastery building and the river bluff was filled with children. They delighted in the surplus of cut grass that lay there, waiting to be thrown at other children as if it were a summer snow ball event.

Among the adults was a mother of a six-day-old child. She and the child were with us. “I wouldn’t miss this annual picnic, ever.”

The abbey kitchen prepares the burgers and brats, the potato salad and beans, and the cookies. The tomatoes come from the monks’ garden.

As the sun sets, some guests assist the monks in putting away the tables and chairs.

This gathering is almost liturgical. One becomes part of a welcoming group. Words are shared, although there is no pulpit or no particular celebrant. All are celebrants. Attention is given to the abbot to say a blessing over the food and the evening.

The monks’ association with their schools provides continuous opportunity to be with others and to join with them in campus and off-campus events. Monks maintain contact with other groups voluntarily because these groups have been important to them and provide forums for ministry.

Father Aaron Peters is a veteran of the US Navy Submarine Service. He maintains contact with other sub vets through the Lockwood Internet Base, a web site that has public information and a members-only segment. Each year this group chooses one of its members as the Shipmate of the Year, and presents that member with a plaque of appreciation. This was presented to Father Aaron in the monastic dining room on August 21.

Father Louis Kirby is 89, a priest at the Abbey. For many years he lived in Colorado in a monastery there. In that time he served as Chaplain in several of the prisons near Cañon City. Even today, he communicates with 80 prisoners in prisons throughout the United States. One of these men did an oil painting of St. Benedict and sent it to Father Louis recently. That prisoner has spent the last twenty years in prison; he was guilty of murder.

Brother Lawrence Bradford, a professor of biology at Benedictine College the past twenty-five years, belongs to a Gourmet Foods group that gathers monthly in the homes of friends in Atchison. This membership gives Brother Lawrence opportunity to share taste and time with friends and to review many issues of common interest.

Father Meinrad Miller is a monk who is eager to establish relationships of persons. His recall of individuals is truly amazing.

And he has a large friend base on Facebook.

We monks are grateful and eager for the opportunities to be “at home” with so many friends and neighbors.

Abbot Barnabas Senecal 3

Kansas Monks

The Solemn Profession of

Brother Leven Harton august sixth, two-thousand-eleven, the feast of the transfiguration by dan madden | photos by jd benning | center photo by chris bronson

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Fall 2011

rother Leven Harton did not make

a permanent commitment to monastic life without some anxiety. But for the Wichita native and former Benedictine College student, it came down to acceptance, which in the end gave him confidence that he was not moving forward too idealistically.

“This is going to take a lot of perseverance,” he said of the life he chose when he decided to profess solemn vows Aug. 6 at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison. “We don’t live in a stable world and it’s not easy to do these kinds of things. If I weren’t a little anxious I would have to ask myself if I were really facing the calling and the demands of it. I have had good examples in my life—my parents, teachers, the people around me—and the people who have been the happiest are those who are committed to a calling.”

Brother Leven prepared for his profession thoroughly—a period of postulancy, a year-long novitiate, and three years of simple vows. When the time approached, he asked for a six month extension to be sure. He says what he found in those six months was what he already knew.

“This community is my identity,” he said. “It made me who I am, it formed me entirely, as a human, as a monk, as a child of God. There is a joy for me in continuing that formation.”

Following his acceptance as a professed monk, Brother Leven lay prostrate on the floor of the church, before the altar, and his fellow monks draped him in a funeral pall (below), symbolizing his death to the world. He then emerged from underneath the pall, symbolizing his resurrection to new life as a monk.

The newly professed monk was also clothed in the cuculla, a hooded robe that he will wear for festive occasions. Brother Leven wore the cuculla as his brother monks embraced him with the sign of peace to welcome him into the community. He will also wear the garment as his confreres sing songs of peace over his body at his funeral.

In his address to Brother Leven Abbot Barnabas Senecal spoke of Brother Leven’s preparation and of the fear that resides in everyone.

“In preparation for today, his day of solemn profession of vows, (Brother Leven) spent several days on a mountain top with four Cistercian monks at Ava, Mo.,” the Abbot said of Brother Leven’s

pre-profession retreat. “These men were not familiar to him, but for the moment they were with him, helping him to see himself as a monk, as a man committed to being with the Lord in a special, life-long endeavor. Surely he brought back to Atchison with him a deeper satisfaction in his decision to make vows today, as he, too, revealed himself to these monks by his quiet presence and diligent imitation of their lifestyle.”

Quoting the Gospel of the day, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Abbot said, “Rise and do not be afraid.”

“These were the words Jesus spoke to Peter, James and John, who had become frightened upon hearing a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’”

The Abbot promised the young monk that family, friends and confreres were gathered to say these very words of esteem and appreciation to him: “St. Benedict would have us offer you that support, today and every day. He would have us say the same to one another, building up a companionship that is supported by the vows we make, the promises to be obedient, to strive for conversion of life, and to see ourselves as permanent members of this group and confident within ourselves as we seek God together.”

Brother Leven says he has looked at his life during the formation period of simple vows and examined how he is equipped for monastic life—and especially how he is ill equipped.

“That doesn’t mean I’ve seen everything,” he says, “but I’ve seen my shortcomings…and I still want to do this.

“And that’s pretty good…that’s pretty good.”

Visit Kansasmonks.org for additional photos and video from Brother Leven’s Solemn Profession.

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Kansas Monks

a Grateful Response

ors. Sister Anne Shepard of the Mount and Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey have given their endorsement.

liturgy & the life of the church

Both St. Benedict’s Abbey and Mount St. Scholastica have been committed since their founding a century and a half ago to education at the primary, secondary and university levels with graduate courses currently offered in several disciplines at Benedictine College.

Under Abbot Martin Veth’s guidance (1921-1944), St. Benedict’s College (founded in 1858) included a school of theology.

Monk professors included Father Bonaventure Schwinn, Father Gerard Heinz, Father Bernard Sause, Father Victor Gellhaus and Father Theodore Leuterman. Among these, Father Bernard promoted the liturgical movement, especially its pastoral emphasis, through organizing meetings and in his writing. The school of theology continued until 1969 when Father Mark Bauman, Father Arnold Tkacik and Father Denis Meade formed the core of the faculty. The last graduating classes included several people who continue to serve our community, including Abbot Barnabas Senecal, Father Duane Roy, Father Roderic Giller, and Father Albert Hauser. In 1971, Benedictine College was formed with the sponsorship of both monastic communities.

With the Help of many

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ur commitment to education has also developed abroad with the recent inauguration of the Liturgy Institute or Institutum Liturgicum. Many people have been instrumental in developing the institute. Father Ephrem Carr, OSB, President of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute (PIL) at Sant’Anselmo, Rome, Father Ephrem Carr, OSB, of St. Meinrad Archabbey is the President and his council have of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in consistently encour- Sant’Anselmo. aged the founding of an English language liturgy institute based on the first semester curriculum taught in Italian at the PIL. The Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, accredits the courses of the Liturgy Institute and awards the Post-graduate Certificate of Liturgical Studies.

The bishops of England and Wales have given their endorsement through their Committee for Life and Worship.

Abbot Martin Shipperlee of Ealing Abbey, outside of London, and his council encourage their brother Dom James Leachman in his contributions, and they accommodate the Summer teaching activities in their Benedictine Study and Arts Centre and house many of the personnel in their house for guests. Abbot Cuthbert Brogan and the community of Farnborough Abbey make their considerable library available for research and provide accommodation for the researchers and continue to publish the books resulting from our research through their St. Michael’s Abbey Press.

Abbot Barnabas Senecal and the Atchison Abbey give generous support to me and allow me the freedom to pursue these endeav6

Inauguration

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he teaching activities of the Liturgy Institute were inauFather Daniel McCarthy gurated on July 12, 2011, at Ealing Abbey with a company of about 30 guests. Bishop Alan Hopes, an Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Westminster, gave a presentation and Professor Ephrem Carr gave the inaugural St. Bede Lecture on the need for education on liturgy entitled, “Sacrosanctum Concilium and its Consequences: A Contribution to the Current Discussion on Liturgy in the Church.” Both presentation and lecture will be published.

Honored guests included Professor Joris Geldhof, head of liturgy at the Catholic University of Leuven; Abbot Francis Rossiter, the former Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation; and Abbot Cuthbert Johnson of Quarr Abbey, President of the Henry Bradshaw Society and Advisor to the Vatican’s Vox Clara Committee on the Liturgy. All the guests were invited to tour the institute’s new facilities.

Teaching

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he first courses started the following day as Dom James taught the history of the liturgy according to its cultural eras, and Father Ephrem and I taught the introductory seminar in liturgical research. A second set of courses began on Aug.16, offering beginning, intermediate and proficient Latin.

The summer teaching program from June to August prepares future university teachers and forms members of diocesan, national and religious liturgical commissions.

The courses provide English language access to license and doctoral degrees at the Catholic University of Father Reginald Foster is a world renowned Leuven and the Latinist who served four Popes begining in Pontifical Insti- the 1960’s. tute of Liturgy in Rome. All interested will be welcome to attend as credited or auditor students for single courses or the certificate program. Other specialist courses for clergy, laity and religious are being considered. The Summer Latin Institute provides instruction from the first encounter through to proficiency, using the teaching method of Father Reginald Foster, OCD. On Aug. 15 Father Anthony Ward, SM, the Under-secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments paid a courtesy visit with his many times co-author Abbot Cuthbert Johnson of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. They were received for lunch by the monastic community and a tour of the teaching facilities. Father Ward confirmed us in

Fall 2011 the best of what we already knew, that like any wisdom tradition, teaching and studying liturgy require personal formation developed by personal tutoring. More specifically we must keep a clear focus on the scientific method used in studying the history and meaning of liturgy and discern well the sources used in creating a bibliography and conducting research.

Research and Planning

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he teaching program is supported by research conducted throughout the year largely at St. Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough. Our first book Appreciating the Collect: An Irenic Methodology presents our method of interpreting the opening prayer of the Mass. Our method is based on a clear understanding of the Latin text developed in consultation with Father Reginald Foster, OCD, 40 years papal Latinist, and the interpretative science taught at the PIL by Prof.

Renato De Zan. A second book in the series Appreciating the Liturgy will soon be available.

It presents the history of the Easter Vigil and examines the short prayers, invitations, and admonitions of the Vigil to discern what difference the sacraments of Christian initiation have on a person becoming Christian.

I have been publishing a commentary on a prayer of the current Mass every Bishop Alan Hopes (left) gave an address before the week for the past five years in The Tablet, an independent Catholic weekly lecture. Abbot Cuthbert Brogan (center) of Farnborbased in London. The first series of commentaries were published as a book, ough and Abbot Martin Shipperlee (right) of Ealing Listen to the Word, and I am currently revising the entire collection for several serve on the board of founders with Father Daniel and Dom James Leachman. volumes of commentaries on the current Mass.

Dom James and I have accepted an invitation to serve on the editorial board of Questions Liturgiques: Studies in Liturgy, published by Peeters Publishers in Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1910 by Dom Lambert Beauduin, monk of Mont César Abbey, also of Leuven, the journal continues to promote the study of liturgy in French and English.

I have also prepared the typescript of a three-year program of studying Latin according to the system developed by Father Foster. As that book is nearing publication, we are collaborating on another book on the letters of Cicero.

Irenic Liturgy Studies

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entioning the liturgy in conversation may be seen as provocative or may end the conversation altogether. From the so-called “Tridentine Rite” to the new English translation of the Missal and the arrangement of a church building, worship provokes strong emotions. It is the hope of the founders that research and graduate level teaching will help those who attend to rise above polarized positions to make an irenic contribution to the broader Church.

Donations, Students, Inquiries Contributions to the St. Benedict Chair of Liturgical Studies or to fund a student Several students discuss aspects of the Missale bursary may be made through Father Maurice Haefling, Treasurer of St. Benedict’s Romanum with Father Daniel.

Abbey, and the Abbey’s Development Office: development@kansasmonks.org.

We welcome qualified students from North America and throughout the English speaking world. Enrollment information is available at: www.institutumliturgicum.org.uk | For further information, please contact: il@bsac.ac.uk

“Now, first of all, whenever you undertake any good work, beg the Lord with most earnest prayer to bring it to completion”.

- The Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue

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Marked with the sign of Faith

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Kansas Monks

Abbot Martin Veth | 1874-1944

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lthough he was born in Dettelbach, Bavaria, Germany, Abbot Martin Veth had lived since the age of 10 in Atchison within the shadow of the Abbey. Elected at the age of 47, he guided St. Benedict’s for 23 years during times which were often fraught with economic crisis. All the same, these were times of significant transition and growth. St. Benedict’s College developed by stages from the model of a European gymnasium adapted to frontier conditions into two institutions; Maur Hill High School, a boarding and day school for boys, and St. Benedict’s College, a four-year, liberal arts, residential college for men.

Abbot Martin’s central concern was to enrich the spiritual life of the community and to impress upon its members that their greatest destiny was to become men of prayer. His promotion of a richer interior life went hand in hand with enhancement of the celebration of the liturgy of the Mass and of the Divine Office.

Moreover, Abbot Martin’s conferences to the community and his retreats were grounded in the Church’s liturgy itself as the privileged source of grace and spiritual nourishment.

Shortly after his election on Nov. 10, 1921, Abbot Martin wrote that “there is on the whole a good spirit, and I must say I was edified and agreeably surprised at the unity, the charity, the faith which the circumstances of the election brought to light in our community.”

He appreciated the need of bringing the college up to date, and so in rapid succession he arranged for faculty graduate study, employed the first lay athletic coach, and approved plans for a gymnasium. But Abbot Martin soon began to fear that the school discipline was becoming too liberal, and he had difficulty selecting a suitable director. At the same time he moved too vigorously in tightening monastic discipline. In trying to spiritualize his monks, Abbot Martin tended to take the joy out of monastic life.

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Each Abbot of St. Benedict’s Abbey chooses a coat of arms. In the lower right corner we see a white ewe on a field of green representing the Veth family, above which are two white, fivepointed stars (called mullets) on a field of blue representing St. Martin of Tours, the patron of St. Benedict and namesake of Abbot Martin.

The motto, Oculis ac manibus coelum (I lift up my eyes and hands to heaven), reflects the innumerable places in Sacred Scripture where people lift up their eyes and/or hands in praise and thanksgiving or in supplication to the mountains, to heaven, to the Lord, etc. This is the image of St. Benedict, the man of prayer.

It is also the image of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, noted monastic leader.

Canonical visitators in 1923 found a community dividing into factions, the college and the abbey. To help him steer his course through difficult times, the Abbot made four vital appointments.

Throughout his whole tenure as superior, Abbot Martin would rely on one set of four lieutenants who contributed greatly to the welfare and growth of St. Benedict’s: Father Gerard Heinz, Prior; Father Bonaventure Schwinn, Subprior and Master of Clerics; Father Edmund Pusch, Business Manager, and Father Sylvester Schmitz, Dean of the College.

Monks engaged in educational apostolates acquired higher degrees at quality universities in the United States and abroad. By 1926 the community had outgrown its home in

Fall 2011 the monastery that was constructed in 1892, and so it began to build the present Abbey complex. A Tudor Gothic structure built out of native limestone, it was first occupied by the monks in 1929. Due to the economic crisis then gripping the country, work was suspended on the Abbey church and guest house and was taken up again only in the centennial year of the Abbey in 1957. Abbot Martin regretted deeply that the most important part, the Abbey Church, would have to wait.

The common endeavour of financial struggles and the spiritual life seemed to pull the community together.

Father Peter Beckman writes in Kansas Monks of the beauty of Abbot Martin’s sanctity which bloomed forth during the time between his retirement from office and his death 18 months later. He also cites the Abbot’s retirement remarks to the community as typical of his convictions: “The time has come, I think, when I can do more for you by praying for you than I can by trying to rule you . . . you will be full of misgivings about the election to be made, full of hopeful and fearful anticipation . . . Let me ask you to fall back on prayer. This is God’s house, and he is more interested and concerned about what takes place here than you are.” After months of patient suffering, he died on December 12, 1944.

Abbot Owen Purcell is compiling a necrology of St. Benedict’s Abbey, profiles on the deceased monks of the Abbey. It offers a thorough and entertaining look into the history of the Abbey, one monk at a time.

If you have a comment or insight e-mail Abbot Owen: pucellowen944@gmail.com.

Abbot Martin Veth with Bishop Thill at the installation of the Knights of Columbus chapter in Salina Kan. in May, 1939

Continued on next page

Abbot Martin Veth was blessed on Dec. 27, 1921 in St. Benedict’s Church, now a parish church in Atchison, Kan.

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Kansas Monks

Obl ates

This summer I attended, for the third time, the Monastic Institute for Benedictine Oblates at the Mount St. Scholastica Sophia Center in Atchison. The speaker this year was Norvene Vest, who has commented on how many active verbs St. Benedict used in the Prologue of his Rule. This has fascinated me and I have been thinking about the first words, “Listen with the ear of the heart.”

What does this require? The other day Abbot Ralph mentioned at the supper table how he hears only parts of the news each day and I agreed that I also hear just parts of the news. I know that I certainly don’t listen to all of the news even with my ordinary ear let alone the ear of my heart. Benedict is calling anyone trying to follow the Rule to listen from the very depth of his or her being, to begin to do something with what one hears. Listening with the ear of the heart requires action. So does the rest of the Prologue and the Rule. Pious thoughts and phrases remain just that unless we put them into action. Benedict calls for this action now, not as something we will consider sometime in the future.

The Prologue calls the reader to a change in the way of life.

Sometimes change is too much of a challenge because we think of all of the great changes we could likely make in our lives. Sometimes we hear a speaker mention a new book or several new books and I know my reaction is that I don’t have time to read all of that.

What do I do? Overwhelmed, I usually do nothing. I believe our Holy Father would say, do something no matter how little with something that you hear. I could read some of the work suggested and come to a greater knowledge of my faith. What about prayer?

I don’t have time to pray so much more but I do have time to improve the praying that I do. My knowledge of Sacred Scripture can become more and more of a daily challenge to my life. I continue to suggest that we all read the Sunday scripture over and over during the week before, beginning on Monday.

It seems to me that the above is the challenge of the action verbs in the Prologue. Sometime sit down and underline every verb you can find in the Prologue and count how many are calls to action.

The meeting at the Mount consisted of oblates affiliated with a number of monasteries, the directors at the Mount and me. It was very interesting to note how strongly the oblates felt about the future of oblate programs as a vital part of Benedictine life. The major problem facing oblates is the closing of monasteries and how the oblate life will continue for those Brother John Peto left behind. It is certainly time for Director of Oblates strong leadership within oblate groups that are firmly grounded in Benedictine spirituality.

For a number of years I have depended upon several oblates that form a committee with whom I meet monthly to suggest ideas and discuss challenges facing our program. I am most thankful for work done by Quentin Jones, Patricia Wolvington and Anne Eggers. I am sorry to say that Barbara Baumgartner who served faithfully on this committee asked to be relieved of her position.

The other members of the committee named her an emerita member. Thanks for your faithful service, Barbara.

This summer I did not attend the national oblate directors/ oblates meeting held at St. Meinrad Archabbey. It was the first meeting I have missed since 1990. Oblate directors and two invited oblates from every member monastery are invited to attend this meeting held every two years.

This year was election year and the new president of National Association of American Benedictine Oblate Directors is Sister Bonita Gacnik, Sacred Heart Monastery, Yankton, S. Dak. She had been serving as secretary. Father Paschal Morlino, St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pa., continues as vice president. Sister Priscilla Cohen, Sacred Heart Monastery, Cullman, Ala., was appointed secretary. Sister Antoinette Purcell, Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, Ind., served two terms as president and did an excellent job. I was privileged to work with her as vice president during her first term.

- Are you interested in becoming an Oblate of St. Benedict?

Contact Br. John Peto: johnpeto1@gmail.com | 913-360-7896

INCLINE THE EAR OF YOUR HEART

Listening to Saint Benedict’s Message of Peace

A new book from St. Benedict’s Abbey press by Dan Madden.

“Dan Madden has caught the spirit of the Benedictine way of life as he elegantly probes with memorable prose and pictures a treasure that till now may have been hidden in a field we had yet to discover; but it is one we can uncover and even take it home with us.”

- Archbishop James Keleher 10

$25.00

clothed with faith God’s Will In Our Lives I have been asked to give seminars (ongoing formation) to the Missionaries of Charity in the United States. I have done so in Washington, D.C., Newark, N.J., and Memphis, Tenn. These seminars have been great for me as a time to be away from phone, computer, and the daily routine here. They have allowed me to enter into the silence and prayer of the Missionaries of Charity and witness the amazing love of these women.

Sister Frederick, one of Blessed Mother Teresa’s close associates, invited me to come to Calcutta, India, in August to teach in a program of philosophy and theology for her Missionaries. This program was approved at the last General Chapter Mother Teresa attended. Priests, sisters, and brothers from around the world offer philosophy and theology courses to about 50 Missionaries of Charity who were selected each year for this 11 month program.

I was asked to speak about The Paschal Mystery and the Church.

When I arrived on Aug. 5, Sister Frederick, now 96 years old, greeted me at the airport. Originally from Malta, she began religious life with the Sisters of St. Joseph. While serving in leadership for the community in the 1960s, she was asked to teach Missiology (the missionary work of the Church) to the young Sisters of St. Joseph in Marseilles, France. While doing this she read of Mother Teresa.

Her heart burned with a desire to follow this woman in India. It took a few Benedictine College Students years, but eventu- (at right L to R) Allie Salva, John ally Sister Frederick’s Bishop, Laura Sivula, Anthony Welch and Pam McGown spent superiors released her two months in poorest districts from her commitment, of Calcutta working with the and Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity. accepted her to a new life.

Over the course of my days in Calcutta the schedule was very simple.

Offer Mass and preach to the sisters at 6:30 a.m., give two one-hour talks in the morning, followed by a Holy Hour with Confessions, and then Lunch. In the afternoon teach two more one-hour courses, and then another Holy Hour (an hour and twenty minutes this time) in which we recited Vespers, and I again heard Confessions.

I was reminded what Missionary of Charity Father Joseph Langford wrote to me inside a copy his book on Mother Teresa: “May St. Benedict, the light to Europe, and Mother Teresa, the light to the poorest of the poor guide your steps.” Why was that significant? I realized that my monastic life has the temptation of becoming a life of ease and comfort, and technology and connectivity. Here I was in the midst of saints. I was in the midst of women who while appearing to have nothing had everything; who

Fall 2011 had realized at a profound level what I could only hope to achieve: find joy and peace in loving Christ until it hurts, and satiate His Thirst from the Cross.

I will never forget the words of Sister Frederick; she was a witness to so much of the spread of the Missionaries of Charity. She told stories of being with Mother Teresa and helping set up the houses in England, Ethiopia, Yemen and countries all over the world.

Father Meinrad Miller Once, when asked if she thought she Abbey Subprior might be spending too much time with the poor, Mother Teresa responded that there are already enough religious orders who spend time with the rich. The Missionaries of Charity remained with the poor, with the friends of Jesus who himself was poor.

Blessed Teresa was not afraid of challenging people. She said: How can we love God and His poor – if we do not love each other with whom we live and break the Bread of Life daily together? This is my feast day greeting to each one of you: that you may know each other at the Breaking of Bread – love each other in the eating of this Bread of Life; and serve each other and Him in his poor by giving whole hearted service…At the Breaking of the Bread they recognized Him. Do I recognize the beauty of my sisters, the spouse of Christ, at the Breaking of Bread – in the daily Mass we live together?

The last day I was there, the sisters sang a song for me and assured me of their prayers. They then asked about my life here, about the Abbey and Benedictine College. They were truly moved by the stories of how lives are being transformed on this campus, and how young men are interested in following in the path of St. Benedict at the Abbey. Sister Frederick intervened and said that her hope was that with all of the good work of the College that the monks would not forget about the contemplative life. I responded by saying this is precisely what is attracting young men here today.

They have a love for prayer, of the monastic life, of drawing closer to Jesus. St. Benedict and Blessed Teresa both taught us this powerful lesson: the primacy of Christ, of his passion, his life.

I was reminded of a quote with which I would like to end. Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote a message to the monks of Subiaco, Italy, on the occasion of the 1,500th anniversary of that monastery. In that address, John Paul shared the concern of Sister Frederick: If the monastery ceases to be a place of prayer and humility, of fraternity and community, a vital witness is lost. He wrote: If this basic harmony is lacking and indifference or even rivalry creeps in, every brother begins to feel just “one of man,” with the risk of deceiving himself that fulfillment will be found in personal projects that prompt him to seek refuge in contacts with the outside world rather than in full participation in the common life and apostolate.

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Kansas Monks

The facebook Effect M

monks and their use of technology and social networking by dan madden

onks were among the first to embrace Guttenberg’s printing press in the 1400s. With the use of this new technology, the Word of God spread throughout Europe at a much more rapid pace than with pen and quill. In fact, Father Meinrad Miller points out that one of the first books printed in England was the Rule of St Benedict.

It came with its challenges. Soon, Enlightenment thinkers were also using this new tool to spread their own philosophies that often countered Church teachings.

Race ahead at fiber-optic speed to the new millennium and the Information Age: Internet, cell phones, e-mail and social networks, especially the king of them all, Facebook.

Information is flying around at a blur, and the challenges are even mightier. And at St. Benedict’s Abbey, monks are again right at the forefront, singing the praises of the whole revolution—and warning of the dangers.

When Brother Simon Baker came to the monastery he gave his cell phone, a nice laptop computer and his iPod to his younger sister.

“I knew I would be trying to learn a new way of life,” he recalls.

“I thought it might be nice to be disconnected, to not have those options available.”

He says he could have easily remained as connected with friends and family as he was before he came to the monastery. But he chose to fill his downtime with less digital pursuits.

It may sound harsh to say breaking ties, but he says there is some truth in it.

“Maybe it’s more accurate to say I was loosening them,” he adds. “I needed to decompress from all the anxieties that you encounter in the world.” He contends that even though he was not out amidst the stressors and distractions, the constant strain and pull could tug him away from monastic life almost by osmosis if he were constantly perusing the Internet or talking on a cell phone.

Brother Simon has e-mail in his room, but he’s notoriously bad about checking it and he never answers the telephone during the monastery’s night silence.

“It’s not important for me to be in instant contact,” he says.

Depending on whom you ask, Facebook is either one of the biggest wastes of time on the Internet or the place to be . The little blue “f ” logo is everywhere from fast-food restaurants to upscale finance firms. St. Benedict’s Abbey has a Facebook page, and so do several individual monks. But few have embraced the site with as much enthusiasm and effectiveness as Father Meinrad. You won’t hear him bragging about it like the teenagers do, but the St. Benedict’s Abbey subprior and Benedictine College chaplain has 4,261 friends on his Facebook page. His “Friends” hail largely from Kansas, but also from distant places such as Australia, Uganda, China, Milan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I remember when I was a seminarian there was this new thing called e-mail and Mike O’Hare in computers set me up with an account,” Father Meinrad remembers. “It was pretty primitive back then.”

Today, more than 10 years later, Father Meinrad is sending weekly e-mails to several hundred people with spiritual messages, 12

inspiring quotes and updates on the College. He posts updates on his Facebook page and uses them to spread news about the Abbey and the College and to share materials he’s read or viewed on spirituality, theology or church news. He keeps in touch with groups he’s involved with, such as the FOCUS missionaries, the Communion and Liberation, and the Knights of Columbus. Father Meinrad, who seemed to know everybody in Kansas before the Internet, now keeps a vast network of friendships among alumni of Benedictine College.

And on campus, he says it’s like having extended office hours.

“I find myself preparing class notes or grading papers, and a student can contact me. It helps me multitask,” he says. “People write me who are thinking about joining the Abbey or are considering another vocation. I also keep in contact with diocesan vocation directors.”

Although Father Meinrad has embraced Facebook he recognizes the importance of stepping away from the computer and interacting with the community around him.

Cyber Cenobites

Fall 2011

Some of Father Meinrad’s confreres are skeptical or dismissive about Facebook. Some simply don’t understand it, others see it as a possible distraction from community life.

However, those interviewed believe Father Meinrad has turned a potential danger into a great tool for ministry.

Father Meinrad, however, is cautious about its use.

He recently spent two weeks in Calcutta, India, with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, conducting conferences, leading Holy Hours, and celebrating the Eucharist.

During the entire time, he Brother Simon Baker is among was cut off from all techthose who choose to limit their nology. use of the Internet.

“It was like a little Lent for me,” he said, “a fast from all of this stuff.” He admits he can become too dependent on the ease and accessibility of the Internet, Facebook, and e-mail.

“We can fool ourselves into thinking we are helping God,” he says. “St. Benedict talks about balance and moderation. It’s important that I shut the computer off and open the Bible. It’s good to multitask, but there must also be silence. Even though it is quiet when I’m on the computer, there is mental noise that comes with communicating with people all over the world.”

Other than a weakness for Kansas City Royals baseball blogs, Brother Leven Harton has little use for the Internet. While he sees the benefit in the way Father Meinrad has used it in his work in College Ministry, he bases his thoughts on social networking on experience and observation.

“In college I got involved in an earlier version of Facebook called Xanga,” he recalls. “I was extremely uncharitable in the way I used it, and I don’t think I was unusual. I think these social networking sites tend to be gossipy and there seems to be something narcissistic about the sense that ‘all the things that I do in my day are interesting to other people.’ And I think Twitter is absolutely appalling.”

Brother Leven says there is value in being rooted in community, in family and in the people around you.

“Something like Facebook is a virtual world that has the potential to replace community,” he says. “The time commitment truly is time away from the monastery, it is very remote from other people.”

Like Brother Simon, he questions modern culture’s premium on the need to always be in touch with one another at a moment’s notice.

“That’s new in the last 20 years,” he says. “Instant communication, instant access is possibly detrimental to monastic life.”

Father Gabriel Landis, monk and pastor of St. Joseph and St. Patrick parishes in Atchison, has a cell phone packed with Continued on next page

Father Meinrad Miller More than 4,200 friends on Facebook

Father Matthew Habiger Spreads the news of Natural Family Planning via e-mail newsletter Abbot Owen Purcell Shares the wisdom of Benedictine spirituality in his own homespun style on the Abbey podcast

Father Gabriel Landis Keeps in touch with parishioners and receives prayer requests by texting

Abbot Barnabas Senecal Gathers prayer requests from anyone in need through the Abbey Web site Father Aaron Peters Serves as editor for monks and oblates who write daily reflections on the Scriptures for the Abbey Web site

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Kansas Monks features including unlimited texting. He uses the Internet for contact with old friends and new, and to research materi-

als for homilies. And on a recent retreat high in the Rocky Mountains he bemoaned his loss of Web access so he couldn’t return e-mails.

“I like it,” he says. “Texting is a quick way of communicating, and right now I’m using Facebook to reconnect with an old friend from grade school and set up a meeting with a parishioner.”

Always out and about in his parish, he says texting is a lifesaver.

“I see it as a way, as a parish priest, to be more accessible to the people in the parish,” he says. “People send me prayer requests. Prayer chains go out by text.

Father Gabriel’s mornings start with coffee and reading the news on-line. He then reads the United States Conference of Catholics Bishops Web site and usually dabbles on the Web for homily fodder. He prays the daily Liturgy of the Hours – on line.

He smiles with awe at the documents of the Church and the libraries of spiritual writings that are a click away at his fingertips.

Father Gabriel’s embrace of the Internet might be due to his monastic origins.

A convert to Catholicism, he was led to the Church through the EWTN Web site, and then received an e-mail from Father Meinrad congratulating him on becoming a Catholic. That e-mail led to another e-mail from Father Gabriel, asking Father Meinrad, “What’s a monk?” More e-mails were exchanged. Long story short, Father Gabriel is a monk thanks in large part to the Internet.

“That e-mail changed my life,” he says.

Brother Leven’s caution comes with a qualification: “Rejection of technology isn’t the answer either,” he says. “Monastic

St. Benedict’s Abbey Podcast 14

Did you know...

The monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey can be found a variety of places online: •Kansasmonks.org •Facebook •iTunes •and more!

Work has begun to create an audio Rule of St. Benedict read by the Monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey. Look for more information in the Winter edition of Kansas Monks. life has to adjust to the times. We have to engage the culture in which we live. We have to separate ourselves from the secular world, but it doesn’t do any good to be afraid of it.

Father Meinrad calls it the “mystery of freedom.”

That freedom, he says, doesn’t offer license to do whatever we want with the tools God provides.

The Internet is filled with temptations and challenges.

But it also has an online Rule of St. Benedict.

Homilies Reflections Music and more

k a n sasm o n k s . o r g

Lucky Henry

by Dan Madden Henry Moll (center) has been pretty lucky. He repeats that several times during a conversation.

The 100-year-old, devout Catholic from Okmulgee, Okla., in the Hill Country near Tulsa, hefts a bundle of what looks like bills strapped in rubber bands in his hand. On closer inspection the top envelope bears an illustration of the Virgin Mary. The letters in the bundle aren’t bills, they are pleas for help for charitable organizations. Henry won’t miss a payment.

Among the people he generously helps are the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey. His brother, the late Father Boniface Moll, was a monk of St. Benedict’s.

A longtime military chaplain, he died in 1989. Henry has remained a close friend and benefactor of the monks since his brother’s death.

“I’ve found that if you help people, sooner or later they will help you back,” he says with a carefree smile.

At age 20, a catastrophic leg injury left doctors calling for amputation as the only hope for young Henry.

Lucky.

A stubborn Catholic mother waved the docs off and began praying fervently to Our Mother of Perpetual Help as they made their rounds from doctor to doctor. Eventually mother and son came upon a doctor returning from a medical conference in Vienna, Austria, touting an experimental procedure. After nine months of packing his leg in Vaseline and other concoctions, the leg healed.

Lucky Henry.

But thanks to the leg, when World War II came, Henry wasn’t

Fall 2011 accepted to his dream post as a fighter pilot. He made due joining a school in Texas that would train him as a flight instructor. If he couldn’t go fight, he’d train the pilots who would. Just as he was about to be certified, though, the school closed its doors.

“I’ve had a good life. I’ve been lucky,” he says today, setting the stack of letters back on his kitchen table.

Henry walked away from the school with no trade, no schooling, and caught on with a flooring outfit. Eventually he found his way to a lumber yard. After two years, he went to the boss and said, “I want to run one of your lumber yards or I’m quitting.” The boss said, “OK, I’ll try you, but I can’t pay you manager money.”

Henry replied, “If I’m going to manage, you’re paying me manager money.” He got the job and the money.

He retired 28 years later with the company’s best yard.

“If you’re going to do something you got to do it right,” he said.

Henry has had a knack for doing things right. After a long marriage, his wife died when she was 89. Henry has lived alone since. His granddaughter in Tulsa takes him to doctor’s appointments and other friends check in on him.

“There are people who come by, but they got other things they can be doing,” he says. “They don’t want to fool with me.”

A source of sadness is the bass boat that sits in his garage. He can no longer fish the lakes around his home alone. And he misses golfing.

He laughs: “My brother always said, ‘Henry if you could play golf as well you you can talk you would be really good.’”

At a century, Henry still mows his own yard and asks friends to pray for his eyesight so he can keep driving to early morning Mass each day. He used to use an alarm clock, but he doesn’t need it anymore.

“The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Angels wake me up now,” he says. “I’m pretty lucky.”

f

c

Marked with the sign of Faith

Father Boniface Moll | 1908-1989

One of many monks trained to work in library science, Father Boniface died where he had been raised, in Okmulgee, Okla., after a long bout with cancer. He was serving there as an auxiliary Army chaplain, one facet of his long-time military ministry. He had served in World War II in the China-Burma-India theatre of operations. He was recalled to active duty in 1949 and served in Korea, West Germany, and in the United States before retiring in 1965 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

He made his profession as a monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey July 2, 1928, and finished his education here. After ordination in 1933 Father Boniface was librarian and teacher at Maur Hill, 1934-35. He earned a bachelor and later a master’s in library science from Columbia University in 1939.

Father Boniface, along with Fathers Colman Farrell and David Kinish, worked mightily in the ground floor library workroom at the west end of what is now St. Benedict Hall, formerly the Administration Building, to maintain the reputation of the Abbey/College library as a great research library.

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Kansas Monks

From the Abbey Newsdesk Father Aaron Peters Honored

Father Aaron Peters was recently awarded the “Shipmate of the Year” award from the Lockwood Internet Base of the United States Submarine Veterans, a group that has established museum submarines and seeks to educate the public about the service members in the submarine forces who gave their lives in defense of the country.

“Father Aaron has been a big source of comfort and advice to many of our members,” said commitee member Bill Lee. “We on the committee felt that his service to our chapter and USSVI over many years was long overdue for recognition. We also felt that his being able to explain to the brothers at the abbey as to why he was active in USSVI, not to promote war or any negative aspects, but to help show how his brothers in submarines had a disportionate percentage of those who gave their lives so that the rest of us could live free in our country. This personally has been important to me as I lost 99 shipmates from the USS Scorpion.”

Father Aaron served on the sub Clamagore in 1966 and 1967 as the Ship’s Yeoman. He left the Navy from Clamagore and entered St. Benedict’s Abbey. He later returned to the Navy as a chaplain.

He has served as Chaplain for the Clamagore Veterans Association and as founding chpalain for the Topeka-Jefferson City Bas of USSVI. Father Aaron currently lives at the Abbey.

Monks Help Out on B.C. Move-in Day photos by Mary Asher

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Fall 2011

Father Gerard Receives Award Father Gerard Senecal received the “Do Something Beautiful For God” award from Benedictine College Aug. 30 at the Opening All School Mass and Convocation. Father Gerard, pastor of St. Benedict’s and Sacred Heart Parishes in Atchison, and former president of Benedictine College, led the college for 15 years as president starting just 8 months after the merger of Mount St. Scholastica College and St. Benedict’s College 40 years ago.

“His dedication to the community is evident as he continues to lead the Catholic parishes of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church and Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Atchison, Kan.,” President Steve Minnis said. “He served on the board of directors of Maur Hill, Benedictine College, the Kansas Foundation for Independent Colleges, the Kansas City Regional Council for Higher Education and the Associated Independent Colleges of Kansas. He was also named Mo-Kan Citizen of the Year in 1978. His steadfast devotion to the community, to Benedictine College and its students, and to God are wonderful examples of how someone can do something beautiful for God on a daily basis.”

Benedictine College has started a wrestling program with the motto “Same tradition, new beginnings.” The 2011-12 team photo (above) was taken at the Abbey and included some of the monks. The monks hosted the team for Midday Prayer and lunch prior to the photo shoot.

Three Men Enter Postulancy Jeffrey Turner, Cameron McMillan, and Branson Stephens were accepted as postulants of St. Benedict's Abbey during Sunday Vespers, Aug. 14. The three men will be introduced to community life, and after a period of postulancy, they may petition the Abbot and the community to enter the novitiate.

Turner, a native of Concordia, Kan., came to the Abbey from Alpharetta, Ga., where he worked in the electronic transfer department of a major credit card company. McMillan, of Home, Kan., graduated in May from Benedictine College with a degree in mathematics. Stephens, a native of Dennison, Texas, was most recently at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he had been working on his post-doctorate studies in theoretical astrophysics. Before that he had studied at Princeton.

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Kansas Monks

Order your tin of Brittle for the holiday season.

20 Ounces - Lower Price - $15.00* Benedict’s Brittle is available once again to ship beginning September 19th. Fill out the form(s) on the next page to order your tin of brittle. Fill out the bottom form(s) to send a tin to a loved one. Drop the order form off at St. Benedict’s Abbey, 1020 N. Second St. Atchison, KS 66002 or place it in the envelope in this issue of Kansas Monks or call 913.360.7906.

Production of Benedict’s Brittle is underway at St. Benedict’s Abbey. After a successful first year Brother Leven, along with many others, has completed work on a new ‘Benedict’s Brittle Kitchen’ in the site of the old Abbey tailor shop. The photos below offer a sneak peak into the new world of brittle production. Be sure to check the St. Benedict’s Abbey website, Kansasmonks.org, for a video featuring the new kitchen and the as-yet unveiled Brittle Buster. photos by J.D. Benning

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benedict’s brittle

$15.00 per tin

Fall 2011

+ shipping*

Name (please print):____________________________________E-mail:_________________________________ Address:_________________________________________________________________________________ City_______________________________ State:____ Zip:_________ Phone:________________________ Total Cans of Brittle:____ + S & H (see below) = $______ For gifts fill out the form(s) below. Make checks payable to St. Benedict’s Abbey.

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Send to:________________________________ Address:________________________________ City________________ St:____ Zip:________ Cans of Brittle:____ Week to Ship:____________

To add a personalized card include your note in the envelope.

To add a personalized card include your note in the envelope.

Shipping Costs: 1 Tin

$7.00

1 Tin

$7.00

2nd tin (2 destinations)

$14.00

2 Tins (same destination) $12.00

3rd tin (3 destinations)

$21.00

3 Tins (same destination) $17.00

*Due to changes in shipping rates Benedict’s Brittle will be shipped for $7.00 per tin per location; additional tins to the same location ship at $5.00 per tin. (See chart) For large orders please call 913.360.7906

Join us in Prayer

St. Benedict’s Abbey Men’s Retreat November 4-6, 2011 This weekend retreat offers conferences on Benedictine spirituality.

Participants will enter into the daily prayer lives of the monks.

For more information or to register please call: 913.360.7867 -or - email: mmiller@benedictine.edu Space is limited 19

Kansas Monks things. And now I remember, he told Daniel about the Anointed One – the Christ. So my son has a job to do for the Christ!”

Well, sadly, Zechariah didn’t make the connection. And I wish I could remember the bible scholar who wrote about this narrative, For freedom Christ set us free because it is for precisely these reasons that the Archangel Gabriel There are mornings when it seems like my attention is not waited until the end to say, “I am really focused as it should be as I pray Morning Prayer. I may go Father Gabriel Landis Gabriel!” Maybe Gabriel indigover the psalms, and then stop myself and think, “You did not Pastor - St. Joseph’s and St. nantly rolled his eyes and thought, really pray well this morning.” However, toward the end is the Patrick’s, Atchison “Couldn’t he figure out who I was?”

Canticle of Zechariah, Luke 1:68-79. I sense my heart rising when So for not believing Gabriel’s message, Gabriel says in verse 20; I read his words. It is a prayer of liberation, a prayer of freedom, a “now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these prayer of accepting truth. things take place, because you did But to understand his Canticle not believe my words, which will be we have to back up a bit in Luke. fulfilled at their proper time.”

Zechariah was a priest married to I like to call this time of ZechaElizabeth both of whom were elderly riah his “Pregnant Silence.” At and without children. For years first Zechariah did not believe.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed His punishment gave him time to for a child. But it seemed that their reflect and to pray while Elizabeth prayers were going unanswered. was pregnant with John. In a sense, It was Zechariah’s turn to offer Zechariah had time to reflect on the the incense in the Holy of Holies. lie he had accepted about himself.

This was a great privilege. He walks “I’m too old to have a child. It is in, thinking he is by himself. Yet he not possible.” During his “Pregnant sees an angel standing near the altar Silence,” I have often mused that he of incense. The angel does not idenreexamined this lie that he had swaltify himself. Instead he immediately lowed about himself and came to begins to tell Zechariah that his realize as Gabriel later tells Mary, prayer has been heard by the Lord “For with God, nothing will be and that Elizabeth will bear a son. impossible.” John is born and he lets The angel goes on to tell Zechariah everyone know what his son’s name that he will name him “John.” The will be, he breaks out of his “Pregangel goes on to say in verses 16-17; nant Silence,” finally renounces the “He will turn many of the children lie about things being too impossible of Israel to the Lord their God. He for God. And then he speaks for the will go before him in the spirit and first time in months this beautiful power of Elijah to turn the hearts Canticle of liberation (next page), of fathers toward children and the freedom and accepting God’s truth. disobedient to the understanding of So why did I choose Zechariah to the righteous, to prepare a people fit write about? Because we all can fall for the Lord.” into the trap of accepting lies about But what Zechariah does not ourselves, thinking this is the way believe what the Angel has said. He that it is, when in fact, it is not. I had tells the Angel that he and his wife an “interesting summer” which in are past child-bearing years. So here the end I learned more about myself is what has always intrigued me and my continual need to trust in about Zechariah. He’s a priest. He God and my Community.

During is about to offer up the Sacrifice of Jesus tells us, “Therefore I say to you, all things for the summer, I had my own “PregIncense. He meets an angelic being. which you pray and ask, believe that you have received nant Silence. ” Finally during my soliThis angel is beginning to fulfill an them, and they will be granted you.” Mark 11:24 tary retreat I had to renounce a lot Old Testament prophecy of “anointed one.” It just so happens this of lies about myself which I had swallowed.

I had come to believe prophecy is in Daniel 9:20-25. The angel speaking to Daniel is none things which were not true. For we can all say, “God, what you other than the same angel speaking to Zechariah. With me so far?

So here we have this priest, who some scholars have said want is impossible to do.” We can all be bound and tied and not should have had a little bell ringing in the back of his head. As in, have interior freedom if we do not fully trust in God. When we “You know, what this angel is saying to me sounds familiar. Let become aware of those lies, we need to renounce them. Live in the me think. Oh, the Archangel Gabriel told Daniel some terrifying Truth. “For freedom Christ set us free.” Galatians 5:1.

From The Desert

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The Canticle of Zechariah Blessed be the Lord,The God of Israel; He has come to His people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, Born of the house of His servant David.

Through His holy prophets He promised of old That He would save us from our enemies, From the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers And to remember His holy Covenant.

This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham: To set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship Him without fear, Holy and righteous in His sight All the days of our life.

Fall 2011

You, My child shall be called The prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the Lord to prepare His way, To give his people knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God The dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death, And to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning. is now, and will be forever.

Amen.

Somos Irmãos

we are brothers

We began our second semester of the 2011 school year in August.

Our youngest member Brother Gabriel begins his third semester study Philosophy at the Pontifical University here in Goiânia.

All members of St. Joseph Priory gathered for our annual retreat during the first four days Prior Duane Roy of August. Abbot Paulo de Souza Prior - St. Joseph’s Priory Silva, of St. Gerald´s Abbey in São Paulo, conducted this spiritual exercise with three conferences daily—excellent biblical reflections applied to monastic living.

The monks maintained silence during the retreat. Following the retreat, I convoked meetings of the Senior Council, the Chapter members and subsequently, the whole community. At the Eucharistic celebrations during the retreat we commemorated the three jubilarians of our community: Father Josias – 25 years of priestly ordination; Father Joaquim Carlos – 35 years of monastic profession; and me – 50 years of monastic profession. Each one presided at conventual Mass during the four days. Abbot Paulo celebrated the closing Mass and gave his final conference.

In mid-July we were graced with the visit of 10 junior monks and their abbot, from St. Benedict´s Monastery in São Paulo.

Abbot Mathias Tolentino Braga accompanied his junior monks on a 10-day vacation trip to central Brazil. They visited cities and historical sites: Brasilia, Pirenópolis, Goiás, and Goiânia. They stayed with us for three days. We arranged for them a visit to the Basilica of the Eternal Father near Goiânia, where they were graciously received by the Redemptorist Fathers. The increasing popularity of this Basilica had its apex this year with an estimated 700,000 worshippers at the closing Mass on its feast day – First Sunday of July. They also visited the Museum of the Brazilian Savannah in Goiania, maintained by the local Pontifical University.

Father Vinicius de Queiroz Rezende, a member of our Priory, ordained priest almost three years, accompanied a delegation of about 150 youth from the Midwest of Brazil to World Youth Day, in Madrid, Aug. 16 to 21. He traveled to Spain Aug. 9. The theme of this 26th WYD is a citation from St. Paul: “Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith.” In our Archdiocese, Saturday, Aug. 20, there was an all-night vigil for youth, spiritually united with Pope Benedict and youth gathered in Madrid.

During the economic crisis many lost substantial sums of savings. There are other values we cannot afford to lose. The legacy of our Christian heritage is precious. With the fluctuation of the stock markets, may our faith in God and respect for the dignity of the human person remain unshaken.

And during the fall of life may all of us be enriched with good works, steadfast in charity and strengthened in hope.

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Kansas Monks

in aWord The Following Homily was delivered by Father Aaron Peters on Sept. 15, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Compassion towards the Virgin Mary, in her sorrows, was a notable feature of late medieval piety. Among the so-called flowers of such piety, the Irish in Ireland can claim the beautiful lament known as The Keening of Mary.

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows originated in the 15th century and was designated to be celebrated on Friday after the third Sunday after Easter. Pope St. Pius X established September 15 as the date to observe the feast a hundred years ago. Yet, the celebration was observed on a regular basis beginning with the Servite Order in the 17th century.

It helps us today to relive a decisive moment in the history of salvation when Mary, the great woman of faith, stood resolutely by the cross of her Son. She bore a martyr’s witness: Happy is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who without dying, won the palm of martyrdom beneath the cross of the Lord. Thus states the verse before the Gospel for today’s Mass. Matthew’s Gospel states in the Beatitudes, “Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Mt: 5:4) Christian tradition sees the fulfillment here of the prophecy of Simeon that a sword would pierce Mary’s heart. (Lk 2:35) But her sorrow would be turned into joy. Suffering has

its redemptive value also. “If we suffer with Christ we will be glorified with him,” St. Paul reminds us, and it is our prayer that “we make up in our lives whatever is lacking in the sufferings of Christ” for the good of the Church. (Col. 1:24) In this respect, The Keening of Mary is a perfect reflection and a perfect Irish example. (Below) And so, in celebrating the Sorrow of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we can at the same time rejoice and be glad, for as the Keen concludes, “Happy hundreds shall stray through Paradise Garden” precisely because of the cause of Mother Mary’s sorrow.

THE KEENING OF MARY -

Keening is a form of vocal lament associated with mourning that is traditional in Scotland and Ireland.

Mary: O Peter, O Apostle, my bright love, has they found him?

M’ochoh agus m’ochon, O! (my woe, alas my woe, O!)

Christ: Hush thee, hush thee, Mother, and be not so complaining.

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O!

Peter: Even now in the midst of His foemen I found Him. M’ochon agus m’ochon, O!

Mary: And is this the very hammer that struck the sharp nails thro’ thee?

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! And is this the very spear that thy white side pierced and slew thee?

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! And is this the crown of thorns that thy beauteous head is caging?

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O!

Mary: Come, hither, ye two Marys, and my bright love be keening.

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! The two Mary’s: If His body be not with us, sure our keene had little meaning.

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! Mary: Who is yonder stately Man on the Tree His passion showing?

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! Christ: O Mother, thine on son, can it be thou art not knowing.

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! Mary: And is that the little son whom nine months I was bearing? . M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! And is that the little son in the stall I was caring?

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! And is that the little son this Mary’s breast was draining?

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! 22

Christ: Hush, Mother, for my sake thy sorrow be assuaging.

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! For thy own love’s sake thy cruel sorrow smother!

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! The women of my keening are unborn yet, little Mother!

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! O woman, why weepest thou my death that leads to pardon?

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! Happy hundreds, today, shall stray through Paradise Garden.

M’ochn agus m’ochon, O! * *This keen was transcribed by Patrick H. Pearse from Mary Clancy of Moycullen, who keened it in Gaelic with great horror in her voice, in a low sobbing recitative.

Fall 2011

abbey notes Father Josias da Costa visited Colorado, Atchison and then departed for Philadelphia to visit relatives before flying back to Brazil. He made this trip on the occasion of his 25th anniversary of ordination.

Brother Christopher Start coordinated activities for the BC New Student retreat, Sept. 3, in the church crypt. Sixty-three students participated; they joined the monks for Mass and for Vespers. Six BC student leaders helped Brother Christopher with programming.

Father Marion Charboneau is enrolled in graduate classes at Kansas State University, seeking a doctorate in U.S. History.

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, Fathers Blaine Schultz, Meinrad Miller and Roderic Giller participated in an evening honoring Archbishop Keleher on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Some 50 priests prayed Vespers in the Church of the Ascension in Overland Park on Aug. 31, ate food prepared by Michael Carozzo, and joined Fathers Mark Mertes and Kent O’Connor in musical tributes to Archbishop Keleher.

Brothers Bernard Denson and Josemaría Balderas are enrolled in BC classes this fall. They made first vows in St. Bernard Abbey, Cullman Ala., one year ago. Another young monk who is with us for his final semester of philosophy classes is Brother Damian Cayetano, a member of Christ the King Priory, Schuyler Neb.

Bishop John B. Brungardt ’60, bishop of Dodge City Kan., was the principal celebrant and homilist for the BC Opening School Mass, Aug. 30. Two unique remembrances of his being here were his use of an iPad as he walked in the aisles and sanctuary delivering his “faith and family” homily. Also, he had his BC beanie wrapped into his zucchetto, and turned it inside out at the appropriate time. He delighted the large gathering with his humor and humility.

A group of students from Kansas State University, who are residents of the Chi Rho house there, made a retreat at the Abbey, Aug. 27-28. Prior James and Brother Leven coordinated their activities.

Friends and family members of Brother Leven Harton donated funds to purchase a Eucharistic monstrance that displays a larger host (5 ¾”) for use in the Abbey Church. They have done this in recognition of the solemn vows of Brother Leven in August.

Dr. Robert George, Princeton University professor of jurisprudence, was the Convocation speaker at BC, Aug. 30. He wrote last week: “Earlier this week, I visited Atchison, Kan., to give the annual Convocation Address at Benedictine College. I knew little about the College prior to my visit. Wow, was I impressed! It is a very special place. The institution is suffused with a love of learning.

One senses it among faculty and students alike. It is confident in its Catholic identity and at the same time enthusiastically engaged with the larger intellectual culture. It is attracting excellent applicants and recently enrolled the largest freshman class in its history.

Its leadership is bright, dedicated, deeply faithful, and remarkably youthful. If Benedictine College and schools like it are the future of Catholic higher education in the United States – and I believe they are – then the Church and the world will be very well served indeed.”

Brother Joseph Ryan surveys the Missouri River valley flood from the Abbey Guest House roof. Photo by J.D. Benning

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Kansas Monks

ST. BENEDICT ’ S A BBEY ATCHISON, KANSAS

1020 N. 2nd Street, Atchison, KS 66002 Kansas Monks USPS 290-760

Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID KC, MO Permit No. 6318

Abbey Development Office 913.360.7906 Kansasmonks.org

Fall 2011 | Volume 6 | Number 3

They should first try to show respect to the other.

-Romans 12:10

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Photo by JD Benning