From the Abbot

Hastening to Heaven

Life happens. What is important is how you respond to it. Are the daily ups and downs of monastic life much different from the life of the average family or individual? Of course, the glaring differences are there: we are vowed, celibate men who spend about four hours a day in prayer. (Oh yeah, and I live in a monastery with 40 other men.) However, all in all, life still happens. Members of the family or community have to be places and be doing things that take them out of the “normal” routine of daily life.

Such a departure from normalcy happened recently as our men in formation and their formators spent two days together in recreation and prayer away from the Abbey. This took eleven of our youngest members out of the house for two days. As you can imagine, that changed our daily life dramatically – I shared with the Benedictine College students who joined us for Mass that day, that this, a choir with no young monks, is what the Abbey community would look like if no one had joined the monastery in the past 15 years. Praise be to God that we have had men join in the past 15 years! (More than half of our community is below the age of 55.) However, we have also had two, nine-year periods in our recent history where no one who joined persevered (professed vows).

Now I am not a dooms-day promoter, nor am I exhorting more men to join us to solely boost our numbers – we gratefully accept men whom God is calling to join us. If it is not God’s will, quite honestly, it is best for them and for our community if they don’t join. What I will put forward is that we as a Church, and as a culture, are facing a vocational crisis. Here are some numbers looking at the general vocational decline in the US since 1970:

You might be thinking, “I thought it was a lot worse.” That those numbers aren’t as bad as you thought they would be; down less than 50% for both ordinations and seminarians. This is where the numbers begin to get scary, (if they haven’t scared you already.) This is a case of a trickle-down effect. Some more notable numbers since 1970:

When I say a “trickle-down effect” what I read here is that the real drop in the number of seminarians, priestly ordinations, and the number of consecrated men and women is yet to come. If Catholics are not getting married in the Church, if they aren’t having children and having them baptized in the Church, if the tide of adult conversions is drying up, and Mass attendance is dropping drastically, then where are those future priests and consecrated men and women going to be formed; from where will they come? Our young people – our grade-school and high-school-aged youth – our young people will be formed by the culture rather than in their families. What is our responsibility in this?

What

Annual Priestly Ordinations Religious Sisters Religious Brothers Second Theology Seminarians

In 1970 In 2019 Decline

805 518 37% 160,931 44,117 73% 11,623 3,897 66% 6,602 3,553 46%

What In 1970 In 2019 Decline

Annual Marriages in the Church Annual Infant Baptisms

426,309 143,082 64% 1,089,000 615,119 44% Annual Adult Baptisms 84,534 39,660 53% Percentage of Catholics Attending Sunday Mass 71.3% 21.1% 50.2%

responding to the vocations crisis in the church

For those in their 20s-30s

Discern your vocation! Develop your relationship with God and seek to understand how he speaks to you. Ask him, “God, what plan do you have for my life?” Then be open to listening, be open to each vocational possibility available to a Catholic, Christian young person; If God is calling you to the priestly or consecrated vocation, talk to someone you trust about what you are hearing from God – hold those thoughts and internal promptings up to the accountability of another person. Take it to God in prayer, and if he confirms it in you, respond. If God is calling you to the married vocation, be open to life and encourage your children to be open to any vocation God might have for them; let them know that you would be supportive of a priestly or consecrated religious vocation.

For the Baby Boomers:

You have become the Church’s prayer warriors, (as we all are called to be). However, in a real way you must be the widow that will not stop pleading until her prayers are answered: for your children, grandchildren, and the whole Church and culture – all of which you can encourage in a loving and, as I suggest to parents, non-aggressive manner.

For all of us:

Pray for healthy vocations in the married life and in the priestly and consecrated life. If we think that parents and priests and consecrated religious are able to live healthy vocations without their own prayer lives, and our prayer, let us please check that fantasy at the door.

For Generation X, 35-55 year olds

For my generation, we’ve had our chance to change the culture, and quite honestly, we came up short. The good news; however, is that we can still make an impact. Most of that drop in Mass attendance – 71% to 21% – is our age group and the children of our generation. Our generation had fewer children and we don’t always make them go to church, because our generation isn’t going that much either. What influence can we have on the youth and college-aged men and women of our time? Be active in your parish, and show to our young people the joy of our faith. Encourage your children – in a non-aggressive manner – to be open to any vocation God might have for them; let them know that you would be supportive of a priestly or consecrated religious vocation. A vocation is difficult work!

For us monks:

Prayer is our first and most important opportunity. If we don’t start there, and be faithful to our vocation in that work, to live it in beauty and fidelity, then there is no allurement for men to consider a call to our community. We must be steady in our obedience to one another, holding each other accountable, striving “to be the first to show respect to the other,” (RB 72:4, Rom. 12:10). Being examples to the world of the joy of brotherhood. Invite! Invite young men to consider our way of life, and be examples to them of happy, well-lived vocations as sons of St. Benedict.

I hear your question: Abbot James, if you are the spiritual father of St. Benedict’s Abbey, then what is your direct responsibility? A very good question, a correct one, and thank you for asking. It is my responsibility to see that the Abbey, Benedictine College, and Maur Hill Mount Academy have healthy environments that are supportive of our lives of faith, and the lives of faith of our youth and young adults, so that we/they may encounter God, growing in deeper love of him. It is my responsibility to see to the solid formation of our young men, those monks who will further form the future of the Church through their ministry. It is my responsibility to create a community here at the St. Benedict’s Abbey that allows my brother monks, my sons, to grow in virtue and faith, and ultimately to grow in brotherhood with Christ and with each other. Whose responsibility is it to try and right this ship, to buck these trends? A heavy burden falls on our young adults. They have the most potential to influence their peers, their future families, or chose their future priestly or consecrated vocation – to form the youth of today and the future. In a way they have a clean slate to work with, and from which to venture. With that said, it is all our responsibilities, to buck these trends, to prove the world wrong, for remember, Christ has already conquered the world. And if you are thinking, “God, why me?” Haven’t we all asked that same question? I ask God that question every day, and I know that my response has to be the same every day if I am to respond in faith and in stewarding my vocation: Because you asked me God, because you entrusted me with this community and with the lives and souls of these monks, and because you loved the world so much that you gave your only Son in atonement for our sins, and as our very food and drink. May God grant us the virtues of fortitude and humility, to respond to his promptings and his desires for each of us, the Church, and the world.