Why We Serve

The monks offer their service where they can, these reflections offer a glimpse into their daily labora .

The Aha Moment by Fr. Jeremy Heppler Teach to Wonder by Br. Christopher Start

Why do we serve? I am tempted to give clichéd or pietistic answers. We serve the youth because they are our present and our future. We serve one another, including our confreres, because God asks us to do so. Yes, these are true. But more than anything else, I find moments of realization, the ‘aha’ moments, exciting and inspiring. At Maur Hill-Mount Academy, I serve as the Chaplain. Admittedly, some days it is easier to see the face of Jesus in the students and my co-workers than others. There are times of joy, frustration, and challenge. Yet, the fruit of God’s love is spectacular. Seeing the student have an ‘aha’ moment, understanding why the Church teaches what she does or how to solve a physics problem is very inspiring. Even more so are those opportunities to minister by my witness and presence. I strive to see others, and present myself, authentically, and to help them encounter Jesus by “getting in the mud” with them. Often this encounter occurs through the sacraments where the grace of God leads to the ‘aha’ moment when one deeply comprehends God’s love and mercy. But, it also occurs at sporting events and by merely being present for them. It may sound strange, but even in my role as the Prior of the Abbey, the same moments are the most meaningful to me. I always feel great awe when a monk has a deep realization about his life or his faith. To see him honestly engage his vow of conversion challenges me to more deeply live out my own vows. Being able to encounter the monk where he is in that moment helps me to better see Jesus in the elderly, the young, the sick. Encountering Christ in others and seeing the Holy Spirit at work in both my life and theirs often leads me to the ‘aha’ moment of my need to deepen my relationship with God and to serve well those placed in my care. Teaching middle school is a blessing, far more than it is a challenge. Every day I have the opportunity to spend time with 70 some odd students (and some are quite odd) at one of the most pivotal times in their lives. My students are transitioning from childhood into adolescence. They are gaining the critical and abstract thinking that will guide them in life outside of our Atchison, Catholic schools. At the same time, they retain a child-like ability to enter into the moment. This transition provides a moment when they are keenly looking for insight and guidance—even if they never say those words. The driving force in my classroom is my own wonder and insatiable curiosity about Creation and the strange creature called man. Whether we are studying science, math, religion, I am blown away at how incredible it is that we have been given this amazing world to discover! Not only the outside of the created world, but the interior life of each of us. Wrapping my mind around how a young adolescent thinks is a challenge I relish as I spend countless hours considering how I should construct my classes. Yet, a moment later, I am blindsided by an act of great charity or of thoughtless caprice, reminding me I’ll never quite understand this transitional stage of life. Middle school is a blink of an eye. My students are changing at breakneck speeds into the adults they will one day become. In this small teacher’s part I play in my students’ lives, I try to inspire curiosity, openness to God, and model how a Christian man is supposed to act. The longer I teach, the one constant is how I summed up my approach to teaching when I was earning my education degree: “Teach to wonder.”

Witnessing Growth by Br. Leven Harton Being Surprised by Fr. Gabriel Landis

My favorite assignment as a monk is offering spiritual direction. It is a gift for me to be able to share the Faith and offer to young people a safe place for exploring their relationship with Christ. Even more, however, I am amazed at how frequently my own spiritual life is challenged, how often the Lord addresses me directly within the context of spiritual direction. This experience confirms the truth that evangelization, doing ministry, is a work that is not optional for the Christian. When we begin to witness to our encounter with Christ, we meet Him again, in a new way. And there is no shortage of opportunity for our monks to meet Christ in this way! At Benedictine, so many students have begun to deepen their sense of prayer and seek out assistance in their spiritual growth—more than we can accommodate! So the monks are blessed to be able to supply a number of our priests and brothers in this ministry. By offering it, we help our students grow in their awareness of Christ, and we experience a deepening of our own faith as well! Life with Christ is full of surprises. I started my studies as a seminarian in the year 2000 at St. Vincent Archabbey and Seminary. My friends were a mixture of monks and diocesan seminarians. I entered the seminary with the expectation that I would be ordained to the priesthood and return to live at St. Benedict’s Abbey and serve at the Abbey or Benedictine College. However, my friends at the Seminary repeatedly said, “Br. Gabriel, we think you should serve in a Parish.” I discussed this with my spiritual directors at the seminary, who were themselves Benedictine priests. Much to my surprise they agreed this was the ministry to which that God was calling me. I was ordained in 2004 and my first assignment as a priest was as Associate Pastor of The Church of the Ascension in Overland Park. As I said, life with Christ is full of surprises. One of the first surprises was how much joy I discovered in being part of the lives of parishioners. I often recall the words of Archbishop Naumann during his homilies at the three parishes where I have been installed as a pastor. He said, “There is a privilege in being a priest” in a parish, “not in the sense that the priest is to be placed on a pedestal. Rather, the privilege of being a [parish] priest is that as he serves as Christ in a wide range of situations.” As a parish priest serving for over eleven years, I have shared with families the sorrow of deaths, ranging from an infant to the elderly. I have had the privilege of joyfully sharing in the Sacraments of Baptism and Marriage – more than I’d attempt to count. I have seen the growth of my own spiritual life by hearing confessions and giving spiritual direction. To serve as a parish priest is to receive blessings from God by serving the flock He has entrusted to my care. I am humbled by the trust He has placed in me. Life with Christ is full of surprises, and all surprises are moments of grace.

The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings.

rule of st. beneedict prologue:35

The Learning Curve by Fr. Simon Baker Proclaiming God’s Plan by Fr. Matthew Habiger

There is a steep learning curve in this “school of the Lord’s service!” It is customary to assign newly ordained priests as Associate Pastors to provide them adequate time to adjust to their ontologically changed lifestyle. There is great, time-tested wisdom in this, lest the Church unwittingly facilitate “the blind leading the blind” (cf. Lk 6:39). However, in my case providence has arranged, and Abbot James has asked, that I step into ministry at a sprint. (I might have expected this from an Abbot who made a name for himself as a college sprinter!) To be honest, I could not be happier. In light of our recent celebration of Labor Day I have to admit that I believe I have the best Labora in the world! This is not to say that life in the Apostolate has been easy. It has not. I joined the monastic life in part to pursue the Lord through prayer and poverty. While these are still very present in my new assignment, they have a different appearance than they did when I first entered. As a young monk in formation poverty looked traditional – very few possessions with only the basic essentials to cover my needs. Now as College Chaplain and Junior Master of the monastic community I have two offices and two computers, three email addresses and three phone numbers (including a personal cell phone!). My early monastic life also provided me with ample time for contemplative prayer and reading. Not so anymore! Prayer these days, especially in my earliest time of transition, looks a lot like my former Jesuittrained days of contemplation in action. All of this is precisely why I love to serve. Christ is expanding me and drawing me out of myself through this service. He has also surrounded me with phenomenal men and women who make up for my deficiencies. While there is a steep learning curve in this school, I do not have to navigate it alone. God bless my monastic community and my ministry team. Monks are called to devote their lives to praising God and serving His people. Because of my training as a moral theologian, I have been drawn into some of the pressing issues of our times, defending life at all its stages and strengthening marriage and family life. Recently, I have been asked to help with Benedictine Oblates in Prison. Why are these apostolates so important? Because the needs are so real. We cannot ignore our world’s problems. We must imitate the good Samaritan, and not walk past the wounded and suffering with indifference. Because the clergy and religious are a small percentage of the people of God (.1%), the best service we can provide is to help make people aware of the problems, and set an example. In the case of the life issues, we proclaim the human dignity that every person has. All human life is sacred. It is the role of the laity to implement God’s plan. Marriage and family are very fragile and frail today. People need to rediscover God’s plan for marriage, spousal love, and family. That plan is not well known, nor is it proclaimed from many pulpits. Contraception is a very serious problem that is not being addressed. Fewer people are getting married, and there is a 50% divorce rate among the newly married. Same sex marriage is being equated with biblical marriage. The pulpits must be re-activated to clearly proclaim God’s plan. Men in prison are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives. Many of them never had a father involved in their lives to give them direction and self-discipline. The Oblate Program for Prisoners, begun by the late Fr. Louis Kirby has proven itself to be very beneficial. One quarter of all incarcerated people are located here in this country. “You came to visit me in prison.” We serve God by bringing his Gospel and his plan to the people. There is great personal satisfaction in doing God’s work.