True professions

Brothers Gregory, Leven take avowed steps

By Dan Madden

Living quietly alongside her son for 30 years, the Virgin Mary was a model disciple whose pattern of life is an example to each Christian, Abbot Barnabas Senecal told two young men making monastic vows at St. Benedict’s Abbey on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

“There is a quiet side to being a Christian,” the Abbot said in his instruction to Brothers Gregory Dulmes and Leven Harton. “It is a pattern of life in which we learn acceptance, in which we learn to listen, in which we learn to be open and not closed.”

He also noted that Mary was a woman who lived in a community in which she gained and gave support. “This is a pattern that every Christian lives,” he said, “within family, within parish and school community, and for some, within religious community.”

Before a full Abbey Church, Brother Gregory professed his solemn vows, a lifetime commitment to St. Benedict’s Abbey. Brother Leven professed first vows, beginning the three-year period of formation before he may ask the community to accept him for solemn vows.

The celebration was the culmination of a weekend in which Abbot Barnabas also received three young men into the Abbey’s novitiate. Nicholas Padley, Adam Wilczak and Stephen Watson entered the one-year novitiate, receiving the monastic names Philip Neri, John Paul and Maurus respectively.

Four-years removed from

Brother Gregory Dulmes, left, and Brother Leven Harton extend their arms in exultation as the entire

monastic community sings the suscipe at the Mass during which they professed their solemn and first

vows, respectively.

his own novitiate entrance, Brother Gregory found the weight of his commitment to be profound. He said the part of the Rite of Profession that struck him was the moment when he lay prostrate on the floor before the altar and his fellow monks covered him in a funeral pall. Following the singing of a lengthy Litany of the Saints by all in attendance, he emerged from beneath the pall to profess his vows.

“This was symbolic of dying to an old way of life and rising to a new one,” Brother Gregory said. “In a sense I had already been doing this by living as a monk, but this was making it permanent.”

Although he noted that formation never really ends, and that a monk is always “developing, growing and praying,” he acknowledged a sense of accomplishment in fulfilling the stages of formation leading up to his profession.

“I’ve now committed my life to Jesus,” he said. “There are a lot of other things I could be doing right now. I could have a wife and children, my own house, a career, but the Lord has offered this and I have accepted it for whatever purpose he has for me.”

Brother Leven’s lifetime commitment remains three years away, but first profession carries its own weight of commitment.

While the novitiate was a serious promise, professing vows is a “whole new ballgame,” he said.

“This is three years of giving myself to God in a way I’ve never done before and constantly examining how to do it better,” Brother Leven said. “But there is also a special grace that comes with it, a special union with God.”

Abbot Barnabas vested each of the professing monks in a new garment. Brother Gregory received the cuculla, a floor-length garment that symbolizes his acceptance as a solemnly professed member of the community. Upon his death, it is the garment in which each monk is buried.

Brother Leven received the traditional hood worn by Benedictines to symbolize his new level of commitment to the community.

Drawing a parallel with a new project on the horizon for Atchison, the Abbot said the celebration of profession is “as important as a new highway bridge is to the life of this city, so persons who build the bridge of our Benedictine community, from its past and present into its future, are welcomed and give us strength.

See more photos on the next page

When he is to be received, he comes before the whole community in the oratory and promises stability, fidelity to monastic life, and obedience... He states his promise in a document “ drawn up in the name of the saints whose relics are there, and of the abbot, who is present. The novice writes out this document himself and puts his mark to it and with his own hand lays it on the altar. After he has put it there, he begins the verse: “Receive me, Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live; do not disappoint me in my hope”... Then the novice prostrates himself at the feet of each monk to ask his prayers, and from that very day he is ” to be counted as one of the community. The Rule of St. Benedict

Bottom: Father Meinrad Miller, left, and Prior James Albers cover Brother Gregory Dulmes with the funeral pall during his profession. He later emerged from beneath the pall, symbolizing his death and resurrection from his previous life to a new life as a monk. Below, Brother Leven Harton reads his vows to Abbot Barnabas Senecal during his simple profession. Brother Jeremy Heppler, foreground, and Father Hugh Keefer look on.

Photos by Dan Madden

Abbey Notes

Prior James Albers, Father Brendan Rolling and Brother Leven Harton particpated in the 10th Annual National FOCUS Student Leadership Conference in Grapevine, Texas, Jan. 2-6, along with 250 Benedictine College students in an estimated crowd of some 4,000.

Brother Gregory Dulmes

was installed as an acolyte during the community Eucharist Dec. 12.

Novices Adam Wilczak

and Stephen Watson have returned to their homes in Topeka, Kan., and Lincoln, Neb, respectively. We have appreciated their time with us as postulants and novices and pray for continued vocational discernment.

Brother Philip Neri Padley

presented two talks on Jan. 26 during break-out sessions at the Men of Valor conference at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kan. His presentations at the ecumenical conference were on protecting your home and family from the invasion of pornography through the internet. Also attending the conference were Prior James

Albers, Father Bruce Swift,

and Brother Leven Harton. lobby of the Guest House, is open after the Sunday 10 a.m. Mass. A line of note cards has been added to the inventory. The cards feature the art work of the late Father Victor Gellhaus and the late Brother Emmanuel Perez, images from the stained-glass windows in the Abbey dining room, and the Charlot fresco in the St. Joseph Chapel of the Abbey Church. Oblate Patty Wolvington and her husband, Bill, prepared packets of these cards for sale.

Father Michael Koller has discovered a trunk in the attic of SS. Peter and Paul rectory that contains possessions of several Benedictine priests who served the parish in years past. We look forward to bringing these materials to our Abbey archives.

VML, an advertising agency in Kansas City, Mo., has generously agreed to work with the Abbey to redesign our Web site. Matt Anthony is the CEO of VML.

Father Blaine Schultz, Abbey guest master, has compiled a report for 2007, which states, “Approximately 638 guests stayed in the Abbey Guest House, almost all were adults—relatives and friends of the community, alumni, friends or job interviewees of Benedictine College, students, Protestant clergymen, and retreatants.”

The Serra Clubs of the Archdiocese of Kansas

City in Kansas now number about 400 members; four separate clubs now consider themselves one. They gave each Archdiocesan seminarian $1,000 for personal use in 2008, and gave the Abbey $2,000 to support our membership. The monies came from the club treasuries, the God’s Little Green Acre program, and from the personal donation of Dick Miller of Kansas City, Mo. Nine monks of the Abbey attended the annual Christmas luncheon Dec. 28 in Lawrence, Kan.

Father Meinrad Miller and Father Matthew Habiger are teaching 2008 Spring courses for the Institute for Religious Studies offered by Benedictine College.

Prior James Albers hosted five young men on a vocation retreat during the weekend of Dec. 7-9. These men participated in the liturgies of novitiate entrance and profession of vows.

Father Marion Charboneau, chaplain at Maur Hill Mount Academy, was pleased to have one of the Abbey’s Tower altars placed on the front edge of the school chapel sanctuary. A frontal piece from the wood altar that had been in this position was used to edge the newly installed stone altar, commemorating the beautiful woodwork which Brother Emmanuel Perez had created decades before. Buck Alberts and Les Burchett were prime movers in this altar project. Tom Wagner did the woodwork.

Father Hugh Keefer fell on the ice at Kansas City International Airport Feb. 8, suffering a broken kneecap. He is back in the Abbey, recovering. He moves about the monastery in a wheel chair, and walks carefully with a walker. Father Hugh, 80, works daily in the Abbey business office, handling posting of accounts, payroll and benefits, and all health insurance paperwork.

Brother Dominic Cason was admitted to Heartland Medical Center in St. Joseph to adjust his medicines and restore normal kidney function. He is diabetic and had been treated for gout in his left foot. He returned to the abbey after a five-day stay at Heartland.

Brother Joseph Ryan will join the St. Benedict’s Ab-

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Invitational Tournament the previous night. I was coaching a confident, happy, lovable team.

Still, here we were, in the final game of our final tournament, with our first opportunity to call ourselves champions. We were playing a talented, well-coached Hyde Elementary School team, known for relentless defense and a frenzied full-court press. Despite our soaring confidence, and my sense of peace, there were bound to be some nerves.

I was blocks from the gym, my mind still grasping for inspiration. Then, as I looked over my shoulder to change lanes, a flash of blue caught my eye from the back seat. Sitting there, a bit wrinkled and torn around the edges was a Summer 2007 issue of Kansas Monks. Smiling back at me from the cover was Father Gilbert Wolters, in his babyphotograph and introduced them to my friend Father Gilbert, a pretty good athlete in his day, who on his 100th birthday was still swimming 10 laps a day, three times a week.

“When Father Gilbert swam a lap he was living in the moment,” I told the boys. “He was thinking only about completing that lap. Then, at the end of each lap, he moved a penny from a pile on the edge of the pool to another pile, and started his next lap.” I told them that for Father Gilbert it wasn’t about trophies, or recognition, it was simply about achieving the next lap.

“That,” I said, “is how I want you boys to approach tonight’s game. Each time down the court you focus on playing defense or doing your job on offense. If you commit a turnover or miss a shot forget about it, and move on to your next task. Just like Father Gilbert moving a penny from one pile to another. If we are

Father Gilbert answers questions from the Cathedral fifth-grade basketball team. Father Gilbert bids farewell to the team, shaking hands with Joseph Madden as Cort Patrick, left, and Alexander Blizzard, await their turn.

blue sweater. The headline: “Father Gilbert: A Hundred Years And Still Afloat.”

Minutes later, I entered the gymnasium, smiling, with the Father Gilbert issue in my hand.

As my appropriately named Ravens gathered around for a pep talk, I held up the cover ahead or behind in the score, you stay focused on what you are doing each time down the court, one lap at a time.”

Usually, as we break huddle to go onto the court, our team yells, “One, two, three, Ravens!” But this time, at the insistence of the boys, we placed our hands on the Kansas Monks cover, on the smiling face of St. Benedict’s oldest monk, and chanted, “One, two, three, Father Gilbert!”

The Ravens missed some shots, and they turned the ball over. But they never looked nervous. At one point when we were a bit out of control, I had to call a time out to calm them down. As they entered the huddle, I quietly said, “Keep moving pennies to the other pile, boys, just keep moving pennies.” They smiled and returned to the court.

Down the stretch, when Hyde turned up the heat, we kept swimming laps. We had a slight lead, but the boys weren’t looking at the scoreboard. In the face of a frenzied press, I proudly watched as our Ravens shook off some initial turnovers and methodically and successfully ran our press breaker.

After the final lap had been swum and the final buzzer had blared, my little band of fifthgraders wore first-place medals around their necks with the same smiles on their faces as Father Gilbert’s on the cover of that magazine I’d retrieved from the back seat of my car.

The day after the tournament final, Jack Schanze, our gangly, hot-shooting forward, went to school and told one of his teachers he had a new hero—Father Gilbert. A week later the team piled into cars and rode to Atchison where they finally got to meet their new inspiration. They presented him with a hooded “Cathedral Basketball” sweatshirt just like they all were wearing. It had been made special for Father Gilbert that very morning by Terry Supple of 1st Street Graphics, after he had heard about the boys’ planned field trip.

Bridging a quintuple-generation gap, the boys asked Father Gilbert about his life growing up in Atchison, about what it was like as a boy swimming in the Missouri River and when he first knew he wanted to be a monk. Then, they all gathered around the 100-year-old priest to pose for a photograph. He held a basketball as they all smiled into the setting sun. When it came time for the Ravens to leave for practice back in St. Joseph, the boys each shook Father Gilbert’s hand and thanked him. He patted each of them on the shoulder and retreated from the twilight chill into the monastery.

He wore his new sweatshirt for the rest of the evening.