Summer 2008
Kansas Monks
Sesquicentennial lesson: Through sacrifice faith will bear fruit Editors Note: St. Benedict’s Abbey hosted the last public celebration of the Sesquicentennial year April 20. The Mass featured a procession of Benedictine College student groups bearing banners and other symbols of their participation in campus life. Along with photographs from that day, included on the following pages is the homily delivered by Prior James Albers, a 1994 Benedictine College graduate.
Left to right, Kate Buchanan, Desirae Jansen, and Rachel Ruhl of the Daughters of the King, were among the representatives of more than 20 student organizations who participated in the procession.
their hearts must have been troubled with the epic charge they had been given in establishing monastic life here in Kansas. Jesus tells us this morning, “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” And so they set out heroically to meet their charge.
Photos by Dan Madden
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” – Jesus’ opening words this morning from our gospel. As we close out this year of celebration – the 150th of our foundation as a monastic community in Northeast Kansas, we come back to the source and summit of our faith: the Eucharist, where we began over 150 years ago on April 27, 1857. When our band of monks – Fr. Henry Lemke, Fr. Augustine Wirth and Fr. Casimir Seitz – arrived in Doniphan, just a few miles north of here,
Elizabeth Lanciotti, a member of the choir, comprised of monks and students, looks on during Mass. A banner from the student Hunger Coalition is displayed along the far wall.
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Father Casimir, newly ordained, the first priest ordained in the territory of Kansas, constructed a simple altar out of four fence posts and two planks so that he could celebrate his first Mass; he set out to inaugurate his monastic, priestly life here in Kansas with his faith in Christ and the Eucharist. Our readings this morning focus us directly and indirectly on this same faith in Christ and the priesthood. In the classical theology of the Church, affirmed again at Vatican II, we know that every baptized person is a priest; we are a holy nation, a people set apart. The ministerial priesthood received at ordination has its own individual character, but each of us by way of our baptism is a priest. So the question comes to us, who’s a priest, and in this common priesthood what are we called to do?
A priest is a mediator between God and human beings; one who offers sacrifices of praise to God and thereby bridges divinity and humanity. Following that idea, a priest is just that, a bridge-builder, a pontifex. Pope Benedict, of course, is the pontifex maximus. His visit to our country this week, his celebration of the Mass today at Yankee Stadium is an outpouring of his responsibility as the ultimate bridge-builder in our Catholic faith. Rooted in the example of Christ and the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict, we who are baptized are bridgebuilders between divinity and humanity. Taking a look at the Old Testament we have a rich background for understanding priesthood in this context. Aaron was the most prominent and founding father of the long line of temple priests. These priests would, on be-
