Kansas Monks Winter 2009

WINTER 2009

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KANSAS MONKS

columns

Features:

08 . . . . . . . . Jubilarians monks celebrating anniversaries 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

From the Desert

17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Obl ates 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . in aWord c

f

21 . . . Marked with the sign of Faith 22 . . . . . . a

Grateful Response liturgy & the life of the church

23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Abbey notes

contributing writers: Abbot Barnabas Senecal “Short in stature, great in spirit..”

From the Abbot (3) | in a Word (19) | Abbey Notes (23)

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

Oblates (17)

Father Daniel McCarthy -

“Like weekly reflection on the Sunday scripture readings, parishes groups now gather to reflect on the Church’s response given in the prayers of the Sunday Mass..”

A Grateful Response (22)

Abbot Owen Purcell “It’s all a day at a time” Marked by a Sign of Faith (21)

John Gillcrist -

“I had the spontaneous and humbling realization that I had again been abundantly blessed by God..”

Bundle of Joy (10)

Al Alvarez “Moments of terror fade and what remains is the fond recollection of intensified life.”

A Christmas Story (12)

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6 . . . . Profession Brother Simon Baker learns the beauty of obedience in a year leading up to the profession of simple vows.

Bundle of Joy . . . 10 The process of an international adoption serves as a lesson in humility for a friend of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

12 . . a Christmas Story

An old “Bootstrapper” shares the true meaning of Christmas as he learned it on the battlefields of Europe.

toiling in obedience . . 14 War hero, Truman ghostwriter, professor, scholar, and former President of the Benedictine College Board of Directors publishes memoir.

4........we remember

Eternal rest grant unto him...

Fr. William passes to eternal life.

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: JD Benning (covers), Abbot Barnabas Senecal Kansas Monks magazine is published by the Office of Development.

For a free subscription: 913.360.7897, or development@kansasmonks.org.

From the Abbot

WINTER 2009

They began in June of 1951 when six Sisters arrived; they were Gertrude, Isabel, Memories of Loving Service Teresa, Matilda, In Atchison’s Mount Calvary cemetery there are five graves Virginia and near one another, at the north end of the land as its slopes to the Veronica.

They west. These headstones record the names and dates of death of five succeeded the Benedictine Sisters from Mexico who prepared meals for monks German Franand students in Atchison. Their names are Sister Ana Luisa Avina ciscan Sisters of Martinez (1977, age 36), Sister Ester Valencia (1998, age 84), Sister Hankinson, N.D., Margarita Jaime (1995, age 67), Sister Balvina Medina (2000, age who had served in 83), and Sister Fidelia Aquilar (2006, age 81) the Abbey kitchen These Sisters and scores of others who were members of the since 1936. When Missionary Sisters of Christ the King, the Guadalupanos as they Franciscans first arrived in Atchison, fourteen sisters served the are called, fed us, in body and in spirit. college kitchen and bakery, and five served the monks.

Monks and students have many memories involving these dear The first cooks for the monks were brothers of the Abbey women, short in stature but great in spirit. Since 2002 these Sisters community, from 1857 to 1884. Fink Hall had been completed have not been with us in Atchison. As their membership became in 1883. The kitchen was in the south section of the ground floor less and as they strengthened their mission to education and paro- “since the north section was used as an auditorium, known to old chial ministry, they returned to Mexico and to work in Guate- students as the skating rink.” (The Abbey News, September 1936, mala, Nicaragua, and Vol. 9, N. 9. p. 43).

Mexico and other In the Spring of regions of the U.S. 1884, Abbot Innocent Some of the sisters Wolf asked the Sisters accepted parochial of Mount St. Schowork in Emporia, lastica to take over Kan., and they remain the kitchen which there today. Seven of provided food for the their group retired to Abbey and College a rented private home as both were located in Leavenworth, Kan.; in the same buildthey pray and work, ings. “Sisters Clodesharing their commitscind, Frances, Ida ment to Benedictine and Martha went to community life. be St. Benedict’s first In the fall, the cooks, to establish newly elected Prior- Sr. Enriqueta Valenzuela serves dinner with the help of Sr. Ascuncion Torres and Sr. Susana the long tradition of ess of the Mission- Hernandez. (Left to Right) Photo Courtesy Maur Hill-Mount Academy. hundreds of loaves of ary Sisters, Sister bread and all the other Miguelina Luna, visited the Leavenworth group. I was able to activity which made the kitchen warm and perhaps helped to keep join them for a meal and an hour of enjoyable conversation. We boys in college and novices from wavering too early.” [Sister Mary remembered much. The day we were together, October 22, was the Faith Schuster, O.S.B: Meaning of the Mountain, p. 69] The Atchitenth anniversary of the death of our Father Edwin Watson. son Benedictine Sisters staffed the Abbey kitchen when the monks Father Edwin had given his years of active service to the rebuild- moved into their new building in 1929. The Atchison Sisters ing of Maur Hill Prep School in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the remained in the College and the Abbey until 1936. The Atchison Headmaster who raised money to build six buildings. He was the Benedictines also cooked for the Maur Hill students, from Jan. 3, “guardian angel” of these Sisters and helped them know they were 1920, until 1937. The Benedictines ended their cooking service at appreciated for their work and their kind, thoughtful presence. our schools and for our monks because they were needed to staff Their work at Maur Hill spanned 53 years, beginning in 1949. parish schools.

Abbot Cuthbert McDonald had invited them to Atchison. Madre The Franciscan Sisters from Hankinson, N.D., published a Ester was the first superior and she established a tone of hard work book called “Prairie Praise” in 1978 when they celebrated their and dedicated, simple living. Father Edwin’s building campaign golden jubilee. It provides insight into the years that Sisters of provided them new space for living in the lower level of the cafete- their community did domestic work for the Atchison monks. They ria. They had a private chapel where they celebrated daily Eucha- knew practically no English; the Atchison Benedictine Sisters rist. They kept the kitchen immaculately clean. They received helped them make the transition into a new language; many of the purchased and donated food; they loved the Amino Brothers who Franciscans had come directly from their Dillingen convent in backed their truck to the receiving dock with boxes and crates of Germany in 1936. This group served Maur Hill from 1936 to 1949, “food for the boys.”

St. Benedict’s College from 1936 to 1951, and the Abbey from 1936 The Mexican Sisters also cooked at the Abbey for many years. to 1953.

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KANSAS MONKS “Our first impression was – what are the people living on? The grasshoppers had eaten every living thing that the scorching sun had not dried up. Because it was the beginning of the school year, the football players came two weeks earlier. Sister Adele felt sorry for them when she saw them practicing in their football uniforms because she thought they were all cripples. But Sister Philiberta told her that their deformities were all padding.

“Soon all the students arrived and we were in full swing with no time for homesickness. In spite of the great heat (we were wearing our heavy German habits) and the many difficulties, we were very happy. The tears started rolling only when the good Benedictine Sisters left us. The good appetite of the students, however, revived our spirits, making our work more enjoyable, even though the working conditions were poor.”

Each of these groups of Sisters helped form community.

Students and monks enjoyed the food that was served, the kindness and dedication that was shown, and the time that was spent in conversation. Many stories exist about the food the Sisters provided to the hungry travelers who knocked on the kitchen doors in difficult times.

Sisters who worked in the College lived in a two-story brick structure near the old St. Luke’s art studio. Neither of these buildings still stand. Sisters who cooked for the monks lived in quarters that we now call the Cottage, a series of small rooms where we welcome postulants or other male visitors.

Both the Abbey and Benedictine College today contract with commercial food services. Both employ local cooks and service persons. Sodexho runs the College dining services and Chartwells provides meals for the monks of the Abbey.

The Missionaries of Christ the King were founded by Mother

Josephine Marie Valencia y Rodriguez in Mexico City on May 22, 1930. They are a religious institute with pontifical right, affiliated with the Benedictine Order in 1950 and formed into a Benedictine Confederation in 1972. Pope Paul VI confirmed their evangelical life on August 2, 1975. Their congregation is founded and blessed by Our Lady of Guadalupe for she is the first missionary of Christ the King who brought the Kingdom of Christ to the Mexican nation. In the historical period of religious conflict in Mexico, Mother Josefina Maria Valencia y Rodriquez felt the urgent need to build the Kingdom of God through evangelical action. Her main objective was to reach the poor and the people in need. Their motherhouse is near the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

One of the more recent deaths among the Mexican Sisters was that of Sister Balvina Medina, who died in 2000. At the time of her death she was living and working at Maur Hill. The following paragraphs are from the homily I prepared for her funeral on October 27, 2000, in the Maur Hill School chapel: “Keep firm and immovable, always abounding in energy for the Lord’s work, being sure that in the Lord none of your labor is wasted.” St. Paul to the Corinthians What a wonderful Scriptural reading for this reflection on Sister Balvina’s life. She was a very capable worker, a quiet and capable community member, formed in this manner of life by the grace of the God she loved so very much and by the example of those who shared life with her.

The grace of God was as tangible to her as the cookie dough she worked and divided into circles of goodness. It was as visible as the smiles on the faces of the young people whom she fed. It was as enduring as the commitment of her comrades in Christ, her

Twenty-seven members of the Missionary Sisters of Christ the King gathered in 1999 at Maur Hill Prep to celebrate 50 years of 4 the order’s service to the school. Two brothers of the Weston Priory monastery also joined the celebration. Bernadette Urban of the Maur Hill staff hosted the celebration. The grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe is on the campus grounds.

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photo by Abbot Barnabas Senecal

photo courtesy of Bernadette Urban

Sisters attend the burial of Sr. Balvina.

Murphy, after whom St. Michael’s Cafeteria at Maur Hill is named. These Sisters appreciated their many friends who were generous at the time the school cafeteria was built and gave money in memory of persons to outfit their rooms.

Father Edwin Watson was always solicitous for the Sisters. He had great energy for the work that was Maur Hill. He considered this the Lord’s work. Between Father Edwin and the Sisters there was a most significant bond.

He died on October 22, 1999. Sister Balvina and Father Edwin now know that “none of their labor was wasted.”

Each sought to make the lives of others better. Each sought to provide a family atmosphere where young men could grow into adults and would appreciate the energy, labor and love that others had shown them.

Sister Balvina, we thank your mother and father who gave birth to ten children, you being the eighth. We thank you for your commitment to the Benedictine Sisters of Mexico City. We thank you for your many years of work in Atchison, and for the prayers offered daily in your chapel and privately in your heart.

Sister Fidelia Aguilar is the most recent of the Missionary Sisters of Christ the King to be buried in the Atchison cemetery. She was 81 when she died on Oct. 28, 2006.

We monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey are grateful to the many Guadalupanos who labored here in Atchison. May their community of 180 Sisters prosper today. May young women join them in commitment to community life and service to the Church. We remember the dead in our prayers and in our memories of their loving service.

companion sisters, who were at her side, in health and in sickness, in life and in death.

“Keep firm and immovable.” Sister Balvina gave forty-two years of her life to Benedictine education in Atchison, twenty-five years at St. Benedict’s College and seventeen years at Maur Hill. She was nearly immovable. She stayed in this town. She stayed with this work, this mission to the young.

“Always abounding in energy for the Lord’s work.” St. Benedict had a marvelous appreciation of creation. He felt deep respect for everything. He regarded as equal the tools of the kitchen and the vessels of the altar. Each was an instrument of good work. Each was a means of grace, a joining with the Lord.

Because the work of the Missionary Sisters of Christ the King was work done with one’s hands, in cooking, cleaning and doing laundry, it required daily energy. Energy comes when one is in love with what one is doing and in love with the Person for whom one is doing that work. Sister Balvina expressed her love of the Lord through the energy she brought to her tasks. She expressed her love for the students of the college and the high school, her love for the monks, through her work.

“Be sure that in the Lord none of your labor is wasted.” When one loves another, one never stops doing for the one loved. No labor is considered wasted. No labor is done in a grumbling manner, nor is it done poorly. St. Benedict encouraged men and women whom he instructed to “do all things for the glory of God.” These Missionary Sisters never seek the attention of others. They live together in humility. They live lives of simplicity. They are happy women. They love the things others have given them. Julian Jimenez, whose mother died in the past few days, gave them these wonderful stuffed animals from circuses around the nation. The large St. Bernard dog, another stuffed animal, was given them by Michael photo by Abbot Barnabas Senecal

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, OSB

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The Profession of Brother Simon KANSAS MONKS

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photos by JD Benning

Father Hugh Keefer embraces Brother Simon. A newly professed monk is welcomed into the community by being embraced by each monk.

obedience

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trength, directed toward the common good, rather than personal gain or enhanced reputation; work invested in the good of community; acknowledgement of the gifts of others; and the desire embodied in Mary to know God’s will—these are the traits of a Benedictine community as well as the expectations awaiting a new monk.

So said Abbot Barnabas Senecal as he welcomed Brother Simon Baker Aug. 15 during the young monk’s Mass of Profession. Professing his simple vows in the Abbey Church on the Feast of the Assumption, Brother Simon ended his year-long novitiate, and began a three year period of formation under simple vows, at the end of which he may ask the Abbot’s and the community’s permission to profess solemn, permanent vows.

“We invest ourselves and allow ourselves to grow in community,” the Abbot said. “We acknowledge the strengths of others and seek to be known as one with others. That is what St. Benedict calls us to in his writings about humility. We are mindful of others before ourselves. We are mindful of the presence of the Lord with us and in each of us. That wisdom creates the greatest bond between us and keeps us humble.”

Brother Simon, a graduate of Rockhurst University, came to St. Benedict’s in the footsteps of his brother Luke, who had discerned a monastic vocation at the Abbey four years before.

Luke eventually moved on and is now married and living in Denver, Colo., but Brother Simon hearkens back to his brother’s time at St. Benedict’s for planting the seeds of his own monastic vocation. “Luke and I are really close and I used to come up and visit,” he recalls. During those visits he came to know the Abbey and even established an ongoing spiritual director relationship with Father Bruce Swift, who would eventually become his novice master.

He notes, though, that because Luke discerned his vocation to the priesthood first, he was able to offer his younger brother some sage advice.

“I didn’t know when this priesthood question was going to be answered,” Brother Simon says. “There were so many questions.”

Luke told him, “I think God makes it easy for you.” He told his brother that he doubted God would call him to some unfamiliar place.

Those words led Carl, yet-to-be-named Simon, Baker to follow

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his brother to St. Benedict’s.

“God has a funny way of working, of getting his will done,” he says.

Brother Simon entered the novitiate eagerly.

“I came in really desiring the gift of self to monastic life,” he remembers. He wanted to complete the novitiate year and begin monastic life in earnest.

But he says the greatest lesson was awaiting him in the final days of the novitiate.

“At the end of the year I realized I wasn’t as ready as I thought for monastic life,” he said with a quiet smile. He made his prevows retreat and noted that he felt “less worthy” to make vows. It then occurred to him: that made him more prepared to do so.

“For me it had been more job-oriented. I had a long way to go,” he said.

During the novitiate, Brother Simon says his notions about his abilities and ambitions changed. When he had first thought about priesthood he dreamed of being a parish priest, a teacher, a prison minister or a military chaplain. All of that had become secondary.

“That is the beauty of obedience,” he notes.

“It’s not what do I want to do, but what does God want me to do?

What is most appealing is that when I leave it to God I can be certain that I am doing what matters the most, even if it means nothing to the outside world.”

Brother Simon says he found it fitting that he professed his vows on the Feast of the Assumption. Mary is often cited as the role model for the monk because of her complete obedience to God. “When I was younger I often heard about people with great devotion to our Mother and I wanted that,” Brother Simon says.

“But I didn’t have it. He smiles at the “coincidence” in the location of his pre-vows retreat at Assumption Abbey in Ava, Mo., and feast day upon which he professed his vows.

“Coming here, and praying and discerning have allowed me to develop that devotion,” he says. “She’s the best example of a human being’s gift of self. Why not ask her to show me how to do it?”

Brother Simon, who has a graduate degree in science and math education from Rockhurst, will continue studies in philosophy, theology, and Spanish while continuing his monastic formation.

“May Mary, on this feast of her Assumption into heaven, fill your heart with a desire to know and do God’s will,” Abbot Barnabas said at Brother Simon’s profession... “You promise stability in this community, conversion of life, and obedience to the Rule of Benedict, the abbot and this community. May your personal consciousness of these promises make you firm in your spiritual footing, and make every day a pursuit of a noble goal, that of sharing faith, hope and love in imitation of Jesus Christ, born of a most noble woman, his first disciple, now in Heaven.”

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Jubilarians monks celebrating anniversaries

Father Michael Santa An avid reader, writer, dedicated educator…and we can’t get out of this sentence without mentioning his support of the University of Notre Dame football team…Father Michael Santa celebrated his 25th year of monastic life this year.

Father Michael graduated from St. Benedict’s College in 1952 before departing for distinguished service as a diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. His talents as an educator shone when he served 19 years as administrator and religion instructor at Hayden High School in Topeka. Father Michael was a popular pastor at St. Joseph’s in Shawnee for five years until 1983.

That year he petitioned the Archbishop and the Abbot of St. Benedict’s Abbey to return to Atchison. He entered the Abbey’s novitiate, and a year later he professed vows. That fall he began a tenure as an admired and successful professor in the education department of Benedictine College, which spanned to 1996.

Father Michael, who had earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Emporia State University in 1965, earned his doctorate in educational curriculum and instruction from Kansas State University in 1998.

From 1993 to 2002 he served as prior and from 1996 to 2001 he also served a novice master.

Father Gerard Senecal Perhaps it’s the rural upbringing, or the tempering of daily monastic discipline, but at 80 years old, Father Gerard Senecal is as unbent by more than half century of priestly service as the cottonwood trees that lean into the high prairie winds near his boyhood home of Atwood, Kan. His walk is as fast and vigorous as ever. The homilies are fresh, prescient and direct. Father Gerard was President of Benedictine College following the merger of St. Benedict’s and Mount St. Scholastica Colleges, between 1972 and 1987.

He was director of development at St. Benedict’s Abbey from 1993 to 2003.

He is currently pastor of St. Benedict’s and Sacred Heart parishes in Atchison. Before that he pastored St. Joseph’s and St. Patrick’s parishes, also in Atchison.

Father Gerard graduated from Maur Hill Prep in 1947, professed vows in 1949 and graduated from St. Benedict’s College in 1951. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1954. Father Gerard earned his master’s degree from Michigan State in 1957 and a doctorate from Kansas State in 1963.

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He taught physics at St. Benedict’s College from 1962 until 1970.

Following his stint as president, he served as admissions and development director at Maur Hill before returning to head the Abbey’s fund-raising efforts.

Today, after too many baptisms, weddings and funerals to count, he continues to lean into the wind.

Father Paul Steingreaber After dedicating much of his early monastic life to educating young people at Maur Hill Prep School, Father Paul Steingreaber, now in his 50th year of monastic life, is committed to a solitary life of prayer, meditation and holy reading under the Abbot.

A native of Burlington, Iowa, where he first experienced the Benedictine influence from the pastors stationed there, he journeyed to Atchison for his high school at the school where he would later become an institution. After graduating from Maur Hill in 1956, he attended St. Benedict’s College as a “Hilltopper” student preparing for the priesthood. In the summer of 1958 he entered the novitiate and the following year was professed.

After earning a degree in mathmatics in 1961, Brother Paul continued toward his theology degree at the Abbey, which he earned in 1965, followed by his ordination to the priesthood on May 27 of that year.

Following ordination, Abbot Thomas sent Father Paul to Maur Hill where he would serve for 11 years in various capacities. He taught math and religion and served as freshman, sophomore and junior class dorm prefect, supervising 116 boys.

During the next six summers, he attended St. Louis University, earning a master’s degree in counselor education in 1972, upon which he added guidance counselor to his duties at Maur Hill.

During his time at Maur Hill, Father Paul served as golf coach, swim coach, director of religious education and sophomore class moderator as well as chaperoning dances and announcing baseball and football games. During his final seven years at Maur Hill he served as the school chaplain.

He also improved the golf course that had been built by the late Father Eric Diechtman. Following his time at Maur Hill, Father Paul served for a time as associate pastor at SS. Peter and Paul Parish in Seneca, Kan.

- Other milestone anniversaries Profession 65 Years Fr. Louis Kirby 55 Years Bishop Herbert Hermes 55 Years Fr. Blaine Schultz 55 Years Fr. Albert Hauser 35 Years Br. Martin Burkhard 30 Years Br. Lawrence Bradford 5 Years Fr. Vinicius de Queiroz Rezende 5 Years Br. Kaio Jose Silva Maluf Franco

Ordination 55 Years Fr. Ignatius Smith 55 Years Fr. Gerard Senecal 45 Years Abbot Barnabas Senecal 15 Years Subprior Meinrad Miller 15 Years Fr. Maurice Haefling 5 Years Fr. Rodrigo Perissinotto 5 Years Fr. Gabriel Landis

Anniversary of Election 15 Years Abbot Barnabas Senecal 20 Years Abbot Owen Purcell

St. Benedict’s Abbey presents-

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daily reflections

Online Lectio Visit Kansasmonks.org for daily reflections from the Monks & Oblates of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

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Bundle of Joy –an adoption stor y

by John Gillcrist How many times in my life growing up had my mother told me “God will not be outdone in generosity?” Her words now came back to me and settled peacefully on my heart, completely whisking away my arrogance.

My wife Terry had started the adoption process in earnest two years earlier. She had convinced me, and reluctantly I had agreed that we should adopt a child. She had realized the more obvious that we were blessed in our life and that it was time we started sharing. I, on the other hand, took a more rational approach and analyzed our status in life. We had three healthy, happy, and well adjusted kids, Katie, Patrick and Jim. I had a great job working for a family-owned business, and we had a nice, warm comfortable home. Terry was working as a school nurse, which allowed her to see the kids off to school in the morning, be home with them in the evenings and off on all the same holidays, breaks and summer time.

My career was on track and we had money in the bank. Financially, we were in good shape.

So, rationally, it all made sense. We had a well functioning family and a home to offer to some poor, disadvantaged child. It was our way of giving back, based on those blessings we enjoyed.

Terry did all the “heavy lifting” by checking out adoption agencies, filling out the endless forms and other mundane paperwork, writing family essays and making sure I showed up to the meetings at the right times and places. It was not an easy process and oftentimes led to a dead end, only to start the tedious process all over with some new agency. At one point we had agreed to adopt two brothers from Russia. We received their pictures; two little handsome blonde-haired, blue-eyed angels. The paperwork was near completion and a substantial administrative price had been agreed upon. It was a lot of money, but doable. Dates were set and we were making travel arrangements. Then the Russian agency informed us they were doubling the fee. They had set the hook and were now reeling us in. I was livid. This was extortion plain and simple and I would have no part of it. Terry was heartbroken. She

Abbot Barnabas Senecal and Molly Gillcrist. Abbot Barnabas, who was a parish priest at the time, aided John and Terry Gillcrist in adopting Molly from China 15 years ago.

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argued it was just money and that this must be how the system works. I wouldn’t budge. To hell with them. I was not going to have some Russian mobsters rob me. Terry pleaded with me, but to no avail. This was not how it was supposed to work. This was not how rational people functioned. I was done with the whole process. No more adopting for me!

Terry, however, would not give up. She was heartbroken but determined and in her frustration turned to our parish priest.

We were parishioners at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Overland Park, Kan., and were fortunate to have two monks from St. Benedict’s Abbey assigned to us, Fathers Albert Hauser and Barnabas Senecal. We enjoyed both priests but had developed a closer relationship with Father Barnabas. He was active in the school and the kids adored him. He loved to sing with them and was present at all the school functions. He even participated in the adult three-onthree basketball tournaments, where I quickly discovered his affinity for flagrant fouls. We soon were not surprised by his occasional knock on the door around dinner time. Terry met with Father Barnabas and he patiently listened as she tearfully explained her frustrations with the entire process, including me. Father Barnabas was gentle in conveying that God’s plan was not always simple; however, in spite of the obstacles God was with us every step of the way. He told her that she was doing the right thing and encouraged her not to give up (like I had done so easily). He promised to do a little homework and see what he could do for us. A short time later Father called Terry and told her about a couple in Olathe who had recently returned from China with a baby girl. He asked if we would be interested in meeting with this couple, and, upon Terry’s enthusiastic response, arranged the meeting.

We met with the couple and learned that China enforced a “one child only” policy. That mandate had forced parents to abandon children for fear of onerous government penalties.

Little girls were more readily abandoned than boys because tradition doesn’t allow them to carry on the family name. The result of this heinous law is millions of children are forsaken to orphanages in China, mostly girls, or boys with disabilities. In some cases the result is infanticide. China had recently opened the country to foreign adoptions.

This couple had adopted a baby girl through an organization called “China’s Children” without any problems. .

Terry’s arrival had been delayed by six hours. She had been gone for ten days and had left China 32 hours earlier. I had stayed home to watch the kids and now the three of us along with my mom were at the airport at midnight with flowers and balloons, anxiously awaiting our new arrival. When Terry appeared at the gate she was radiant. Although thoroughly exhausted, she glowed like the mother of a newborn. In her arms was our newest child, Molly, five months old, swaddled and sound asleep. Casting my eyes upon Molly for the first time I had the spontaneous and humbling realization that I had again been …… abundantly blessed by God. Editor’s Note: John Gillcrist, of Overland Park Kansas, is a member of the Friends of St. Benedict’s Abbey.

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From The Desert “With Christ I hang upon the cross”

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t is interesting that the intervals between writing columns for my parish have widened since I became a pastor in 2008.

When I was an associate pastor I normally wrote one about every week. I have been puzzled by this and I have tried to discern the reason.

I think the answer is, as in many things in life, we get clues, or better yet, pieces of a puzzle, where God is slowly trying to show us a picture, but not the whole picture at once. I believe God, at times, wants us to struggle and take more time with the meaning of a clue or piece of the puzzle. Perhaps he wants us to pray over this or that small detail and let him work on our interior desert life, even with something as small as a word, or a phrase.

Struggle—a dictionary defines this as “to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition.” I guess I have been struggling with these clues with strenuous efforts! I know God allows us to grow in holiness through these struggles.

We grow closer to his Son through them. One phrase that I’ve been struggling to receive with deeper meaning, to let it unfold within me, is Pope Pius XII’s translation of Galatians 2:20: “With Christ I hang upon the cross.”

For many years, even before I became a Catholic I have liked Galatians 2:20 which normally reads “I have been crucified with Christ.”

However, these last few months, I have taken this one piece of the puzzle, repeating it, praying over it. Looking at a Crucifix I say, “With Christ I hang upon the cross.”

The crosses Christ gives me as a monk, priest and pastor, they are mine…and I want them! No, I do not particularly enjoy suffering.

Yet I want my crosses because they allow me to hang with Christ.

Such a Union!

“With Christ I hang upon the cross.”

By hanging upon the cross with Christ, I am in a relationship

with a Divine Person—the Son of God. Another clue or piece of the puzzle comes from a comment made by Archbishop Fulton J Sheen in his book, Lift Up Your Hearts. He writes: “[It] is recognition of the healing powers of Him Who is upon the cross.

The human heart that grasps this reality will not concentrate upon his own disease, but on the curative powers of Him Father Gabriel Landis who can cure it.”

With Christ I hang upon the cross so he can cure me of my disease of sin. The Divine Healer hangs upon that cross! My friends, if you wish to be healed of your sins, then Hang upon the cross with Christ!

Archbishop Sheen notes, “The cross is the most inescapable reality of life. If we will not accept it outside of ourselves, to pardon us and to heal, then we will have it on the inside, as frustration and despair. There is an almost unbearable contradiction in human life. These crosspurposes of spirit and senses in our nature are resolved only if we blend our wills with the Divine Will on the cross. There is no other course.”

This leads to another piece of the puzzle which snaps in place with the above. Another phrase I’ve been meditating on comes from Eucharist Prayer III. Right before the Doxology the last words of the prayer are “from whom all Good Things come.” Jesus gives us all good things through his Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, his suffering under the cruel hands of Pilate, his brutal death on the cross.

My sins, your sins, caused this. I might as well have been there hammering the nails in his hands and feet. But yet, we can also be like that centurion who proclaimed “Truly this was the Son of God!” The Son of God from “whom all good things come.” So many apparent paradoxes; by our sins we wounded Christ and we put him to death. Yet we are grateful that he bore our transgressions. And then we seek, and we must seek it, and proclaim, “With Christ I hang upon the cross.”

Praised Be Our Savior Jesus Christ! Now and Always! Amen!

11

KANSAS MONKS

a Christmas Story

by Al Alvarez | S.B.C. ‘68 All my little cherubs bounced around my lap. “Grandpop!

Grandpop! Tell us a Christmas story,” they chimed. “OK? OK?” Nonplussed, I looked out the window at the slightly frosted North Carolina window scene from our warm, comfortable family home. Was there to be an unexpected snow? Would we get that extremely rare white Christmas this year? Hmm? “Well kids…”

It was a long time ago, during that terrible war of my youth— when peace toward men was denied to the entire world. Could it have been more than 50 years?

But to the children I said, “Once upon a time…” with my thoughts actually on a Christmas period—the year of 1944.

Where in snowy Belgium were we? The cruel and relentless foe had surged forth and blown us completely aside! Yes, it was more than 50 years ago. During that dark December, when, as a newly minted corporal, in the backwash of this overrun battlefield, I acquired some strange traveling companions.

Out of a shell-splintered forest emerged “Magnes,” a New Jersey Jew, a young soldier, equally lost from his unit. Upon entering a destroyed village we found “Trios,” a black soldier, a recently arrived replacement to the front.

Seeing that they both looked to me and my two stripes for guidance I said, “Let’s head north.” So off we trudged on a wagon track, in knee-deep snow, following the North Star, stumbling into eerie winter darkness.

We floundered along, stepping in one another’s footsteps— hoping desperately that we were headed toward friendly folk. We needed shelter, our shoes, pants, field jackets and steel helmets were not much good against the ungodly cold. The war may have passed us by for the moment, but this severe weather had settled in and was working against us.

Magnes, out front, suddenly whispered, “I think I see a light!”

“Where?”

“There, to the right!”

A small, blinking beacon in the falling snow. Taking heart, we cautiously stumbled toward it. In the continuing storm, we bumped into a wire fence, a sign of human habitation. There, barely discernable in the dark, was a small farmhouse, covered now with snow, but still a haven in the fierce cold and stinging wind. We silently checked the exterior and the house seemed vacant. We opened the rustic door and entered; no one inside.

Peering around we noted chopped wood and a fireplace. Thank goodness for our Boy Scout training. We scratched up a small fire. Huddling around the small blaze, we slowly worked some life into our frozen limbs and began to consider food. Suddenly, while taking stock of our rations, we became aware of a squeak.

We gazed in unison at a trapdoor in the floor as it began to rise.

We tensed, expecting an enemy. What a relief—and surprise— when a nun emerged from the floorboards.

A sister, dressed in her churchly habit, peeked at us, and then defiantly stared at us, as she stepped forward.

Initially, she may have been frightened by what appeared as three apparitions, enhanced by cellar light. The three of us, dirty,

disheveled, with hood-covered helmets, blackened clothing from campfire smoke, and now soaked from melting snow must have looked like demons from Lucifer’s closet.

However, as more cellar light played on us, she saw helplessness in our dirty, young faces. She focused her gaze at me since the light must have reflected off the crucifix I wore on my helmet band.

“Christian?” she asked. Nervously, respectfully, I replied, “Yes, sister.” My training at parochial school elicited the instantaneous truth. During altar boy training, a sister with her fierce eye brooked only the truth. Any nervousness of the sister in the Belgium farmhouse seemed to ebb as she looked at the others.

Even my Jewish friend asserted, “We’re all Christians, Sister!”

No longer were we fierce warriors—just lost teenagers under the relentless, confident, yet questioning gaze of a domineering Sister of the Order of St. Benedict.

Magnes, my Jewish companion, tried in halting Jersey Yiddish to say, “We are three lost Americanish soldaten.”

Now fully in control, she smiled, assumed a school-marmish manner and asked us if we could help her.

She beckoned us downstairs. We followed somewhat meekly, clumping down the cellar ladder. The room below must have been some kind of animal shelter with shelves on the walls.

The floor was strewn with hay and the air hung with the pungent aroma of ammonia.

In the meager light of a lantern we could make out cows, sheep, pigs, dogs and hear a cacophony of mooing, bleating, and barking. As our eyes adjusted to the light we looked deeper into the dark corners of the cellar and saw human eyes. Moving the lantern about we revealed the coal-smudged faces of children. Literally “Angels with dirty faces,” cowering in fear around a young mother and her newborn child.

Everyone but our nun was nervous in this awkward situation, so everyone started talking at once. Through halting translation the story emerged. Hiding from the war, they had sought shelter here in the dry, warm cellar, but had not eaten in some time. So we three Americans checked our pockets and I came up with an orange. After I peeled it and cut it into sections with my bayonet, the children squealed with delight as orange juice dripped from their lips. Now they wanted to eat the orange skins. Sister “Rose Marie” explained that most of the children had never seen, let alone eaten, an orange since before the war. So they nibbled at the skins and expressed their delight with oohs and aahs.

Sister Rose Marie quietly and firmly halted the yelling and

“I think I see a light!”

12

WINTER 2009

grabbing when Magnes opened a chocolate bar. He wanted to break it into many little sweet portions for all. “No,” said Sister, “We’ll wait until later.” Not to be outdone, Trios, lately arrived from the States, distributed some loose change, mostly copper pennies, to the unceasing delight and amazement of the children.

Sister Rose Marie, now completely in charge, asked us to stoke the fire, gather more wood, arrange more beds and cover the windows to keep out the cold and the prying eyes of the enemy. It crossed my mind that nuns are trained by demanding sergeants.

Now we got ready for bed, but first, the children would have a winter washing and feast. We heated snow in some buckets and poured the hot water in our mess gear. With this we washed many grimy faces and hands, listening to the giggling as one cleaned our own.

Her instructions to her brood were not strange and were easily understood by us adults. “Get in your beds and go to sleep. There is nothing to worry about; the Americans are here.”

We chimed in, “Now for a snack.”

Sister Rose Marie laughed at us, three city boys, as we amateurishly attempted to milk a nonreceptive cow. Our efforts brought many amused glances from our rural audience. Finally, Sister rolled up her sleeves and expertly filled our steel helmets with steaming milk.

We at least assisted by mixing in shavings from chocolate ration bars and in no time served up foamy hot cocoa in our canteen cups.

The frightened mother with her newborn, eagerly sipped her warm cocoa and looked at us with adoring eyes. Someone arranged a bottle of cow’s milk for the baby, but we were too embarrassed to look or find out how she fed her baby.

Suddenly and slowly, we, the American soldiers, and these German ladies and children exchanged more looks.

We knew it was a wondrous moment.

Here were all the children, clean and snug in their blankets of hay and straw, sipping cocoa and clutching their pennies, happy and safe. To top this moment, Sister now led them in singing, thanking us for their beautiful evening. We listened to their German Christmas carols. It was both warm and amazing to recognize that “Silent Night” with German words and accents was the same as we heard it in the States.

As we accompanied them in English, we were transported back to our home towns. Snowy Belgium was snowy Chelsea, Mass. Christmas “here” was Christmas “there.”

Eventually, all were asleep. We assured Sister, by arranging our guard shifts, and the night ground down slowly.

Finally the errant sun broke through the morning clouds.

The new day commenced with promise. The bombardment had quieted and much of the shooting had ceased. It was time to leave, so we said our goodbyes.

We three wise guys quietly marched from that snowy farm house near Bastogne, Belgium. Our trek through the deep snow brought us back to the safety of our lines.

“Grandpop, who was the lady with the baby?”

“Were the children in the cellar really angels?”

“Were you three soldiers following the North Star really the wise men?”

“Was this a Christmas story?”

Like grandfathers all over the land, I mused, smiled, wondered, cleared my throat, stroked their hair—then finally admitted—“I don’t know, children.”

Then I rethought it, “Old soldiers remember ancient battles, but because of the sliding of years the moments of terror fade and what remains is the fond recollection of intensified life, of moments so electric, so bursting, that everything after seems of minor consequence.”

So I answered their question.

“Maybe the Christmas story isn’t about the place and maybe it’s not about the time. Perhaps it’s really about that special spirit of simple goodness; of us gentle folk, during our moments of wonder, just giving of ourselves out of love.

“Good night, my children.”

Lieutenant Colonel Al “Smilin’ Al” Alvarez, a native of Chelsea, Mass., is a World War II veteran who served in the First Infantry Division England that was deployed at “Easy Red” Beach, Omaha, on D-Day, Normandy, the Champagne campaigns, Hurtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge; and Czechoslovakia.

He is a member of the “Bootstrappers” the noted group of veterans who earned their college degrees at St. Benedict’s College following distinguished military service.

A career soldier, Alvarez reenlisted after the War and served in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Greece and Turkey before retiring after 32 years of service, earning the Combat Infantry Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, Special Forces Tab, Distinguished Unit Badge with clusters, French and Beligium Fourrageres and 14 Battle Stars.

He served later as the North Carolina State regional director of human resources before returning to Fort Bragg where he taught management classes to soldiers and served as a radio talk show host and wrote and published military short stories.

He was inducted into the U.S. Army OCS Hall of Fame at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2003. He currently volunteers at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville N.C. He has been married to his wife Florence for 60 years. They have four children and 10 grandchildren.

13

KANSAS MONKS

toiling in obedience the life of a soldier, scholar, student of the Rule

by Dan Madden In a book that honors loyalty, integrity and courage, Dr. Francis Heller, a former University of Kansas law professor, war hero, Harry Truman memoirist, and foundational character in the history of Benedictine College, tells his riveting life story with unsentimental honesty, wry humor and understated dignity.

Steel Helmet and Mortarboard: An Academic in Uncle Sam’s Army is the story of how Heller, as a young officer candidate in the Austrian army in 1938, put himself at risk by refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Had he stayed in Vienna, he would have been arrested by the Gestapo as a supporter of Austrian independence.

But he escaped the country under cover of darkness and eventually made his way to America, where he pursued an academic career that Steel Helmet and Mortarboard is military service interrupted. available on Amazon.com for $18.96 After earning a law degree in 1941, Heller was drafted into the U.S. Army. Assigned to a field artillery unit, he so distinguished himself in the Pacific theater that he received a battlefield commission. He then served in the early months of the occupation of Japan. On one assignment, escorting German nationals back to Europe, he witnessed the horrors at Dachau that he himself had barely managed to escape.

Following the war, Heller resumed his academic career, earning a doctorate and going on to teach at the University of Kansas. But his academic career was temporary. He was recalled to active duty for the Korean War, and later served with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

At a September 21st book signing at the University of Kansas, the 91-year-old Heller punctuated the influence of Benedictine monks on his life and gave a nod to his friendship with the Benedictines of Atchison by asking Abbot Barnabas Senecal to introduce him.

Heller, while teaching at KU, had befriended Abbot Brendan Downey, the future Abbot of St. Benedict’s Abbey, who was teaching religious studies at KU at the time. That friendship eventually led to an unusual invitation. “In the seventies I was asked to serve, as a non alumnus, on a board set up to bring about the merger of two colleges operated by Benedictines in Atchison, about fifty-five miles from my home,” he writes in the preface of his book. Shortly after he accepted the invitation, Abbot Thomas Hartman, who had been elected chairman of the board of directors, was taken ill and resigned. Under the bylaws, Heller was named chairman. He guided Benedictine College through the uncertainties of a merger and remained in the position for the next seven years.

Despite the fact that Heller, who as a boy was formed by Vienna’s Altaussee, one of the top Benedictine schools in Europe, wrote 14

in Abbot Barnabas’ copy of Steel Helmet and Mortarboard: “To Abbot Barnabas for verifying the next-to-last reference in the preface, July 2009. “I was probably closer to Benedictine monks in my late years than I had been in my growing years in Vienna.”

“Father Gerard Senecal was president of Benedictine College at the time,” Abbot Barnabas recalls. “He respected Francis’ understanding of academic institutions and their organization, and Francis was invaluable in establishing structures of governance for the new college.”

In conversation about his life, Heller never ventures far before crediting his Benedictine educators and the principles of the Rule of St. Benedict.

“The monks-teachers at my Benedictine school, were to a man, exemplars of exceptional levels of educational skill,” he writes. “I continue to acclaim how solid my pre-university schooling in Vienna was.”

In describing his old school, he praised its rigorous schedule and demanding curriculum, but more so the depth of learning.

Deferring to an old classmate who went on to a career in the diplomatic service, he noted that the “Scots,” as the transplanted Irish monks who ran the school were called by locals, paid little attention to a family’s religiosity in selecting students.

“By the time I was admitted the majority came from families of basically liberal orientation,” Heller’s friend said. “There were sons of government officials, industrialists, school teachers, salesmen and farmers. What assembled in the first year was a motley crew indeed. But eight years later they had all become ‘Scots.’ That did not mean they were ideologically or politically of one mind. To be a ‘Scot’ meant to have become imbued with a deep humanism that carried with it both tolerance and openness to continuous learning.”

Heller’s ability to find good and beauty in the midst of suffering and violence is evident in his book.

Take one scene that finds him leading a squad of ten men across a range in New Guinea, guns at the ready, expecting sniper fire at any moment.

“The trail had been marked by earlier ambush forces and at first passed through a wooded area that could have been the lower regions of the Alps or the Appalachians,” he writes.

“Almost without warning we came upon a wide clearing. A small lake sat in a meadow full of wild orchids. About a dozen white deer stood in the shallow water, now attentively gazing in the direction of the intruders. I motioned the men behind me to stop as I absorbed the peaceful beauty of the sight. Then a familiar voice beside me said: ‘Some stupid son of a bitch is bound to start shooting.’ It was Corporal Tagozinski, the old-timer who had supervised my early labor details when I had first come to the unit. But it did not take a shot: His voice was enough to scare the animals, which fled with graceful leaps. I was about to scold Targozinski when I saw the almost ecstatic expression on his face. ‘Professor,’ he said, using the nickname he had given me in those early days, ‘That’s the most beautiful thing I ever saw.’ I certainly agreed.”

“Targo,” as Heller would come to affectionately call the Corporal, would be at Heller’s side through much of the war.

Heller volunteered for combat duties despite several offers of administrative assignments that would have matched a person of

WINTER 2009 flash of recognition. ‘Oh, yes, you are the young Austrian who collects stamps. Let me show you some of my own collection,’ and my awe as he proceeded to do just that – the president of the United States showing his stamps to a twenty-three-year-old nobody who was not even a citizen. The others might think only that a president had died. For me FDR was more than that; he had touched me directly and so did his death.”

The second passage comes later in the book when Heller meets a Japanese woman seeking information about her husband, an enemy soldier.

When she named his unit, he knew that it had been annihilated.

“What was I to tell the woman? Was I to lie to her? I told her that I was quite certain that there were no survivors…I also told her that I had been among those who had personally directed the artillery fire that destroyed her husband’s unit.

“She showed no emotion but only bowed and thanked me…

This had been much worse than killing those two soldiers back in New Guinea. But the next day Jimmy Clanton brought me a small plant from the woman which, he said, she asked him to take to me as an expression of thanks for having freed her of great uncertainty.

Now she knew, so I would later come to appreciate, what her role and her place were.”

The epilogue of Heller’s book is “Serendipity or Good Fortune.”

It was through the persistence of a stepmother that he was led to the Benedictines that he so credits for his educational and moral foundation in life.

A friend, wearing the brownshirt of the Nazi party warned him in time for a midnight escape from Austria.

His training with the Austrians as a young man barely out of his teens prepared him for what would be a heroic career in the U.S. Army.

Friendly advice led him to a movie theater to learn English once he arrived in England and later in America.

A dedicated comrade in Targo to watch his back.

A wife, who though she died too young, loved him for lifetime while she was here.

Benedictines awaited him in Kansas to rekindle his love for the Holy Rule.

photo courtesy of the University of Kansas

his intellectual capacities. Though small in stature, he proved up to front-line duties, earning a chest full of medals for heroic and distinguished service under fire, including the Silver Star.

On one patrol, Heller heard shots and saw two of his fellow soldiers drop in front of him. Suddenly he was attacked by two Japanese soldiers, whom he killed in hand-to-hand combat.

Following a vividly written description of the scrape in the book, he recalls Targo at his side.

“I fell down exhausted. Seconds later Targozinski was by my side. He picked me up like a child and carried me back to the shelter of the trees. ‘Professor,’ he said, ‘you aren’t just smart. You are one hell of a soldier.’ I was breathing heavily, and my hands were shaking. It ran through my mind that I had killed two human beings.”

Abbot Barnabas highly recommended the book and said he enjoyed Heller’s distinctive writing style.

“Francis had the courage to respond to urgent danger, in protection of himself and his fellow soldiers,” the Abbot said. “Francis had been offered officer training, but he wanted to be in the artillery. He developed an understanding of artillery, its trajectories and possible impacts. He understood relationships and distances, thus being able to correct and accurately target strategic points and weaponry.”

In The Philippine Islands, Heller’s brilliance with artillery was key to an attack on “Breakneck Ridge.” When his battallion found itself out of position, Heller made adjustments and called in an artillery strike that all but wiped out a Japanese attack.

“This time it took nearly a minute and a half but then the valley exploded,” he writes. “I consulted my tables while the firing continued. Then I ordered a shift that moved the center of the fire a quarter of a mile down the road. The guns continued to pour it on while I ordered further shifts that covered the road for two miles up and down. At last it seemed all movement had come to an end. ‘Cease fire,’ I said. ‘Mission accomplished. Estimate over one hundred trucks, tanks and artillery destroyed. Over.’”

Abbot Barnabas noted two other passages from the book that pointed to Heller’s ability to show respect and compassion.

The first, on page 81, the author’s memory of Franklin Roosevelt’s death.

“FDR was America,” Heller writes. “And now he was gone. But for me he was more than a distant figure.

I remembered hearing him give the commencement address at the University of Virginia in 1940…I recalled seeing him in an easy chair in his son’s living room in Charlottesville (FDR Jr. had been a year ahead of me in law school), laughing uproariously as he entertained the small group of law students his son had assembled, presumably to serve as entertainment for his illustrious father. I saw myself with FDR Jr. in the Oval Room of the White House and the president’s

15

KANSAS MONKS And one day, a telephone call out of the blue led him to the job of a lifetime, ghost-writing the memoirs of President Harry Truman, a man whom Dr. Francis Heller grew to like very much.

In his slender volume, Steel Helmet and Mortar Board, Heller tells his story very well, without wasting word one.

Former Kansas Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum says, “From Vienna, to the University of Kansas, with some 25 years of dedicated service to the United States Army in between, Professor Heller has led the reader on a very special course in American history…a fascinating read.”

Heller asks the reader that last question about his life: Serendipity or Good Fortune?

To come up with an answer one has to read the book.

As to the answer to the question: Serendipity or Good Fortune?

Like a good student of St. Benedict, he finds joy in the search.

photo courtesy of the University of Kansas

Ways to give to St. Benedict’s Abbey Please remember the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey in your end-of-year giving We are humbled and grateful by the partnership of service between our monastic community and the many friends and benefactors who join with us in prayer and financial support.

There are several ways to support the good works of the St. Benedict’s Abbey.

A Gift of Cash Cash gifts are the easiest and often times the simplest way of making a gift.

You may choose any of the following methods • Paypal • Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard) • Electronic Fund Transfer • Check Another option is to extend your cash gift option over time with a pledge, which includes a down payment and schedule payments of your choosing.

Gifts of Appreciated Property Gifts of appreciated property held for more than one year, such as real estate, common stock, mutual funds, bonds, IRAs or retirement plans, offer significant advantages to the donor.

Charitable Gift Annuities In exchange for your gift of cash, securities or other property, we will 16

provide you and/or a named beneficiary an annual fixed annuity payment for life.

Charitable Remainder Trusts You may establish a significant gift in the form of a charitable remainder trust that can provide a substantial income to you during your lifetime and, if you choose, during the life of a named beneficiary.

Charitable Bequests A gift in your will is an excellent way to support St. Benedict’s Abbey, one of its endowments, or to create a new endowment.

Life Insurance Many times an old life insurance policy is no longer needed. Simply name the Abbey as a beneficiary. You could also name the Abbey as the owner and beneficiary of a new policy.

A group of monks, led by Father Donald Redmond, recently completed a landscaping project in one of the Abbey Courtyards.

Obl ates Christmas Conversion

Writing this column in November for a Christmas issue has been a challenge, as I have always been most vehement about not doing Christmas things before Christmas. Life proves again and again one should not make statements with such authority. Anyway I have been thinking about Christmas for the last few days. I have come up with a word for Christmas this year and it is “conversion.”

Christ’s birth really needs to be a conversion experience in our lives. It is so easy to say that Christ has been born in time and born again each Christmas, but what has this birth done for us in our very lives?

I would like to share a couple of stories from my own life that I believe could help bring about a type of conversion.

The first story is about my Aunt Dorothy, who was married to one of my mother’s brothers. The story goes that she kept a record book of all gifts received and the worth of each of those gifts—at Christmas and other occasions. The next time she gave a gift back she would give one of a slightly higher value. If the following year a gift came from the same giver of lesser value she would accordingly give something of less value. It must have been quite a bookkeeping ordeal.

How does this apply to our Christmas conversion? I think that many times we may give a gift and not likewise receive one in return. We may then decide not to give a gift to that person again.

It may be something as simple as a Christmas card and we don’t send one the next year. Does all of this really mean that we give gifts and send cards because we want something in return? A gift is something freely given because of love and friendship.

Did Christ come into the world to merely be present to those who respond

WINTER 2009 to him? Christ came for everyone and if we are trying to be Christ to others then our gifts and tokens of love and friendship must be freely given, unconditionally. I am not saying that we should not be happy when we receive, but should we give with reciprocal expectations?

My other thoughts stem from how Christmas is celeBrother John Peto brated in our culture. Here Director of Oblates in the monastery we don’t decorate until Christmas Eve, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have Christmas parties prior to the night before Christmas. Each year the health workers here at the abbey ask me about a Christmas party for the monks and other employees of the abbey. I always plead for something during the octave of Christmas and only once did I succeed in that request.

As many of you may know I lived in England until I was twelve and I recall the wonderful tradition at the school I attended. We heard nothing about Christmas parties before we went home for the Christmas holiday. We knew that on the last day of class our Christmas party day would be announced. It was usually the feast of St. John, Dec. 27. That day we returned to school in the afternoon for a grand celebration.

I know what I am saying may not be realistic after generations of doing things the way we’ve done them here, but maybe we could in our own families try to make more special the time of celebration during the true days of Christmas. Advent is a time of preparation. Let us write our cards, wrap our gifts, cook our Christmas treats and say our prayers of anticipation during the holy season of Advent and try to fill our hearts with gratitude for a loving God who shared his very life with us so many years ago and will again share it this Christmas day.

Let us pray for some kind of conversion this year and if the mail is slow in getting this to you think about it for 2010.

I am very happy to announce that some of our oblates will be involved in writing daily reflections to be posted on the Abbey’s web site. Monks and oblates became involved in this the first Sunday of Advent. Enjoy.

God’s richest blessings to all of you this Christmas.

John Peto, O.S.B.

- Have you ever considered becoming an Oblate of St. Benedict?

- Does it mean I make vows? Do I have more prayers to say? Does it cost money?

- Do I have to make radical life changes?

Come and see or contact me, Br. John Peto, jpeto@kansasmonks.org 913-360-7896 17

KANSAS MONKS

we remember...

Father William Thompson, J.C.D., (April 2, 1918-May 30, 2009) died May 30, as the monks were praying Vigils for Pentecost.

Father William had been fortified by the sacraments and the prayers of his brother monks.

Father William was born on April 2, 1918, in Eaton, Colo., the son of the late William and Louis (Livers) Thompson. After attending grade school in Pueblo, Father William entered the Abbey School in Canon City Colorado for his 8th grade year. He continued his studies at the Abbey school through his first two years of college.

After completing his novitiate, 1938-39, Father William professed his monastic vows as a monk of Holy Cross Abbey in Canon City, Colorado on Aug. 31, 1939. He spent the next two years at St. Benedict’s College in Atchison completing his college degree.

From 1941-1945, Father William completed his theological studies in preparation for the priesthood at the Holy Cross Abbey School of Theology. During his Deacon year he was Headmaster of the Abbey School in Canon City for several months, and also served during the war years as a football, basketball, and boxing coach at the Abbey School. He was ordained a priest on May 17, 1944. In the the 1946-47 academic year he was sent to Atchison, Kan., where he taught philosophy at St. Benedict’s and Mount St. Scholastica Colleges.

From 1948 until 1952 Father William studied Canon Law at Louvain in Belgium where he earned his Doctorate of Canon Law (J.C.D.) Upon returning to the Abbey he taught Canon Law in the Holy Cross School of Theology from 1952-1964. In 1956 he had a canonical book published by the St. Meinrad Press entitled Quasi-Domicile.

In addition to his work as a Canon lawyer, p h i l o s o p hy, theology, and Latin teacher, Father William served faithfully as Prior, Procurator, Director 18

of Clerics, Vocation Director, teacher, and coach, He also served in parishes in Cañon City, Pueblo, and Boulder. In the latter years of his time in Cañon City he faithfully maintained the Abbey museum at Holy Cross With the closing of Holy Cross Abbey, Father William requested to be accepted as a member of St. Benedict’s Abbey. On March 21, 2006, the Feast of Saint Benedict, Abbot Barnabas officially decreed that Father William’s stability was transferred to St. Benedict’s Abbey. His years here, though brief, have taught us well how to appreciate the daily life in the monastery. His pleasant smile, and cheerful way will leave a lasting mark.

The following is an excerpt from Abbot Barnabas Senecal’s homily from the Funeral Mass of Father William Thompson. For the full homily, please see our Web site at www.kansasmonks.org.

Father William probably thought a lot about what heaven would be like. He might have considered heaven to be a great Indian powwow, a place of dance and ritual, enjoyed by thousands, a gathering of men and women very proud of their heritage...

He might have seen it as a convention of canon lawyers, their profession no longer needed in the presence of the Lord. They helped many of the faithful to lead good lives and would enjoy meeting these folks.

Father William could well have imagined heaven to be a chapter meeting of monks, men who had been bound together in community through a love of teaching and preaching...

Father William might have thought about heaven in terms of gathering around him all those who came to Holy Cross in the summer time to participate in the Biblical-Liturgical Institutes that he planned and so enjoyed...

Whatever he thought about heaven, I think he was ready to go there last Saturday. Brother John called mid-afternoon saying he thought Father William ought to be anointed. I said, “Do you mean after Vespers?” “No, I mean now.” Five monks gathered for the anointing. As we finished, Father William raised his left arm and gave a brief wave. It was a good-bye. He was soon to be on his way. It was a gentle gesture, from a man whose manner was always gentle.

Brother Jeremy began his homily last Sunday with this word: “Smile.” It was his way of blending together what he had heard through the day on Saturday, the day of his ordination to the diaconate, and news of the death of Father William. What he most remembered and valued about Father William was his smile. It was Father William’s way of relating to us, practically every day. His gentleness came through in that smile...

Word

in a

The following homily was delivered by Abbot Barnabas Senecal at St. Benedict’s Abbey Church at the student mass on, November 8, 2009 the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

What we give up makes us rich “There is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug.”

We know that there are times when something of seemingly little value becomes a thing of great value.

In November of 2006, ballot counters in Florida were working with absentee ballots. A worker opening an envelope that had been mailed in noticed something peculiar about a stamp that had been used.

The airplane in the center of the stamp had been printed upside down. He knew this was a rare stamp. There were only 100 “Inverted Jenny’s” printed in 1918 and these did get into circulation.

All but five or six of them had been traced.

One of the Inverted Jenny stamps had been sold in mint condition in 2005 for $525,000. A block of four sold for $2.9 million, also in 2005. The stamp was a 24-cent stamp, the first airmail stamp, depicting a Curtiss JN-4 World War I trainer. Because it was printed in two colors, red and blue, each sheet went through the press twice. One 100- stamp sheet had been unwittingly turned around, causing the airplane to be printed upside down.

The stamp on the Florida ballot could not be returned to the sender because neither a return address nor the identity of the voter was known. The stamp became public property.

We probably know other stories of things of apparent limited value that later became things of great value.

The reading from 1 Kings and the reading from Mark’s Gospel are two stories about items of small worth that increase in value as they are given away. The small amount of oil and of flour increased so that the lady and her son had food for a full year. The two small coins of the widow did not multiply but became a much-valued example of giving. I make these notes of identity and of comparison in the two stories.

Both women go unnamed. Both women share from the little that they possess. Both women endanger their very lives by giving

WINTER 2009 what they have.

A prophet, Elijah, makes a request for assistance in one. Jesus only watches what the woman chooses to do in the other. There is an implied request, a kind of expectation that didn’t require an ask.

One story relates to a home where the woman Abbot Barnabas Senecal dwells with her son. The other relates to the temple where many people come.

One is a story of a passerby, a prophet, asking to share in the little water and flour the woman possessed. It is about physical nourishment to survive. The other story may be seen as a teaching about spiritual nourishment, not about temple worship itself but about the spirit in which people live out an idea of importance.

Men in long robes are not more important than a simple woman who gives her only two coins that the temple might remain open.

One is a story of simple sharing. The other is a story that strikes a comparison between congregational officials who make a display of their importance and who take money from poor people in a way that leaves them even homeless. “They devour the homes of the widows.” A sharing that is forced.

One is of a sharing that nourishes immediately. Elijah was fed and so were the lady and her son. The other is of a sharing that gives nobility to the giver and should shame the miserly. This second story does not give physical nourishment; it didn’t even earn words of explicit praise from Jesus. Mark depicts Jesus as making a point to his disciples, that the scribes are making demands that are too self-centered.

“Even the poorest are made to feel they are obligated to give what they have.”

We are called to support the prophets among us. We, too, will be fed for another year. We must never create an environment where folks are asked to contribute beyond their means, or give to causes that lead to arrogance on the part of those administering the funds. May we rejoice with those who are generous and use well any resources we have.

Henry Ward Beecher was a 19th century writer, clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist and speaker. In one of his many popular quotations he said, “It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.”

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KANSAS MONKS

Thanksgiving Thoughts

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hanksgiving is my favorite time of the year. We clean the house from top to bottom and I even take a week off from work to do all of my baking. I get all excited about my family coming to my house for our yearly Thanksgiving dinner and seeing all the new additions.

I have so many reasons to be thankful but each day, pulling into the parking lot of St. Benedict’s Abbey is one of the biggest.

Thirty-four years ago, as a single parent, I went looking for a job. I had worked for Richard Dyer at Dyer’s Honey Fried Chicken for three years, but it was closing and I was going to be without a job. He would stay open late to serve the St. Benedict’s College athletic teams when they returned to town after road games. When one of the coaches found out I needed a new job he suggested the college.

I’ll never forget that day applying at the business office. Father Hugh Keefer was the Business Manager at the time, and the position was secretary in the Maintenance Department. I took the typing test, the director interviewed me and later that morning Father Hugh called and said, if I were still interested, to report to work on Thursday. I told him that I would be there and we hung up. As I was dancing around my kitchen, hugging my 3-year-old daughter, the phone rang again and it was Father Hugh. My heart fell through the floor because I knew he had changed his mind.

But what he asked was if my little girl and I had enough money to get by until the first payday, which would be more than two weeks away. I was too stunned to think. I stammered, “I think so.”

He told me that if I needed money before then to come see him and he would work something out.

When the college had to switch from two campuses to one, my position of 13 years was eliminated; therefore, I was once again out of a job. But through the grace of God, David McGarry (an alumnus of BC) and Father Maurice Haefling, Sandy Fitzmaurice who was then the Business Manager, I transferred to the Business Office and stayed there for the next 20 years.

I loved working for the college. The students, professors, and my co-workers were all a major part of my life. But when a position came up in the Abbey Office of Development I took it. It was like coming home, and in a comforting twist, it was Father Maurice who had the final say on my hiring and Father Hugh who once again filled out my paper work. The memories of all of the different monks who have touched my heart will never be forgotten and when I drive into Atchison from Missouri, especially at night, I look for the Abbey lights on the bluff. Sometimes you can see them even in the fog and they are like a beacon leading me home.

We all have so much to be thankful for, but how many of us really say thank you to the most important person of all­—God! I know that monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey do every day—several times a day—without missing a beat.

And for that I am grateful.

Christopher Start, Vincent Henningsgaard, and Father James Dean have been accepted by the Abbey Chapter as candidates for the novitiate. They have been postulants since August. They began a novitate of a year and one day on December 7.

Upon completion of the novitate, they may petition the Abbot and the community to profess simple vows. They will be under the care of Father Bruce Swift, novice master.

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c

f

Marked with the sign of Faith

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Brother Andrew Allerman 1841-1914

he life of Brother Andrew is a saga in and of itself. He was born in Westphalia, Germany, in 1841, received his schooling in his hometown and learned the art of the cabinetmaker.

At the invitation of the Missionary Apostolic of Sweden he was the superintendent of an industrial school for boys until April 1869. He returned to Germany and became a traveling cabinetmaker apprentice.

One day he was sitting at an inn in Hamburg and read in a paper there that a ship was about to leave for America. He had the money, bought a ticket, and landed in Baltimore, Md. In a Catholic paper there he read a description of the life of a lay brother at St. Benedict’s Abbey written by Prior Louis Mary Fink. The same prior welcomed him to the Priory on the corner of Second and Division in September of 1869.

Brother Andrew soon learned many trades besides that of carpenter. In 1876 Prior Oswald Moosmueller asked him to be among the founders of what was to be a foundation of the Priory called Monte Cassino, near present day Ashland, Kan. The choice of location was not a wise one. That coupled with increased demands in Atchison, brought Brother Andrew back home.

Brother Andrew in what seemed to be a pattern of all his monastic life put his whole heart and soul into the brothers’ daily schedule and into any work that would benefit the community. He was a handyman of all kinds both in common tasks and specialized ones. He died as a result of stomach ulcers at St. Margaret’s Hospital, Kansas City, Kan., the day after the feast of St. Andrew.

FF

Father Alphonse Filian 1861-1941

ather Alphonse was born in Bavaria and came to Des Moines, Iowa, when he was 21 years of age. There he became acquainted with the Benedictines of Atchison and entered the community in 1884. As he was studying for the priesthood he also taught German, French and Latin at St. Benedict’s College. He was ordained in 1889 and was sent to St. Catherine’s Boarding and Industrial School for Indian boys at Santa Fe, N.M. Father Alphonse was assistant pastor at St. Benedict’s Church, Atchison, and later at St. John’s, Burlington, Iowa, where he succeeded Father Timothy Luber.

Father Alphonse was called to Atchison to be novice master in 1904, only to return to Burlington a year later until 1907. For the next 25 years he resided at the abbey, ministered at various abbey missions like Doniphan, White Cloud, and Perrin, Mo. He later taught foreign language in addition to theology to the diocesan divinity students at St. Benedict’s College. He was for many years confessor at Mount St. Scholastica, Atchison.

Father Alphonse was an ardent stamp collector and helped increase the value of the Abbey collection.

Editor’s Note: Abbot Owen Purcell is at work compiling a necrology of St. Benedict’s Abbey, a volume of profiles on the deceased members of the Abbey. This document offers a thorough and entertaining look into the history of the Abbey, one monk at a time. If you have a comment e-mail Abbot Owen: ojposb@yahoo.com.

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KANSAS MONKS

a Grateful Response liturgy & the life of the church

A Kansas Benedictine Wonder The wondrous celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours at St. Benedict’s Abbey, like that at Mount St. Scholastica Monastery, represents our own blend of ancient traditions lived today.

Before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) the Liturgy of the Hours comprised seven daily prayer times and an eighth during the night. The lay brothers of our community, however, not trained in Latin, prayed three rosaries daily in the old recreation room, which doubled as a chapel, before they adopted a Latin-English version of the day hours used by the lay brothers at St. Meinrad Archabbey.

After the Council many Benedictine communities of men like our own were eager to integrate the lay brothers and priests into one praying community, but this could be achieved only in English.

These communities appealed to the then Abbot Primate, Rembert Weakland. With his indult each house developed its own Liturgy of the Hours well in advance of the universal liturgical renewal. As a result many Benedictine monasteries in America today preserve their own way of celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours.

I realized the uniqueness of our liturgical tradition only when I arrived for studies at Sant’Anselmo. The monastic communities in Italy waited for the universal practice to develop, and then each community chose which options it would follow. At Sant’Anselmo we are still using the pre-conciliar Monastic Antiphonal from Solesmes Abbey, France, because more than 40 years after the council they have not yet produced the first full set of books for the monastic celebration in Latin with Gregorian chant. I am glad that in Kansas we are not still waiting to pray together.

In Atchison we initially produced a spiral bound green-book and supplemented it with sheets of paper, which became so cumbersome that we eventually undertook to revise our Liturgy of the Hours. I was a young monk when Abbot Ralph commissioned the committee directed by the late Father Emeric in collaboration with Fathers Blaine, Aaron, Hugh and then Father Joe. Their initial efforts, maintained by our attentive recitation of the liturgy, have proven their lasting value.

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We chose to use The Grail version of the Psalter because the rhythmic cadences of each line, indicated by accent marks, assists our recitation in unison. Then the whole community undertook the task of relearning how to recite the psalms, this time according to the cadence of each line.

I am grateful that we also Father Daniel McCarthy observe a timed period of silence after each psalm and reading.

Only when the length of our silence is predictable can I set my internal clock to observe a moment of personal reflection. The repeated cadence of a psalm followed by silence punctuates the liturgy, just as the accented lines of each psalm are followed by a breath.

A similar rhythmic cadence between word and silence also occurs during the celebration of the Liturgy of the Word at Mass, if a moment of silence adequate for personal reflection follows each reading. Shared silence, regrettably, is antithetical to large assemblies and so requires learning, just as we monks had to learn how to recite the Psalms according to a new cadence.

The alternation between sound and silence is also part of the monastic practice of lectio divina. It begins with reading a passage of scripture, then pausing for personal reflection. Next, from our reflection on the word we offer a prayer, followed by an appreciation of the encounter with God in word, reflection and prayer.

This pattern of reflective reading also structures the Liturgy of the Word at Mass. We proclaim the Word of God, and then the assembly pauses for personal reflection. This personal reflection leads to shared reflection in the homily. The church’s response is provided in the responsorial psalm, the creed, the prayers of the faithful and the eucharistic prayer.

Since Vatican II many people have benefited from shared reflection on the Scriptures in groups like the Little Rock Bible Study. Others gather to prepare for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist by reflecting on the scriptural passages proclaimed from the Lectionary each Sunday. But if the reflective reading that structures the Liturgy of the Word at each Mass and that structures our celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours is to lead to a moment of prayer and an appreciation of the encounter with God, then I suggest that we reflect on the church’s prayer as well.

To this end I have begun to develop with Father James Leachman of Ealing Abbey, London, a series of reflections on the prayers assigned to each Sunday of the annual liturgical cycle. The opening prayer establishes our ecclesial identity as the body of Christ.

The prayer over the gifts and the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer express the divine-human exchange of gifts according to which we offer bread and wine as representatives of our self-offering to God, who in turn offers the body and blood of Christ, which we receive in communion, who are received by him. The prayer after communion prepares us to conduct our daily lives in accord with this mystery.

Several parish Appreciating the Liturgy pilot groups are testing this new form of reflecting on the prayers of the Sunday liturgy.

These groups will gather weekly this Advent and Christmas in London, England, Omaha, Neb. and Ashland, Ore. As I remember my Father often saying, “I’m going to Little Rock tonight”, my hope is that one day people will say, “I’m going to Appreciate the Liturgy tonight”.

abbey notes Father Meinrad Miller was elected by the Abbey Chapter on Nov. 3 to be our delegate to the American Cassinese Congregation General Chapter at St. Bernard Abbey, Cullman, Ala. June 13-18, 2010. Prior James Albers is the alternate.

Father Brendan Rolling accompanied a group of BC students on a Trek to the Rockies retreat over Fall Break. He participated in a conference at Notre Dame, Nov. 12-15, at the University’s Center for Continuing Education.

Father Hugh Keefer continues his role as chaplain to the BC men’s basketball team. He offered Mass with the team in the St. Joseph chapel in the Abbey Church crypt, Oct. 14. He prays with the team before home games and sits on the bench with the team.

Abbot Owen Purcell is praying with the University of St. Mary men’s basketball team before home games in Leavenworth; he had been asked by the University Dean of Students to establish a relationship with male students of the University when he began work there in January. He will be with the team when they travel to Atchison for the Jan. 4 game against Benedictine.

Father Aaron Peters is serving as our computer maintenance person and as tailor of monastic habits, particularly for the three who will enter the novitiate in December.

Father Matthew Habiger conducted a parish CCC Mission at St. Philip the Apostle Parish, Statesville, NC, Nov. 7-11. He also offered an NFP Mass in Spanish.

WINTER 2009 Father Meinrad Miller gave a Men’s Retreat at the Abbey. More than 20 attended. He gave a seminar on the Eucharist to Blessed Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity from the United States preparing for Solemn Vows in Washington, D.C., Nov. 22-27.

Father Daniel McCarthy and Father James Leachman are calling a day colloquium on Jan. 6, 2010, to be held in Milwaukee, Wis., to precede the meetings of the Catholic Academy of Liturgy and the North American Academy of Liturgy.

Prior James Albers made a presentation on monastic life and history to a class of students at Mid-America Nazarene University, Oct. 22.

Prior James, Brother Leven Harton and Brother Simon Baker drove to Manhattan, Kan., to make a presentation on monastic life to students of the Chi Rho house at Kansas State University, Oct. 25.

Father Hugh Keefer and Abbot Barnabas Senecal participated in an oral history project being carried out by students in a University of Kansas Religious Studies class. The objective of the interviews is to record stories of faith practices of people of Kansas. Ben Nelson of Topeka came to interview Father Hugh and Abbot Barnabas.

St. Joseph’s Priory in Brazil has accepted four postulants to begin novitiate in December. Brother Diego Neves Oliveira was accepted for Solemn Vows in the community, and he will make these vows, also, in December. Two candidates were accepted and they will begin training with the monks in Mineiros.

The monks hosted priests from the Archdiocese for vespers and dinner, Oct. 20. This event is a tradition dating back 137 years.

Lay employees of the Abbey were invited to a Sunday evening meal, Oct. 25. Recognition was given to Jeanine Weinmann (25 years), Chuck Coleman (20), Barb Repetto (15), Jackie Bowen (10), Linda Ellis (5), and Jesse Coleman (5). Father Donald Redmond, Chris Start and Vincent Henningsgaard spent considerable hours preparing the meal served that evening.

Brother Leven Harton, John Schafer, a vocation guest, and postulant Christopher Stark, place a block in a new retaining wall on a hillside north of the Abbey’s auto maintenance shop. The project, which is being supervised by Father Donald Redmond and Brother Anthony Vorwerk, is making 23 photoofbyunused J.D. Benning use stone from the 1920s construction of the monastery.

KANSAS MONKS

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WINTER 2009 | VOLUME 4 | NUMBER 4

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