Monk Life + Fall 2014

MONK LIFE From the Vocations Office of Saint Meinrad Archabbey

A Summer on the Hill Ministry Spotlight: Care for the Poor

Benedictine Perspectives: The Labors of Monks

Fall 2014 • No. 3

MONK LIFE On the cover: A replica of the St. Benedict Statue on the front of the Archabbey Church. Photo by Novice Charles Peñalosa.

FEATURES 2.....................................................From the Vocation Director 4-5..................................................................Benedictine Scholars 6-7 ............................................................Benedictine Perspectives 8-9...................................................................Monk Spotlight 10 ................................................................Ministry Spotlight Produced by the Vocations Office and the Communications Office of Saint Meinrad Archabbey.

Vocations Office, Saint Meinrad Archabbey 100 Hill Drive, St. Meinrad, IN 47577 vocations@saintmeinrad.org, www.saintmeinrad.org (812) 357-6318 © 2014

From the Vocation Director Br. John Mark Falkenhain, OSB Greetings from the Hill.

If autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering in the fruits of the growing season, then it is only because much had happened in the summer. Such has been the case here at Saint Meinrad. It was a really busy and beautiful summer!

In May, June and July, we hosted three young men for our Benedictine Scholars Program, an eight-week program that allows men between years of college to live on the grounds of the monastery, working a job in the morning and taking a class in the Seminary and School of Theology in the afternoons.

They eat, pray and live side by side with us, getting a real taste and 2

extended taste of the monastic life.

(You can find an article about the program in this issue of Monk+Life

by Jinu Thomas, one of our Scholars from two years ago.)

The monastic community always benefits from the green and energetic presence of the Benedictine Scholars. And, we are confident that their time with us will bear fruit in their own lives – in their spiritual growth and in their discernment of their vocation in the Church.

Whether these men end up choosing a monastic vocation, we pray they have learned with us something about themselves and how to foster the seeds of charity, obedience, prayer and self-gift that lead us all to holiness.

The summer was also busy with the “One Bread, One Cup” youth liturgical leadership program that

happens at Saint Meinrad every summer. The OBOC program brings hundreds of high school students and 20 very dedicated college interns to campus to study the liturgy, to learn more about service in the Church, and to sharpen their skills in the arts of prayer and building Christian community.

During the last few years, the Office of Monastery Vocations has worked more closely with the OBOC program, and we were honored by the presence of four of the OBOC interns who joined the monastic community for a five-day live-in at the end of their internship.

Finally, we saw a host of vocation guests: some coming to visit Saint Meinrad for the first time, others for the second or third time, and a few to finish up their applications for entrance into the monastery this fall.

It was a good and busy summer.

This October we welcome five new candidates to the monastery. Two of

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Needless to say, we are filled with gratitude for God’s providence shown to our community. However, we might take even greater pleasure in knowing that our work of planting and cultivating the seeds of faith may be bearing fruit all over the Church – in other religious communities, in families, in parishes, in schools, in big cities and in small towns like ours.

Benedictine Scholars, Hyeon Woo Kim, Von Erick Sandoval and Kevin Thompson pose for a portrait with Br. John Mark Falkenhain, OSB.

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these candidates originally came to know Saint Meinrad through the “One Bread, One Cup” program, and one was one of our Benedictine Scholars two years ago. The remaining two candidates came to know us through our educational apostolate and our Web presence.

“One Bread, One Cup” participants attend liturgy in the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel.

Please join our prayers of thanksgiving for God’s great gifts: the earth, the sky, the rain, the fruit of our labors and His greatest gift of love to us, Jesus Christ. In all these, let God be glorified! ✢

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BENEDICTINE HILLS PILGRIMAGE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014 www.saintmeinrad.org/bhp

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Benedictine Scholars: A Summer on the Hill

By Jinu Thomas

To write about the Benedictine Scholars Program in the length of a typical article is like trying to fit an elephant in the typical dorm room.

Though only two months in length, it was filled with experiences, some ordinary and others not quite.

One might find it ordinary that a bunch of college kids joined the monks for prayer, unless they knew that we sat in the choir stalls, which is an honor rarely conferred and almost never to students like us. One might find it ordinary to sit down and have a conversation about life with family and friends, but to do so with Benedictine monks is not quite so ordinary.

Be f o r e Ar r iv a l When I first saw the flier for the Benedictine Scholars Program (BSP), I had just finished watching a BBC series called “Cadfael.” “Cadfael,” a fictional creation of Ellis Peters, is an English Benedictine monk in the Middle Ages operating as a watereddown version of the Sherlock Holmes of his times. Because of its monastic setting, the show from time to time would give us a peek into the monastic life of the Middle Ages. It got me interested enough to randomly Google "monasteries" and, to some 4

extent, daydream about visiting one.

So the flier, to me, was like a jackpot. It gave me the opportunity to live in the monastery for free, with a stipend and also take a graduate course in theology. What more could I ask for? Or, frankly, did I know what I was asking for?

Probably not. But a slight desire was there.

Plus it was only a summer.

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Editor's note: Jinu Thomas reflects on his experience in the Benedictine Scholars Program, which offers college men a chance to live, study and participate in the life of Saint Meinrad's monastic community for eight weeks during the summer.

Find out more at: www.saintmeinrad.org/bsp.

Jinu Thomas assisted the on-campus electricians as part of his summer work.

Fir s t R ea ct io n s We were five in total (chosen for the program). An engineer, historian, ace photographer, philosopher and theologian (all "aspiring to be's," of course).

Except for one, we were on the grounds of Saint Meinrad for the first time.

It was like stepping into a forgotten age. Every now and then, for the first few weeks, we couldn't help getting excited about the stone walls, the dark corridors and the unusual serenity surrounding the Hill. For the three of us from Chicago, this town in southwest Indiana, which had the same name as the monastery, was basically noman's land.

Our rooms, though not in the monastery itself, were in the same hallway. We were to join the monks

in prayer (and sit in their choir stalls, a rare honor to be offered to five college students) and meals throughout the day. In the morning we had our assigned jobs for the weekdays and in the afternoon we were to have classes. We also were to join the monks for other recreation times and be free the rest of time.

Hogwart's is what a friend of mine called Saint Meinrad, and I can pretty much say all of us, though unsure of how the next eight weeks would be, were excited to be there.

What attracted me the most was how we were received by the monastic community. We were five strangers, college kids, who were to interfere in their privacy for two months. Yet they were exceptionally warm and considerate to us, which did relax my nerves.

Fir s t We ek s Morning prayer at 5:30 a.m. was a challenge. Coming from college where you rarely see bed before midnight, waking up that early meant you were back in bed and sleeping like a log by 9 p.m. Yet the schedule itself was not hard (with plenty of free time for naps).

All five of us were assigned jobs and mine, in particular, was to be the electrician's aide.

This meant I worked with Renus, who has been working for the Archabbey for over 50 years and who also happens to be the politest man I know to date. We changed filters and light bulbs on a daily basis. Sometimes he worked with the elevators and I just wore my tool belt and looked cool.

Being on a schedule meant you were really hungry when lunch or dinner time rolled by. The afternoon class was more like a distinguished lecture series given by different monks on various aspects of monastic life and communal life, including history, art and spirituality.

Our excitement was still high to experience this new way of life.

To the college interns who were on campus for Saint Meinrad's "One Bread, One Cup" program, we were the inside men with access to all cool monk things. We even made friends with some of them, who coined for us the term

"wannabe monks." Being introduced as the Benedictine Scholars often raised a few eyebrows among other visitors in the monastery, especially since most of us had probably never seen the Rule of St. Benedict before.

Th e P la ce s Yo u Migh t Go You would think that at a monastery you would pretty much be stuck doing nothing but pray all the time.

If the "Mythbusters" were to take this as a challenge, I could save them time by pointing out that it isn't true. "Come to the monastery and see the world" is what one monk told us.

We, too, had plenty of outings, including a visit to New Harmony, a detailed tour of Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey, a tour through one of the woods the Archabbey owned, a visit to Bardstown, KY, an outing to Jasper, IN, and, beyond that, the journey that we each took separately – the one into our own selves.

excitement of being in a gym for the first day, the next few weeks were the discipline of going to the gym regularly.

But the story isn't complete yet. The final summit was that, in being constantly challenged to see myself, I was being challenged to see God. I don't know how I can convey this better. I understood finally what the continuous conversion to holiness meant; it required first knowing yourself and knowing God. It was hard; it was always in progress, but I understood that God needed to be in the center of it.

I can firmly say that something awakened inside me during my eight weeks – a desire to stay connected to God in the manner that I had experienced at Saint Meinrad, which has kept calling me back there even to this day. I cannot say all of us had a similar experience. Yet I know for certain that all of us at least had some answer to the choice of remaining as "wannabe monks" or taking the plunge and applying for the monastery. For me, it was the latter. ✢

This was different for each of us and, if you choose to come, it will indeed be different for you as well.

The pace of life, the witness of a community and consistent prayer meant that we were challenged to go deep into ourselves. I will confess that, of all things I have written above, this was the greatest blessing and the hardest encounter.

The silence on the Hill, which began as a retreat experience, became a nagging loneliness after the first few weeks. To me, the reality was that I had erased all possible distractions and all that was left was me. This was what the program referred to as the fruit of an extended visit. If the first few retreat-weeks were like the

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When you think of a program like BSP, I believe it is common to have reservations, especially since the program almost completely benefits the participants. But we were made aware from the beginning that the hope of the program was to help us encounter monastic life more profoundly.

Kevin Thompson was one of this year’s Benedictine Scholars.

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Benedictine Perspectives: The Labors of Monks

By Fr. Colman Grabert, OSB

It is a discussion that is, for the most part, fruitless. The Rule of St. Benedict seems to me admirably clear and concise. The fundamental “work” of the monk is opus Dei, not principally the liturgical offices, but that believing in and following the Lord Christ, which is the work mandated by the Father.

It is the labor oboedientiae by which one who hears the call shakes off the torpor of drifting with the worldly herd and engages the hard and difficult things by which one goes to God. These are succinctly laid out in the ladder of humility and provided in the institutes of the Rule and abbot, the School of the Lord’s Service.

With this opus Dei as the irreplaceable foundation and because of it, the kinds of work that the monk might be put to are set by the necessities of the community and its common rule and the wise judgments of the abbot about the monk and the community’s needs.

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The Rule offers norms: it’s better on the whole if the works of monks are within the clusura; if a monk is unequal to lectio for the longer prescribed periods, he does some work (on Sunday!); if a work assigned a monk seems to him utterly beyond his strengths, he may without obstinacy present his case to the abbot but, in the end, accept his judgment – his very obedience will profit him; there are chores and tasks of all kinds for the ordered life of the community and everyone able is to do his part with almost no exception; if the situation of the monastery requires the sweat-work of bringing in the harvest, though they be quite unaccustomed, the monks will get to it; laziness, carelessness, indolence merit correction and require expiation.

No work, no eat.

Monks of this house have worked as physician assistant, university professors in the U.S. and abroad, founder of a black community education center, construction supervisor, manager of physical operations and services, tinker, tailor ….

As in all else, there is a history of change in the work of a monastic house. When I came here as a boy in the minor seminary, there was in effect a kind of aspiration to all things needed being provided within the monastery. Monks did everything.

One need not read the sweep of monastic history to have a realistic view of “monastic work.” One can think of the work of the monks of our house in our day.

Beyond the “chores” (which are many and demanding) and internal offices, consider fire chief, professor, operations managers of varied divisions, artist/artisans, writers, painters, chaplains, graduate students,

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Periodically, someone will agitate the collective monastic psyche questioning the proper work for monks. If delivered with just the right tone and a hypercritical sniff, the question will suggest a purity, a sort of aching refinement of monastic vision from which, sadly, mortals of this age have fallen away. A casuistry of suitable and unsuitable occupations may be expected to follow.

sacramental ministers, pastors, Hispanic community service, retreat directors, academic and residential deans, chauffeurs, cooks, infirmary associates, secretary, EMT, carpenter, musicians, tribunal judges, missionaries, consultors to Roman dicasteries, clinical psychologist, forester, archivists.

All able-bodied monks are expected to share in the work of the monastery.

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In this flesh-and-bone labor manuum, one knows the meaning of “even one’s body is not in one’s own possession.” Here in physical labor, as in the bodily reverences required of us in the liturgy and the opus divinum, in the physical gestures toward each other of reverence and amends, one’s body is not at all one’s own possession, but is at the disposition, by vow and free gift, of others, of another.

The gardener’s tools hang in the shed ready for use.

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I keep a monastery vegetable garden. It is sweaty, physical work.

It strikes me, often, as quixotic. Of course, we all anticipate fresh, new tomatoes and sweet corn coming in. And we enjoy the garden melons. But the global economy looms large over such small effort and reduces it, economically, to the status of the quaint enterprise of aspiring locavores. Still one learns from the effort.

Fr. Colman Grabert, OSB, works in the monastery garden pulling weeds.

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Changing demographics of the monastery and economic efficiency in the larger context made for the rapid undermining of the ideal of self-sufficiency. Manual labor, in the sense the Rule understands it, is a much smaller part of monastic work; the majority of us are managers and desk folk these days.

Review the earlier inventory.

An artist, Br. Martin Erspamer, OSB, works on a piece of pottery.

As in worship, so in work, wholehearted obedience is bodily.

One may, I suppose, think of this “other” as the abbot, or the community; the monk is despoiled of his own clothes and clothed in “those of the monastery.” But in all this, I think, more radically one’s body now is made over to Christ, to the service of Christ, which is the labor oboedientiae. St. Paul thought so. ✢

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MONK SPOTLIGHT

Br. Jerome Croteau, OSB

Editor’s note: This article contains selections from a series of autobiographical essays by Br. Jerome Croteau, OSB, about his time growing up on an Indian reservation in North Dakota: “Growing Up in North Dakota” and “The Time I Spent at Marty.”

The name of the town I grew up in was Belcourt, North Dakota. It was on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, the smallest [Indian] reservation in the United States. The town was also small, although there [were] a lot of people on the reservation. The town had not been planned out; the people just seemed to build where they wanted to, so there was no order in where the houses were built.

When I was growing up, there were two general stores, one grocery store, two gas stations and one café. There was also a pool hall where they served snacks. The Indian mission and parish church at home was called St. Ann, the patron saint of the mission.

During most of my childhood, my father worked at the mission.

The winters in North Dakota meant long nights because the sun went down at four in the afternoon, and so it got dark early. In the summertime we went to bed before it got dark out.

But in the wintertime we could watch the stars spring up, all of them in their expected places, glittering and moving.

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When the moon was shining, especially when there was snow on the ground, which was most of the time in the winter, it was almost like day. You could see the homes with their chimneys smoking, especially when it was real cold out.

In the wintertime we went sled riding. There was a big hill at the mission that we could slide down.

And we used to go ice skating, and we had a lot of places to do that.

We also made snow houses and made rooms in snow banks. When we had snowstorms, there were a lot of big banks, and they were hard enough to walk on. We also made snow forts and used to have snowball fights.

In the summertime in North Dakota, the sun did not go down till ten at night. So besides doing our work, we had a lot of time for outside games like baseball and football.

And there was the game croquet with our relatives across the road.

On Sunday, one game would last all day because we used to argue about certain plays.

We did not have as much to amuse ourselves as children have today, but we were able to create our own

games. I remember that we played Cowboys and Indians in many versions, and we played a lot of Hide and Go Seek.

Where we lived, just about everyone had a backyard where we all had a few cows and pigs.

And we always had a big garden.

I think our biggest crop was potatoes and then came sweet corn. We also raised a lot of peas and green beans and carrots. We raised some celery and lettuce and a lot of cabbage. In the spring of the year, we hauled manure for the garden and plowed it under and then planted the crop we wanted to grow for that year.

I graduated from grade school from St. Ann’s Mission in December 1945. I was always slow in school.

I stayed two years in a couple of grades. I do not remember which ones they were. There was not such a thing, then, as a special teacher for slow students. I know I was not ready for high school.

I went to St. Paul’s Mission [High School], Marty, South Dakota, in January 1946. The school year was half over, but it did not take long for them to see that I was slow in

learning. I was given a special teacher to help me along with my studies, but it did not help much because I did not do well in my classes. So after a year and a half, I quit school and came [to Saint Meinrad in 1947].

I don’t think there are too many kids these days who would have lasted at Marty. I do think they were overly strict, but I don’t think it did me any harm. I am glad I did spend some time there. When I came [to Saint Meinrad], I was a little shocked because they did not toe the line that well themselves.

However, as I get older, I see that we all fall short of our expectations and that we have to do the best we can and leave the rest to God.

Br. Jerome Croteau, 84, has held several jobs throughout his monastic life since arriving at Saint Meinrad in 1947. He has worked on the landscaping crew, in the vineyard, construction, and currently serves the community as the monastic housekeeper. He often can be seen as early as 3 a.m., roaming the halls of the monastery while praying the rosary.

He recently became an avid reader, and especially enjoys reading the works of James Martin, SJ, and Richard Rohr, OFM. He is also in charge of the monastery’s wine stores, an enviable position. When interviewed for Monk+Life, Br. Jerome remarked that the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of monastic life have been living closely with other people. ✢

Twitter: @SMAVocations

Clockwise from top left: Br. William Sprauer, OSB, Br. John Mark Falkenhain, OSB, and Fr. Guy Mansini, OSB, sing during the Jubilee Mass in July.

Fr. Christian Raab, OSB, carries in the Gospel during a “One Bread, One Cup” Mass.

Fr. Brendan Moss, OSB, celebrates Mass during “One Bread, One Cup.”

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Ministry Spotlight: Care for the Poor

By William Sprauer, OSB As a junior monk, one of my responsibilities includes heading down to the kitchen just after lunch and helping box up and distribute food for local men, women and families who need assistance from the monastery.

It’s easy to think that poverty is a “big city problem,” but the reality is, even in rural southern Indiana there are people in need. As monks, we are called to meet those needs.

In the chapter titled “The Tools for Good Works,” St. Benedict commissions the monks, as part of their monastic observance, to “relieve the lot of the poor” (RB 4:14). This directive, occurring early in the Rule, appears to be ordered toward the physical needs of the poor, that is, food, clothing, etc.

must meet not only their physical needs, but their emotional needs as well. We must recognize the poor as human beings, as worthwhile, lovable, children of God, “because in them more particularly Christ is received.”

Our beloved martyr St. Meinrad certainly exemplified this monastic ideal of receiving the poor and pilgrims. He received, and even celebrated the Eucharist with, the very men who would later rob and beat him to death. He still welcomed them as Christ, even though he knew it meant sacrificing his life.

At Saint Meinrad Archabbey, we carry out this tradition of receiving the poor. Our almoner, Br. Raban, with the help of the novices and junior monks, packages and distributes food boxes to local needy families on a daily basis. Br. James and I often joke that Br. Raban “doesn’t do anything but sit with them and talk” while we are “doing all the work,” that is, packaging the food.

The reality is, Br. Raban has the most important task in receiving the poor, namely listening to them and engaging them. Br. Raban truly exemplifies St. Benedict’s directive that “great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people.”

Our Benedictine charism of hospitality is without borders when it comes to social or economic classes. We are called to receive everyone in the name of Christ who comes to our door. St. Benedict especially commissions his monks to see Christ in the poor, but more importantly, will they see Christ in us? Will we have the strength to have “great care and concern” for the poor as is asked of us?

It is easy to get wrapped up in the relative security of the cloister; but tending to the needs of the local poor truly pulls us out of that security and puts us on the “front lines” of our faith. ✢

St. Benedict recognizes that we must not only feed and clothe the poor, but also speak to them, listen to them, empathize with their troubles and concerns. In other words, we 10

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But as we see in Chapter 53, “The Reception of Guests,” St. Benedict tells his monks that “great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received” (RB 53:15). This second, and seemingly more important, directive takes the original commission to “relieve the lot of the poor” to a whole new level.

Br. William Sprauer, OSB (from left), Br. James Jensen, OSB, and Br. André DeDecker, OSB, package food for the local needy.

Interested in the Monastic Life at Saint Meinrad Archabbey?

Contact Us: vocations@saintmeinrad.org www.saintmeinrad.org

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S I PRAY, REveal to me your way for me to you, lord god.

Amen