Abbey Banner - Spring 2017

Abbey Banner Spring 2017

How beautiful are all God’s works, delightful to gaze upon and a joy to behold!

Sirach 42:22

Aidan Putnam, O.S.B.

This Issue

Abbey Banner

Magazine of Saint John’s Abbey

Benedictine Ecumenism Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B.

The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.

Unitatis redintegratio, Decree on Ecumenism

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ver many years the tradition of ecumenism has woven itself into the spiritual fabric of Saint John’s Abbey. It began simply enough, with student exchanges between Luther Seminary and Saint John’s Seminary in the 1940s. Patrick Henry, former director of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, has pointed out that monastic life predates all of the major schisms in the Church: the schism with the Orthodox and the major fragmentation of the Reformation. Thus, we have no stake in these conflicts. Furthermore, even though the Rule of Benedict is strongly Christocentric, the monastic metaphor of being on a journey together, of being seekers with other seekers, with an emphasis on listening and attending—these attitudes orient toward communion. To be a seeker, to be a listener, to be a learner is a humble stance.

Spring 2017 Volume 17, number 1 Published three times annually (spring, fall, winter) by the monks of Saint John’s Abbey.

Editor: Robin Pierzina, O.S.B. Editorial assistants: Aaron Raverty, O.S.B.; Dolores Schuh, C.H.M. Abbey archivist: David Klingeman, O.S.B. University archivists: Peggy Roske, Elizabeth Knuth Design: Alan Reed, O.S.B. Circulation: Ruth Athmann, Jan Jahnke, Ashley Koshiol, Beth Lensing Cathy Wieme Printed by Palmer Printing Copyright © 2017 by Order of Saint Benedict Saint John’s Abbey Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-2015 abbeybanner@csbsju.edu saintjohnsabbey.org/banner/ ISSN: 2330-6181 (print) ISSN: 2332-2489 (online)

Change of address: Ruth Athmann P. O. Box 7222 Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7222 rathmann@csbsju.edu Phone: 800.635.7303

This issue of Abbey Banner celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at Saint John’s. Chartered in April 1967 to dispel religious ignorance and promote better understanding and harmony across faith traditions, the Collegeville Institute was a direct response to the Decree on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council. For the past five decades, men and women of diverse backgrounds and beliefs have come to Collegeville (many with young children) to pray, study, write, or conduct research. In the process, they learn from and with one another, and deepen their own faith. Beyond the number of consultations held and books written, the measure of the institute’s success is in the relationships established and the number of ears attuned to the Word of God. Abbot John Klassen opens this issue with a remembrance of our monastic community’s involvement in ecumenical listening. Brother Aaron Raverty outlines the development of the Collegeville Institute since 1967. Is ecumenism moribund and obsolete? Dr. Donald Ottenhoff responds in the first person as he addresses the ecumenism of encounter. During this fivehundredth anniversary year of the Reformation, Dr. Benjamin Durheim contrasts the role of “faith” and “certainty” in understanding the legacy of the Reformation and American society today.

The daily and seasonal rhythm of monastic life revolves around ora et labora, prayer and work. Lectio divina, a slow, meditative reading of Scripture or other texts is at the heart of Benedictine prayer as we listen to the voice of God in our lives. A parallel practice, visio divina, engages the visual senses in prayer and reflection on the beauty of our world and the divine presence.

Dr. James Poff introduces us to nature journaling: “slowing down, experiencing nature visually in a more detailed way.”

Stewardship of God’s creation as well as the work of human hands is a hallmark of Benedictine monasticism. In 1965 Saint John’s created a new library dedicated to the preservation of manuscripts held in European monasteries and libraries. Since then, the focus of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library has expanded to include manuscript collections from across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India. Father Columba Stewart updates us on the fate of Iraq and Syria’s manuscript collections in the wake of barbaric attacks by ISIS.

Cover: Reflections of faith and reason: Saint John’s Abbey and University Church, and Alcuin Library Photo: Alan Reed, O.S.B.

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Several Benedictine Volunteers share their experience of personal growth and insight as they reflect on their service. We also are introduced to a thirteenthcentury German mystic, to a monk whose fifty-six years of service has enhanced Saint John’s sense of place, and more.

The staff of Abbey Banner joins Abbot John and all our confreres in extending prayerful best wishes for a joyous Easter and Pentecost season. Peace!

Brother Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

Abbey archives

Hospitality is a central practice of monastic life. We want to provide a place and a time for spiritual renewal and healing for all believers and seekers. Coming to a monastery, however, is not like going to a retreat house. Rather, it is an experience of joining a community that has an ongoing, daily commitment to praying the Psalms, listening to the Word of God, and celebrating the Liturgy of the Eucharist. So often genuine ecumenical work begins humbly in friendship, in praying side by side.

A crucial ecumenical experiment at Saint John’s was the founding and presence of the Mental Health Institute from 1953 through 1973. With generous funding from the Hamm Foundation, the institute sponsored three weeklong summer gatherings of psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and clergy from all Christian traditions for an intensive period of reflection and learning at the interface of religion and psychiatry. Formerly, clergy and psychiatrists had held each other in mutual suspicion. Psychiatrists assumed that clergy did not have the skills to counsel those in emotional difficulty. Clergy believed that psychiatrists, following Freud, were biased against religious belief. The Mental Health Institute bridged that gap—a successful ecumenical effort.

Participants learned how to talk to each other across the constraints of doctrine, at the level of pastoral response and practice, proceeding through friendship and respect.

I was attracted to this monastic community because the monks I knew were not afraid of life, not afraid of thinking theologically in light of actual life experience. Benedictine life is biased toward the inductive; it is biased toward taking experience seriously. At the same time, we take tradition seriously, revering those who have lived, thought, and prayed before us. This integration nourishes ecumenical study and work.

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Easter Hope Francis, Bishop of Rome

perfumed ointments to the tomb, had the same experience. They were “frightened and bowed their faces” (24:5), and yet they were deeply affected by the words of the angel: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

(24:5).

Peter ran to the tomb.

Luke 24:12

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hat thoughts crossed Peter’s mind and stirred his heart as he ran to the tomb? The Gospel tells us that the eleven, including Peter, had not believed the testimony— the Easter proclamation—of the women. Quite the contrary, “these words seemed to them nonsense” (Luke 24:11). Thus there was doubt in Peter’s heart, together with many other worries: sadness at the death of the beloved Master and disillusionment for having denied him three times during his Passion.

There is, however, something that signals a change in him: after listening to the women and refusing to believe them, “Peter rose” (24:12). He did not remain sedentary in thought; he did not stay at home as the others did. He did not succumb to the somber atmosphere of those days, nor was he overwhelmed by his doubts. He was not consumed by remorse, fear, or the continuous gossip that leads nowhere. He was looking for Jesus, not himself. He preferred the path of encounter and trust. And so, he got up, just as he was, and ran toward the tomb from where he would return This is the English translation of Pope Francis’ homily for the Easter Vigil, 26 March 2016.

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We, like Peter and the women, cannot discover life by being sad, bereft of hope. Let us not stay imprisoned within ourselves, but let us break open our sealed tombs to the Lord so that he may enter and grant us life. Let us give him the stones of our rancor and the boulders of our past, those heavy burdens of our weaknesses and failings. Christ wants to come and take us by the hand to bring us out of our anguish. This is the first stone to be moved aside this night: the lack of hope that imprisons us within ourselves. May the Lord free us from this trap, from being Christians without hope, who live as if the Lord were not risen, as if our problems were the center of our lives.

Crucifixion, Donald Jackson Copyright 2002 The Saint John’s Bible and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota USA. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

“amazed” (24:12). This marked the beginning of Peter’s resurrection, the resurrection of his heart. Without giving in to sadness or darkness, he made room for hope: he allowed the

light of God to enter into his heart, without smothering it.

The women too, who had gone out early in the morning to perform a work of mercy, taking the

We see and will continue to see problems both within and outside ourselves. They will always be there. But tonight it is important to shed the light of the risen Lord upon our problems, and in a certain sense, to evangelize them. Let us not allow darkness and fear to distract us and control us; we must cry out to them: the Lord “is not here, but has risen!” (24:6). He is our greatest joy; he is always at our side and will never let us down.

This is the foundation of our hope, which is not mere optimism, nor a psychological attitude or desire to be courageous. Christian hope is a gift that God gives us if we come out of ourselves and open our hearts to God. This hope does not disappoint us because the Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5). The Paraclete does not make everything look appealing. The Paraclete does not remove evil with a magic wand. But the Spirit pours into us the vitality of life, which is not the absence of problems, but the certainty of being loved and always forgiven by Christ, who for us has conquered sin, death, and fear. Today is the celebration of our hope, the celebration of this truth: nothing and no one will ever be able to separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:39).

The Lord is alive and wants to be sought among the living. After having found him, each person is sent out by him to announce the Easter message, to awaken and resurrect hope in hearts burdened by sadness, in those who struggle to find meaning in life. This is so necessary today. However, we must not proclaim ourselves. Rather, as joyful servants of hope, we must announce the risen One by our lives and by our love; otherwise we will be only an international organization full of followers and good rules, yet incapable of offering the hope for which the world longs.

How can we strengthen our hope? The liturgy of this night offers some guidance. It teaches us to remember the works of God. The readings describe God’s faithfulness, the history of God’s love for us. The living Word of God is able to involve us in this history of love, nourishing our hope and renewing our joy. The Gospel also reminds us of this: in order to kindle hope in the hearts of the women, the angel tells them: “Remember what [Jesus] told you” (Luke 24:6). Let us not forget Jesus’ words and works, otherwise we will lose hope. Let us instead remember the Lord, his goodness and his life-giving words that have touched us. Let us remember them and make them ours, to be sentinels of the morning who know how to help others see the signs of the risen Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is risen! Let us open our hearts to hope and go forth. May the memory of his works and his words be the bright star that directs our steps in the ways of faith toward the Easter that will have no end.

This is the first stone to be moved aside this night: the lack of hope that imprisons us within ourselves.

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Benedictine Volunteer Corps Kandy, Sir Lanka

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ituated just outside of the Buddhist holy city of Kandy in the mountainous central region of Sri Lanka, St. Sylvester’s Monastery has been a wonderful place to call home for the past few months. Serving as a formation house and the center of all Benedictines on the island, St. Sylvester’s is a monastery filled with life and joy. Because English is the lingua franca in both the monastery and the religious education system, our primary work has been preparing the postulants for entering their formation program through daily English classes and one-onone tutoring. In addition to these classes, we have also engaged in several programs around the area, including teaching science at a local school, helping with after-school sports, and volunteering at the Mother Teresa House that serves as a refuge for disabled women and children. Our time in Kandy has been extremely rewarding as we continue to create lasting relationships and integrate ourselves into community life.

Gabriel Hanson Jonathon Litchy, BVC partner Newark, New Jersey Coming from Saint John’s University, I had already learned and experienced much concerning the Benedictine value of community.

Here at Saint Benedict’s Preparatory School, I have again encountered a strong community that regularly manifests community

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in conversation or in action. I cannot help but contrast the school community with what lies beyond the walls of Saint Benedict’s. In the streets of Newark, people walk past one another without a glance, making sure not to meddle in another’s business. We have been encouraged to follow suit when walking through the city. Within the school, however, I frequently receive greetings and handshakes or share a short laugh while walking through the hallways.

The warm reception of one another provides one of many examples of how Saint Benedict’s counteracts the struggles of the greater community it resides in.

One need only look as far as the faculty to witness how Saint Benedict’s community lives in the future of its students. Many teachers and coaches are alumni.

Their significant presence stood

Marcus Vievering teaching in Newark

out to me as I began my experience here. They return to ensure the continuation of Saint Benedict’s mission to attend to the whole individual in forming well-rounded young men.

I have enjoyed working for this mission. While my days always seem busy with teaching, coaching, and lesson planning, the progress I see in students—and what I learn from them—makes it all worth it. We all have our challenging days when the classroom turns into chaos or athletes lack effort in practice. But at the end of the day, I remind myself to focus on the most positive interactions with students or the small humorous moments they produce on a daily basis.

Marcus Vievering

Joseph Evavold, Brayan Garibay, and Nicholas Zurn,

BVC partners

BVC

archives

Imiliwaha, Tanzania During my first months here at Saint Gertrude Convent, I have been able to practice the Benedictine value of assertiveness!

Being assertive, I discovered, is necessary due to “Africa time,” or to be more politically correct, due to not being in a rush to do things. My first expression of assertiveness came shortly after my arrival, when I had been here for a week but was still without any work assignment. Simply asking, “What can I do to help?” is not enough. Rather, I had to state clearly: “I want to work here, and I will start today.”

When I decided I was going to teach in the secondary school, I had to say—multiple times—I would work there before they got around to finding a class for me. Now I am more used to being assertive and am able to navigate my way around the convent when I want to try a new job.

The local market requires a much different kind of assertiveness. Street vendors are constantly trying to get me to buy their goods; several taxi drivers routinely ask if I need a ride.

Since Adam Kolb, my Benedictine Volunteer partner, and I are the only two white people at the market—or, more accurately, within a ten-hour drive of here!

—everyone knows we’re the new guys in a new place, and likely need to buy something. Some of the merchants’ tactics include, but are not limited to, putting an item in my hand, saying they

BVC

Adam Kolb warming hearts in Tanzania

have the best prices in town, or telling me that I am their friend so they will give me a discounted price. If there is any look of uncertainty on my face, I will be swarmed by these vendors, who, during some visits early in the year, actually convinced me to buy their goods. Now, after many trips to the market, I am able to walk with confidence and am less likely to fall victim to the endless number of people selling goods.

archives

Many of my evenings in Imiliwaha are spent playing soccer with the local men. On weekends we play teams from other villages. It has been one of my favorite ways to participate in the community. My next goal in Benedictine assertiveness is to get the men to show up on time for games and practices, though something tells me that “Africa time” will win this battle.

Philip Evans Adam Kolb, BVC partner

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The Collegeville Institute at 50 Aaron Raverty, O.S.B.

research project about issues of work and vocation. The basic question the project asks is: How, when, and where do people discern divine guidance about what they should do with their lives?

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onsider their mission statement: “The Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research seeks to discern the meaning of Christian identity and unity in a religiously and culturally diverse world, and to communicate that meaning for the work of the church and the renewal of human community.”

The story begins in the 1950s and 60s when theology professor Father Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B., traveled extensively in and around Europe, connecting with institutions that allowed him to experience and research ecumenism firsthand. Upon his return to Saint John’s, he focused on establishing a center for dialogue among the Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions, his efforts supported by the philanthropy of business leader Patrick Butler and his wife Aimee of Saint Paul. Architect Marcel Breuer designed the Collegeville Institute’s apartments and an administrative center (named to honor the Butlers), located just northwest of the university campus on the shores of Stumpf Lake. The vision blossomed into an independent corporation in 1967, with founder Father Kilian named president in 1973, a title he still holds today. The institute’s location on the lakeshore, and its proximity to Saint John’s Abbey, allows residents to enjoy the beauty and stimulation of the natural environs, and also

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to pause during their day to join the monastic community in prayer.

When the first resident scholars arrived in 1968, Father Kilian’s goal was to create a community of friends, working, eating, and living together to inspire mutually interactive research and dialogue. Dr. Robert Bilheimer, executive director 1974–1984, fostered the consolidation of the resident scholars program, adding summer consultations with the assistance of co-chairs Father Thomas Stransky, C.S.P., and Dr. Patrick Henry. Dr. Henry followed Dr. Bilheimer as executive director in 1984, with current executive director Dr. Donald Ottenhoff assuming the position in 2004.

During a recent update to the monastic community, Dr. Ottenhoff spoke about the institute’s current programs, including the Ecclesial Literature Project, the Collegeville Institute Fellows Program, and the Collegeville Institute Seminars, the latter of which includes an extensive

The issue of vocation is what Dr. Ottenhoff calls an “ecumenical problem”—a problem that every Christian faith tradition experiences and struggles with. The issue of vocation is especially worth careful consideration at a time when the meaning and reality of work has changed, and is changing, so dramatically.

According to Dr. Ottenhoff, discernment about vocation doesn’t just happen once between the ages of 18 and 24; it happens throughout life. How people manage these shifts in their working lives, and how Churches can help them manage these changes are two key questions being examined in the Collegeville Institute’s current research.

The research on vocation has already yielded two books, with three more to be published in 2017. Dr. Kathleen Cahalan, who teaches in Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, is the program director for this project. The Collegeville Institute Seminars come close to realizing Father Kilian’s original vision for the institute as a place of communal and collaborative ecumenical research.

Participant diversity is one of the institute’s main strengths. And

participants enjoy partnership with the other educational institutions and resources in the area —Saint John’s Abbey, Saint John’s University (School of Theology and Seminary), Saint Benedict’s Monastery, the College of Saint Benedict, Alcuin and Clemens libraries, and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.

Ecumenism is always embedded in culture, reflected in the fact that, while many of the resident scholars present academic lectures, a growing number of writers, artists, and musicians are now joining their ranks. In lieu of presenting formal academic lectures, some resident scholars instead showcase their art in exhibit or performance, or make some other public contribution such as the “Lunch and Learn” series of the Benedictine Institute of Saint John’s University.

Father Kilian, commenting on ecumenical trends over the past half century, noted the waning interest among nontheologically trained Christians in doctrinal concerns such as the nature of grace, ecclesiology, and the sacraments. According to Kilian, while trained theologians prop-

erly continue working on doctrinal differences among Christian traditions, another stream of ecumenical activity is focusing on practical problems shared

by Christians as well as nonChristians. The basic vocational question, “What should I do with my life in these fast-changing times?” is an example of a practical concern shared across faith traditions.

How does ecumenism fit into a Benedictine context? Seminars always begin with a prayerful liturgy composed by the seminar presenter, a practice of prayer that Saint Benedict encouraged in his Rule prior to the reception of guests in the monastery (see RB 53.4). Furthermore, a missionary charism etched by diversity and dialogue hallmarks Benedictine history. The communal character of Benedictine monastic life places a premium on relationships and listening to the other, a stance undergirding the institute’s many programs.

The “Collegeville approach”— embodied theological reflection with a lived faith evoked through personal narrative—has deepened the faith of its participants by encouraging scholars to speak

The year I spent at the institute turned out to be one of the most important passages in my life. During that time, I completed two books that set a direction for the past quarter century of my work as a writer. The time and space offered by the institute, the community with whom I shared that time, the opportunity to worship at the abbey—and to receive weekly spiritual direction—were vital elements in encouraging and helping sustain a vocation about which I was very uncertain at the time.

Parker J. Palmer

Collegeville Institute archives

Father Kilian McDonnell

from their own experiences and convictions as well through more traditional academic channels. The Collegeville Institute also continues to promote the clarion call of Vatican Council II for sustaining the work of ecumenism through its partnership with Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary.

For more information about the Collegeville Institute, readers should visit the website www.

CollegevilleInstitute.org/ or webbased publication Bearings Online.

Brother Aaron Raverty, O.S.B., a member of the Abbey Banner editorial staff, is the author of Refuge in Crestone: A Sanctuary for Interreligious Dialogue (Lexington Books, 2014).

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First-Person Ecumenism Donald Ottenhoff

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cumenism can be defined as the effort to achieve unity among God’s people. This definition does nothing, however, to reveal the diverse ways that individuals and organizations have worked for unity, or how a place like the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research differs, say, from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome. Nor does the definition suggest how changing cultural and historical circumstances shape the way the ecumenically minded go about their work. Ecumenism has always been on the move.

From the moment of its founding fifty years ago, the Collegeville Institute has never ceased to be a center of ecumenical dynamism. I can cite a personal example from what is normally a dry institutional necessity. In 2003 a search committee of the institute invited me to apply for the position of executive director.

The letter of invitation instructed that, if I chose to apply, I should send the material standard to any such search—a curriculum vitae, letters of recommendation, a letter describing how my skills matched the institute’s needs, etc.

But then came this requirement: “Write and submit an essay of up to one thousand words on the following: Answer someone who argues that ‘ecumenism is moribund and becoming obsolete, and we are entering the twilight of American culture.’” Those

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were two big, gutsy issues for an ecumenical institution to raise— the obsolescence of ecumenism and the decline of American culture. The search committee had my full attention.

Here was an organization that wasn’t plugging its ears and covering its eyes to evidence of significant changes in the world of ecumenism. Even champions of ecumenism had been warning for some time that ecumenism wasn’t what it once was—and I agreed. No less an ecumenist and theologian than Yves Congar, O.P., had asked in a provocative and prescient article published in Concilium in 1970 (Vol. 54) whether “developments in the secular world had made ecumenism irrelevant.” Father Yves opened his article by quoting a former World Council of Churches official who had observed that “many young people today are turning away from the ecumenical movement itself, and not just from its institutional manifestations . . . .”

After careful and candid analysis of some of the challenges facing ecumenism, Father Yves concluded that ecumenism is “not something we have gotten beyond,” but not before acknow-

ledging that ecumenism is changing, and that “the same questions which the world is asking” now face all Christians (emphasis in original). For Father Yves, ecumenism wasn’t just a Church thing: the Church and the world are in the same boat.

Asking applicants to reflect on the charge that ecumenism is moribund placed the institute, and me, in the good company of someone like Yves Congar.

Asking them to reflect on ecumenism in relationship to a perceived decline of American culture took the matter a step beyond. The search committee’s application form signaled that the institute not only wasn’t afraid of change and fresh thinking; it welcomed both as crucial to the ecumenical task.

The Collegeville Institute has always blazed a trail of its own in the world of ecumenism. It is typical in ecumenical circles to distinguish between theological and institutional ecumenism— the sphere of formal ecumenical dialogues and Church accords (think, Pontifical Council); and grassroots ecumenism—where Christians join together, frequently without formal institu-

tional sanction, to pursue various activities, from stocking a food pantry to reading the Bible together. While Collegeville Institute leaders have valued both types of ecumenism, they have led the institute in a different direction. From its earliest days the institute has pursued what might be called an ecumenism of encounter, or to use terminology that draws on a method pioneered at the institute, “First-Person Ecumenism.”

The Collegeville Institute gathers people from across faith traditions and places them in a setting of intentional encounter where together they address an issue of common concern in the first person.

Issues of common concern are exactly what Father Yves wrote about in 1970: urgent questions facing any thoughtful person living in a shared social world.

To speak in the first person about such issues means that those gathered must speak out of their own faith traditions rather than about them, and they must speak out of their own life stories rather than falling back on theological formulas or the words of theological “experts.”

In such encounters and conversations, participants confess the faith that guides their lives.

They don’t learn disembodied information about, say, Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism; through conversation they meet a person whose life has been shaped by the Lutheran or Roman Catholic tradition.

The value placed on conversation is key to the institute’s firstperson work, and especially now when digital communication may be creating a culture in which people find themselves, in the words of an old song, “alone together.” In Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, Sherry Turkle concludes by writing that now more than ever it is critical to remember that we are all creatures “[o]f conversations, artless, risky, and face-to-face.” For fifty years the Collegeville Institute has been a unique home to precisely those kinds of ecumenical conversations.

Neither I nor anyone associated with the Collegeville Institute believes that ecumenism is moribund—in Yves Congar’s words, it is “not something we have gotten beyond.” It is changing, however, along with the culture in which it goes about its work, which brings us back to that other question the search committee asked about the supposed twilight of American culture. The notion that American culture is going to hell in a handbasket isn’t new. Plenty of people have been saying that for a long time. While I personally feel a greater sense of urgency about the question today, I don’t think I’d change a word of what I wrote to the committee in 2003.

“The Benedictines,” I wrote, “represent to me a community of Christians who have learned to carry on with their Christian witness whatever the cultural conditions. Because they have prayerfully and calmly established places where the Christian tradition is remembered and conserved, and because they have fostered a hospitality that opens itself to the world, they have also been agents of cultural and ecclesial creativity and renewal. Even if we are in the twilight of American culture, that’s yet more reason to join the Benedictines in the truly ecumenical work of maintaining and passing on the living riches of the Christian tradition.” I strongly believed that in 2003, and I believe it even more today.

Dr. Donald Ottenhoff is the executive director of the Collegeville Institute.

The Collegeville Institute gathers people from across faith traditions and places them in a setting of intentional encounter where together they address an issue of common concern in the first person.

I felt that it was vitally important that the institute is affiliated with the Order of Saint Benedict.

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Lessons of the Reformation Faith and Certainty

completely with my own, both in content and emphasis, then that other position is incorrect. With a few notable exceptions, this tended to be the way theology was widely received in the Protestant Reformation. It should come as little surprise, therefore, that theological diversity bred ecclesial division. What is most rigid is most susceptible to shattering.

Benjamin Durheim

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he year 2017 marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation.

During the half-millennium since Martin Luther’s posting of his Ninety-Five Theses, Western Christianity has learned in vivid detail what it means not only to split, as it had already encountered in the Great Schism with Eastern Orthodoxy in 1054, but also what it means to splinter into shards, to shatter communion in the shadow of theological difference. This is, of course, not the whole of the story, as the contemporary ecumenical movement demonstrates by its very existence. The legacy of the Protestant Reformation is not just ecclesial division. It is also a story of a long arc of stillunfinished reconciliation, with or without theological agreement, even as all sides struggle to discern what reconciliation—to say nothing of unity—might look like in their own contexts and from their own perspectives.

Beyond the broader issues of reconciliation and unity, why should we pay any attention to the 2017 commemoration of the Reformation? What relevance do the observance and legacy of this particular flashpoint of religious strife carry beyond the professional lives of pastors, priests, and theologians? In short, why should anyone care?

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Detail of a wooden monument of Martin Luther, 1548

We could advance a number of answers to this question, but I believe there is one piece, especially poignant in the contemporary politico-cultural context of the United States, that carries particular weight: the difference between certainty and faith. Certainty and faith are not the same thing, and confusing them can exacerbate conflicts and even lead to the kind of splintering of communion that the Protestant Reformation saw.

Some might suggest that certainty and faith are, in fact, very close to the same thing.

They both bespeak a level of

Christian faith can thrive in an absence of absolute certainty.

Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

conviction that is not lightly tossed aside, and they both tend to convey a perspective that, to the adherent at least, is something more than opinion.

However, these similarities of essence can give birth to wildly divergent consequences, as the disputes of the Protestant Reformation showcase quite well. Even Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, as well as Johann Eck’s replies in his Obelisci, exude a certainty of position that breeds rigidity in dialogue. This is exactly the distinction I would like to draw between certainty and faith.

Certainty nearly always requires a dismissal of perspectives that threaten to contradict one’s own.

Certainty enters any relationship or dialogue from an ending point, rather than a beginning one: I am correct, so logically if some position does not agree

Faith, on the other hand, can be an altogether different kind of conviction. Faith need not be thought of as an intellectual position, but rather as a way of life. This difference is key, because while an intellectual position can exist all on its own in isolation from other positions, the lived life of faith cannot thrive in isolation from one’s neighbor. Faith requires relating to God and to neighbor.

Christian faith—faith in the God of Jesus Christ—does not necessarily bring with it the freedom from anxiety or ambiguity that certainty promises. The living God is not just an object to be known but is a triune life to be encountered—encountered, as Saint Benedict might say, in prayer and work. In such a view of faith, sustaining a relationship of communion, of love with those who see God and God’s creation differently from our own, takes precedence over righteous indignation at diversity of opinion. Christians are not called to opine correctly; we are called to love God and neighbor.

In reflecting on the five-hundredyear commemoration of the Protestant Reformation, I believe one of the most relevant gifts to glean from its legacy is that when certainty is allowed to shatter communion, the process to heal what has been broken is long, difficult, and of its nature uncertain. People of Christian faith should take this lesson to heart, even and especially as the context of the United States becomes ever more divisive, with all sides seemingly embracing the dual certainties of their own rectitude and their opponents’ wrongness. Such an outlook can too quickly lead to reducing persons to their opinions, just as during the sixteenth century many reduced their communities’ lives of faith

to their preferred theological formulae. The consequences of such a reduction, as the Protestant Reformation shows, can be drastic, far-reaching, and extraordinarily difficult to counteract.

The life of faith, however, need not take such certainty as a tenet. Christian faith can thrive in an absence of absolute certainty; in fact, it is in certainty’s absence that Christian faith can flower into the life of Christian love.

Dr. Benjamin Durheim is visiting assistant professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.

For Further Reading From Conflict to Communion, a Lutheran–Catholic joint document written in anticipation of the commemoration of the Reformation.

Available at the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/ pontifical_councils/chrstuni/lutheran-fed docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_2013_dalconflitto-alla-comunione_en.html.

Declaration on the Way, an update on Lutheran–Catholic consensuses in light of the 2017 commemoration.

Available from the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/ecumenical-andinterreligious/ecumenical/lutheran/upload/Declaration_on_the_Way-forWebsite.pdf.

Christ’s Gift, Our Response: Martin Luther and Louis-Marie Chauvet on the Connection between Sacraments and Ethics by Benjamin Durheim.

One Hope: Re-membering the Body of Christ. These essays explore experiences and activities that Catholics and Lutherans share and which connect to the living of their faith.

Both available from Liturgical Press: online at https://litpress.org or by calling 1.800.858.5450.

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R ule of Benedict

Stability Matthew Reichert

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aving failed to save Lois Lane, Superman did what anyone with Kryptonian superpowers would do: he flew around the earth at incredible speed to reverse the natural planetary rotation, and turned back time to get a second chance at heroism. As a boy, I loved this scene, and found in it one more reason to wish for the power of flight. A science teacher burst this bubble, however. Lecturing on planetary motion, he pointed out that, should the earth stop moving, everything and everyone on it would be hurled into outer space. So much for second chances, Superman!

While my daydreams were dashed, I was amazed by the seeming contradiction of the lesson. Our feet stay firmly planted on the ground because we are in motion. To stay put, we must move. If we stop moving, we won’t stay put. We can call it physics. I call it the Superman paradox.

Stability is a palpable concept at Saint John’s. We see it in the example of monks who have lived a monastic way of life for decades. We see it in the lay employees who have dedicated a significant portion of their lives to the work of this place. We see it in the consistency of the day, the careful continuity of design, the practice of environmental stewardship, and more. To the

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untrained eye, these examples suggest that stability is synonymous with remaining the same: same people, same faces, same architect, same trees, same time.

To Benedictines, however, stability is not inert; stability is dynamic.

A Benedictine eye recognizes a person firmly planted as a person in constant motion. To remain in place—whether a matter of geography, vocation, or relationship—demands that we continually learn, grow, and improve. Who would be surprised if, with no sign of professional growth, a job ended?

Who would be surprised if,

with no signs of mutual love or understanding, a relationship ended?

We hear the Gospel warning against putting “new wine into old wine skins” (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-38).

Though we yearn to become “new wine”—growing in wisdom, knowledge, understanding —we often cling to our “old wine skins”—habits, attitudes, routines, and biases. The wine skins cannot hold, and burst.

Stability is disrupted. We are hurled into outer space.

Beneath the surface of Saint John’s is a constant current of improvement, advancement, and evolution. Besides being key to stability, this is also the recipe for community life.

Our community shapes and molds us; and we, in turn, shape and mold our community. From time to time all of us fail. But we find ways to begin again, moving together, feet firmly planted.

Some call this a Benedictine paradox.

We call it stability.

Mr. Matthew Reichert is a first year seminar instructor at Saint John’s University.

Alan Reed, O.S.B.

Dining as Liturgy

reading and eating. Just as there is spiritual and physical nourishment in the Eucharist and church, so there is intellectual and physical nourishment in the refectory. This was not lost on medieval architects, who sited church and refectory parallel to each other, on opposite sides of the cloister. In short, Benedict wove together two very distinct human activities— eating and praying—into a sacred program that pervaded the cloister.

Eric Hollas, O.S.B.

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upper in a monastery can seem oddly out of place in the twenty-first century.

Obviously nourishment is a goal common to every meal; but prayer, ritual, and public reading put the monastic refectory into a class by itself. Ours is not the “grab and go” culture of so many homes and restaurants today.

The evening meal at Saint John’s Abbey adheres to a format followed six days a week. It begins haphazardly, as monks dribble in, by ones and twos and threes. Any similarity to fast food ends there, however, as each monk stands quietly behind a chair, waiting for the abbot’s bell at 6:00 P.M. At that signal, one monk intones the blessing, to which we respond and then take our seats. From a podium another monk reads a chapter from the Rule of Saint Benedict, and then turns to a book chosen for our edification. At that point we are free to go to the serving line, and the meal proper begins.

At 6:15, the abbot again rings the bell, a concluding prayer is said, and we are free to con-

In the monastery the meal both teaches and nourishes.

Alan Reed, O.S.B.

verse. With the exception of the buffet and conversation, little in this ritual has changed since Benedict prescribed it 1500 years ago. However, even in his day this program did not reflect typical dining. For Benedict, dining was more than the intake of calories. Dining was also liturgy.

The blessings, the abbot’s signal, and the communal dining are just three elements that give the meal a liturgical cast. Even more obvious is the reading, meant to remind monks of another experience that binds together

This is not to say that on any given day monastic minds don’t wander as we concentrate on the food or the work of the day.

Eventually, however, the sacred character of the meal jolts us back to the original purpose.

If we sometimes take this for granted, this is not the case for visitors to the monastic refectory.

In a fast-food culture perhaps the last vestige of transcendent meaning for a meal is its social character. But in the monastery the meal both teaches and nourishes. It suggests that no portion of life is purely secular, and there is no division between sacred and profane. Even utilitarian action can be prayer.

Father Eric Hollas, O.S.B., is deputy to the president for advancement at Saint John’s University.

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Nature Journaling James Poff

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love drawing the flowers, insects, birds, and other creatures that I see while out walking in nature. Often, the result is only a rough sketch that remains a rough sketch forever, inhabiting my journal.

But sometimes it develops into a more complete drawing. And occasionally the sketch and drawing will become a still more finished work that shows details of the subject and the artist’s relationship to it. But no matter how far the drawing develops, just the simple act of making it teaches me something new about this phenomenal world that constitutes what we call “nature.”

All images: Jim Poff

Wood Anemone

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Saint John’s is blessed to be located in the midst of a beautiful natural environment. We are surrounded by an array of lake, woodland, savannah, prairie, and wetland communities. Each of these ecosystems has its own array of interesting organisms and complex biological associations. Close observation can teach us about both the similarities and differences among these communities, and can also give us some insight into features shared with other communities we may encounter.

During my spring walks in our deciduous woodlands, if I pause and step off one of the trails, either physically or visually, and look carefully around the forest floor, I discover numerous flowers of various species and

colors. Typically, I first see nothing, and then I spot a flower, and finally I realize there are hundreds! This remarkable display would be missed completely by those who simply walk along the well-marked trail. But those who pause and look closely will be rewarded with a different, enriching experience.

Interestingly, if we repeat this experiment in midsummer, we will probably see no flowers blooming at all in the woodland.

However, if we walk from the woodland out into the prairie, we will find an abundance of summer flowers. Two communities, thriving immediately adjacent to one another in the same macroclimate, have very different patterns of flowering.

We begin to understand that nature’s rhythms are complex and variable, even in a very small corner of the world.

Slowing down, experiencing nature visually in a more detailed way, allows us to mine the experience and nourish a concept that is much more appreciative.

When we look closely, we begin to notice the details. Underlying patterns begin to emerge, and those landscapes, which at first glance may appear rather monotonous and uninteresting, begin to define themselves.

For me, one of the benefits of making drawings in my nature journal is that it causes me to slow down and pay closer attention to the flower or bird

that I have observed. I need to look very closely in order to draw it, and this close observation often leads me to a new understanding and deeper appreciation of the organism.

When I do a nature drawing, my goal is to look at my subject in a reflective way and have my drawing say something that is true about the subject. Ideally that truth about the subject is one that is an important part of what defines the particular organism or species.

As an example, I like to observe and draw spring wildflowers in the Saint John’s woods. One of my favorites is the Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia [opposite page]). This species is extremely uniform in its growth pattern. Each plant has a single vertical stem with a single whorl of three leaves.

Each of these three leaves has a single blade on the young plants.

But as the plants mature, there is a combination of growth and programmed cell death in each leaf—so that by the time the plant matures, the blade of each leaf has been transformed into three separate leaflets. Rising above the whorl of leaves on each plant is a single flower stalk that will produce a single white flower. It is very rare for any wood anemone to vary from this basic pattern. We might think that this really should not be too surprising. After all, aren’t members of a species supposed to be alike?

Round-lobed Hepatica

But this response is making nature way too simple! If we look in the same woodland habitat, flowering at about the same time and often in nearly the same spots as the wood anemone, we find another favorite wildflower: Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica americana [above]). Like the anemone, hepatica has a leaf with three lobes (the source of the “round-lobed” part of the name). But the lobes are not completely separated into leaflets, and the number of leaves will vary from plant to plant.

The number of flowers may also vary, and most surprising of all, so will the flower color!

In a small section of the woods it is possible to find hepatica flowers that are as white as the anemone, while others may be shades of pink, lavender, purple, or blue. In hepatica it seems that everything varies.

We may wonder about these differences and about what determines a species. Wood

anemone seems to demonstrate the sameness within a group that fits with the older Linnaean type of species. Round-lobed hepatica advertises, in a flamboyant way, the variety that is an essential element of the Darwinian species. What do these observations tell us about the history or the future of these two species? What do they tell us about the history or future of the woodland community in which these flowers are found?

Alas, I don’t know the answers, but I think the questions are what make nature so interesting.

And for me, in many cases, it all starts with a voice inside my head asking the question: “How would I draw that?”

That simple question pushes me to make better observations and, in the process, make new discoveries.

Dr. James Poff is professor emeritus of biology at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict.

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Morel Mushroom

An important part of the daily rhythm of the lives of Benedictines is the practice of lectio divina—a slow, contemplative reading of a text that deepens the understanding of the text and its meaning. Perhaps a parallel practice of visio naturae—a close, reflective looking at plants, insects, and other organisms—will deepen our appreciation and understanding of the natural context within which we all live.

Liatris and pollinator

All images: Jim Poff

Dandelion Great Horned Owl

Jim Poff

Yellow Cone Flower

Moss Plant

Iraq and Syria’s Manuscript Collections Columba Stewart, O.S.B.

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wo years ago, on 19 March 2015, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) bombed the historic fourthcentury Mar Behnam Monastery, a Syriac Catholic monastery near Mosul, Iraq. The staff of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) and I were distraught.

From 2011–2012 we had worked at Mar Behnam with Father Nageeb Michaeel, O.P., and his team to digitize the monastery’s 530 manuscripts, widely considered to be one of the most important Syriac manuscript collections in the region.

We had heard that the manuscripts had been hidden somewhere on the monastery’s property but feared the worst.

Yes, we have digital images of the collection, and anyone can freely access them through

HMML archives

Father Nageeb Michaeel (left) and Father Columba Stewart in Qaraqosh, Iraq

vHMML’s Reading Room (www. vhmml.org). Even so, we were disheartened, as digital copies could never replace the original manuscripts the monastery had cared for over many centuries.

Like many of the collections that HMML has preserved in the

Middle East, the Mar Behnam manuscripts contain the record of a unique perspective on the convergence of historic cultures, languages, and religious beliefs in the region. Scholars have only recently started to appreciate the value Syriac manuscripts and writings bring to our understanding of the historical relationship among Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Middle East and Asia. Unfortunately, at the same time, the culture of Syriac communities in the Middle East has been threatened by war, looting, and the political instability of the area.

With the rise of ISIS, 2,000 out of 6,000 manuscripts that HMML managed to digitize in Iraq between 2009 and 2014 have been lost or destroyed. Other manuscripts digitized in Syria may have suffered the same fate.

Matteo Fagotto, The Atlantic, 23 February 2017

Over the last two years, I have often been asked about the fate of the Mar Behnam manuscripts.

As is the case for many of the collections we digitized in the Middle East, we just didn’t know—until recently. In December, news reports and Facebook images appeared showing the hiding place that had been created and then carefully concealed by a young priest at the monastery, Father Yousif Sakat. He placed the manuscripts in large barrels and then concealed them behind a false wall. The invaders never suspected what lay beyond.

Father Sakat and the other monks were forced to flee the monastery as ISIS approached, but he took his secret with him.

He kept that secret for over two years—and the texts remained safely hidden.

Fortunately, ISIS never destroyed the building and its hidden chamber. The manuscripts have now been taken to a secure location; we have no idea when they will be able to be returned to the monastery. For now, the only access to them is through the HMML digital images.

The digitization at Mar Behnam was part of HMML’s collaboration with Father Nageeb’s Digital Center for Eastern Manuscripts, originally based in Mosul, then moved to the ancient Christian village of Qaraqosh. After the fall of Mosul in June 2014, Qaraqosh and other villages in the Nineveh triangle were overrun by ISIS. Residents had only a few hours to escape. They fled to Ankawa, a Christian suburb of Erbil, capital of the Kurdish region.

Anticipating that trouble was coming, Father Nageeb had already begun the evacuation of many collections of manuscripts to Ankawa. Unfortunately, he had to leave all of the digitization equipment behind in Qaraqosh.

With the help of the Minnesotabased Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation, Father Nageeb has reestablished his digital studio in Ankawa and has trained refugees to digitize the manuscripts rescued from Qaraqosh and other locations.

The Hill Library pays them for their work; for most of the refugees, this is the only work they can find in the Kurdish capital.

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n 2012 HMML ceased all digitizing projects in Syria because of the civil war engulfing Aleppo, our major center in the country. We had been working in Syria since 2005, and with partners had digitized ten collections, totaling over ten thousand manuscripts representing several

Manuscript page from Mar Behnam Monastery near Mosul, Iraq

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Christian traditions throughout the country, including Armenian Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, and Melkite Greek Catholic collections.

Throughout the heaviest fighting, 2012–2015, we tried to keep in contact with our partners in Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs, but the little information we received was vague.

We recently learned that several of the collections HMML digitized before the war have been relocated to safer locations.

Providentially, other collections that we were unable to digitize are located in areas where it is secure enough for work to resume. We hope to return to Syria soon, working through our local partners.

By preserving these handwritten witnesses to human creativity and cultural identity, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library is safeguarding the memory of threatened communities. I pray that our efforts will play a role in expanding knowledge and understanding, inspiring peace and tolerance, and adding meaning and beauty to our world.

Father Columba Stewart, O.S.B., is the executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library and Saint John’s University’s vice president for programs in religion and culture.

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Alcuin Library Renovation Alcuin Library, named for Alcuin of York, a fitting Benedictine model for young scholars, was dedicated in 1966.

Fifty years later architect Gregory Friesen refreshed the work of Marcel Breuer, preserving the original design character while making adjustments to address changing needs in pedagogy, research, and technology. The renovated library opened to critical acclaim in February 2017.

Ordination Photos: Alan Reed, O.S.B.

On 10 December 2016, in the presence of his family, friends, and monastic confreres, Brother Isaiah Frederick, O.S.B., was ordained to the priesthood by Saint Cloud Bishop Donald Kettler in the abbey and university church. Since his ordination Father Isaiah has been serving as the parochial vicar (assistant pastor) at the Church of Seven Dolors in Albany, Minnesota, and Saint Anthony Church in Saint Anthony. His ministry includes presiding at daily Masses and an occasional baptism, wedding, or funeral. He has also been spending time with the faith formation programs at both parishes, working with children in Holy Family School, and assisting at the parish nursing home, Mother of Mercy. Father Isaiah observes: “I continue to be impressed by the holiness of the parishioners with whom I have come into contact, and the way that God is at work in their lives. As a priest, I see myself as standing within the community and pointing out how God is at work in our lives. I see my role as one where I walk with people on their faith journey, reminding them of God’s presence in their lives, and helping them to live in response to that presence, to how God is calling them.”

Photos: Alan Reed, O.S.B.

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Meet a Monk: Mark Kelly Jane and Anne, are members of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. Two other sisters, Mary Margaret and Rita Wurtz, round out the sizable Irish Catholic clan.

Abbey archives

Timothy Backous, O.S.B.

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few months ago our monastic community experienced the closest thing to “Breaking News!” that we’ve had in a while. A brief note stated that after fifty-six years working with the Saint John’s grounds crew, Brother Mark Kelly, O.S.B., would be retiring this summer. In Collegeville, this is like hearing that P.T. Barnum has quit the circus, or Steve Jobs has left Apple.

Brother Mark has been the proverbial “fixture” with the grounds crew, and his absence will take some getting used to.

Born in Ford City, Missouri, on 26 March 1937, Brother Mark was the sixth child of seven to parents Pat and Mary. His two older brothers, Joe and Jim, are deceased; two of his four sisters,

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One of the great mysteries of Brother Mark’s early life is that he grew up in the shadow of one Benedictine monastery in Conception, Missouri, and then was educated by the Benedictines in Atchison, Kansas, at Maur Hill Academy. Yet, the abbey in which he chose to live out his vocation is in Minnesota.

How did this happen? Mark attributes his choice to two key moments in his life. His sister Jane pursued her master’s degree in nursing at Saint Catherine’s in Saint Paul, and it was she who first introduced her little brother to a place called Saint John’s.

Perhaps she wanted him close by, or like many other young men, he needed to stretch his wings a bit. The other key moment was a retreat at New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque, Iowa, which he says cemented his desire to try monastic life.

Brother Mark professed his first vows as a Benedictine monk on 15 August 1960. Initially he worked in the campus bookstore with Brother Martin Rath and Father Fabian Wegleitner before moving to the porter’s office, the Liturgical Press shipping room, the abbey woodworking shop, the sacristy, the fire department, and finally to the grounds department.

When asked to describe any highlights of his work with the grounds crew, Mark gives a look that suggests, “You even have to ask?” Although being buried alive is the stuff of monastic lore, few have heard the story from the horse’s mouth. It was 17 August 1965 at 11:30 in the morning. The tunnel that connects the dorm and academic building of Saint John’s Preparatory School was a relatively new addition, but it was in need of repair because of leaks from rain and snow melt. Mark was down in the tunnel about ten feet when one side collapsed on him from behind and slammed him into the adjacent wall of concrete. His Irish guardian angels were responsible for providing a miraculous and inexplicable air pocket that kept him alive as coworkers began the frantic recovery protocol.

Three hours later he was extracted from a premature grave, suffering three chipped vertebrae and a lot of confusion. He doesn’t have a clear memory of the accident but to this day struggles with back pain as a result.

Cheating death at age 28 would certainly stand out in most minds as a transformative moment, but Brother Mark speaks of it as but one strand of a large tapestry. For example, he gets excited describing the winter before his accident: on 17 March, Saint Patrick’s Day, the campus was clobbered with 27 inches of snow from one

storm! Then, on 26 March—his birthday, no less—Saint John’s had to deal with another 20+ inches. In total, the winter of 1965 dropped 110 inches of snow on Collegeville. The fact that he can remember the exact days and the snow totals underlines the importance of those events. But it is also memorable to him because snow removal is a major part of his job. Even though we haven’t seen much snow at Saint John’s in recent years, when the snow does

Doctoring the football field

present itself, Brother Mark is responsible for getting workers to the high traffic areas as soon as possible. He likes to point out, however, that equipment over the years has become much more efficient and powerful. What little we had got the job done, he notes, but it definitely took a lot longer.

While snow removal is a major part of the grounds crew to-do list, there is never a lack of work on the campus at any given moment or any given season.

University archives

Mowing acres of lawn, sweeping streets, planting, seeding grass, trimming hedges . . . it never ends.

But Mark will tell you with a hint of pride in his voice that under his watch, there have been zero serious accidents or injuries to anyone but himself.

No story about Mark Kelly would be complete without mentioning his collaboration with Saint John’s legendary football coach John Gagliardi and his wife Peggy.

Mark has been a family friend for decades, stemming from his role in helping John maintain and protect the football field. Before 2002 the turf in Clemens Stadium was natural, which meant it needed mowing, seeding, watering, painting, and protecting. The Prep School had clearance to use the stadium for Friday home games, which always meant that if the event were played in rain, the field needed some “doctoring” before Saturday’s college game. Brother Mark was John’s reliable associate who knew how to get that job done. From there, Mark became a vital part of the football program and a staple of the Gagliardi house.

Brother Mark Kelly is on his way to retirement which, for him, hardly means wandering aimlessly in the hallways of the monastery! No doubt, he’ll fill up his free time in doing what he always used to squeeze into a busy week: going to hockey games or visiting the many people who look for his truck on a regular basis. Whatever he does, it will be done with vigor, excitement, and a keen love of life.

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Lives of the Benedictine Saints Gertrude the Great Stefanie Weisgram, O.S.B.

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ittle is known of Saint Gertrude the Great’s early life except that she was born on the feast of the Epiphany, 6 January 1256, and died circa 1302. Her family background is also unknown, but they were presumed to be deceased or very poor, since she had no surname.

At the age of five she was taken to the monastery of Helfta near Eisleben, Saxony-Anholt, Germany, and entrusted to the care of Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn. Gertrude loved to study and was blessed with keen intelligence. As she matured she became eloquent in speech and skillful in writing.

As a child, Gertrude was loved by all. As a young woman, she gradually became tense and melancholic. As much as she enjoyed her studies, Gertrude began to find that these interests caused her daily life, with its conventual obligations, to become humdrum and wearying. She described herself as “a nun in name and appearance only,” and before long she considered her-

self much less than the woman she had professed herself to be. Anxiety and depression followed. But it was not to last.

After her worst bout of depression, Gertrude experienced Christ like never before. She was in the community’s dormitory and had just bowed to an older nun, when she saw Christ as a young man—a young man who spoke to her encouragingly and held out his hand to her, showing her the wound of a nail. A biographer quotes her reaction to this event: “Hitherto I had given as little thought to my interior life as—if I may say—to the interior of my feet.” Now her life was changed, and she began to experience Christ’s love within herself.

With this newfound awareness of Christ and his desire to live within her, Gertrude’s life changed in many ways, including her attitude toward her studies.

Before this experience her academic interest was focused on the arts and sciences. Shortly thereafter she changed from a grammarian to a theologian.

While she had been faithful to her monastic observance—

Gertrude was an extraordinary student; she learned everything that can be learned of the sciences [and liberal arts], the education of her day. She was fascinated by knowledge and threw herself into secular studies with zeal and tenacity, achieving scholastic successes beyond every expectation. If we know nothing of her origins, she herself tells us about her youthful passions: literature, music and song, and the art of miniature painting captivated her. She had a strong, determined, ready and impulsive temperament.

Pope Benedict XVI, 6 October 2010

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because this was her obligation as a nun—Gertrude’s experience of Christ’s love for her transformed her understanding and practice of the monastic life. As her inner life changed, so did her outer life. She strove to be more than a good teacher for her sisters; her desire now was to enlighten and encourage them.

As a result, she spent hours translating, paraphrasing, and explaining the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers of the Church. She also developed into a fine writer, as expressed in her Exercises and The Herald of Divine Love. Unfortunately, most of her writings—letters, vernacular treatises, and commentaries, paraphrases, and explanations of scriptural texts— have been lost.

Gertrude’s self-understanding is noteworthy. She was hard on herself and her human imperfections to the point of saying, over and over, how sinful and unworthy she was of this remarkable relationship with Christ. She felt that Jesus, who was her best teacher and was always patient with her, wanted to spare her from humiliation.

She prayed frequently: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, give me the grace to desire you with all my heart. . . . Lord of infinite mercy, with your precious blood inscribe your wounds on my heart that I may read in them both your suffering and your love. . . . Let me find my joy in you alone.”

Prospero Lambertini in 1738 while he was Promoter of the Faith. (Later he became Pope Benedict XIV.) Gertrude was given this title because of her spiritual history, her mystical communication, and her contribution to the understanding of medieval spirituality.

More recently Pope Benedict XVI, during a general audience, spoke of Gertrude as having transformed the results of her study and mystical experiences into an apostolate: “She devoted herself to writing and popularizing the truth of faith with clarity and simplicity, with Andreas Praefcke, Free Documentation License grace and persuasion, serving the Church Gertrude lived and died as a faithfully and lovingly so simple nun, but her writings as to be helpful to and appreand personal example qualify ciated by theologians and her to be counted among the devout people.” Pope Benedict most notable medieval German continued, saying that the mystics. Though initially visionary and communal spirireluctant to write about her tuality found in the writings of experiences of drawing closer to Gertrude and other writers of Christ, she came to realize that her Helfta monastery represents she was meant to write for a turning point in Western culothers so they would know the ture. Scholars now recognize a immensity of Christ’s love for religious sensibility more comthem and Christ’s eagerness to mon among women than men deepen their personal relationand can also document “that ship. The title “the Great” was the devotional emphases found given to Gertrude by Cardinal

in the visionary texts of female religious houses influenced male writers and practitioners.”

To the contemporary reader, the piety of Gertrude the Great might seem extreme, but her honesty and her humor may make us envious of her close, personal, and loving relationship with Christ—who is never apart from her, and always encouraging her to let others know of his love. Pope Benedict describes her well: “Gertrude expressed the riches of her spirituality not only in her monastic world, but also and above all in the biblical, liturgical, patristic, and Benedictine contexts, with a highly personal hallmark and great skill in communicating.”

Sister Stefanie Weisgram, O.S.B., was the collection development librarian at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University until her retirement in 2012.

GNU

Giver of gifts, you who have so freely loaded me with gifts unmerited, I ask you to grant that at least one loving heart reading these pages may be moved to compassion, seeing that through zeal for souls you have permitted such a royal gem to be embedded in the slime of my heart.

Saint Gertrude the Great The Herald of Divine Love 2.5

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Finian McDonald

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Abbey archives

he youngest of five sons born to George Thomas and Nora Madeline (Connley) McDonald in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Father Finian McDonald, O.S.B., was born on 23 December 1928 and baptized Robert Anthony. He completed his early education in Minneapolis, attending Whitney and Prescott elementary schools, and Edison and DeLaSalle high schools, graduating from the latter in 1946.

Reflecting on his earliest days of ministry, he would recall: “Around the age of ten I started to serve Mass. I remember the first time I recited the Latin prayers for Father Henry Sledz, then our assistant, that I had a difficult time to stutter them out.

Guess we both thought I’d make a poor server.” Despite a lifelong speech impediment, Finian was nonetheless convinced that “serving at the altar brought me closer to the physical aspects of serving God.”

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Following the completion of an associate of arts degree at the University of Minnesota in 1948, Finian worked at the U.S. Army Security Agency until 1950. He graduated from Saint John’s University with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1956, the same year that he professed vows as a Benedictine monk of Saint John’s Abbey. Upon completing priesthood studies at Saint John’s, he was ordained in 1962. Continuing his education at Boston College, he was awarded a master of education degree in psychology (1971), receiving further training in psychiatric counseling at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. For the first few decades of his monastic life, most of Finian’s ministerial and professional assignments were at Saint John’s University. Beginning in 1962 he served as a prefect in Benet Hall, director of special events, and dean of men. He would go on to become director of counseling (1968–71; 1980–82) and of academic advising (1983–88).

Father Finian was a member of the counseling center staff for twelve years and a longtime faculty resident in Patrick Hall.

Title of Magnus ArticleWenninger mathematics teacher at Saint Augustine’s College for a quarter century. He also served for ten years as the comptroller and accountant for Saint Augustine’s College. His Bahamian ministry included service as chaplain to Her Majesty’s Prison from 1950 to 1958, spiritual director for the Legion of Mary for the Nassau Curia from 1953 to 1974, and weekend pastoral assistance to parishes on the islands from 1958 to 1981.

We thank God for the many ways Father Finian enriched our life in this community. We ask that he be pardoned for his sins and be brought to the banquet of heaven. We pray for healing for those who have suffered because of anything Finian had done. We ask for the grace we need to remain faithful to Christ.

From the funeral homily by Prior Bradley Jenniges, O.S.B.

As a missionary monk, Finian served at Saint Anselm’s Priory in Tokyo from 1988 through 1992 and at Saint Augustine’s Monastery, Nassau, The Bahamas, in 1998 and 1999. In 1999 he returned to Japan to serve at Trinity Benedictine Monastery in Fujimi. He was adept at arranging flowers, and he earned an advanced certificate in this Japanese art from the Ohara School of Ikebana in Tokyo. He had a special way with orchids and won several awards for his prize specimens. At Saint John’s, he loved to delight and surprise his confreres and lay colleagues with handsome floral arrangements in various monastic spaces and university offices.

In his later years, various allegations of sexual misconduct subjected Finian to restrictions and therapy. He died on 9 February 2017 in a hospice care facility.

Following the Mass of Christian Burial on 17 February, he was buried in the abbey cemetery.

F

Abbey archives

ather Magnus Wenninger, O.S.B., the second of eight children of Henry and Josephine (Weber) Wenninger, was born in Park Falls, Wisconsin, on 31 October 1919. On the advice of two cousins, he entered Saint John’s Preparatory School in the fall of 1933, graduating four years later. After attending Saint John’s University for two years, he entered the novitiate of Saint John’s Abbey and professed his first vows as a Benedictine monk on 11 July 1940. Following the completion of his undergraduate work, Magnus pursued theological studies at Saint John’s Seminary and was ordained to the priesthood on 2 September 1945.

Those twelve years of Collegeville studies were followed by decades of ministry outside Minnesota. A founding member of Saint Augustine’s Monastery in Nassau, Father Magnus was a missionary to The Bahamas for thirty five years and a

In 1981 Father Magnus returned to Saint John’s to become an accountant for Liturgical Press.

He also served on the chaplain teams for Saint Raphael Convent and Saint Benedict’s Monastery. For nine years he was the director of Oblates of Saint John’s Abbey, writing and publishing a monthly newsletter. In his later years, while presiding at daily Mass for the monastic community, he regularly sang his homilies—to the melody of sacred music and sometimes opera favorites.

Between 1958 and 1961 Magnus attended four summer sessions at Columbia University Teacher’s College in New York, earning a master’s degree in mathematics education. Here he first encountered polyhedrons—the threedimensional geometric figures that are both mathematically intricate and aesthetically appealing. Thereafter, polyhedrons became the passion —if not obsession—of Magnus’ work, study, recreation, and

occasionally, prayer. Among his many publications on the subject are three books published by Cambridge University Press (Polyhedron Models, 1971, 1974; Spherical Models, 1979, 1999; and Dual Models, 1983, 2003) which have been translated into numerous languages, including Russian and Japanese.

Professor Arthur Loeb of Harvard University opined: “The beauty of Magnus Wenninger’s models is beyond doubt. And once these attractive models become prevalent, they are bound to influence environmental art and architecture and thus have a positive effect on our visual environment.”

Though recognized internationally as among the foremost authorities on polyhedrons, Father Magnus wore his acclaim lightly. He preferred to spend his free time working with paper and scissors, building colorful polyhedrons as gifts or decorations, or for purchase at local craft sales.

Father Magnus died on 17 February 2017. Following the Mass of Christian Burial on 22 February, he was interred in the abbey cemetery.

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Henry Bryan Beaumont Hays

O

Abbey archives

ne of our most idiosyncratic monks, Father Henry Bryan Beaumont Hays, O.S.B., son of Henry Bryan and Lucy Ellis (Beaumont) Hays, died on 2 March 2017. Before Bryan (as he preferred to be called) was born on a farm near Clarksville, Tennessee, on 10 December 1920, his father deserted his mother. She married W. F. Dority when Bryan was five years old. Following graduation from Clarksville High School, Bryan attended Chicago Musical College, studying musical composition under Max Wald.

Passionately fond of music, Bryan taught himself to play the piano.

In 1949 he won the George Gershwin Award for a short orchestral piece, Pastorale and Allegro, performed at Carnegie Hall during the annual Gershwin Memorial Concert. With funding from the Gershwin Award, Bryan spent a year in France, immersing himself in the Parisian music scene and composing an opera. Upon his return to the U.S., he accepted a

Abbey Chronicle

scholarship as a student of Aaron Copland. In 1952 and 1953 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in musical composition, and traveled to Italy.

1997); a CD Uncommon Daisies, 1999; and more than two hundred hymns, several of which were performed during the Mass of Christian Burial on 7 March 2017.

Bryan was raised in the Methodist tradition. While in Rome an encounter with the mystic priest Padre Pio was transformative and initiated his monastic search for God. His fascination with the life of monks and the writings of Thomas Merton led him to make a retreat at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. During this visit he was overwhelmed with a desire to become a Catholic and a monk. That desire led him to Collegeville.

Bryan taught French and firstyear colloquium courses at the university. He also presided in the university dining room. An engaging conversationalist, he daily held court with the undergraduates: reviewing the Johnnie football team, sharing his considerable knowledge of the writings of Carl Jung or Flannery O’Connor, or bemoaning the poor quality of parochial music. His students and confreres witnessed the evolution of his appearance, from mutton-chop sideburns to a beard and wildly long hair—which he occasionally set on fire while lighting his pipe.

Upon entry into the Saint John’s Abbey novitiate in 1957, Bryan received the religious name Hippolytus. After the Second Vatican Council, he resumed the use of his childhood name, Bryan Dority. Years later, he would drop the last name of his stepfather, reclaim his surname, and add his mother’s maiden name—hence: Henry Bryan Beaumont Hays. It was all rather simple, he thought.

In June 1962, following priesthood studies, Bryan added the title of Father to his résumé.

Nearly fifty-nine years after professing vows as a Benedictine in 1958, this gifted composer joined the heavenly choirs, where he undoubtedly protests: “A dragged hymn is nothing but the abominable sin of sloth, a capital offense against the true meaning of the word enthusiasm.”

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We are confident that April will shower us with Easter blessings.

Alleluia!

Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

December 2016 • Father William Skudlarek and confreres welcomed two Sri Lankan Buddhist monks, Bhante Seewalie and Bhante Kirti, and a lay associate, Jim Powers, for a short visit and discussion about Buddhist monastic life. Their particular ministry includes teaching a method of meditation helpful for those preparing for Step 11 in the Alcoholics Anonymous program.

• The fifteenth controlled deer hunt at Saint John’s, since the abbey land was designated a wildlife refuge in 1933, opened on 19 October and concluded on 31 December. Thirty antlerless deer were taken by 112 archers.

Saint John’s is attempting to address the overpopulation of deer in the abbey arboretum and the consequent threat to the health of the forest ecosystem.

January 2017 • Five months after construction began, at 10:15 a.m., 4 January, the new 3-megawatt photovoltaic solar panels [left] in the Saint John’s Abbey Solar Farm began sending power to a substation in nearby Avon, Minnesota. Covering twenty-three acres, the new solar field is six times larger than Saint John’s first solar farms that opened

As a composer, Bryan was as prolific as he was creative. His oeuvre includes vocal solos, duets, and trios; five operas (including The Little Match Girl, 1978); oratorios (including Stations of the Cross, 1981, 1993); the Appalachian flavored Swayed Pines Song Book, 1981; instrumental ensembles (including the Grandma Moses Suites 1992– Marcellus Hall

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innesota weather has been on a rollercoaster.

The first days of Advent were rainy and unseasonably warm, but an artic blast during the first week of December helped Lake Sagatagan freeze for the season on 9 December. A week before Christmas the wind chill was -37 degrees. The winter solstice saw the temperature soar to 37 degrees above zero.

Christmas dawned with icy sidewalks and roads; one-half inch of freezing rain and howling winds closed the day. Eight inches of snow, and wind-chill factors in the -20s marked the first week of 2017. But midJanuary, typically the coldest time of the year, was remarkably mild: daytime highs in the 20s, 30s, and even 40s. March and Lent came in like a lamb with moderate temps, rolling thunder, and one-third inch of rain.

Winds gusting to 42 m.p.h on 8 March and a continued warming trend hastened the opening of Lake Sagatagan on 24 March.

Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

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Title of Article in 2009 and 2014. By contract, Saint John’s can use a maximum of forty percent of the power produced; the remainder goes into the Xcel Energy power grid.

The land on which the solar farm is located was formerly used to grow corn. Apple trees and native berry bushes will be planted along the north side of the complex to mask the scale of the solar farm and also to support habitat for bees, birds, and butterflies.

• As volunteer monks began disassembling the Saint John’s Christmas tree in the Great Hall after the feast of the Epiphany, the staff of Saint John’s physical plant department erected scaffolding and plastic barriers to begin plaster repairs [below] and repainting of the former abbey church. Representatives of the Midwest Art Conservation Center also attended to minor damage to the artwork of the apse.

Title of Article

Dear Muslim Sisters and Brothers, Nabadi ha idinla jirto oo dhan korkiina ha ahaato!

[Somali for “Peace be upon you all!”]

Following these introductory words, Abbot John Klassen expressed well wishes to our Muslim neighbors in a letter of support. “We recognize that there are people in this country who have negative feelings about Muslims and about Islam,” the letter continued.

“We want you to know that you are loved and that you are cherished and that you are valued members of this community. . . .

Thank you for your enduring willingness to help preserve the freedoms that make our country great.” The letter, co-signed by dozens of monks of Saint John’s Abbey, was proposed by the Saint Cloud Area Faith Leaders, an ecumenical and interreligious group organized by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Saint Cloud.

• The Rev. Darrell Jodock, Lutheran pastor, professor emeritus of Gustavus Adolphus College, and current chair of the Collegeville Institute Board of Directors, delivered the homily at the community’s Sunday Eucharist on 22 January as part of the observance of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

His theme was “Reconciliation: the love of Christ compels us,” a reflection on 2 Corinthians 5:14-20.

• With a time of 40:19 minutes, Father Lew Grobe won the ninekilometer Langlauf Nordic Ski Race (citizen skate division) on 22 January at Saint John’s.

• January 22 was also the fiftieth anniversary of the first broadcast on radio station KSJR 90.1 FM from the third floor of Wimmer Hall on the Saint John’s University campus. Supposedly the first words uttered on air by engineer Dan Rieder were, “Heed my words, Earth people.

Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

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than 180 gallons of syrup had been bottled. How sweet it is!

February 2017

You have ten minutes to live.”

Despite that dire warning, the radio station has flourished in the decades following, to the delight of the Earth people.

What was known as Minnesota Education Radio in 1967 has grown into the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) network of 45 stations and 40 translators serving Minnesota and neighboring communities. An estimated 19 million people listen each week to programming by American Public Media, MPR’s national programming division.

• Neighbor, dear friend, and former “Doctor Mom” Eileen Haeg retired as Abbey Volunteer Coordinator on 31 January. Since SepAlan Reed, tember 2011, under Eileen’s excellent leadership, the volunteer program has tallied 19,859 hours of service and even more good will.

O.S.B.

• Longtime and beloved Nurse Nancy Mitchell retired from the staff of Saint Raphael Hall, the abbey’s retirement and senior health Robin Pierzina, care center, on 4 February, but not before her colleagues and the monastic community surprised her with birthday cake and well wishes.

To the relief of the monks, Nancy will serve on a part-time basis for the immediate future.

O.S.B.

March 2017 • The Vigil Office for the Second Sunday of Lent, 11 March, offered a hint of Easter joy. Under the direction of Dr. Andrew Earis, eight members of St. Martin’s Voices from St. Martin-in-the-Fields of London alternately accompanied and led the evening prayer service.

• “A sap-run is the sweet goodbye of winter,” observed John Burroughs in Signs and Seasons, 1886. However, because Mother Nature did not provide much snow to central Minnesota this year, the “goodbye,” sweet or otherwise, was less obvious.

Brother Walter Kieffer reports that some 1150 taps were placed into the maple trees of Saint John’s Sugar Bush [right] to begin this year’s sap season.

The initial sap runs were very promising: as of 30 March, more

• Several dozen oak trees— diseased, dying, or in declining health—were cut down in March, significantly altering the appearance of the Abbey Road and the inner campus. An urban forester, working with administrators of Saint John’s as well as members of the university biology department, is reviewing the situation to determine the cause of the decline, which may be a combination of soil mix and nutrient base, disease, and oak seed that is not hardy in central Minnesota. Initial plans are to replace the lost trees with a hardier variety of oak as well as maple and cherry trees.

• Mr. Thomas Kroll, abbey land manager and director of Saint John’s Outdoor University, has been recognized as a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters. This prestigious award honors those who have

Dave Martin

Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

demonstrated long-standing service to forestry at the local, state, and national level.

• Saint John’s University alumnus Denis McDonough was guest speaker at the 14 March Lunch and Learn program sponsored by the Benedictine Institute and the Eugene McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement.

Following a successful career on the Johnnie football team, Mr. McDonough served in a variety of governmental positions, including Deputy National Security Adviser to President Obama and White House Chief of Staff from January 2013 until January 2017. Mr. McDonough reflected on the manner his faith and education at Saint John’s guided his public service since graduating, summa cum laude, in 1992.

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Fifty Years Ago

Monks in the Kitchen

Excerpted from Confrere, newsletter of Saint John’s Abbey:

Lemon Cake Ælred Senna, O.S.B.

February 1967 • “Perhaps the saddest sights,” writes Father Stephen Wagman [U.S. Army chaplain in Vietnam], “were those of women and children being moved from their homes, loaded onto trucks with their worldly possessions—few clothes, pots and pans, dogs, chickens, pigs—and moved to huge refugee centers. These are the real victims of war.”

Two confreres, Fathers [John] Howard and [Ray] Pedrizetti joined 2,000 clergy and others in their march on Washington January 31 to protest the war.

• University President Father Colman Barry addressed an interfaith prayer service at Christ Lutheran Church, Saint Paul, which preceded the convening of the 1967 Minnesota Legislature.

He called on the legislators to devote themselves to compassion and to work for peace. “Compassion, selflessness, and a willingness to suffer for others,” he said, “arise from an awareness of our brothers’ needs today and a desire to help in the social patterns we created.”

• The New York Times carried the first story on January 20 and local newspapers followed suit.

The Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research was big news.

Even the Paris edition of the Times gave it 12½ column

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D Sketch of the Collegeville Institute designed by Marcel Breuer

inches. Although the monastic chapter approved the center on 13 October 1966, the news was not released until now.

University archives

Night,” a program of recorded classical music heard Tuesday through Thursday.

May 1967

• Abbot Baldwin Dworschak announced that statio will be integrated beginning on the First Sunday of Lent, 12 February.

From that date onward, the date of first profession will determine everyone’s place in choir and at table. This move recognizes the validity of the monastic vocation outside of sacred orders.

March 1967 • Brother Kevin Brush was laid to rest in a lot which had up to this time been reserved for the deceased priests of the abbey.

The new indults approved last fall had put aside these external distinctions, eliminating also the separate places in choir and at table for clerical and non-clerical members.

• “Your host is Father Godwin [William] Skudlarek,” is a phrase that listeners to KSJR, the new Saint John’s FM station, hear three evenings each week. He introduces “Concert in the

• A public statement of cooperation between Saint John’s and Saint Benedict’s Convent was released on 19 April. “In order to demonstrate religious unity and to achieve greater efficiency in an effort toward academic excellence, the Convent of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s Abbey wish to cooperate in joint religious activities, in institutional operations, and on all levels of academic administration, particularly in planning faculty and curricular development and educational facilities.”

• Father Alberic Culhane will pack a spade and go digging this summer in Palestine, about 15 miles southwest of Jerusalem.

He has received a study grant from Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, to participate in the Gezer Summer Institute. A group of fifty people will search for archaeological items which will contribute to the study of Jewish history.

o you love lemon? I am a fan of pretty much all things lemon—lemon bars, lemon curd, lemonade, limoncello—as long as they are made with real lemons.

Artificially-flavored lemon items represent, for me, the polar opposite of the near lemon perfection that can be conjured from those gorgeous, tart, yellow citrus fruits.

What better time than spring to break out such a refreshing and uplifting flavor! After the sweet, spicy, and often heavy flavors of fall and winter, a lovely lemon dessert can offer the tart spark needed to propel us into springtime—not to mention that six weeks of Lent probably have most of us really craving something bright, beautiful, and tangy for Easter.

Several years ago I discovered this recipe—which I have tweaked a bit over time—for a lemon cake. Made with the juice and zest of fresh lemons, it is a delightful Easter treat. Serve it with coffee on Easter morning, or save it for dessert after a big Easter ham dinner. Either way, it will lift your spirits and make you smile! Lemon cake is a favorite at Liturgical Press as well as with the many Johnnies to whom I have served it over the years. And, of course, the monks love it!

Brother Ælred’s Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze (Serves 8-12)

• 6 oz. butter, room temperature + ¼ c. vegetable oil • 1½ c. sugar • 4 eggs • ¼ c. lemon juice + zest of 2 lemons • 2 c. flour • 1½ teaspoons baking powder • ½ teaspoon baking soda • ¼ teaspoon salt • ¾ c. sour cream + ¼ c. milk • 1 c. powdered sugar • 2 or 3 tablespoons lemon juice + zest of 1 lemon Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour one 10” cake pan (lined with parchment) or a standard Bundt pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter, oil, and sugar with beater until pale and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating in each one.

Stir in vanilla, lemon juice, and zest.

Add one-third of the flour mixture and incorporate well. Add half the sour cream mixture and incorporate. Alternate additions of dry and wet ingredients until all are combined.

Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes. Test for doneness (a toothpick comes out clean). Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Make glaze from remaining ingredients. Spread or drizzle on the cake while it is barely warm.

Ælred Senna, O.S.B.

Brother Ælred Senna, O.S.B., is associate editor of Give Us This Day and a faculty resident at Saint John’s University.

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In Memoriam

Lupe

Please join the monastic community in prayerful remembrance of our deceased family members and friends:

Timothy Backous, O.S.B.

John Archabal Frank Borash Bob Boris Sandra Kamman Butler Lawrence Christensen Daniel G. “Dan” Coborn Patricia “Pat” Collins, O.S.B. Mary C. Connolly Benedict Cooper, Obl.S.B. Gene E. Denler Margaret Regine DuBois Roger H. Eisenschenk Richard Mark “Rich” Erpelding Frederick “Fritz” Fandel Agnes Fonteyn Olivia Forster, O.S.B. Maria Luisa Gonzalez Elaine F. Guinn Joseph Martin Hartle Henry Bryan Beaumont Hays, O.S.B. Josephine Frances Hess

Ambrose Hessling, O.S.B. Ruth Ann Howard Maurus Jaeb, O.S.B. Marjorie Mary “Marge” Kalinowski, Obl.S.B. Basil Keenan, O.S.B. James F. “Jim” Kuhl Michael J. Kutzera Rita Elizabeth Lange, Obl.S.B. Frances Luyben Leonore Mahowald Stan Henry Maiers Petronelle Marthaler, O.S.B. James Henry Martin Matthew Mazzuchelli, O.S.B. Finian McDonald, O.S.B. Rev. Mary Allison Bigelow McMillan Sandy Susan McMillin Bishop John J. McRaith Hella Hueg Mears

Patricia Elizabeth Milbert Emmett Thomas Morgan Joan Muldoon Patrick U. Murphy Odo Nanyanje, O.S.B. Lou O’Day Autumn Brianna Palomaki Lorraine Pletscher Abbot Patrick Regan, O.S.B. Jean Elizabeth Rothstein Gerald Conrad Rummel Bernadette A. “Betty” Sand Leo C. Schirmers Sebastian Schmidt, O.S.B. Mary Rose Shadeg, O.S.C. Mary Evangeline Stanoch, O.S.F. Gerald Thaar, O.S.C. Louise E. Theisen, Obl.S.B. Merwina Theisen, Obl.S.B. Magnus Wenninger, O.S.B. Richard “Dick” Whalen

Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.

Psalm 116:15

A Monk’s Chronicle Father Eric Hollas, O.S.B., offers spiritual insights and glimpses into the life of the Benedictine community at Saint John’s Abbey in a weekly blog, A Monk’s Chronicle. Visit his blog at: monkschronicle.wordpress.com.

Father Don’s Daily Reflection Father Don Talafous, O.S.B., prepares daily reflections on Scripture and living the life of a Christian that are available on the abbey’s website at: saintjohnsabbey.org/reflection/.

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ears ago I had the privilege of traveling to the U.S./Mexico border as part of a study group. We were theologians studying, discussing, and experiencing that 2000-mile piece of contentious real estate.

The places we visited were at once inspiring, shocking, depressing, and exhilarating. One particular moment stands alone in my memory: meeting with a refugee from Central America who led a daily protest at city hall for her right to water and sanitation in her “village,” which was actually a garbage dump. When a member of our group asked her what we could do for her, she said: “When you tell my story, use my name, which is Lupe.

Every time you tell my story, use my name.” At first this seemed like a strange request. She didn’t want money or any other material support.

She wanted us to remember to use her name.

Later I began to understand her words. She knew that the rich are often famous too. If someone asks us to name a rich person, we know what to say: Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, or Carlos Slim come easily to mind. Longer lists would not be difficult to make. But when it comes to the poor, even one single person, we are left with nothing. We have comfortable ways of speaking about “the poor.” We call them “homeless,” “refugees,” “illegals,” and other such names, thus acknowledging we have no idea who they are, and we probably prefer it that way. Once we have a name like Lupe from Guatemala, it gets a little too real. The more I know about her—especially her name—the more responsibility I might feel.

May we learn their names and attend to their needs.

Perhaps this is why Jesus used the parable of the beggar Lazarus lying at the gate of a rich man (Luke 16:19-31). In Jesus’ world, the poor have names, and the rich are nameless. (Some translations call the man “Dives,” which is translated “rich man”; but he is still nameless.) When the two enter eternal life, the poor man is rewarded, while the rich man suffers torment for his indifference. He becomes the beggar as he asks for a single drop of water from Lazarus’ finger, but Abraham refuses because of the “chasm” between the two men.

The story is a stark reminder to all who are challenged to learn the names of those begging at our gates, our borders—wherever they call out to us.

Lupe’s request is the same voice, the same presence of Lazarus at the gate.

May we as individuals and as a nation have the presence of mind and the fullness of spirit to learn their names and attend to their needs.

Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods that we hold, but theirs.

Saint John Chrysostom, 347–407

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Abbey Banner 4 This Issue Robin Pierzina, O.S.B. 5 Benedictine Ecumenism Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B. 6 Easter Hope Pope Francis 8 Benedictine Volunteer Corps 10 The Collegeville Institute at 50 Aaron Raverty, O.S.B. 12 First-Person Ecumenism Donald Ottenhoff 14 Lessons of the Reformation Benjamin Durheim 16 Stability Matthew Reichert

Spring 2017 Volume 17, Number 1

17 Rule of Benedict: Dining as Liturgy Eric Hollas, O.S.B.

30 Obituary: Finian McDonald

18 Nature Journaling James Poff

32 Obituary: Henry Bryan Hays

22 Iraq and Syria’s Manuscript Collections Columba Stewart, O.S.B. 24 Ordination 25 Alcuin Library Renovation 26 Meet a Monk: Mark Kelly Timothy Backous, O.S.B. 28 Lives of the Benedictine Saints: Gertrude the Great Stefanie Weisgram, O.S.B.

31 Obituary: Magnus Wenninger

33 Abbey Chronicle Robin Pierzina, O.S.B. 36 Fifty Years Ago 37 Monks in the Kitchen: Lemon Cake Ælred Senna, O.S.B. 38 In Memoriam 39 Lupe Timothy Backous, O.S.B.

Six-Day Directed Retreat 15–21 June 2017 Cost: $585, which includes a single room, meals, and daily spiritual direction.

Abbey Day of Reflection 21–22 September 2017 Who is the God that calls?

Presented by Kathleen Cahalan The day of reflection begins at 4:00 P.M. on Thursday and concludes at 3:00 P.M. on Friday.

Cost: Single room, $95; double room, $170; seminar conferences and meals included.

Register online at abbeyguesthouse.org; call the Spiritual Life Office: 320.363.3929; or email us at spirlife@osb.org.