Abbey Banner - Spring 2018 by Saint John's Abbey

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Come, ring out our joy to the LORD; hail the rock who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks, with songs let us hail the LORD. Psalm 95:1-2

Eric Pohlman, O.S.B.

This Issue

Abbey Banner Magazine of Saint John’s Abbey Spring 2018

Volume 18, 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 © 2018 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

Photo: Abbey archives

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B.

Life is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order to give life to others. This is certainly what mission means.

Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, Aparecida Document, 29 June 2007, 360

or those of us who grew up in central Minnesota farming country, one of our most hated tasks each spring was the systematic walk through the fields, scouring them for stones, big and small. My father considered this to be a sacred community-building exercise: everybody was on deck, oldest to youngest. Rocks were a problem, something to throw away!

This issue of Abbey Banner explores the missionary endeavors of Saint John’s Abbey on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. Since the founding of Saint John’s in 1856, evangelization and education have formed our expression of monastic life. In seeking to live out the greatest commandments, the monks of Saint John’s have given witness to love of God through our daily prayer and study of Scripture; and love of neighbor, through parochial and educational ministry. The pioneer monks of our community served the immigrant population of central Minnesota and the Native American communities of northern Minnesota. Brother Aaron Raverty sketches the history of Saint Mary’s Mission with the Ojibwe of Red Lake. Father Julius Beckermann offers a personal account of how his vocation was nurtured by the native community. Saint John’s commitment to educational ministry has been expressed both in and outside the classroom, from middle school to graduate theology programs, and as teachers, administrators, or faculty residents. Promoting a lively, rich, and authentic understanding of Benedictine life is the mission of the Benedictine Institute of Saint John’s University. Dr. Rodger Narloch updates us on the institute’s latest activities. Benedictines are committed to good stewardship. Since the mid-1800s, our community has cared for the woods, wetlands, and lakes that surround our Collegeville home. Mr. John Geissler identifies a new threat to the health of our woods: the European Gypsy Moth, an invasive species that is now established in Minnesota. He also introduces a new initiative—the Abbey Conservation Corps—that welcomes volunteers to assist in the care of this special place. For centuries, Benedictines have been stewards of human culture. Medieval monks copied and illuminated manuscripts, preserving the literature of Greece and Rome, scientific texts, music, Scripture, and more. Since 1965 Saint John’s has committed its energy and resources to the preservation of these manuscripts. The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) has photographed thousands of historic manuscripts from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, preserving these treasures from the destructive forces of war, fire, or looting. Father Columba Stewart offers an eyewitness account of HMML’s work, under fire, in Timbuktu.

Cover: Ojibwe daughter, Saint Mary’s Mission, Red Lake, Minnesota

Benedictine Values in Stone

Abbot John Klassen opens this issue, sharing a personal insight on the value of stone. Dr. Martin F. Connell reflects on the stone artwork above the entryway of the campus Auditorium. We also hear from a few ambassadors of the Benedictine Volunteer Corps, learn of the hard and rugged ways by which the monastic journey from Texas to Minnesota is made, and more. The staff of Abbey Banner joins Abbot John and the monastic community in offering prayers and best wishes to all our readers for the Spirit’s blessings during the Easter and Pentecost seasons. Brother Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

Living at Saint John’s, first for school and then as a member of the monastery, has completely reversed my emotional response. In this place, stone is a natural building material and a beloved element of our community’s ambience. When pioneer monks first made the journey from the Collegeville station to the present site of the monastery in the spring of 1866, they constructed the first building, the Old Stone House, of fieldstone gathered from local farms. This all-purpose building served as a residence for monks and students, as a chapel, and as a classroom. Abbey archives

When Rupert Seidenbusch was elected the first abbot of this community, he came from our motherhouse in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which was familiar with making bricks for buildings. He saw immediately that Saint John’s needed additional space. The rich clay deposits were well suited for making bricks, and Abbot Rupert made the crucial decision to switch our structural building material from stone to brick. The outcome of his decision is the quadrangle, brought into being by Abbot Alexius Edelbrock in the late 1800s. This enormous brick building includes a solid stone foundation. If one walks around our campus, it is easy to see that the community never lost sight of the physical beauty of stone. Whether embedded in a foundation, in a wall, or an arch, the stones testify to a long geological journey, with different sizes and shapes, unique coloration striated by streaks of foreign material, and etched surfaces that emerged from the slow grinding movement of pressure and time. Throughout our history, Saint John’s has been blessed with excellent stonemasons, such as Mr. John Pueringer in the 1930s and 40s, and Mr. Tadd Jensen in the 1990s. Many monks worked under the tutelage and guidance of these skilled artisans. What do these stone formations say to us today? They speak of solidity and durability, the elegance, understated beauty, and simplicity of natural materials. They speak of frugality, of using what is available in the local area—something especially dear to the heart of Saint Benedict. Often, the stone artwork surprises us—catching us off guard. We are grateful that our forebears brought such skill to making something at once simple and beautiful.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

A Psalm for All Seasons Abbot Gregory Polan, O.S.B.

salm 23 is one of the best known psalms among Christians. The text appears widely on memorial cards for the deceased. But Christian appreciation for the psalm goes back much further than contemporary funeral practices. Among the earliest Christian texts, Psalm 23 is recognized and revered for its links to the Christian sacraments. The restful waters that revive the soul (Ps 23:2-3) are suggestive of the lifegiving sacrament of baptism. The anointing with oil (23:5) calls to mind the chrismation of confirmation. Both the prepared table and the overflowing cup (23:5) anticipate and prefigure the nourishment of the Eucharist. These sacraments of initiation formed and fostered the life of the early Church, just as they do for us today. In the passage evoking the “valley of the shadow of death” (23:4), the psalmist expresses confidence in the divine presence and the hope of “dwelling in the house of the LORD for length of

days unending” (23:6). For centuries these have been words of comfort and reassurance for those on the journey from earthly life to the life of heaven. Throughout the Christian era, this psalm of faith, composed and prayed by our Jewish forebears, has spoken profoundly to the followers of Jesus Christ as they embrace the Good News of God’s reign. Psalm 23 aptly accompanies the prophet Ezekiel and the Gospel of Matthew in the liturgy of the final Sunday of the Church year, the feast of Christ the King. Ezekiel 34 speaks of God both as divine shepherd, seeking out and caring for the lost, and as divine judge, administering justice to the flock. In Matthew’s account of the final judgment (Matthew 25:31-46), where those destined for eternal life are distinguished and separated from those doomed to eternal punishment, God is presented as both king and shepherd. The imagery evokes the biblical portrait of David, king and shepherd in Israel, whose house and line

were divinely established and upheld. It is interesting to note that in Matthew’s presentation, God’s judgment of all the nations can be directly related to the characteristics of the divine shepherd described in Psalm 23 [box below]. Just as God shepherds us, so we are to shepherd one another in this earthly life. Upon these actions we will be judged. Psalm 23 is, ultimately, a prayer of trust. Though we often employ the words of Psalm 23 to obtain a sense of comfort in affliction, the text still offers us a challenge: we must trust in God wholeheartedly. Living in a “do-it-yourself” age of self-sufficiency, we may well ask ourselves: How strong is our trust in God? Is God truly my shepherd, or am I trying to take care of myself—to be my own shepherd? Do I look to God as my shepherd only in moments of crisis, fear, failure, or disappointment?

Matthew 25

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

“Within the Word: Psalm 23—A Psalm for All Seasons” by Abbot Primate Gregory Polan, O.S.B., appeared in the November 2017 issue of Give Us This Day (volume 7, number 11) [www.giveusthisday .org], published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, and is reprinted with permission.

“I was hungry and you gave me food.” “I was thirsty and you gave me drink.” “You cared for me.” “You visited me.”

Just as God shepherds us, so we are to shepherd one another in this earthly life.

The underlying beauty of Psalm 23 is its invitation to trust God wholeheartedly, faithfully, and eagerly at all times. Such trust marks one as a true disciple of Christ the Good Shepherd. Abbot Gregory Polan, O.S.B., is Abbot Primate of the worldwide Benedictine Confederation and an alumnus of Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary. He is also editor of The Revised Grail Psalms and The Ecumenical Grail Psalter.

Psalm 23

“You have prepared a table before me.” “Near restful waters he leads me”; and “my cup is overflowing.” “There is nothing I shall want.” “No evil will I fear, for you are with me.”

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Benedictine Volunteer Corps The Benedictine Volunteer Corps (BVC) provided me with an experience that was empowering! One of the most valuable things I learned was a holistic means to build relationships with people in and around Cobán, who have been historically poor and oppressed. I could have visited Guatemala on my own, but without the Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps, I would not have had the time and connections to develop the language skills that allowed me to develop relationships with the people. Matthew Ott, BVC 2009-10 Resurrection Priory Cobán, Guatemala

My time in Humacao was the real beginning of my life! That’s where I decided to become Catholic. That’s where I learned that not only was I being called to the Church but also to my vocations: teacher, coach, husband, and father. I may not have been the model volunteer, but I saw in myself the rough outline of someone destined to give. Quinn Martin, BVC 2003-04 Abadía San Antonio Abad Humacao, Puerto Rico

From the fourth floor of Saint Mary’s Monastery, which overlooked Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Newark, I took in the sounds of the city and took a moment for myself for centering prayer and silence. I also loved the sounds in the prep school: students rushing to class, their quick, “What’s good, Seldat!” which became a constant

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

I would not treasure the gift of education that every child deserves. Through the BVC, I have come to appreciate my job not only as a vocation but also as a connection to my faith. Nick Alonzi, BVC 2011-12, Saint John’s Abbey Collegeville, Minnesota

Moses Adeagbo (left center) and Aaron Stolte with friends in India

reminder that I was accepted at Saint Benedict’s Prep. Jonathan Seldat, BVC 2007-08 Saint Benedict’s Prep, Newark

My time in Hanga with the BVC was deeply formative. The definition of “community” broadened greatly for me—from my fellow Benedictine Volunteers to the monks to the students to my fellow teachers to the friendly villagers. Truly, the sense that we all belong to each other expanded exponentially. I fell on my face in really important ways! I was stretched out of my comfort zone in spirituality and in service, and every step of my career and life vocation since has been shaped by the lessons learned and relationships built. The BVC helped me solidify the lesson I learned in college: the best is yet to come! Alec Torigian, BVC 2010-11 Saint Maurus Abbey Hanga, Tanzania

BVC

archives

The Benedictine Volunteer Corps gave me an opportunity to work actively on my faith and my relationship with God. The experience left me more mindful of the importance of community and love for my family. I became more aware of my global citizenship and of the responsibilities I have with helping both my global and local neighbors. My time in South America with the BVC was formative for me, and something I will cherish forever. Jeremy Graney, BVC 2010-11 The Manquehue Community Santiago, Chile

My time in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps still shapes my life. It taught me humility, moderation, and the importance of carrying out Catholic social teachings. My time in the monastery and at Saint John’s Preparatory School has been a beacon to my career as an educator. Without these experiences,

The BVC provided me a time to reflect and build on the foundation of a Benedictine, Saint John’s, education. The perspectives gained during my time with the community of Kappadu have been embedded in my personal, professional, and religious life. I can truly say the person I am today is partly due to my experiences in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps. Aaron Stolte, BVC 2012-13 Saint Thomas Benedictine Abbey, Kerala, India

The Benedictine Volunteer Corps teaches compassion. Before my service year, I had no idea how many different ways I could feel uncomfortable, out of my element. When this happened in a supportive and stable environment, I discovered an impetus for personal growth and a greater understanding of those around me. The more I served others, the better my understanding of their needs. Every discovery I made about my neighbors shed light on my own place within a greater humanity.

foundly altered the trajectory of my life and helped me to formulate what I value. At Katibunga Monastery in Zambia, where I worked at a rural health dispensary, I learned that discomfort and adventure should not be avoided but rather actively sought out. I learned that serving those less fortunate can instill an incomparable sense of fulfillment. Recently I spent a month in Tanzania for a medical rotation and have every intention of returning to this region. The BVC has strengthened my love of Saint John’s and enlightened me to the joys of world exploration and service. John Jaeger, BVC 2014-15 Benedictine Monastery of Katibunga, Mpika, Zambia

The Benedictine Volunteer Corps may have meant more to me than to those whom I served. The relationships that were established continue. It was a transformative year and has helped give me a trajectory: where and what exactly that trajectory means, I don’t fully know, but continuing to discern

how to integrate the experience is life-giving for me. Patrick Martin, BVC 2016-17 Saint Maurus Abbey Hanga, Tanzania

My time at Saint John’s taught me a lot about community, but my time with the Benedictine Volunteer Corps taught me even more! I learned to accept people for who they are and not dwell on their faults. I learned that Jesus is present in everyone. Lucas Kennedy, BVC 2012-13 Resurrection Priory Cobán, Guatemala

My time in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps was easily the most formative time of my adult life. I learned a great deal about the world and its many harsh realities, and the immutable dignity we share. A slum is ugly no matter which way you slice it, but there is beauty and merit to be found in the people who live and work there. I volunteered hoping to teach something, though I believe I learned the most. Anthony Origer, BVC 2013-14 Mathare Slum, Nairobi, Kenya

Jacob Jordan Berns, BVC 2015-16 Sant’Anselmo, Rome

My decision to serve in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps has pro-

Patrick Martin practices his woodworking skills in Tanzania.

BVC

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

archives

Benedictine Institute promote our Benedictine mission are alumni (including me) of those tours. However, once the generous gift funding the tours was depleted, they have been discontinued due to budget constraints.

Rodger Narloch

decade ago, Saint John’s University President Dietrich Reinhart, O.S.B., had the wisdom and courage to acknowledge a concern that has become a reality for many Catholic colleges and universities. That concern was how to ensure that the Catholic, and in our case, Benedictine ethos remains present in the campus culture when fewer and fewer monastic members are teaching in the classroom or occupying other key positions integral to the student experience. Brother Dietrich’s response, in part, was to create the Benedictine Institute of Saint John’s. Its mission is to “strengthen and articulate in fresh ways the Catholic and Benedictine character of Saint John’s University that has been its hallmark since it was founded by the monks of Saint John’s Abbey in 1857.” The institute undertakes its mission “through existing programs and new initiatives to promote a lively, rich, and authentic understanding and appreciation of Benedictine life and culture on campus.” Essentially, the Benedictine Institute works to ensure that the Benedictine character remains as palpable in the culture of this place as it has always been. How palpable has it been? One often-used phrase to describe Saint John’s suggests there is “something in the water.” Although our campus is sur-

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Mosaic of a Benedictine cross in Montecassino Abbey, Italy

rounded by many beautiful lakes, they do not provide some magical wellspring of Benedictine spirit! Rather, the Benedictine ethos came to permeate the water through the inspiring vision and hard work of our founding Benedictine community. A more challenging question on which the Benedictine Institute now focuses is: “How does the Benedictine spirit stay in the water?” One of Brother Dietrich’s initial strategies was the establishment of Benedictine heritage tours, which ran during the summers

David Paul Lange, O.S.B.

from 2009 to 2014. Each tour included twelve faculty, administrators, or staff members accompanied by a monastic guide for twelve-day pilgrimages to Italy and Germany. The groups visited key sites related to the life of Saint Benedict as well as the communities from which Saint John’s Abbey and Saint Benedict’s Monastery emanated. The heritage tours had a profound effect on employees, helping them understand and embrace a Benedictine way of life. It is not coincidental that many of the current campus leaders who most effectively

How can the Benedictine Institute transform people’s lives without the magical experience of a European heritage tour? The institute utilizes a twopronged approach. The first is to employ the process Benedictines have always used: make the Benedictine spirit part of the lived experience of all employees or visitors of this community. The Benedictine ethos is best understood as a way of life, a way of being—rather than a set of platitudes. Thus, the most effective way to educate people about our Benedictine heritage is to live it, to let others see and feel what life is like when lived out in a Benedictine manner. Accordingly, the institute sponsors programs to help people feel and experience the breadth and depth of the Benedictine spirit. One such program is called Building Community. It was specifically established in response to the concern that the sense of community among employees has diminished, that we do not know each other due to increased busyness in our isolated departments and the lack of social gatherings. Each Friday morning the Benedictine Institute invites employees to come together over compli-

The most effective way to educate people about our Benedictine heritage is to live it. mentary coffee and donuts with no agenda other than to get to know one another. Employees and members of the monastic community can stop by for as little or as much time as their schedules allow. Typically, twenty to forty of our colleagues gather each Friday. Building Community is one example of how the institute helps to instill the lived experience of Benedictine values, allowing all to encounter the Benedictine spirit in the individuals we see on a day-to-day basis. Simply experiencing the Benedictine spirit is not enough, however. If we did not explicitly identify the Benedictine elements of these wonderful lived experiences, they would remain vague, ineffable qualities of “the water.” Therefore, the institute has created opportunities to help members of our campus community reflect on how the Rule of Saint Benedict articulates values and establishes practices that become the very root of the lived experience people find so wondrous. Among these offerings is the Benedictine Education Program. Groups of ten employees meet for two hours each week for four weeks to listen to a monastic leader explain various aspects of Benedictine values,

discuss how they can apply these values to their work and life, share a meal together, and attend a prayer service with the monastic community. This explicit sharing of Benedictine concepts, stories, and traditions is important so the community of lay employees knows where to look in order to deepen what they seem to be getting “in the water.” When employees experience our Benedictine character and explicitly understand something about it, they can, in turn, transmit it through their actions—and maybe even their words! This, with the help of God’s grace, becomes the means by which the water can remain rich, rather than diluted. To this end, the Benedictine Institute has established a practice at administrative assembly meetings whereby members of various departments spend a few minutes sharing how they incorporate Benedictine values into their work. My hope is that more and more members of our campus community will be inspired to reflect on and carry out how they can infuse our water with the Benedictine spirit. Dr. Rodger Narloch, an alumnus of Saint John’s University, is the director of the Benedictine Institute and professor of psychology.

For more information about the Benedictine Institute, its programming and resources, please visit: https://www.csbsju .edu/benedictine-institute.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Gypsy Moth Alert John Geissler

he European Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) is now established in Minnesota and will be impacting the trees of the Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum soon. Based on illfounded hopes of producing silk, entrepreneurs brought the larvae of the gypsy moth to Massachusetts from Europe in 1869—and the moths escaped. With no natural predators, the leaf-eating larvae quickly multiplied and began their destructive expansion through the eastern deciduous forests of North America. Gypsy moth larvae reach such high densities that they are capable of completely defoliating all the deciduous trees in a forest. Unfortunately, our treasured Saint John’s oaks are their preferred leaves to consume. Despite continued national efforts to slow the spread, gypsy moths could be at the Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum in fewer than ten years, as established populations are only 160 miles away. While a healthy tree can recover from partial and even complete defoliation, such assaults do weaken the tree. Several successive defoliations severely limit photosynthesis and consequently deplete the energy reserves of the tree. At this vulnerable stage, trees are highly susceptible to other stresses, such as drought or disease. The complexity of the multiple environmental factors affecting tree health in any given

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

maple, basswood, and aspen is relatively simple and requires little effort, regenerating longlived species like oak and pine in the presence of high populations of deer is more challenging and especially labor intensive.

Plan for wild orchard and shrub planting, north of the abbey solar farm

year make it difficult to predict the expected tree mortality in our forest after gypsy moth defoliations begin. The silver lining in the long term is that, eventually, nature begins to balance the equation. Eastern U.S. gypsy moth populations are beginning to be regulated with introduced fungal pathogens and viral diseases that cause gypsy moth populations to crash when they reach high densities. While this is promising news, we must work diligently toward a healthy and resilient forest capable of adapting to this and other challenges. One of the first steps toward ensuring healthy and vigorous trees is to limit competition among neighboring trees. In other words, give trees adequate growing space so they develop healthy crowns and roots that easily soak up sunlight, water, and nutrients. It is fortunate that most of the trees in the

John Geissler

abbey arboretum have been thinned in some manner through natural and sustainable forestry efforts, leaving the majority of the arboretum’s dominant trees with healthy crowns and roots to handle partial and complete defoliations. Beyond individual trees, forest resilience to combat climate change, insects, and disease at the stand level comes from diversifying forest age, structure, and biodiversity. Biodiversity is our greatest strength, with over thirty species of trees growing in our unique combination of conifer and deciduous forest. Our greatest weakness is a lack of diversity of age classes, particularly a lack of young stands of oak. In fact, over 95% of our seven hundred acres of oakdominated forests are 120 years old or older. This statistic makes a land manager nervous because “all our eggs are in one basket.” While regenerating species like

How can you help? Become an Abbey Conservation Corps volunteer! We need the help of volunteers to ensure that the next generation at Saint John’s is gifted with a resilient landscape. The inspiring and biodiverse 2,944-acre natural setting of the Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum that we enjoy today did not happen by accident. It is a gift from previous generations who possessed a conservation ethic and a vision for the long term. Now is our opportunity—your opportunity—to pay it forward! Our new initiative—the Abbey Conservation Corps—is inspired by the tradition of that conservation ethic. There is no application or prerequisite. Volunteers will help with a number of land projects, large and small. Establishing the Abbey Conservation Corps of volunteers will benefit our stewardship efforts and will build upon our mission to engage with people in ways that provide community, education, and spiritual renewal. Mr. John Geissler is the Saint John’s Abbey land manager and director of Saint John’s Outdoor University.

2018 Abbey Conservation Corps Stewardship Projects Oak Planting The regeneration of oak is critical to the future health and biodiversity of Saint John’s forest. Our plan to address this problem will begin with planting red and white oak seedlings on five-acre plots annually, knocking back competing vegetation around the seedlings to give them adequate sunlight, and protecting them from deer browse until they are more than six feet tall. We need volunteers to assist us in the planting, protection, and release of 2,000 oak seedlings annually. Solar Farm Wild Fruit Orchard Planting Plant, protect, and water 1,000 fruiting trees and shrubs on the north end of the new abbey solar farm. The established plantings will provide multiple benefits for decades, including edible fruits and nuts for the community and wildlife, reduce soil and water erosion into nearby Steinbach Creek, and serve as a beautiful natural screen for our neighbors to the north of the solar field. Buckthorn Bust Efforts continue to defeat buckthorn, an aggressive invasive shrub that quickly outcompetes native species and is a serious threat to forest biodiversity. Primary buckthorn populations that we will target this fall are near Stumpf Lake. Pine Knob Restoration Planting Plant, protect, and water 1,600 conifer seedlings on five acres of a recently closed gravel pit area, thus extending Pine Knob and a small expansion of the oak savanna to create a welcoming entrance to the abbey arboretum from the Saint John’s University athletic fields. Weekly Wednesday Workdays 18 April–14 November 1:15–3:30 P.M. Abbey Conservation Corps Kickoff Wild Orchard Planting Saturday, 21 April, 9:00 A.M.–3:00 P.M. To volunteer, or for more information, contact Mr. John Geissler. Phone: 320.363.3126; email: jgeissler001@csbsju.edu; online: https://www.csbsju.edu/outdooru/getinvolved/volunteer.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

To Timbuktu (and back) with the British and Swedish ambassadors, and then rose in the middle of the night to catch the UN plane to Timbuktu. The three of us were packed into a DASH-8 twin-engine turboprop along with UN peacekeepers from El Salvador and Burkina Faso for the two-hour flight north. A member of the Essayouti family met us at the airport and took us to our hotel on the outskirts of town. After a brief rest, we heard a sudden burst of what sounded like firecrackers.

Columba Stewart, O.S.B.

he quiet evacuation of the libraries of Timbuktu before the arrival of Jihadist occupiers in 2012 has become part of the lore of that fabled desert city. Two recent books tell the story of Abdel Kader Haidara, a descendant of renowned Timbuktu scholars, who engineered the covert operation that transported 1400 metal boxes packed with manuscripts up the Niger River to Mali’s capital, Bamako. I’ve had the privilege of working with Abdel Kader and his nonprofit organization, known by its French acronym of SAVAMADCI, since the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) began to digitize the relocated manuscripts in 2013. So far, three of the libraries, totaling almost 100,000 handwritten books and documents, have been digitized. For the time being they remain in Bamako at SAVAMA-DCI, placed in new conservation boxes after digitization and kept in air-conditioned storage until the day when they can go home. Some libraries never left Timbuktu. Their guardians had seen threats before, and had their own tried and true ways to hide manuscripts from anyone seeking to steal or destroy them. Given the precarious situation in northern Mali, those manuscripts remain at risk. Thanks to Sophie Sarin, the Swedish-born owner of a boutique hotel in Djenné, Mali,

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

HMML

But they weren’t firecrackers. And so began an eight-hour vigil as we hid in one of the hotel rooms and tried to learn what was going on. Our diplomatic ties proved to be very helpful. By happy coincidence, the main UN forces in Timbuktu are Swedish, and our friend the ambassador was able to learn from the Swedish commander in Timbuktu that a UN communications post about a hundred yards from our hotel had been attacked by armed gunmen. It was the first attack inside the city

archives

Alpha Essayouti, son of the Grand Imam, shows the family’s manuscripts at the Imam Essayouti Library.

those libraries are now part of the digitization effort. Sophie is well known in Mali, and had already organized a manuscript project at the museum in Djenné in cooperation with the British Library. During her visits to Timbuktu, she got to know the families associated with the three great mosques of the city and learned that they, too, wanted their manuscripts digitized and available for research. Sophie approached both the British Library and HMML, and the result is a three-way collaboration that leverages our respective skills and networks. After securing a signed agreement from the family of the grand imam of Timbuktu, guardian of the Imam Ben

since the liberation in 2013. We could hear the gunfire, some of it very close, and then we heard the helicopters coming in to relieve the troops on the ground. We were told to stay put until they came to rescue us. The shooting stopped after about two hours, but it took several hours more for the situation to become stable enough for us to leave the hotel. A knock on the door indicated that our escort had arrived in the form of a convoy of four Humvees and a detachment of fully armed Swedish soldiers. We would spend the next two nights at their base, unable to go into town because of the uncertain security situation.

Essayouti Library at the famed Djinguereber Mosque, we were ready to roll. Three boxes of gear—each weighing eighty pounds—were shipped from HMML to Bamako last July. The British Embassy undertook the complex task of seeing them through Malian customs and getting them into the hands of the UN peacekeepers who run the flights to Timbuktu. Meanwhile, we organized our own expedition to Timbuktu, consisting of Walid Mourad, HMML’s field director for the Middle East and Africa, Sophie, and myself. The plan was to set up the studio at the Essayouti Library and train the local team. Walid flew in from Beirut, Sophie from London, and I arrived from Collegeville. We had dinners

What to do? Thanks to our relationship with the Swedish ambassador, we were given the unusual privilege of welcoming local guests to the camp. Two members of the Essayouti family arrived, and we laid out a plan for starting the project with work on cleaning and preparing the manuscripts. We could say that the project had begun, though not quite as we had expected! Then we got to work figuring out how to get things back on track. I celebrated Mass for the Solemnity of the Assumption for our little Catholic group in the Lutheran chapel on the base, and afterwards we were escorted to the airport for a flight back to Bamako.

HMML

archives

Father Columba with the Grand Imam of Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Ben Essayouti

Fortunately, that was the low point. In September, our partners at SAVAMA-DCI in Bamako

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

ule of Benedict graciously welcomed the team from Timbuktu for two weeks of training and sent their project director to Timbuktu to unpack the gear and set up the studio. By mid-October the project was in full operation, and by December the situation had stabilized enough for us to make a site visit to Timbuktu. We visited the major libraries and met the remarkably gracious grand imam of the Djinguereber Mosque, whose youngest son is leading the project in their library. Despite the quiet, the atmosphere was tense, and we were circumspect in our movements around the town. But even such a brief visit demonstrated to our partners that we were serious, and follow-up meetings with them in Bamako have led to further agreements to extend the project to the libraries associated with the Sankore and Sidi Yahya Mosques. As pleased as I was finally to make it to Timbuktu, more important was the possibility of virtually reuniting the manuscript culture of the city. The majority of the manuscripts will stay in Bamako for the foreseeable future, abstracted from their original context and cut off from those in the libraries still in Timbuktu. Through the online vHMML Reading Room, all of these manuscripts, whether in Timbuktu or Bamako, will be accessible to scholars around the world. In these texts, researchers will find the history and culture of an important crossroads on

The Search for God Eric Hollas, O.S.B. A simple, sincere Goth came to Subiaco to become a monk, and blessed Benedict was very happy to admit him. Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Book Two: Life of Benedict, 6

Surah 10, the surah of Jonah, from an 18th- or 19th-century Qur’an in the Imam Essayouti Library, Timbuktu. The text discusses how God appoints to every people a prophet and a fixed span of time, and one may or may not live to see God’s judgments fulfilled.

I HMML

the caravan routes for salt, slaves, and gold. They will see how texts traveled from Spain, Morocco, Egypt, and other centers of Islamic learning to the sub-Saharan region. They will find the work of local poets, remedies for physical and spiritual ailments, amulets warding off every kind of evil. We can hope that Timbuktu still has centuries of wonder ahead of it, while knowing that much of

archives

its history will be safely kept and widely shared, thanks to a project at, of all places, a Benedictine community in central Minnesota!

Father Columba Stewart, O.S.B., the executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, is professor of theology at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary.

For Further Reading Joshua Hammer, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. Charlie English, The Storied City: The Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past. New York: Riverhead Books, 2017.

n an age in which status mattered deeply and people fled at the mere mention of the barbarian horde, Gregory’s spare comment speaks volumes. This was not the only Goth to make an appearance in Saint Benedict’s biography, but in each encounter Benedict showed no fear. Neither he nor his monks fled powerful chieftains, nor did they scorn this lone individual. This Goth was likely unlettered. Perhaps he even came with battlefield experience. Despite it all, Benedict accepted him because the search for God overrode all other considerations.

all other social conventions and instead assigned status according to the date on which monks were clothed in the habit. That was the day on which they joined in the common search for God. Seniority in Benedict’s monastery conferred no privileges, but it did determine a monk’s statio, or position, in the community. It fixed a monk’s place in processions and where he would sit in choir, in the refectory, and perhaps even in the chapter house. This procedure eliminated bickering over precedence. It also meant that a monk might stand or sit alongside particular monks for a lifetime. This had consequences, particularly if one’s neighbor was a good singer—or not!

At Saint John’s we have assigned rows rather than seats in choir, while seating in the refectory and chapter house is open. But our place in the processions into church on Sundays and feast days is according to statio. For me, the moments of silence as we prepare to enter the church have a sacred character. It’s inspiring to scan monks as we line up and compose ourselves for what we are about to do. But of equal significance is the statement that our procession makes. In the monastery the social distinctions that might otherwise separate us matter less. It is our common search for God that transforms a collection of rugged individuals into a community. Father Eric Hollas, O.S.B., is deputy to the president for advancement at Saint John’s University.

Ethnic origin was not the only social distinction that Benedict ignored. He showed little concern for whether monks had been born free or slave, nor if they came from poverty or wealth. If they had relatives in the community, new monks were not to take advantage of those connections. Nor should priests expect favored status simply because of their ordination. What did matter, however, was the time of entry into the monastery. Benedict chose to ignore Alan Reed, O.S.B.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Red Lake Mission Aaron Raverty, O.S.B.

n his centennial history of Saint John’s, Father Colman Barry, O.S.B., writes: “The history of the Benedictine effort for the [Ojibwe] Indians still awaits adequate treatment, and is worthy of comprehensive analysis” (Worship and Work, 139). While this present account is far from comprehensive, I hope that it conveys some flavor of the northern Minnesota Red Lake missionary effort at a time in the history of Saint John’s Abbey when evangelical ardor was enkindled for these Minnesota natives. Former Saint John’s abbots Rupert Seidenbusch and Alexius Edelbrock were poised for the venture. But missionaries dot the Minnesota Indian landscape prior to the arrival of the Benedictines, and the real problem is connecting the dots. The challenge is to do justice to the intrepid missionaries who cultivated the soil for Saint Mary’s Mission at Red Lake in those earliest days of the mid-nineteenth century, providing it with the foundation for its future florescence. Methodist missionary efforts were already underway in 1843, followed by Episcopalian outreach from the White Earth Indian mission (about eighty miles southwest of Red Lake) in subsequent years. Father Ignatius Tomazin was the Catholic priest in Red Lake immediately before the arrival of Father Lawrence

Lautischar, who began missionary labors as early as August 1858. Father Lautischar was beloved by the Indians but sadly froze to death crossing the lake on one of his intercommunity treks. Msgr. Joseph Francis Buh oversaw the nascent Red Lake mission during sporadic visits between 1867 and 1875. From 1883 to 1888 Father Francis Pierz—the Slovenia-born missionary who served the native populations of Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota—made intermittent visits to Red Lake. Originally sent to the mission at White Earth by Abbot Alexius Edelbrock, Father Aloysius Hermanutz was the first occasional Benedictine missionary on the scene at Red Lake. It wasn’t until 1888 that Benedictine Fathers Thomas Borgerding and Simon Lampe departed White Earth and arrived at Red Lake as its first resident Catholic missionaries. Sisters Evangelist McNulty and Amalia Eich from Saint Benedict’s Monastery, Saint Joseph, Minnesota, accompanied them. The original five-acre mission contained an old log cabin that was used for Mass on Sundays and for funerals, with an adjoining two-acre cemetery. Notable historic features of Saint Mary’s Cemetery at Red Lake were a few surviving native Ojibwe spirit houses—flattened, wooden, painted house structures atop the gravesite that both reflected indigenous beliefs concerning the afterlife and honoring the dead.

With philanthropic support from Philadelphia heiress (and future saint) Katharine Drexel and her sister, the incipient mission at Red Lake coalesced. A makeshift school was set up with an initial group of about twenty-five students. Enrollment waxed and waned until Father Thomas decided to establish a boarding school onsite in 1889, when more students began to arrive. A contract with the federal government helped pay pupil costs, but this came with the stipulation that students learn English. Soon more sisters arrived from Saint Joseph, taking on teaching and domestic tasks. Fathers Thomas and Simon immersed themselves in the Ojibwe language to better serve the Indians, as well as to acquaint themselves with their history and culture. Despite the federal government mandate about the English language, the Benedictine missionaries never totally gave up on the Ojibwe language, nor did they force natives to abandon their traditional lifeways. It was in this same year of 1889 that the mission’s land expanded to 245 acres under the direction of the Department of the Interior, and some years later this acreage was titled to the Catholic Indian Bureau in Washington, D.C. An additional Drexel grant allowed further housing to be erected in subsequent years, and a new church building was begun in 1890. This labor-intensive project was completed the follow-

ing year, using local workers and building materials. The first Mass was celebrated in Immaculate Conception Church on 8 December 1891. Calling the congregation to worship was the same bell used in the original church. Sadly, this historic church burned to the ground on 2 December 2017, following a strong power surge early that morning. Throughout its history, life at the mission involved many hardships and privations. There was always much work to accomplish. A barn, a garden, a herd of cows, and a flock of chickens supplied both opportunities for labor and essential resources. Adding to their workload, the early missionaries traveled outside Saint Mary’s Mission proper to minister to Indians in many neighboring communities. At the turn of the twentieth century, Abbot Peter Engel expressed a desire to instigate large-scale farming at the mission, but initial efforts were not very successful. With the later arrival of Father Florian Locnikar, O.S.B, fortunes changed. Father Benno Watrin, O.S.B, former missioner at Red Lake, observed: “Florian was a very successful farmer. He put the farm on a more scientific basis. As he was wont to say, one must cultivate ‘from the ears up.’” Corn and potatoes were especially abundant. Father Florian, apparently aware that all work and no play make Benedict a dull boy, also initiated

football, baseball, and basketball programs for the students, providing them with outlets for both fun and serious competition. There were also special celebrations on the feast days of missionary residents and students. Notwithstanding the integral role of Saint John’s monks in the founding and operation of the Red Lake Indian Mission, these men were historically outnumbered by the sisters from Saint Benedict’s Monastery by more than four to one. Indeed, Father Benno wrote glowingly of the sisters’ labors: “In all the years of Saint Mary’s Mission, no one deserves more credit than the good, hardworking sisters. . . . Greatly handicapped by the lack of modern equipment and constantly under pressure of dire economy, they nevertheless labored faithfully and painstakingly on. . . . The drudgery of the work always fell on their shoulders.” Officially designated a reservation in 1863, the later Land Act of 1904 established the Red Lake Reservation as it stands today. It is unique among Minnesota reservations in that its ownership and composition reside entirely within the members of the Red Lake Band. Initially, government funding supported the boarding school, but these resources dried up in 1940. From then on it was turned into a day school and was forced to seek financial help from a number of private sources,

including laborers from Saint John’s Abbey and Saint Benedict’s Monastery. After the mission came under diocesan supervision, our last and longest-serving missioner monk, Father Julius Beckermann, departed Red Lake in 2000. Although some attributed “golden age” status to Saint Mary’s Mission in the 1950s, Red Lake had its dark side as well. Poverty and chemical dependency plagued the Indians over the years, along with sporadic outbreaks of violence. School shootings in 2005, in which ten individuals— including the perpetrator—lost their lives, were notably infamous. They confirm that not even a remote reservation in the north woods of Minnesota is immune from our current epidemic of gun violence. In this new century, continuing the sterling legacy of its Red Lake missionary lineage, the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University offer an alternative spring break experience where “students will primarily serve in classrooms at the Mission School, helping teachers and students throughout the school day.”

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).

Former Saint John’s Red Lake missioners Fathers Alban Fruth and Cassian Osendorf commented in an essay that “the well-kept mission buildings, church, school, barn, garden, and farm have been an ever-present reminder that the worthwhile things in life are obtainable only by hard work, wise foresight, and the judicious use of the resources at hand.” Photos: Abbey archives

Ojibwe fisherman, 1966 Sister Johnette Kohorst, O.S.B.

Saint Mary’s Mission church

Young bucks with a fawn

Spirit houses, Red Lake cemetery

Georgia Fairbanks

Northern Minnesota baseball champs, 1929

Ojibwe elder

Red Lake Vocation

Prayers of the Faithful

Julius Beckermann, O.S.B.

Mohawk Prayer

give thanks to God and Saint John’s Abbey for the privilege to spend twenty years of my life on the Red Lake Indian Reservation! In 1973, in preparation for service at Red Lake, I obtained a school-bus driver’s license. Saint Mary’s Mission School had some 150 students in eight grades, all staffed by Benedictine sisters. There was also a farm at the mission with 2,100 chickens. Each day we collected 1,800 eggs, some of which were used for the hot lunch program in the school. The rest were sold. When I was sent to Red Lake, my mother was sad, and she was also sad because I was working in the chicken barn. I wrote a letter home: “Mom, since I got here, all these chickens are laying double yolkers!” Then everything was okay. That fall of 1973, I began driving the school bus, doing my best to learn the children’s first names. One of my happiest memories was when my parents

Keith Defore

Abbey archives

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

O Great Spirit, creator of all things human beings, trees, grass, berries help us; be kind to us. Let us be happy on earth. Let us lead our children to a good life and old age. These our people give them good minds to love one another. Abbey archives

came for a visit. They rode the school bus and met the children. It was truly special!

priesthood. But it was in Red Lake that my vocation to the priesthood originated.

After some time on the reservation, I had a desire to study the Native American language— Ojibwe (English translation: “Chippewa”). I sat in with the fourth graders when they had Ojibwe class. After one year, I was given permission to go to Bemidji State University and pursue a three-year language program.

I truly loved living and working on the Indian reservation, becoming friends with a people whom I will love for the rest of my life. I loved their humor, their generosity, their acceptance of me. I never had to expend my energies feeling stupid around them; they loved and accepted me just as I was. I have never met a people who paid so little attention to other people’s externals; they looked to see what was in your heart. I am honored to have seventeen godchildren on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. They truly are my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Whenever I return to Red Lake for a visit, they call me “Brother Father.”

After serving for sixteen years, I hoped to become a permanent deacon so I could anoint the dying at the Red Lake Hospital. I quickly discovered that permanent deacons are not allowed to anoint. Nonetheless, I began classes in Crookston, Minnesota, to become a permanent deacon. After twenty years of service at Red Lake, I returned to the abbey, where I took classes leading to ordination to the

Father Julius Beckermann, O.S.B., is parochial vicar for a cluster of parishes and a nursing home in or near Albany, Minnesota.

O Great Spirit, be kind to us. Give these people the favor to see green trees, green grass, flowers, and berries this next spring. So we all meet again, O Great Spirit, we ask of you.

Old Gaelic Blessing Count Your Blessings Author Unknown

Count your blessings instead of your crosses; Count your gains instead of your losses. Count your joys instead of your woes; Count your friends instead of your foes. Count your smiles instead of your tears; Count your courage instead of your fears.

May those who love us, love us. And those that don’t love us, may God turn their hearts. And if God doesn’t turn their hearts may God turn their ankles so we’ll know them by their limping.

Count your full years instead of your lean; Count your kind deeds instead of your mean. Count your health instead of your wealth; Count on God instead of yourself.

Pets in the Pediment

Alan Reed, O.S.B.

Martin F. Connell

eautiful but a little haunting, the pediment above the main entryway of the Auditorium on the campus of Saint John’s University presents two animals in its stone. On Saint Benedict’s left is a raven; on the saint’s right is a snake slithering out of a broken cup. These same creatures appear in The Life and Miracles of Saint Benedict written by Pope (Saint) Gregory the Great (ca. 540–604). As Saint Benedict’s reputation for holiness spread in sixthcentury Italy, a local priest, Florentius, was incensed by Benedict’s popularity. Florentius was, in Pope Gregory’s words

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

(chapter 8, The Life), “blind with jealousy,” so he devised a plan to “poison a loaf of bread” in order to do in Benedict. In that same period, a raven from the local woods used to come to Benedict’s monastery for food. Upon the bird’s arrival one particular day, Benedict instructed it: “Take that bread away from here, and leave it where it won’t be found.” After some hesitation, the raven trusted the saint, disposed of the poisoned loaf, and—after a three-hour round-trip flight— returned for its usual feeding from Benedict’s hand. The Life also tells of another of Benedict’s creaturely companions. Chapter 18 relates the story of Exhilaratus, a Roman

man, whose master sent him to deliver two flasks of wine to Benedict. But Exhilaratus hid one of the flasks, presumably to imbibe himself at a later time. (Exhilaratus can be held up as the patron sinner of those students sneaking booze into their dorms!) As he handed over the one flask to the saint, Benedict responded: “Son, don’t drink from the flask you’ve stashed away. Tilt it, and you’ll see just what’s really in there!” Ashamed and confused, the Roman followed Benedict’s instructions, peeked into the purloined flask, and found a snake crawling out of it. That snake and its hiding place are depicted on the left side of the Auditorium pediment.

To ascertain Benedict’s intentions, we need to translate the Latin words and references etched in the stone pediment. In them, I propose, we can see something of what Pope Gregory’s stories of Benedict, the raven, and the snake mean for us today. Consider, first of all, the sentence arching over the head of Benedict, the central figure in the pediment: EIVS IN OBITV NRO PRÆ SENTIA MVNIAMVR; more easily read with lowercase letters: Eius in obitu nostro praesentia muniamur, “May his presence protect us at our death.” Notice the relationship of the English translation of obitu, “death,” and our word, “obituary”; and between muniamur and “munition,” meaning weaponry, armor, or protection. The phrase “at our death” is familiar to Catholics who pray the rosary, for its similarity to the end of the Hail Mary, “now and at the hour of our death,” as we petition the Mother of God to intercede for us before the throne of mercy. The sum of these images and words—raven, snake, and “May his presence protect us at the hour of our death”—point back to words written even before Saint Gregory wrote the life of Benedict. Benedict’s Rule was written for the monks of his community in Italy, and in it he urged mindfulness of death. In chapter 4 of the Rule, Benedict instructed his followers: “To keep death daily before one’s eyes” (RB 4.47). Vibrant, inspir-

ing, and sage advice for twentyfirst-century monks and nonmonks alike! The Rule’s admonitions to monks and all believers, and the images of the raven and snake in Gregory the Great’s life of Benedict, counter a deceit of American culture. In our time, the lure of shopping and inexhaustible consumption promises that the very next purchase—house, car, food, clothes, book, or beauty product—will extend our lives or lure us into the lie that we’ll live forever. To keep us vigilant against the counter-Christian, American culture, we need to study the Latin phrase from the Rule of Benedict on the Auditorium pediment with its auspicious pets: Mortem cotidie ante oculos suspectam habere: “Keep (habere suspectam) death (mortem) before your eyes (ante oculos) every day (cotidie).” A more casual translation, but still reflective of Benedictine spirituality, would be: “Never forget the hard death you face.” Or: “Love with abandon; you don’t know how many days you’ve got left.” In life, in families, with girlfriends and boyfriends, or workmates, in clubs and sports, and even in classrooms, whenever we encounter others impeding our good works and intentions, we need only recall Saint Benedict’s response to his two sixth-century schemers with murder and larceny in their hearts. With our detractors in mind, perhaps, we

should pray and think back to the forerunner of Benedict, Jesus Christ, who advises about our own Florentiuses and Exhilaratuses: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12). Or even from Saint Paul, the earliest Christian writer, “Bless those who persecute you” (Romans 12:14). These are hard sayings. But in the midst of life’s struggles, it is helpful for us to ponder the art above the Saint John’s Auditorium entrance, and to consider the raven and the snake, Benedict’s rescuers. In the power of the Holy Spirit and with the Word of God as inspiration, we may ask God for the courage to follow the example of Saint Benedict and his pet companions. Dr. Martin F. Connell is professor of theology at Saint John’s University.

Do no wrong to anyone, and bear patiently wrongs done to oneself. Saint Benedict, Rule 4.30

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Lives of the Benedictine Saints Frances of Rome Richard Oliver, O.S.B.

aint Frances of Rome, born in 1384 at the dawn of the Italian Renaissance, died fifty-six years later, 9 March 1440. She lived in Rome during one of the most tumultuous periods of the city. Pope Gregory XI had, only five years before her birth, returned the papacy to Rome from its “Babylonian captivity” in southern France. She lived most of her life during the Western Schism of antipopes and cruel military conflicts. An only child, Frances learned to read and write helped by an Olivetan Benedictine monk, Dom Antonio, who fostered her spirituality and devotion to Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. Her family, however, overruled her desire to enter the cloister, and married her at age 13 into a clan of wealthy and influential patricians. Frances’ husband, Lorenzo Ponziano, was an active-duty officer in the army of the Papal States. Over the course of six years, the couple had two boys and a girl: Battista (1400), Giovanni Evangelista (1404), and Agnes (1407). Within a year of Battista’s birth, Frances’ mother-in-law, Cecilia, died. The men of the household, recognizing Frances’ administrative abilities, installed her as matron of the household. Vannozza, by right of marriage to the older brother, was in line for the

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

position, but she, too, urged Frances to accept the role. Frances allowed nothing, even her devotions, to interfere with her duties. Gentle, but firm, she was loved by the whole household. Vannozza, Frances’ sister-in-law, had also desired monastic life and became a great support and friend to Frances over the course of the next thirty-eight years. Dom Antonio continued as their spiritual director. Together the women guarded their interior sanctuary and ministered generWikimedia Commons ously to Rome’s Saint Frances of Rome giving alms (detail), painting by Giovanni poor and sick. Their Battista Gaulli (Baciccio), 1675 good example during With her husband’s consent, military occupation and recurFrances practiced continency, rent appearances of the plague and advanced in a life of conled many Roman ladies to turn templation. Her visions often from frivolous lives. In 1425 assumed the form of a drama Frances formed them into enacted for her by heavenly an association attached to the personages. She had the gift Olivetan monastery of Santa of miracles and ecstasy. RecovMaria Nuova. Later they ering from the plague in 1414, became the Benedictine Oblate Frances had revelations concernCongregation of Tor de’ Specchi ing purgatory and hell, and she (25 March 1433). Its members foretold the ending of the led the life of consecrated religWestern Schism. She could ious but without strict enclosure read the secrets of consciences or formal vows. They gave and detect plots of diabolical themselves up to prayer and origin. She was remarkable for good works. her humility and detachment,

obedience and patience, exemplified during her husband’s banishment, the captivity of Battista in 1410, the death of her two youngest children, and the loss of all her property. During the occupation of Rome, Frances opened part of the despoiled Ponziano palace as a hospital. It was then that she began to exercise a remarkable gift of healing, some sixty cases of which were recorded during her process of canonization. She attributed her extraordinary gifts to the presence—visible to her—of a guardian angel ever at her side. After her husband Lorenzo died in 1436, Frances retired among her oblates at Tor de’ Specchi and became superior when Agnes de Lellis resigned in her favor. Attending to the illness of her daughter-in-law, Frances herself became ill at her son’s house. On the evening of 9 March 1440, her face shone with an unearthly light, and she spoke her last words: “The angel has finished his work. He is beckoning me to follow.” Her body was venerated in Santa Maria Nuova, later known as Santa Francesa Romana, and became the place, on the eastern end of the Roman Forum, of innumerable cures. Her body was buried in the chapel of the oblates. Frances was canonized by Pope Paul V on 29 May 1608. She is the co-patron of Benedictine oblates, and she is invoked by automobile drivers and widows.

The community of Tor de’ Specchi remains the only house of the Oblates of Saint Frances of Rome. The long tradition of Benedictine hospitality is expressed today by accommodating young, female university students for the whole period of their academic career. By special privilege, the Sisters of Tor de’ Specchi are the only ones permitted to create one of the Church’s oldest sacramentals, an item of special papal significance. It is a small wax image of Christ as the Lamb of God (Latin: Agnus Dei). Replicas are presented by the pope as a token of honor to those whom the Holy See wishes to recognize as having given notable service to the Church. They are blessed during Holy Week and distributed at Easter. Pope Francis distributed agnus dei during the Jubilee of Mercy. Unlike the numerous and distant Carolingian, Merovingian, and medieval Benedictine saints, Saint Frances, closer to us in time and spirit, is somewhat more accessible. As a woman she offers a model of sanctity that differs from the mostly male and clerical models of Benedictine blessedness. Her unwavering charitable engagement with her society is a good example of Pope Francis’ call for us to focus on those kept at society’s margins. Also inspiring is her commitment to family and community that provided a lifegiving context for her spiritual growth and development.

The celebration of the Feast of Saint Frances of Rome, 9 March, is usually superseded, as happened this year, because it occurs during Lent. The following optional prayer, however, may be used at Lauds, Mass, and Vespers: O God, who, among the other wonders of your grace, favored your servant Frances with the familiar companionship of an angel: grant, we beseech you, that helped by her prayers, we may likewise one day be admitted into the company of the holy angels. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Brother Richard Oliver, O.S.B., president emeritus of the American Benedictine Academy, manages the websites for Bridgefolk: Mennonite–Catholic dialogue and for the international Order of Saint Benedict.

Her unwavering charitable engagement with her society is a good example of Pope Francis’ call for us to focus on those kept at society’s margins.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Meet a Monk: Ælred Senna Patricia, married at a young age; and shortly after Ælred turned 4, his father left the family. His mother remarried an army captain, H. Michael Senna, who adopted Johnnie and raised the family near Fort Hood. After Michael retired from the military, the family welcomed a new addition, Lana DeAnne (DeeDee), and they all moved to Dallas. Years later Ælred’s youngest sibling, Michael-Damon, was born.

Abbey archives

Timothy Backous, O.S.B.

he Rule of Saint Benedict insists on a hospitable welcome for all guests— who may be Christ in disguise. So it seems odd that his greeting for novices is more glacial. Benedict actually encourages a harsh reception: “If the newcomer, therefore, perseveres in his knocking, and if it is seen after four or five days that he bears patiently the harsh treatment offered him and the difficulty of admission, . . . then let entrance be granted him (RB 58.3-4). The subject of this issue’s “Meet a Monk” features a beloved confrere who experienced this “four or five days of knocking” in a uniquely twenty-first-century way. But first, some basics. Brother Ælred (Johnnie) Senna was born on 8 October 1963 in Austin, Texas. His mother,

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

From a very early age, Ælred was drawn to music and performance. Although piano was his first instrument, he gravitated toward violin, of which he admits: “I was pretty terrible.” Later on he switched to the cello and found a passion and aptitude for its music-making qualities. In junior high school, Ælred was named to the All Regional Orchestra as a cellist, leading him to reflect: “Apparently, I had been playing the wrong instrument . . . since fourth grade!”

school. After graduation, Ælred went to a community college to study theater. During this time, he also landed chorus work in a local production. Connections from that show led to a touring production of A Christmas Carol, and then a longer running show, The 1940’s Radio Hour. In order to tour, he had to drop out of college for a year. By the time he returned, he had discerned a possible vocation to the priesthood. This led him to enter Holy Trinity Seminary for the Diocese of Dallas and attend the University of Dallas as a college seminarian beginning in 1984. Two years later a friend invited Ælred to visit Monastery of Christ in the Desert, a Benedictine community in New Mexico, where he first read the Rule. In his words, “Bells began to ring inside my head.” His time in seminary had been very community oriented, but he surmised

Brother Ælred’s musical success also awakened in him a love for theater and vocal performance. Soon he found himself auditioning for and winning roles in his high school’s musical productions. His impressive high school curriculum vitae may have reached its pinnacle in his senior year, when he became a founding member of the school’s pop group “Espree.” (Think Glee.) Thankfully, however, his performing did not end with high

Second grade tot

Senna archives

Ælred and his sister DeeDee

Senna archives

that diocesan life would not afford that same quality. His time in the desert and its aftermath prompted him to step back from seminary formation and discern what was happening, a process that lasted twenty years! Because he was proficient in Spanish, he was able to find work teaching in local educational institutions and eventually a career in educational publishing in the areas of product development and management. In 2006 an “indescribable call” resurfaced, and Ælred began reaching out to Benedictine communities, convinced that any religious vocation he might have would be within a Benedictine context. He heard back from several communities, some of which outright rejected him because of his age—he was 42. Before long, he connected with Brother Paul-Vincent Niebauer,

vocation director at Saint John’s, who invited him to visit. Before a date was set, however, he got a “rejection letter” from Saint John’s, inadvertently sent by another monk, telling Ælred that he exceeded our age limit. Ælred wrote back saying he was disappointed but understood. Brother Paul-Vincent promptly (and apologetically) called him, insisting he should continue with his plans to visit Saint John’s. They set a date, and he bought a plane ticket—only to receive another email announcing that he was too old. Perplexed, he contacted the vocation office and received an immediate return call from a dismayed and mortified vocation director, who once more encouraged Ælred to make his way to Minnesota. Unlike his introduction to Saint John’s, the next phase of Ælred’s discernment passed without incident. His first visit to Collegeville was in November 2006. He began our candidacy program in June 2007, professed first vows as a Benedictine monk in September 2008, and made his solemn profession in July 2011. As he reflects on the many twists and turns his life has taken, Brother Ælred expresses amazement at how each prepared him for life as a Benedictine at Saint John’s. Why else, he asks, would he start as a teacher and move into publishing? This gave him the experience for the job he is most passionate about today: associate editor of Give Us This

Senna archives

Day, a daily prayer guide published monthly by Liturgical Press. As for his musical training, ask any confrere, “Who has a voice that belongs on Broadway?” and Ælred will be on his short list. He is a regular contributor to the abbey schola, a frequent cantor, and a participant in local musical groups— none of which requires face paint and costumes, but Ælred, nevertheless, seems fulfilled. Another skill that Ælred brings to the abbey is his kitchen magic. Somehow he learned to cook, and we all reap the benefits on a regular basis, from his tamales to his cupcakes—and from his column in Abbey Banner. Chef, musician, publisher—we are glad that Ælred Senna persisted with his knocking on our door. Saint John’s Abbey is a better place for it.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

I Am Your Song

Eugene McGlothlin Detroit Lakes, Minnesota; chaplain at Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth; and faculty resident of Saint John’s University. Beginning in 1970, he also served as university registrar, coordinator of residence hall programming, and assistant to the vice president of student affairs.

Elisa Schneider

wenty-three years ago—it seems so much longer—I migrated from corporate America to the campuses of Saint John’s and Saint Benedict’s. My Catholic upbringing had taught me the importance and value of working hard, being honest, holding family and friends dear to my heart, and always remembering that someone needs help. Settling into this Benedictine community fit like a glove. I found this place cozy, protective, familiar, and flexible. The opening verses of one of my favorite hymns that we sing frequently at our Sunday morning Mass, “Servant Song” by Sister Donna Marie McGargill, O.S.M., has always been at the forefront of my mind. What do you want of me, Lord? Where do you want me to serve you? Where can I sing your praises? I am your song. In my early career, I struggled to discover what God was calling me to do. As I worked outside of our home, raised our three children with my husband, and volunteered in church, school, and community activities, I still wondered if I was following God’s will. It took me a while to recognize, appreciate, and understand that God was speaking to me all the time. The divine voice was in every task, project, relationship, and event into which I put my time and energy. Soon I learned to trust that whatever I was doing, I just had to be in the moment, be intentional, and see God’s hand working in and through me.

Savor the luxury of slowing down, take time to pray, be the listening ear, let go.

As our fourth child entered our lives, I really began to feel the effects of this Benedictine community. Balancing my time among work, family, church, and community started to blend all into one. For most of my life I had been driven to do more, do it faster, do it better, and only occasionally stop to take a breath. I have now learned to savor the luxury of slowing down, to take time to pray, to be the listening ear, to let go. God is in control, and as the rest of the song goes: “I hear you call my name, Lord, and I am moved within me. Your Spirit stirs my deepest self. Sing your songs in me.” Ms. Elisa Schneider is the business manager for the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research. Risen Christ, sculpture by Catherine Smith, 1965. Photo: Eric Pohlman, O.S.B.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Abbey archives

he second child of Elbert Joseph and Florence (Branick) McGlothlin, Father Eugene McGlothlin, O.S.B., was born in Faulkton, South Dakota, on 8 June 1932 and baptized Joseph Alan. After his family moved to Marshall, Minnesota, he attended Holy Redeemer School and local public schools, graduating from Marshall High School. He enrolled at Saint John’s University in 1950, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1956. While an undergraduate, Eugene entered the novitiate of Saint John’s Abbey and professed his first vows as a Benedictine monk on 11 July 1954. After completing college, he pursued theological studies at Saint John’s Seminary and was ordained a priest on 4 June 1960. During the decade following his ordination, Father Eugene exercised pastoral ministry is a variety of assignments: associate pastor at Holy Rosary Church in

In 1972 Father Eugene was awarded a master’s degree following the completion of his clinical pastoral education at Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth. He would later serve as chaplain at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Detroit Lakes and at Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, and as director of pastoral care for Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 1983 Eugene returned to Duluth to become the director of chaplain services at Saint Mary’s, where he developed what was considered one of the best clinical pastoral education centers in the country. In 1994 his service and leadership were recognized by his peers as he was elected president of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. Eugene acknowledged the emotional challenge of dealing with others’ pain, but he recognized the inherent blessings as well: “If you try to fix or solve people’s problems, you’ll be saddened because you can’t. But if you are open to sharing a patient’s experience, then something lifegiving can happen. Supporting people through very difficult

times, helping them find hope and maybe peace—this is ministry at its deepest level.” In 1995 Father Eugene was called to be a part of a transitional team assigned to the new parish of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings, Minnesota. Combining two historical parishes into one brought many challenges. After seven years of these challenges, Eugene’s doctor urged him to find a less stressful job, especially in deference to his ongoing struggle with diabetes. Following service as pastor at the Church of Saint Benedict in Avon, Minnesota, and at Saint John the Baptist Parish in Collegeville, Eugene retired in 2010. Ever warm and hospitable, Eugene loved dogs and all things Irish. For several years his companion in our retirement center was Neffi, an Avon terrier. He trained an earlier companion to growl at the mention of a superior’s name. Father Eugene died on 3 February 2018 in the retirement center. Following the Mass of Christian Burial on 8 February, he was interred in the abbey cemetery. Eugene believed that his suffering was joined to that of Christ. His own physical struggles with diabetes gave him compassion for all who faced physical and other challenges. Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Abbey Woodworking

Abbey Chronicle

The practice of woodworking is as old as Saint John’s Abbey itself. Since 1856 monks and Collegeville neighbors have been woodworkers: building log cabins to secure the first land claims in central Minnesota; providing general carpentry services; crafting cabinets, chairs, tables, beds, desks, and more. Pictured here are just a few of the thousands of items crafted over the decades from local oak, pine, basswood, or cherry. Simon-Hòa Phan, O.S.B.

old, cold, cold! So 2017 ended and 2018 began. Christmas dawned in Collegeville with a temperature of minus 6 degrees and a wind chill of minus 30, and it only got worse during the last week of 2017. The traditional Minnesota “January thaw” was observed on the afternoon of 7 January when the temperature rose above freezing for the first time in the new year. February and the Super Bowl in Minneapolis were also cold, though apparently not a “cold day in hell,” the widely accepted benchmark at which the Minnesota Vikings will be crowned national champions. Ah, but Ash Wednesday/Saint Valentine’s Day was delightful with bright sunshine and 40s— above zero! March came in like a lamb, but the lamb turned into a lion in winter with rain, ice, and lots of snow—ten inches on 5 March, and another six inches on 31 March. We eagerly await warmer spring days as we sing our Easter Alleluias!

John Meoska, O.S.B.

Kelly Beniek

December 2017 • Many monks joined neighbors, current and former Saint John’s employees, and parishioners at Saint John the Baptist Parish Center for the visitation of Ms. Elaine Vogel on 15 December. A beloved neighbor of the Collegeville community and longtime secretary to Saint John’s presidents and abbots, Elaine died on 10 December.

Simon-Hòa Phan, O.S.B.

• The sixteenth controlled deer hunt since 1933 in the Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum concluded on 31 December. Organized by the arboretum staff, the goal of the archery hunt was to reduce the deer population to a level that allows for the natural regeneration of the forest ecosystem, essential to the long-term health of the forest and of the deer. Thirty-three deer, including twenty-three adults, were taken between mid-October and year’s end. January 2018

Aidan Putnam, O.S.B.

• The monastic community welcomed hundreds of guests to the Eucharistic celebration of the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve, at which Abbot John Klassen presided. The St. John’s Boys’ Choir and abbey schola added their voices to the festive liturgy. Earlier in the evening, Father Columba Stewart and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) were featured on a Christmas Eve broadcast of Sixty Minutes on CBS television. Correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewed and accompanied Father Columba and Father Najeeb Michaeel, O.P., as they outlined the work of HMML in saving historic sacred and secular texts from the destruction of ISIS and the war in Iraq.

• The staff of Liturgical Press announced that beginning in January 2018 all books formerly published as Pueblo Books or Michael Glazier Books will be published as Liturgical Press Academic. “To meet the needs of today’s undergraduate, graduate-level, and seminary students, we are redefining a piece of our brand that Liturgical Press readers have grown to know and trust,” said Mr. Hans Christoffersen, publisher of the academic and monastic markets. “This streamlined imprint will include a focus on liturgy, Scripture, and theology.” • Brother Joseph Schneeweis has taken up residence at Sant’Anselmo in Rome where he will be in charge of the library of the international Benedictine house of studies. “My work as library director has begun,” writes

Wayne Torborg

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Brother Joseph. “The library’s five-person staff (three lay Italians, one lay Croatian, and one African monk) is friendly and professional. I’ve done a couple of shifts at the library’s reference/circulation desk. Happily, there haven’t been any really complicated questions or requests.”

John’s through Father Kieran Nolan and the monks of Trinity Benedictine Monastery in Fujimi, Japan. Before being ordained, Toppo completed a master’s degree at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary. He is currently a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research.

• Reverend Toshihiro “Toppo” Takamura, a Lutheran pastor and oblate of Saint John’s Abbey, was the homilist during the community’s Sunday Eucharist on 21 January, part of the observance of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. A native of Japan, Toppo first became acquainted with Saint

• Father Roman Paur, coordinator of the Abbey Volunteer program, reports that our generous volunteers contributed a total of 7,279 hours of service during 2017—in dozens of locations and activities, including abbey woodworking, Saint Raphael Hall retirement center, abbey gift shop, tailor shop,

The stone rejected, or at least lost, has become the cornerstone! In February Saint John’s maintenance personnel hung a slate medallion, missing for years, on the west wall of the entry lobby (Saint Stephen Lounge) of the abbey guesthouse. Carved c. 1984 by Mr. Ieuan Rees, British artist and stone calligrapher, the handsome stone is engraved with a passage from chapter 53 of the Rule of Saint Benedict, welcoming guests. According to the oral tradition, the medallion was to have been used as a cornerstone for the guesthouse or displayed within the guesthouse. Sometime in the 1990s, years before the guesthouse was constructed, the artwork went missing. It was recently discovered in the abbey’s art storage room.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

guesthouse, archives, gardens, and mailings of Abbey Banner. • During his sabbatical semester in Vietnam, Brother Simon-Hòa Phan has been teaching sisters at the Dominican Provincial House near Saigon. He was not able to watch the Minnesota Vikings improbable football-playoff victory over the New Orleans Saints, but he did join the sisters in watching Vietnam defeat Qatar in the semifinal game of the Asian Football Confederation U23 Asian Cup (soccer). He is also the beneficiary of much tender, loving care: “I am never hungry because I have so many moms and sisters [190!] to make sure that I have enough to eat.” • On 28 January Father Robert Koopmann delighted his confreres, colleagues, students, and numerous guests with a piano recital and commentary in the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater. Entitled “Encores and Improvisations,” the recital featured music by Alberto Ginastera, W. A. Mozart, Ludovico Einaudi, Samuel Barber, and more, as well as improvisations on folk tunes and spirituals.

• Members of the greater Saint John’s community, along with busloads of local grade and high school students, gathered in the Pellegrene Auditorium of Saint John’s University on 20 February for a video linkup to the International Space Station with NASA astronaut and university alumnus Mark Vande Hei [right]. Mark offered thoughtful responses to numerous questions posed by the students, affirmed his gratitude and affection for Saint John’s, and entertained with a somersault in the weightlessness of the Space Station. After four spacewalks and 168 days in space, Mark landed safely in Kazakhstan on 28 February.

March 2018

• Through May 2018 the exhibition “Living Prayer” is on display at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML). Dr. Matthew Heintzelman, HMML curator of rare books,

NASA astronaut and university alumnus Mark Vande Hei (left) in training

has assembled manuscripts and early printed books from the Hill collections that highlight the importance of the Divine Office and similar practices of the Christian life. The exhibition includes illuminated books of hours, antiphonals, and corollary texts, all presented with helpful explanations. “Living Prayer” begins in the Culhane Gallery of Alcuin Library and continues in

February 2018 • On 11 February a busload of monks joined the sisters of Saint Benedict’s Monastery for Evening Prayer, supper, and a personnel program for the annual celebration of the feast of Saint Scholastica.

Dave Martin

On 28 February Brother Walter Kieffer reported that the 2018 maple syrup season was underway as 1400 taps were inserted into hundreds of Saint John’s maple trees.

NASA

the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library. • Two oblates of Saint John’s Abbey made their final oblation in recent weeks. Mr. Eric Floan, a liturgist and church music director in Winona, Minnesota, made his final oblation on 2 February. He is “seeking a home for focusing on my oblate life— prayer, relationships, and inquiry.” Rev. Dr. Anita Bradshaw, a Minneapolis theologian and pastor, made her final oblation on 18 March. She has a long relationship with Saint John’s, including being a former teacher in Saint John’s School of Theology. • “There is no greater thrilla than Easter in Manila,” asserted Father Michael Patella, who was the retreat master for the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat in the Philippines during Holy Week. Alleluia!

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Fifty Years Ago

Monks in the Kitchen

Excerpted from Confrere, newsletter of Saint John’s Abbey: 8 March 1968

• Father Oliver Kapsner [right] writes that permission has been given [to the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library] to microfilm at the State University of Salzburg. This is a major breakthrough and may lengthen the project for 4–5 years.

• Father Aidan McCall represented Saint John’s at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 29 May 1968

• Abbot Baldwin Dworschak’s Message: [Regarding the survey to determine how the Declarations to the Rule should be revised:] What will most directly affect everyone in the community will be the emphasis on collegial authority, the responsibility each will be encouraged to exercise, and the greater shared responsibility of the seniors and other

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

Eggs Benedict

• Father Joel Kelly has been renovating the Stella Maris Chapel which has been damaged in recent years by vandals.

I fell in love with the be-all, end-all of egg dishes when I was a seminarian in Texas. I have never been especially fond of eggs, but the Benedict, with its delicious, salty Canadian bacon, and scrumptious hollandaise . . . well, how bad could it be? I will not describe all that could go wrong, but I will say that a properly poached egg is a wonder to behold and to savor. The yolk should run, but not all over the plate. Also, hollandaise sauce is best when not prepared from a packet of powder.

• Father Cloud Meinberg will take a leave of absence from teaching to devote full time to his commission from the Diocese of Saint Cloud for the renovation of churches according to the norms of Vatican II.

9 April 1968

• Abbot Baldwin Dworschak’s Message: Our life is a symbol of the faith we hold and show forth to others. In this year of faith, our role is to be men of faith. With this faith comes a deep optimism for ourselves and for those who come after us. For, says the Pastoral Constitution on the Church, “The future of humanity lies in the hands of those who are strong enough to provide coming generations with reasons for living and hoping.” We have every reason for living and hoping.

Collegeville on 29 April. Brother Martin Rath has succeeded him as acting postmaster.

Father Oliver Kapsner

HMML

archives

officials. The collegial or democratic concept of authority is expected to provide the initiative essential to stimulate the commitment of individuals and the entire community. The emphasis on collegial authority affects not only the status of the abbot in the community but also the vow of obedience, which perhaps has been under the most questioning these days. The new emphasis seen in our revision of the Declarations seems to insist on the total involvement of all the members of the community in the preliminary work of preparing for the decision eventually made by the superior. • Brothers Marcellus Handorgan and William Borgerding visited Red Lake Mission. Brother Marcellus is making numerous recordings of Chippewa songs and conversations. • Brother James Hughes officially retired as postmaster of

Excerpted from The Record, student newspaper of Saint John’s University: 17 May 1968

• Results released of the first nationwide primary ever held in the U.S. showed Senator Eugene McCarthy decisively outscoring a large field of announced and unannounced candidates. Of the 1,072,830 votes cast by students on over 1,200 campuses in Choice ’68, McCarthy was the first choice of 285,988, followed by Senator Robert Kennedy with 213,832 votes, and Richard Nixon third with 197,167 votes. Over 44 percent of the students who voted will be eligible to go to the polls this November. In the election, jointly sponsored by Sperry Rand’s Univac Division and Time magazine, about 45 percent of students voted for reduction of the nation’s military effort in Viet Nam, 29 percent for temporary suspension of all bombing, and 21 percent for allout bombing.

Ælred Senna, O.S.B.

While I was a seminarian, occasionally we would have eggs Benedict on Sunday. The seminary cook was not about to serve any underdone (or overdone) eggs nor prepare his hollandaise from a pouch. I don’t know how he managed to serve perfect eggs Benedict to 75 people at once. It must have taken a lot of practice. On the other hand, I find that preparing the dish for two to four people is not difficult, as long as I keep timing in mind. I generally prepare any side dishes (such as potatoes or asparagus) in advance and keep them warm in the oven. Brother Ælred Senna, O.S.B., is associate editor of Give Us This Day and a faculty resident at Saint John’s University.

Eggs Benedict for Two

• 4 eggs • 4 slices of Canadian bacon or ham • 2 English muffins • Butter •1½ tablespoons of white vinegar • Hollandaise sauce: • ½ cup (1 stick) butter • 2 egg yolks • 1–2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice • Cayenne pepper Preheat broiler. Split English muffins and lay on baking sheet cut-side down. Toast under the broiler until just crusty. Flip them over; butter the cut side. Toast to desired level. Wrap in foil; keep warm. (Do this first before proceeding.) Fill medium covered skillet with about 1½ inches of water plus the white vinegar. Bring water to a boil. Place butter in a small saucepan. Melt over med-high heat until it begins to foam. (Do not brown.) In a separate skillet, fry Canadian bacon or ham to brown on both sides. Wrap in foil; keep warm. When water has boiled, turn off heat, crack eggs carefully into the water, leaving space between them. Cover, and set a timer for 5 minutes. Remove eggs to a plate with slotted spoon if timer sounds before you are ready to assemble. Hollandaise: Meanwhile, place egg yolks in blender and pulse. With blender running, slowly pour in the very hot butter. With blades still running, add lemon juice. Stop the blender, and check consistency. If sauce is too thick, add a bit more lemon juice. Add a pinch of cayenne, to taste. Assemble: Place English muffins on plates. Top each half with Canadian bacon or ham and one egg. Pour on hollandaise. Sprinkle with a bit of cayenne.

Abbey Banner Spring 2018

In Memoriam

All Are Welcome

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

Timothy Backous, O.S.B.

Frank Joseph “Joe” Anderson Jr. Richard A. Appelgren Miriam Ardolf, O.S.B. Ned Arriola, Obl.S.B. Rita Berg Raymond L. “Ray” Bowar Michael J. Brutger Christina Casanova Egerton Chang Jeanette Clements, Obl.S.B. Richard Walter Coller Edward “Ed” Collins Donald J. Corbett Rev. Gerald M. Cote Virginia P. Denisen Mary Desetto Joyce Diemert Michelle Dosch, O.S.B. James A. “Jimmy” Eichorn Sr. Margaret C. Engelmeier Shirley Frandrup, O.S.B. Harold A. “Harry” Froehle Mary Emmanuel Genz, O.S.C. Cynthia Joy “Cindy” Gray Donna Guyott, O.S.F. Elaine Gran Halls Abbot Giles P. Hayes, O.S.B.

Elaine Heiar Rev. Lawrence R. Heitke Bishop Herbert Hermes, O.S.B. Thelma L. Huyink Janet M. Jirik Janet Kirschbaum Gerald “Jerry” Kotas Wilfried Peter Kowarik, O.S.B. Rev. Phillip Krogman Janet Kunkel, O.S.F. Rev. Robert Charles Landsberger Rev. Leo Othmar Leisen George Lindbeck Manuel Loría Michael W. Maeder Patricia Johnston McDonald Eugene Joseph McGlothlin, O.S.B. Michelle McGurran, O.S.B. Mary Mergen Janet E. “Jan” Moeller Madonna Niebolte, O.S.B. Dolores Norman, O.S.B. William D. “Bill” O’Connell Sharon Backous Olsen Lawrence M. “Larry” O’Shaughnessy Jay H. Pearson

Ernest A. “Ernie” Pierzina Johnette Putnam, O.S.B. Deborah Ann “Deb” Ratté Virginia E. Reichert Charles L. “Chuck” Ross Rev. Dennis Ryan Marilyn J. Scapanski Yvonne Schafer, O.S.B. Peggy Therese Schley Emil Schmit Magdalen Schwab, O.S.B. Dolores H. Schwegel Rev. William J. Seipp Lorie Siebels S. Arles Silbernick, O.S.B. George A. “Bud” Sinner John Stamp Mary Schoffman Theisen Sandra A. “Sandy” Tomczik Elaine C. Vogel Ena Walker Bernice “Betty” Weber Alice Joan “Jo” White Gerald Allen “Gary” Youso MaryAnn Zastera Donna Marie Zetah, O.S.F.

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/.

ecently a prayer petition caught my attention: “Lord, renew the spirit of hospitality in your Church.” My post-Evening Prayer ruminations led me to wonder: For what are we praying? Should we be just a little kinder or friendlier? Should we be more gracious and welcoming? More helpful? All of these options would seem to be necessary. But are they enough? Those who are familiar with Benedictines know that we are serious about hospitality. It is one of the essential elements of our lifestyle that cannot be minimized, undervalued, or ignored. Monks, according to Saint Benedict (Rule 53), must express hospitality as though the life of the community depends on it. And sometimes it does. Guests of the monastery are to be treated as Christ himself. So if our savior is not shown hospitality, something is lacking in the very fabric of our community. Monks take hospitality seriously. But what about the greater Church? How does a parish community, for example, extend hospitality? I have experienced hospitality in rather ordinary ways, such as when greeters welcome visitors with a smile and some kind of friendly outreach. Some parishes have nametags at the door and clear signage indicating the location of restrooms for those who are new to the facility. Occasionally a reader will step to the ambo and welcome all newcomers. The most extraordinary expression of hospitality that I’ve witnessed was a presider who walked down the center aisle before Mass, asking visitors in the church to stand and introduce themselves. While this would be challenging to the introverts among us, it does allow the strangers to self-identify (I suppose some could choose to keep their heads down!) and meet the local parishioners.

Make sure that all feel the love of Christ.

All of this is subordinate to genuine hospitality—which is truly being welcoming. I heard of a bishop forbidding the use of the hymn “All Are Welcome.” Apparently not all were welcome as far as he was concerned! This is troubling because whatever brings people through the church door is as particular to them as their own gene pool. What they did before they came to church should not be our concern. Rather, our concern should be to make sure that all feel the love of Christ that is fully present in the Eucharist. Our concern should be that all leave with something they may not have had when they arrived: a sense of community, an experience of the communion of saints, and a feeling that they may try this again next week. If we shun any stranger, we risk losing sight of that stranger and the person of Christ.

Nonprofit Organization U. S. Postage

PAID

Saint John’s Abbey Abbey Banner Magazine Saint John’s Abbey P.O. Box 2015 do not reduce in size (size or place between and greater) Collegeville, MN100%56321-2015 U.S.A. use alternative logo for smaller size www.saintjohnsabbey.org

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Abbey Banner 4 This Issue Robin Pierzina, O.S.B. 5 Benedictine Values in Stone Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B. 6 A Psalm for All Seasons Abbot Gregory Polan, O.S.B. 8 Benedictine Volunteer Corps 10 Benedictine Institute Rodger Narloch 12 Gypsy Moth Alert John Geissler 14 To Timbuktu (and back) Columba Stewart, O.S.B.

Spring 2018 Volume 18, Number 1

17 Rule of Benedict: The Search for God Eric Hollas, O.S.B. 18 Red Lake Mission Aaron Raverty, O.S.B.

30 I Am Your Song Elisa Schneider 31 Obituary: Eugene McGlothlin 32 Abbey Woodworking

22 Red Lake Vocation Julius Beckermann, O.S.B.

33 Abbey Chronicle Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.

23 Prayers of the Faithful

36 Fifty Years Ago

24 Pets in the Pediment Martin F. Connell

37 Monks in the Kitchen: Eggs Benedict Ælred Senna, O.S.B.

26 Lives of the Benedictine Saints: Frances of Rome Richard Oliver, O.S.B. 28 Meet a Monk: Ælred Senna Timothy Backous, O.S.B.

38 In Memoriam 39 All Are Welcome Timothy Backous, O.S.B.

Easter Retreat 9−11 May 2018: The Joy of the Resurrection How can the promise of the resurrection help us age gracefully? Presenters: Pastor Raymond Arveson; Sister Joyce Iten, O.S.B.; Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B.; Michele Rosha, B.C.C. The retreat begins with supper at 5:30 P.M. on Wednesday and concludes at 10:00 A.M. on Friday. Cost: Single room, $185; double room, $320 ($160 per person); meals included. Six-Day Directed Retreat 16−22 August 2018 Cost: $585; includes a single room, meals, and daily spiritual direction. Register online at abbeyguesthouse.org; call the Spiritual Life Office: 320.363.3929; or email: spirlife@osb.org.