Monastery
I was confident the quality of the education at Priory would at least match my other options. What swayed me to Priory is that my small class size ensured I could compete year-round in varsity sports, despite my average skills. I correctly anticipated the agony of defeat more often than the thrill of victory – many times, painfully so.
sums up our experience of the men of the Saint Louis Abbey more than this? Abbot Luke clearly was the first person who came to mind when I was among many asked several years ago by the St. Louis Business Journal who I most admired and respected. Father Timothy obviously would have been next – but perhaps with a different interpretation of admiration!
I also experienced a new sport from a brilliant left-handed cricketer named Father Timothy, whose expert eraser throws were certainly attention-grabbing in the classroom.
In the early 1970s, I will never forget Abbot Luke’s deceptively firm guidance in insisting on Priory’s independence from Ampleforth – rather than closing the doors due to a lack of vocations within the international Benedictine system. The move was akin to the American Colonies’ break from England. Around the same time, he also opened an Archdiocesan parish staff fed with monks shared from the Priory. As if to underscore this declaration of independence, he even became an American citizen. His mild-mannered determination eventually led to the Priory’s conversion to a full-fledged Abbey.
My parents quickly developed a great appreciation for and close friendship with the monks, eventually becoming Confraters – honorary members of the Abbey community who tried to practice the challenging Benedictine principles in their lives. My mother, Emily Murphy McCaffrey, now 88, was one of Father Timothy’s favorites, despite belonging to the Mothers’ Club. She was unable to join us this evening, but sends her greetings and best wishes to everyone from Sea Island, Georgia. My father also would have truly loved being here tonight. He was well aware of the endowment of blessings showered by the good monks upon our family, including my two brothers who attended Priory. When my father passed away in 1982, three of the monks were at the hospital within half an hour to be with us – all in an elegantly understated way. And when someone in the Priory family experiences adversity, you’ve never seen anything quite like the depth of quiet caring they share.
While the monks who have fed us a rich feast of goodness and blessings do not need, desire or expect it, I think it is important to recognize and express our gratitude for all they have accomplished … and all they have given – and continue to give – to us. I want to note one other special person from my Priory association – a woman appointed by Abbot Luke to be the school’s development director long before women were considered seriously for such critical roles. In Julie Constantino, Abbot Luke found someone for whom the word, “No,” rolled like water off a duck’s back. One year, she conned us into offering a week at Murphy Company’s condo in Colorado as a Priory auction item. A week before the auction, applying my dry sense of humor to distract her from the stress of a week in the realm of heaven’s opposite, I called Julie and told her I
When our son, Joey, applied to join the Class of 1997, he replied to our questions about his interview with, “Oh, they loved me!” There is something naturally humorous about a 6th grader whose self-assessment of how an interview went goes to the subject of love. But his response still resonates with me. “They loved me!” What
Members of the Class of 1961 join Jim Murphy to celebrate his award. 12