CHRIs BROnsOn

BROTHER LukE is greeted by Father Michael santa. Each member of the community offered an embrace of acceptance and welcome to the new novices.

Taking on new habits

In a long-established ritual, three men from different walks of life enter a monastery to live for a year among the monks and see if it is right for them and for the community.

Photos by chRis bRoNsoNyOu THREE MEN, Jeffrey, Cameron, and Branson, come to monastic life in great freedom and clear decision. You come to join us to gain a deep and lasting sense of being a child of God through the solidarity you come to know and to foster with a particular group of men who commit themselves to one another and to the church as it is experienced in our work and our prayer.

Chris Bronson is a recent graduate of the university of Kansas with a degree in photo media. With these words Abbot Barnabas senecal, o.s.B. of st. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison, Kansas welcomed three men as novices and invited them to a year of further study, prayer, and work in the community. Each had visited the abbey in the previous months during the period known as “postulancy.”

“you make no vows today, and you hope to do just that in a year from now,” Abbot Barnabas said. “At any time, after due reflection, you decide the monk’s life is not for you, you may leave. We also say to you, that if we find it would be best for you to choose another way of life, we will tell you that.” =

ABBOT BARnABAs senecal, O.s.B. (above) with the candidates at the practice session before the Ceremony of Entry. The three candidates completed four months of postulancy, living in a distinct area of the abbey.

JEFFREy TuRnER (left) was a graduate of a high school seminary and Benedictine College in 1983. He was a candidate for membership in the community after college but entered the work force instead and became a senior vice president with Mastercard before petitioning the abbey for admission.

Cameron McMillan (center) comes originally from the small community of Home, kansas and is a recent graduate of the abbey’s Benedictine College.

Branson stephens (right) has a Ph.D. in astrophysics and became a Roman Catholic through the R.C.I.A. process while completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton university.

FATHER JEREMy HEPPLER, O.s.B. (back to camera, middle photo), master of ceremonies for the rite, rehearses with the candidates in the abbey church.

CAMEROn MCMILLAn (right) puts on the habit for the first time. This clothing is similar to that of the members of the monastery but without the hood (called a capuche) worn by monks who have taken vows.

AFTER RECEIVIng their habits, Abbot Barnabas gave the three novices their monastic names. Branson became Brother Victor, the name of his grandfather and also Victor of Marseilles, a thirdcentury martyr. Cameron became Brother Timothy. “saint Paul’s letters to Timothy have been a big part of my life,” he said. Jeffrey became Brother Luke. Along with their monastic names, the novices (left) also received a copy of the Rule of Benedict—the sixth-century code that guides Benedictine life— which each will study for a year.

BROTHER TIMOTHy (below) is welcomed by retired Abbot Ralph koehler, O.s.B.