Mount Calvary Monastery
Spring 2014
NEWS
Br. Thomas Schultz marked fifty years in life vows toward the end of
February. This is an accomplishment, to live as a faithful monk in Holy
Cross for an adult lifetime. A friend of ours hosted a dinner for him,
for us, and for three other friends at a fine restaurant to celebrate the
event. It was quite wonderful. To add to the celebration, our host supplied a bottle of Madeira which was almost, not quite, fifty years old.
Br. Tom continues as Director of Associates and sacristan.
Another monk is joining the Mount Calvary community. Br. Robert Pierson will be here just after Easter.
For many years Bob was a monk of St. John’s Abbey
in Collegeville, Minnesota. He has lived with us at
West Park for a year, getting to know us and giving
us a chance to know him. His former abbot has been
most helpful in this transition. Bob is being received
as an Anglican by the bishop of New York, and after
that will renew his solemn profession as a monk of Holy Cross. We
welcome him and hope that many of you will get to know him.
Br. Adam McCoy has been deeply involved in a number of our business
issues at the request of the prior. He has also been reading deeply in
the reestablishment of religious and monastic life within Anglicanism.
This is research for the chapter he is writing for a book, The Oxford
Handbook of Christian Monasticism, to be published by Oxford University Press. We look forward to seeing this ourselves. He recently led
a vestry weekend for St. Bede’s Church in Los Angeles. He has also led
a week long seminar on monastic history for the Franciscan novices
(SSF) from San Francisco.
Br. Will Brown is busy with guest and refectory work and shopping.
He is very good at doing things outside the house that interest him,
and so attends concerts with a friend. Some afternoons he attends a
poetry group. He appears at the Botanic Garden occasionally and gets
together with friends from time to time.
Br. Nicholas Radelmiller is busy with the administration of the house.
He tries to find time to practice his cello. He has a small garden near
his office that is both his despair and his joy. Various health concerns
have joined together to give him the opportunity for a cardiac rehab program, which he is finding challenging and helpful. He also
led a small conference for the Society of Catholic Priests here at the
monastery.
Our Br. Timothy Jolley, who lived with us last year, has discovered that
he is in need of some surgery, and his South African surgeon died. His
doctor doesn’t recommend any other surgeons in South Africa, so he
expects to return here for the surgery. All this is dependent, of course,
on the response of the insurance company.
CHAPTER
The Triennial Chapter of the Order of the Holy Cross meets in June. Of
major importance for us is the election of a superior. Br. Robert Sevensky is eligible for election to a shorter term. We also elect members of
council and will be discussing and acting on some resolutions. These
largely deal with the governance of the Order. The several days of the
Chapter are a time also for us to reconnect with other members of
Holy Cross. The Chapter meets at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park,
New York.
Mount Calvary Monastery
Issue 6 Spring 2014, is a free quarterly publication
of Mount Calvary Monastery
505 East Los Olivos Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
GUESTHOUSE DIRECTORS
Teré Luciani has been the Guesthouse Director since 2009 and has decided to retire. She has done good work for us, including helping us
get settled into the new Mount Calvary and developing the business
systems we use. Also, she has been wonderful on the phone. She is
staying in Santa Barbara and
has volunteered to be a kind of
consultant, backup person if we
need her. We are all most grateful to her.
We’ve hired a new Guesthouse
Director. She is Melinda Carey,
who has had much experience
in this type of work. For many
years she worked at All Saints
Church in Montecito and then
Melinda Carey (left) and Teré Luciani
at Trinity Church in Santa Barbara. We look forward to having her as part of our staff. One aspect of
her job will be to find small groups that would like to meet on weekdays. She already knows a lot about the religious life: her brother, Tom
Carey, is a member of the Society of St. Francis.
OUR WEBSITE
We encourage you to check our website regularly for announcements.
Soon we will soon be able to receive donations online. If you know
someone who is considering a retreat, the website gives full information, along with many beautiful photographs of the property.
Monks’ Blend Coffee may be ordered from:
www.moorecoffee.com
800-994-8060 • 805-643-8060
We receive a donation
for each purchase.
PLEASE REMEMBER US IN YOUR WILL
Many of the good things we have been able to do are the result of legacies,
for which we are very grateful. We are Mount Calvary Incorporated.
You may call the office for further information.
LONG-TERM STAYS
We receive requests from time to time from people who want to stay
longer than usual. This may be for retreat, or a writing-study project, or as part of a sabbatical.
We now have an apartment
with a kitchenette and a small
enclosed garden (somewhat
bedraggled). It is suitable for a
couple. Guests here on this arrangement would be responsible for their meals on Sunday
evenings and Mondays. Thanks
to a friend, we have some very
pleasant furniture for this space.
Please see our website’s Guesthouse tab and select “LongTerm Stays” for photos.
THE GUESTHOUSE
Our guesthouse has been busy.
The Women of St. Stephen’s, San Luis Obispo, two Tai Chi Chih groups,
several vestries, a Presbyterian church group from West Los Angeles,
and so on. All fine groups. Palomar College sends its Philosophy and
Religion class each year, and two of the brethren talked with them.
We had a silent retreat (completely filled) and a yoga retreat as well.
RETREATS
We will be closed the last part of August for our own ten day retreat. We
will have no guests during that time.
We’ve instituted quarterly “Contemplative Days,” three days of silence.
Guests who wish silence are welcome
for these days. There is no program, just
the Divine Office, Eucharist, meals, and
silence. Check our website and please
reserve with the guesthouse office.
THE GREAT CROSS
We are still planning on moving the large cross from the old Mount
Calvary. We’ve selected a location at the top of our entrance driveway.
As soon as the excavation was some 10 inches down, the archeologist
(required to be there by the city) discovered some Chumash artifacts,
so it all came to a halt.
The archeologist spent weeks studying the site and the dirt taken from
the site. He determined that we live on top of a Chumash midden
consisting primarily of clam shells. Apparently the Chumash chose this
place as being good for picnics and would roast clams here. The archeologist also determined that our site has been inhabited for nearly
eight thousand years.
The Chumash authorities think it is just fine to put the cross where
we want it. Various levels of city authorities need to approve, including the Historic Landmarks Commission. (We live in a special historic
district.)
We are, of course, frustrated by this delay, but we are assured that it
will happen, possibly by the time you read this. We think there is just
one more hurdle to cross.
INSURING OUR FUTURE
Very few monasteries are entirely self supporting. This has always
been the situation.
If one invents a really good beer as in Belgium or a liqueur like Chartreuse, a monastery might be totally self supporting. In that we have
not done this, we have decided to establish an endowment fund, as
have so many other monastic houses.
Our practice will be that all legacies will go into that fund. As it grows,
it will be able to meet special needs or the usual financial shortfall. Of
course, if you wish to make a special donation to this fund, you are
always welcome to do so.
Let us repeat, we are very grateful to all who support us financially as
well as with their prayers.
RULE
We have a daily business meeting at which a portion of the rule is
read, hence the meeting is called “chapter.” Usually we read a chapter
of the Rule of Benedict, but during Lent we have been reading the
Rule of Father Huntington, our founder.
One section deals with the ascetic life, in which he says that we must
not strive for great austerity alternating with abandonment to our
appetites, but we are to strive for a steady living of the crucified life,
that is, a steady living of a life devoted to God.
This is hard. We are all middle-class men, and we enjoy the perks of
middle-class lives. So, we notice from time to time that some of these
perks creep in and are a distraction. Lent has been for us a time of
re-examining how we live our life, and of trying to make sure we are
aiming for the ascetic life the founder and Benedict would have wanted for us.
We’ve reduced the available snacks,
for instance, and gotten rid of unused
clothes, but it is difficult to know
where to draw the line. In some ways,
living a very austere life would be easier. This is a life-long process of learning to live less dependently on things.
The desired result is not just being less
dependent on things, but to learn to
be more dependent upon God. We
want to grow to the point that a certain spareness opens us to God and
we find fulfillment with him but are also able to enjoy created things
in suitable moderation. This all calls for a nice balance. A little humor
along the way does help.
REACHING US
Phone: 805-682-4117
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.mount-calvary.org
Mailing address:
Mount Calvary Monastery, P. O. Box 1296, Santa Barbara, CA 93102
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Mount Calvary Monastery
P.O. Box 1296
Santa Barbara, CA 93102
Non-Profit Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Santa Barbara, CA
Permit No. 139