Contents
Page 6
Cover Story
The Abbey Banner
John Klassen, OSB,
Chosen Tenth Abbot of
Saint John’s Abbey
Magazine of Saint John’s Abbey
Volume 1, Issue 1
Spring 2001
by Daniel Durken, OSB
Center photo by
Greg Becker,
border photos from
Klassen family album
Editor
Daniel Durken, OSB
Designer
Pam Rolfes
The Odyssey Group
Features
Contributing Writers
Dennis Beach, OSB, Alberic
Culhane, OSB, Geoffrey Fecht,
OSB, Joseph Feders, OSB,
William Skudlarek, OSB, Donald
Tauscher, OSB, and Hilary
Thimmesh, OSB
Printing
Palmer Printing
Editorial and Production
Assistant
4
The History of The Liturgical Press
12
Senior Monks Publish Poetry
by Hilary Thimmesh, OSB
8
Experiencing the Earthquake in
El Salvador
by Dennis Beach, OSB
14
The First Methodist Monk
by Daniel Durken, OSB
10
Angelo Zankl, OSB,
Celebrates a Century
15
An Exhibit of Forty
Bronze Sculptures
Margaret Arnold
Proofreader
Dolores Schuh, CHM
Cover Design
Monica Bokinskie
Circulation
Francis Peters, OSB
Paul Fitt, OSB
The Abbey Banner is published
three times annually by the
Benedictine monks of Saint John’s
Abbey for our relatives, friends
and Oblates. The Abbey Banner
brings the extended family of Saint
John’s Abbey together with feature
stories and news of the monastery.
Saint John’s Abbey, Box 2015,
Collegeville, Minnesota 56321.
320-363-3875. www.sja.osb.org.
Departments
3
From the Editor
From the Abbot
5
Strengthening Foundations
16
Vocation News
17
Abbey Missions
19
Banner Bits
27
Spiritual Life
Back Cover
Calendar of Events
Abbey Prayer Time
From the Editor and the Abbot
What's
in a
Name?
by Daniel Durken,
OSB
Shortly before
completing his
term of office
last November, Abbot Timothy Kelly
asked me to edit a new abbey magazine.
What you have in your hands is the
result of my acceptance of this assignment.
At the top of the editorial agenda was
the selection of a name for this
new publication that replaces the Saint
John's Abbey Quarterly. A good
segment of the monks responding to a
poll opted for The Abbey Banner.
For the past forty years the bell banner
of our church has been the most
readily recognized landmark on the
Collegeville campus. It is the bold
symbol of the abbey's worship celebrated
daily behind the banner as well as of the
creative work that goes on all around the
banner. The banner is quite literally
the monastic community's concrete way
of welcoming everyone who comes to
Saint John's.
Just as it takes a village to rear a child it
takes many people to prepare a new
publication. The names of our contributors and production people are listed on
the inside front cover. I thank them as
well as the magazine and communication
committees and the photographers. This
has very much been a team effort.
I invite you, the reader, to tell me what
you like and do not like about this first
issue and to give me your ideas on the
kind of news and views you want The
Abbey Banner to present. Please send
me your reactions and evaluation. If you
have relatives and friends who would like
to receive this magazine, send me their
names and addresses and I will add them
to our mailing list. v
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
Entering into the
Paschal Mystery
by Abbot John Klassen, OSB
It has been helpful for me to think
of the two seasons of Lent and
Easter as one, as ninety days with
Easter at the center. Because the
Paschal Mystery is the central parable of our Christian lives, I wish to
articulate some of the ways in which
we participate in this mystery of
Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension
and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Borrowing from Ronald
Rolheiser’s Holy Longing, we need
to name our deaths; claim our
births; grieve over what has been
lost while adjusting to what is new;
let go of the old, letting it ascend
while it is blessing us; and accept
the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
John Shea in Stories of Faith tells
of a young man caring for his father
who is dying of cancer. Each night
after work the son holds his father’s
hand and watches helplessly as he
suffers. Finally, one night the son
says, "Dad, let go. Trust God, die.
Anything is better than this." Soon
his father grows peaceful and dies.
The son realizes that he has just
given voice to the important truth
of letting go and trusting God.
Death, our own and others, is certainly the most profound example
of our participation in the dying of
Jesus.
Sometimes this dying means
standing in a different relationship
to the changes made in the 1960s
and 1970s that were milestones of
the Church. But now there are
new needs. The men and women
coming to the Church need a
different kind of ecclesial expression. It is hard to trust that God is
working in the future, to trust the
younger generation’s need for
greater clarity in
who we are.
This is not
about being
right or wrong
but about
listening
carefully to
our times.
There is also
new life. An example is the birth of a
new friendship with a person whose life
has brushed up against ours, but circumstances have blocked further development. Then something changes and the
relationship clicks. Sometimes our eyes
are opened and we discover that for one
reason or another we haven’t been very
good friends to the people who have
tried to love us. As one person writes, "I
fear abandonment and therefore its flip
side, intimacy. I want the coin to stand
on its edge. Don’t go away. Don’t get
too close. I’ve had a hard time letting
someone love me, although many good
people have tried."
An example of ascension might be the
following, which a woman shared: "My
husband and I never fully understood
what ascension and Pentecost meant until
I had to have a double mastectomy.
There was, at first, a lot of anger, a lot of
grieving over what we’d lost. Eventually
though we had to let go of a wholeness
we once had. Now our relationship is
great again . . . But my husband had to
learn to see me differently and I had to
learn to see me differently too. We
know now what it means to have a body
float up to heaven so as to receive a new
spirit" (Holy Longing).
For us Christians, the Paschal Mystery
is not a theological abstraction, but a
lived experience. The examples are
given in order to stimulate your reflection
on your own experience of the Paschal
Mystery. v
3
FEATURE
The History
of the
Liturgical Press
the Mass arranged for congregational
participation. Two other booklets on the
liturgy followed that premiere publication, and in November the first issue of
the liturgical periodical, Orate Fratres
(now known as Worship), was published
for eight hundred initial subscribers.
The booklet’s Introduction summarizes
the accomplishments of The Liturgical
Press as follows:
T
o commemorate the 75th
anniversary of its
founding, The Liturgical
Press is publishing a concise
history of its service to the
Church. Mark Twomey,
editorial director of The Press,
is the author of a 65-page booklet entitled The Liturgical Press
1926-2001: Seventy-Five Years
of Grace.
The history chronicles the
amazing growth of The Liturgical
Press from its founding by Virgil
Michel, OSB, in 1926. Fresh
from his studies and travels in
Europe that made him aware of
the liturgical movement spearheaded by Benedictine communities in France and Germany,
Father Virgil in April of 1926
published five thousand copies
of a booklet entitled Offeramus
which contained the Ordinary of
4
"The sixty or so monks and lay people
who staff The Press in its seventy-fifth
year currently publish five journals, two
seasonal Mass guides, a Sunday Bulletin
Series, and a steady flow of books,
compact discs, and CD-ROMs on the
liturgy, theology, monastic studies, and
Scripture. Its three imprints — The
Liturgical Press Books, Michael Glazier
Books, and Pueblo Books — provide its
pastoral readership with liturgical books
and parish ministry materials, and its
academic readership with textbooks and
commentaries on Scripture, theology,
and monastic studies, as well as reference
works for the seminary and college classroom and the library market.
"Today The Press's Celebrating the
Eucharist Mass Guide is used in some
six hundred parishes from Boston to San
Francisco . . . The Collegeville Bible
Commentary is the mainstay of Catholic
biblical study across and beyond the
nation . . . The Encyclopedia of
American Catholic History and similar
titles are significant, well-received
reference works. Oblates and others
interested in the Benedictine way of life
are familiar with RB 1980: The Rule of
St. Benedict in English and Latin, a new
translation of and commentary on the
Rule . . . The Press's edition of the
Sacramentary, the Lectionary for Mass,
and other official liturgical books are
recognized for their carefully wrought
design and serviceability . . . In publishing approximately seventy new titles each
year and in maintaining a quality backlist
of nearly a thousand titles and journal
publications, The Liturgical Press serves
the diverse Church community of the
People of God."
The booklet goes on to describe the
beginnings of The Liturgical Press in
1926 by Father Virgil and the subsequent
growth of The Press under the directorships of William Heidt, OSB (1949-78),
Daniel Durken, OSB (1978-88), and
Michael Naughton, OSB (1988-2001).
The final chapter considers the
challenges facing The Liturgical Press in
light of technological changes as The
Press "will remain rooted in its tradition
while being innovative in its product
development."
For a FREE copy of The Liturgical
Press 1926-2001: Seventy-Five Years of
Grace, please write to The Liturgical
Press, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321 or
call 1-800-858-5450. v
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
STRENGTHENING FOUNDATIONS
Planning the Abbey Guest House
by Geoffrey Fecht, OSB
T
he time-honored Rule of Saint
Benedict presupposes a Guest
House to be used by pilgrims and
prospective novices. Benedictine
monasteries have traditionally given
prominence to the monastic Guest
House in the architectural planning of
the monastery complex and in the daily
life of the community. With this in mind,
the Benedictine monks have been
welcoming individuals and groups to
Saint John’s since its foundation. In the
conviction that this work is central to our
monastic mission, we realize that we
must develop facilities, a Guest House,
which will allow people simply to live and
to pray among us, to walk in our woods,
and to break the rhythm of their ordinary
lives to share in ours.
Our community has been carefully
developing the program for this Guest
House since the late Jerome Theisen,
OSB, was abbot (1979-92). The vision of
a Guest House was close to his heart and
the project has advanced to its current
stage as a result of his inspiration. We are
confident that the time has come to move
ahead with fund-raising to make the Guest
House, along with a Blessed Sacrament
Chapel for the church, a reality.
The Guest House, located near the
shores of Lake Sagatagan between the
Abbey Church and Saint John’s
Preparatory School, will provide facilities
for housing and meals for guests, a space
for prayer, a library, an area for group
conferences and areas for individual conversations. At full capacity, its thirty guest
rooms and suites will accommodate
sixty-four guests.
In reflecting its monastic character of
simplicity, hospitality and prayer, the
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
setting and design of the Guest House
will be inviting and peaceful. It will be a
serene, hospitable, sacred place for
people of present and future generations
to contemplate their faith and their lives.
It will be a restful place where monastic
vocations, service to the local church, and
Christ-centered models of living are fostered. The Guest House will welcome all
who come to share the prayer life of the
monks of Saint John’s Abbey, regardless
of their faith or denomination. The Guest
House will allow people a place to retire
to for a spiritual, monastic-like respite or
retreat.
The time has now come for the abbey
to undertake the construction of the
Abbey Guest House and Blessed
Sacrament Chapel, both of which are
intended to serve the abbey, its schools
and parish, as well as the greater Saint
John’s community, through the extension
of Benedictine hospitality, offering others
the opportunity to witness and experi-
ence a little of the Benedictine
spirit of peace and prayer in a
surrounding of awesome beauty
and stillness.
It was in the late 1950s that the
abbey last undertook a capital
campaign. At that time the abbey
sought to raise funds for the
construction of the Abbey Church.
This church, an architectural
marvel, has served both the local
and broader communities well
since its completion forty years ago,
helping to spread the faith of our
Benedictine, Christian heritage to
our students and our many guests.
Nearly fifty years later, we embark
on another capital campaign rooted
in the same tradition and
conviction. It is our hope that all
our guests have in turn carried
these convictions with them to the
four corners of the earth. v
Tadao Ando was chosen by Saint John’s Abbey as the project architect.
His model of the Guest House shows two main wings that intersect.
photo by Alan Reed, OSB
5
COVER STORY
John Klassen,
OSB, Chosen
Tenth Abbot of
Saint John’s Abbey
Abbot John received
the shepherd’s staff (crosier)
at his abbatial blessing.
photo by Hugh Witzmann, OSB
by Daniel Durken, OSB
“O
ur tenth abbot doesn't have to be a
perfect Number Ten," remarked a
wise monk during one of the community discussions that preceded the
late November, 2000, abbatial election.
It is much too early to assign a number
to Saint John's new abbot, John Klassen,
OSB, who was chosen to succeed Abbot
Timothy Kelly, OSB, on November 24.
But Abbot John has already indicated
that he is more interested in ones than in
tens. In a Saint Cloud Visitor interview
he stated, "I plan to continue the ongoing
task of spiritual renewal and attention to
each monk's own spiritual growth and
development, meeting with individuals,
doing the kind of theological formation
that we need to grow as individual
monastics and as a community. Each
individual member is the lifeblood of the
monastery — we really need to pay attention to this."
Paying attention to Abbot John's own
development reveals that he is the
second oldest of the six sons and two
daughters of the deceased Paul and
Catherine (Wiechmann) Klassen. He is
the first abbot of Saint John's who can
claim to be no stranger to the fabled area
of Lake Wobegon. For he grew up on
6
his family's 440-acre dairy farm near the
Stearns County village of Elrosa, only 40
miles from Collegeville and even closer
to Father Emil's parish of Our Lady of
Perpetual Responsibility and to the
Chatterbox Cafe.
When John's father had to curtail his
activity due to the effects of rheumatic
fever, young John soon took the lead in
the daily work of the farm. Stretching
his legs to reach the pedals of a Ford
tractor when he was only six years old
undoubtedly contributed to the new
abbot's height of six-three.
Seasonal farm work meant missing a lot
of grade school days, but he acquired
practical, mechanical skills that dispelled
any fear of "looking under the hood," as
he puts it, to fix what is broken. Life on
the farm gave John a strong sense of
self-worth and confidence. He knew he
was making a contribution and that his
work was appreciated. He has an abiding respect for his rural roots as well as
for the strong faith and the good humor
of local folks.
At the age of 15 John came to
Collegeville to continue his education
through high school, college and
seminary. After his graduation from
college with a degree in chemistry he
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
COVER STORY
entered the monastic community, made
his initial commitment to the Benedictine
way of life in 1972 and was ordained a
priest in 1977.
By 1985 he had completed doctoral
requirements in organic chemistry at The
Catholic University of America with a
thesis that explored "The Steric Course
of the Allylic Rearrangement Catalyzed
by Beta-hydroxy decanoyl thioester
dehydrase." (Try saying that three times
in a row!) He has taught chemistry at
Saint John's Preparatory School and at
Saint John's University and the College
of Saint Benedict. He also directed the
university's senior seminar program and
the Peace Studies Program and served as
a faculty resident in student campus
housing.
From 1993-99 John worked in the area
of abbey administration as the director of
monastic formation, responsible for the
instruction and spiritual direction of the
abbey's novices and junior monks during
the first three years of their vowed
commitment to the monastic way of life.
For several years he co-directed with
Mary Helen Juettner, OSB, the
Benedictine Values program for the
university's lay faculty and staff. Last
summer he co-authored with Emmanuel
Renner, OSB, and Mary Reuter, OSB,
an 18-page essay on "Catholic
Benedictine Values in an Educational
Environment."
A series of community discussions on
the desired qualities of an abbot prepared the monks of Saint John's Abbey
to make their selection of the one who
would lead them into the new millennium with its challenges and opportunities.
They did so decisively on the morning of
November 24 when John received a substantial majority on the second ballot of
the election process. He immediately
assumed the leadership of more than 190
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
monks, taking comfort in the key word
“delegate,” and urging the community to
"Stay close so that together we can continue our wonderful journey to the God
who is within us."
The abbatial blessing was bestowed on
Abbot John by Bishop John Kinney
of the St. Cloud Diocese, on December
17, 2000, the Third Sunday of Advent.
That Sunday's gospel featured the
Advent activity of John the
Baptist, patron saint of
both the abbey and
the new abbot. Of
him it was said,
"Exhorting the
people in many
ways, John
preached good
news to the
people." v
"Stay close so
that together we
can continue our
wonderful journey
to the God who is
within us."
photo by Greg Becker
7
FEATURE
Experiencing the
Earthquake in El Salvador
by Dennis Beach, OSB
O
n January 13, I was sitting with a
group of 12 students from Saint
John’s University and the College of
Saint Benedict in the chapel of the
Hospitalito Divina Providencia in El
Salvador. Madre Rosa had just begun to
tell us of the life and death of
Archbishop Oscar Romero, who had
been gunned down while celebrating
Mass in this very chapel twenty years
earlier, when we heard the sound of
what most of us took to be a strong gust
of wind.
Saint John's and Saint Benedict's
students talk to residents amid
the rubble of houses in
Tecoluca, El Salvador.
Soon it became apparent that this was
no mere movement of air, but a violent
and prolonged shaking of the earth itself.
For fifty terrifying seconds the earth
shook and buckled, precipitating rock-
and landslides and leveling houses,
and sending virtually every
ambulatory Salvadoran running in
panic into the streets or into the
combination patio-chicken run
behind their crumbling adobe homes.
Except for Madre Rosa. And, as a
consequence, except for us. As the triangular chapel shuddered and pitched, with
pews jumping up and down and chandeliers swaying wildly in a din that arose
from the earth itself, Madre Rosa closed
her eyes and prayed, prayed for those
whose houses were falling about them at
that instant, prayed for those departing
this life for what can only be a better one
to come.
We watched her praying and, despite
the chaos and the fear, despite our hearts
pounding in our chests and our
hands clenching the heavy pews,
despite the apprehensive glances at
the ceiling beams and swinging
glass lamps above our heads, we
stayed put, stayed together, and
took some timid courage from this
quiet woman.
For myself, I thought at first that
this might be "just a tremor" since
Madre Rosa had just stayed calm
and seemed to wait it out. As the
shaking continued, I knew it was
larger, but how large I had no idea.
Miraculously, nothing around us
fell, and as we began to gather our
scattered wits, Madre Rosa praised
our faith which she said had kept
us calm and tranquilo through the
8
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
FEATURE
Madre Rosa spoke with the
group of students just moments
before the earthquake struck.
tumult. Most of us suspected that she was
inputing her own devout trust to us, but I
think we felt strangely soothed by this
unassuming woman telling us how
Monsignor Romero had preserved us
from harm.
What is more, because we hadn’t run
panicking out of the building (while that
may have been the prudent thing to do!)
but instead stayed huddled together,
clutching hands and trembling ourselves
in unison, we indeed did have the
comfort of one another’s presence, the
comfort of a certain togetherness in the
danger, a comfort anchored in Madre
Rosa’s faith and prayer.
Only gradually did the extent of the
quake’s damage become known to us,
with electricity and telephone service
knocked out for at least the next few
hours — longer in many places. Because
damages in San Salvador, the capital,
were not as severe as elsewhere, and the
radio first reported that the magnitude
was "only" 5.9 on the Richter Scale, the
sheer destruction of the earthquake
mercifully dawned on us little by little.
By late afternoon we were back in our little hotel, where one of the televisions
that survived brought to us the images
and reports of devastation that the rest of
the world began to see as well.
Later on, we toured towns that had
been virtually demolished, with forty
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
percent of the houses in
rubble and ninety percent
rendered uninhabitable. We
talked with people about
how they were coping, how
they were organizing
together to ascertain
emergency needs and channel the trickle of aid that only very slowly
began to arrive. Our own itinerary of
learning about the country’s slow
recovery from civil war was shaken up as
well, but this problem paled next to the
plight of the more than one million
victims or damnificados as they’re called
in Spanish.
What we did learn as
we made our way
through the remaining
two weeks of our stay,
jumping out of our
skins at the seemingly
incessant aftershocks
(which continue still as I
write this on February
2), is the resilience of
this beleaguered people,
their faith and
confidence in God,
their warmth and
friendliness even amid
this disaster that shook
the whole nation. True,
accusations that the government — either
federal or local — was manipulating aid
along political lines flew even as the tears
were falling, but our fundamental
experience was different: We were for a
time intimate witnesses of a national
heartache, privileged, in a strange way, to
share the pain and anxiety of those all
around us. And that moved me, moved us
all, even more than the earthquake had. v
Students view more
earthquake damage.
photos by Dennis Beach, OSB
9
FEATURE
Angelo Zankl, OSB,
Celebrates a Century
F
photo by
Hugh Witzmann, OSB
As unique as centenarians are
at Saint John's Abbey, they are
not that unique among our
sister monks of nearby Saint
Benedict's Monastery. The
oldest member of that
community is Constantine
Ringwelski, OSB, who was
one hundred years old last
February 24. Sophia Zimmer,
OSB, (1861-1969) was the first
monastic of Saint Benedict's
Monastery to reach the century
mark. At least five other
members of that community
reached one hundred before
they died. Three other
members will have one-hundred-year birthdays, God
willing, in 2001. So when a
Benedictine is wished the
traditional Ad multos annos!
("To many more years"), you
had better believe it!
(This information was provided
by Dolores Super, OSB.)
10
ather Angelo
Zankl, the senior
member of Saint
John's Abbey, will
come to the century
mark of his long and fruitful life on
April 19 when, God willing, he celebrates
his 100th birthday. He is the first monk
in the abbey's 145-year history to reach
this age.
Born in 1901 in the small town of
Almena in northwestern Wisconsin, our
celebrated centenarian came to
Collegeville in 1913 at the tender age of
twelve. The total yearly cost of tuition,
board and room, books and laundry at
that time was $250. Since his parents
could only afford half of that sum, the
young Zankl made up the rest by waiting
on tables in the student dining room and
working in the darkroom of the school's
own photo studio where he learned the
skills of photography that became his
life-long hobby. He recalls that he always
knew the film North Dakota students
submitted for developing because the
only things they photographed were
trees, not an abundant sight in their
windswept state.
Entering the abbey's novitiate in 1920
and receiving the monastic name of
Angelo, the young monk was once
admonished by the novice master, "You
have a penchant for a prompt and
profuse use of the perpendicular
pronoun 'I.'" After looking up those
words in the dictionary the neophyte
understood he had been introduced to
the monastic virtue of humility.
One of Angelo's daily duties was to
wheel one of the senior monks, Father
Cornelius Wittmann, back and forth
from his room to the chapel for Mass.
Cornelius was the last of the original
pioneer monks who had come to
Minnesota from Saint Vincent's
Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in
1856 to offer pastoral care to the
German immigrants of the area and to
establish monastic and academic life in
central
Minnesota.
Angelo is
therefore the
last living
link that
connects the
entire 145
years of the
abbey's
existence.
Ordained
to the priesthood in
1926 after
his
theological
studies at
Saint
Vincent's
Pontifical
Father Angelo’s 1926 ordination
Seminary,
Latrobe,
Pennsylvania, he studied art at Saint
Anselm's College, Manchester, New
Hampshire, and at Notre Dame
University. He taught dogmatic theology
in Saint John's Seminary and served as
the university's Dean of Men and the
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
FEATURE
Saint John’s Abbey and University
in 1912, the year before
Father Angelo’s arrival.
photos from abbey archives
abbey's first game warden to oversee the
flora and fauna of our 2500 acres of
forest and lakes. He designed the original
seal of the university and was the architect of the monastery's bathhouse on the
shore of Lake Sagatagan.
In 1951 Angelo was appointed pastor of
Saint Clement's Church in Duluth where
he spent the next sixteen years. He
considers this his most satisfying
assignment and recalls how he introduced the singing of Gregorian Chant,
first by the parish grade school children
and eventually by the whole parish —
much to the chagrin of the Senior Choir
which had until then enjoyed a musical
monopoly.
He then served as teacher and chaplain
at the former Corbett Junior College in
Crookston and as chaplain at
Assumption Home in Cold Spring. His
final active ministry was as chaplain to
the Benedictine women monastics of
Saint Scholastica Monastery in Duluth
for thirteen years. He settled into the
abbey's retirement center in 1987.
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
On his tidy desk in his monastic cell is
a well-worn copy of his favorite book,
Christ the Life of the Soul by Abbot
Columba Marmion, OSB, who was
declared "blessed" this past September.
He has read this book at least seven
times and gets more out of it each time.
"I believe that it is Christ who redeems
us," he says, "and that is why I am not just
hopeful but confident that I will go to
heaven when I die! I'm anxious to find
out what the next world is like."
The day after the blessing of
Abbot John Klassen the
following conversation was
overheard between Father
Angelo and a confrere:
When asked for one of the secrets of
his long life, Angelo quickly replied,
"I never eat sausage, not since I had a
tour of a meat packing plant and saw
what goes into that product!" Does he
have any regrets about the life he was
chosen to live? "Not at all!" he insists.
"I would do it all over again. I wouldn't
change a thing. These years have been
supremely satisfying." Angelo's calm and
cheerful disposition is proof of the truth
of his words. v
Confrere:
No, Father, I believe they said
yesterday at the blessing that
Abbot John is the tenth abbot of
Saint John's.
Father Angelo:
I was just looking back and
counting, and Abbot Timothy
Kelly was the sixth abbot and
Abbot John is now the seventh
abbot.
Father Angelo:
No, I wasn't here for the first
three abbots. I'm talking about
my abbots whom I have been
under since I came to Saint
John's Prep School in 1913.
11
FEATURE
Neal Lawrence, OSB
photo by William Skudlarek , OSB
Senior Monks Publish Poetry
by Hilary Thimmesh, OSB
K
eats wrote all of his best poems
in one astonishing year when he
was 24. Wordsworth turned out
volumes of mediocre verse
over a long lifetime after achieving
fame with his best work by the age of
35. Neither of these English
Romantics was a Benedictine monk,
however, as are Neal Lawrence, 93,
and Kilian McDonnell, 79, both of
whom have published books of poetry
— Kilian his first, Neal his fourth —
this year.
As if to explain their creativity in
their golden years Father Neal notes
the poetic atmosphere of monastic life
and Father Kilian in one of his finest
poems cites the example of Socrates,
who began composing poems while in
prison awaiting death. As Kilian puts
it in "Kilian Does Not Have Enough
To Do":
Not to while away the hours, but
to purify his soul eternal.
Conscience bade him write.
No explanation is needed for either
monk's poetry, and certainly no
apology. Both have the poet's craft
well in hand and write with the assur-
12
ance and vigor of artists at the top of
their form. If age lends a distinction to
their poems, it is the distinction of wide
experience and time-tested judgment.
Theirs are the voices of seers who have
tasted life and know how to savor both its
certainties and its ambiguities.
For Neal Henry Lawrence Blossoms in
Time is his fourth book of tanka, the
demanding 31-syllable Japanese form
that seeks to capture a single impression
and suggest a reflection on it in five lines
counting 5-7-5-7-7 syllables respectively.
This is a form that requires verbal
economy, rewards understatement, and
disappoints if it fails to achieve a sense of
closure or completeness. If successful it
lingers in the mind and in the heart.
Some examples will show how deftly
Neal manages this structure. The first
selection is newly published.
At ninety I sat
Watching the children at play
Making a snowman.
How many did I fashion?
One each year lasting like dreams.
The following poem first appeared
in Rushing Amid Tears and is
included in Blossoms.
From an olive tree
Minute blossoms in the sun
Falling like snow leaves —
At night beneath such a tree
Christ must have prayed, deep
in pain.
An old man and children, a snowman and dreams, blossoms in the
sun and pain in the night. An eye
for such contrasts, skill in drawing a
picture or a mood with no waste of
words, an awareness of human and
spiritual depth cultivated over a long
lifetime are this poet's hallmarks and
make his tanka elegant and eloquent
in his new work as in his old.
By comparison many of Kilian
McDonnell's best poems in Adam
on the Lam have a downright sassy
air. Take Abram reacting to
Yahweh's order to pull up stakes and
move to a strange land in "The Call
of Abraham":
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
FEATURE
photo by Hugh Witzmann, OSB
The Venus de Milo
has no arms,
the Liberty Bell is
cracked.
At seventy-five
am I supposed to scuttle
my life . . .
Or the author objecting to God's
ambiguous guidance in "Must You
Mumble?"
Now, how about a straight
word? . . .
No more Ezekiel prophecies,
wheels within wheels.
Or in perhaps his most finished poem,
"Perfection, Perfection."
I have had it with perfection.
I have packed my bags,
I am out of here.
Gone.
This is the first stanza. There are seven
more. The last two are a model of
dispatch that could not be done better,
the monosyllabic fourth line paying off in
spades at the end:
Hints I could have taken:
even the perfect chiseled form of
Michelangelo's radiant David
squints.
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
Kilian has other moods, of course,
though this tone of comic exasperation,
plain speaking triumphant over
ideology and protocol, is his best and
most convincing. Many of his poems key
off Sacred Scripture: prophets, psalms,
Jesus as apprentice carpenter, Mary
Magdalen as disregarded apostle. A few
reflect on tragic events in the modern
world in a deeply serious tone.
In all of these poems the voice is
constant and sophisticated, the form
easily and delightfully varied. Most of
them are stanzaic. The wedding of
speech rhythms and sounds comes
off with no false notes. There are
some intricate patterns nicely
designed to bring content into highresolution focus without getting in
the way. With easy
management of form goes an
unabashed vocabulary that is pure
American: Augustine's pears ("They
were lousy pears"), the monks of
Saint John's ("shepherding the
saints is like herding cats").
In an edition of five hundred
copies the book was published by
Jim and Dorothy Blommer, Park
Press Quality Printing, Waite Park,
Minnesota, as their fifth Christmas
book. Front and back cover
photos by Francis Hoefgen, OSB,
complement the poems, many
of which first appeared singly in
various periodicals. Aside from
lacking a table of contents
listing the 29 poems by page
number, the edition can be
faulted only for being far too
limited. The next, enlarged
edition, should be made available to readers everywhere.
Father Neal’s book may be
obtained from the Saint John’s
Bookstore. The price is
$11.95. Father Kilian’s text is
not currently available to the
general public. v
Kilian McDonnell, OSB
13
FEATURE
Mary Stamps,
first Methodist monk
The First
Methodist Monk
photo by Hugh Witzmann, OSB
by Daniel Durken, OSB
E
cumenical history was
made at Collegeville on
February 1, 2001, when
Mary Ewing Stamps, a
member of the United Methodist
Church, made her final monastic
profession in the abbey church
during a ceremony which included representatives of her church,
the Benedictine monks of Saint
John’s Abbey and of Saint
Benedict’s Monastery, St.
Joseph, Minnesota, and friends.
Mary Stamps, 41, grew up in
Florida where her father worked
as an engineer at the Kennedy
Space Center. She graduated
from Brenau Women’s College,
Gainesville, Georgia, with the
B.A. degree in Studio Art and
from Candler School of
Theology, Atlanta, with the
Master of Divinity degree. It was
during her studies at Candler that
she first encountered Saint
Benedict in an introductory
church history course taught by
Roberta Bondi, an Oblate of
Saint Benedict’s Monastery, St.
Joseph. Her interest in monasticism came to life when, at the
urging of Don Saliers (an Oblate
of Saint John’s Abbey), she read
Esther deWaal’s book, Seeking
14
God: The Way of Saint Benedict,
published by The Liturgical Press.
Unbeknown to Mary, the United
Methodist Church at this same time had
begun its own monastic journey. At this
church’s General Conference of 1984 a
resolution to explore monasticism out of
an ecumenical context was passed by the
assembly. The Upper Room Ministry,
an agency of the United Methodist
Church, was given the task of implementing the resolution, and a Monastic
Design Team was formed. As the Spirit
would have it, Timothy Kelly, O.S.B.,
then director of formation at Saint John’s
Abbey as well as an adjunct faculty member of the United Methodist Church’s
Academy for Spiritual Formation, was
invited to be a member of that Monastic
Design Committee.
The two parallel tracks of Mary’s
personal spiritual pursuit and that of the
United Methodist Church’s interest in
the monastic tradition began to coalesce
when Mary came to Saint John’s
University to do the first year of her
doctoral work in monastic studies. It was
then that she met Father Timothy and
first learned of her own church’s interest
in monasticism.
Upon completion of her doctorate in
1991, Mary, another United Methodist,
two Episcopalians and three Benedictine
women monastics of Saint Benedict’s
Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota, began
a one-year ecumenical monastic experiment in nearby Albany. She then lived
for two years as a "sojourner" with the
Benedictine Sisters in Clyde, Missouri.
After three more years of working at her
undergraduate alma mater, she returned
to the Collegeville area in 1997 to seek
the fulfillment of her desire to live the
monastic life.
Saint John’s Abbey supported Mary’s
intention by offering her the use of a
newly acquired house just a mile from
the abbey. In October 1999, Mary took
up residence in what henceforth has
come to be known as Saint Brigid of
Kildare Monastery. The United
Methodist Bishop of Minnesota, Bishop
Hopkins, was present for the dedication
of the new monastery.
Mary’s profession of and commitment
to the monastic way of life was made, not
to Saint John’s Abbey, but to the United
Methodist Church. She is the pioneer
for her church in this program for
monasticism within that denomination.
She continues her ecumenical and
monastic adventure with her work at the
Episcopal House of Prayer on the
property of Saint John’s Abbey. v
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
41
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THE MONKS OF SAINT JOHN’S ABBEY
November 24, 2000
1. Abbot John Klassen
2. Abbot Timothy Kelly
3. Abbot John Eidenschink
4. Abbot Melvin Valvano
5. Peter Habenczius
6. John Hanson
7. Xavier Schermerhorn
8. Jared Rand
9. Nicholas Thelen
10. David Cotter
11. Kevin Adams
12. Isidore Glyer
13. Bradley Jenniges
14. Cletus Connors
15. Dominic Ruiz
16. Paul-Vincent Niebauer
17. Michael Kwatera
18. Paul Jasmer
19. Simon-Hoa Phan
20. Francisco Schulte
21. Michael Bik
22. Linus Ascheman
23. Julius Beckermann
24. Jonathan Licari
25. Leonard Chmelik
26. Jason Kudrna
27. Paul Fitt
28. Roman Paur
29. Allan Bouley
30. Herard Jean-Noel
31. Francis Hoefgen
32. Michael Naughton
33. Henry Bryan Hays
34. Peter Kawamura
35. Raymond Pedrizetti
36. Roger Klassen
37. Thomas Gillespie
38. James Reichert
39. Kevin Ludowese
40. Geoffrey Fecht
41. Gregory Miller
42. Gregory Eibensteiner
43. Alberic Culhane
44. Roger Kasprick
45. Andrew Goltz
46. Aaron Raverty
47. Robert Wieber
48. Gregory Sebastian
49. Simon Bischof
50. Dunstan Moorse
51. Roger Botz
52. Barnabas Laubach
53. James Tingerthal
54. William Skudlarek
55. Thomas Andert
56. Richard Oliver
57. Corwin Collins
58. Virgil O’Neill
59. Patrick Sullivan
60. Hugh Witzmann
61. Daniel Durken
62. Alan Reed
63. Otto Thole
64. Julian Schmiesing
65. Arnold Weber
66. Raphael Olson
67. Burton Bloms
68. Kilian McDonnell
69. Mark Kelly
70. Mathias Spier
71. Frank Kacmarcik
72. Luke Steiner
73. Florian Muggli
74. Hilary Thimmesh
75. Stanley Roche
76. Vincent Tegeder
77. Luke Mancuso
78. John Kulas
79. Melchior Freund
80. Martin Rath
81. Eugene McGlothlin
82. John-Bede Pauley
83. Bartholomew Sayles
84. Kenneth Kroeker
85. David Rothstein
86. Donald Tauscher
87. Columba Stewart
88. Thomas Thole
89. Cyprian Seitz
90. John Kelly
91. Douglas Mullin
92. Michael Laux
93. Blane Wasnie
94. Urban Pieper
95. Finian McDonald
96. Meinrad Dindorf
97. Mark Thamert
98. Magnus Wenninger
99. John Patrick McDarby
100. Rene McGraw
101. Chrysostom Kim
102. Don Talafous
103. Damian Rogers
104. Isaac Connolly
105. Jerome Coller
106. Paul Richards
107. George Primus
108. Aelred Tegels
109. Stephen Beauclair
110. Ian Dommer
111. Jonathan Fischer
112. Wilfred Theisen
113. Kelly Ryan
114. Knute Anderson
115. John Patrick Earls
116. Donald LeMay
117. Dennis Beach
118. Allen Tarlton
119. Philip Kaufman
120. Luke Dowal
121. Richard Eckroth
122. Jeffrey Hutson
123. Cyril Gorman
124. Joel Kelly
125. David Manahan
126. Gordon Tavis
127. Landelin Robling
128. Gerard Jacobitz
129. Brennan Maiers
130. Simeon Thole
131. Francis Peters
132. Daniel Ward
133. Matthew Luft
134. Robert Koopmann
135. William Schipper
136. Walter Kieffer
137. Christopher Fair
138. Athanase Fuchs
139. Eric Hollas
140. Anthony Ruff
141. Nicholas Doub
142. David Klingeman
143. Joseph Feders
144. James Phillips
145. Neal Laloo
146. Robin Pierzina
147. Kevin Seasoltz
148. David Paul Lange
149. Dietrich Reinhart
150. Nathanael Hauser
151. John Brudney
152. Zachary Wilberding
153. Robert Pierson
154. Michael Patella
155. Benedict Leuthner
156. Dale Launderville
MONKS NOT PICTURED:
Angelo Zankl, Berthold Ricker, Godfrey Diekmann,
Cosmas Dahlheimer, Burkard Arnheiter, Aloysius Michels,
Gregory Soukup, Mark Schneider, Alto Butkowski,
William Borgerding, Benedict Nordick, George Wolf,
Henry Anderl, Omer Maus, Fintan Bromenshenkel,
Gervase Soukup, John Anderl, Edwin Stueber, Paul Marx,
Virgil O’Neill, Silvan Bromenshenkel, Gunther Rolfson,
Vernon Miller, Stephen Wagman, Gall Fell,
Placid Stuckenschneider, Samuel Lickteig, Thomas Wahl,
Andre Bennett, Kieran Nolan, Neal Lawrence, Mel Taylor,
Alexander Andrews, Cyprian Weaver, Nathan Libaire,
Luigi Bertocchi, Edward Vebelun, Paul Makoto Tada
photo by Dianne Towalski, St. Cloud Visitor
FEATURE
An Exhibit of
Forty Bronze Sculptures
H
Gutman, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
He has received grants that allowed
him to study art, architecture and
art history in the United States,
Europe and the Middle East.
His exhibitions range from the
1965 World’s Fair in New York
City, where he presented an
award-winning "Madonna
of the Gospels," to
Colorado, Minnesota and
Washington, D.C.
ugh Witzmann, OSB,
sculptor-in-residence
at Saint John’s
University,
exhibited forty of his cast
bronze sculptures based on
biblical and religious themes
at the Saint John’s Art
Center and Target Gallery
from November, 2000, to
January, 2001.
Father Hugh, a monk and priest of
Saint John’s Abbey, received his Master
of Fine Arts degree
from the University
of Colorado,
Boulder, in 1963.
He taught studio art
and art history
courses to
Collegeville undergraduates until his
retirement from the art
department in 1997.
He has traveled extensively and studied with
master sculptor Elmar
Hillebrand, Cologne,
Germany, and with art
historian Joseph
Reflecting on his chosen medium
of artistic creativity, Hugh states, "For
me, bronze is a metaphor of
qualities I find in monastic living —
simplicity, honesty and a humane
beauty purified by fire."
Shown here are his bronze sculptures
of Moses (left), Job (right) and Saint
Benedict (above). v
photos by
Hugh Witzmann, OSB
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
15
VOCATION NEWS
If You Feel
That God Is
Calling You,
Consider
Yourself Invited!
by Joseph Feders, OSB
W
hen I give vocation
talks at schools and
in parishes, one of the
most frequently asked
questions is, "How do you know
that God is calling you to the
religious life or the priesthood?"
It’s an important question, and
my usual response dispels any
notions of burning bushes or
angelic voices. When I think
back on my own experience, I
know that God spoke to me in
two down-to-earth ways.
The second way in which God spoke to
me was through my heart. During my
frequent visits to the abbey before
entering as a candidate eight years ago,
my heart was telling me that this is the
place where God was calling me to live
my Christian life. The feeling that this
way of life "seems right for me" and the
sense of peace I felt during my visits to
the monastery were confirmed during my
times of prayer. Once I felt God tugging
at my heart, there was no way that I
could respond otherwise.
So what about you? If you have a
desire to seek God in community, are a
single Catholic male between the ages of
First, God spoke to me through 23 and 40, a high school graduate, and
have some further training, education or
others. A longtime friend, Bill
work history, you may be a potential canClarey, a Christian Brother, who
didate for Saint John’s Abbey. In addiwas then the Director of
Counseling and Career Services at tion to these minimum requirements,
you can ask yourself if you possess the
Saint John’s University, first
suggested that I ought to consider skills for . . .
a vocation to Saint John’s Abbey.
• Living and developing your Catholic
Once I expressed my interest to
faith
my family and friends, they fur• Living celibately in community
ther encouraged me by saying that
• Living in mutual obedience
they could see me in religious life.
• Living a life of simplicity, humility and
Other important voices included
stability
my spiritual director, and the
• Being intellectually curious
abbey’s vocation director, the late
• Contributing to the work of the
Paul Schwietz, OSB.
community
16
• Maintaining physical and emotional
well-being
If you possess these skills and want to
learn more, please contact me at Saint
John’s, and I will happily speak with you
about our life and/or send you some
information. If you’re not ready to
contact me, visit our web page at
www.saintjohnsabbey.org.
Once you’re ready to take the next step,
there are many opportunities to explore
our life. Almost every month, the vocation team schedules a Monastic Explorer
Week when first-time visitors pray, work,
eat and socialize with the monks. In
addition to these weeks, each summer
(June 16 to July 13 this year) the abbey
offers an extended Monastic Experience
program for men between the ages of 18
and 32.
If my words have tugged at something
in your heart, maybe God is calling you
to consider a monastic vocation. If that’s
the case, consider yourself invited! Or,
you may know of someone who fits the
above profile. If that’s the case, let that
young man know that God is speaking
through you! v
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
ABBEY MISSIONS
The monks of Holy Trinity
Benedictine Monastery, Fujimi, Japan
l. to r. Paul Tada, Nicholas Thelen,
William Skudlarek, Kieran Nolan,
Prior Peter Kawamura, Aloysius Michels,
Thomas Wahl, Neal Lawrence, Edward Vebelun
Japan Community
Marks Second
Anniversary of Move
photo by Columba Stewart, OSB
by William Skudlarek, OSB
O
n May 25th the nine members
of Japan's Holy Trinity
Benedictine Monastery will
mark the second anniversary of
their move from Tokyo's Meguro Ward,
where they served Saint Anselm's Parish,
to a newly constructed monastery in
Fujimi, a small town in the foothills of a
central Japan mountain range.
After fifty years of parish ministry in the
metropolis of Tokyo, moving to a
"Wobegonic" town has meant a radical
change in living out our monastic
vocation. We believe that a monastic life
focused on the reverent and beautiful
celebration of common worship, on
lectio divina and meditation, and on a
common life and hospitality would be an
effective witness of the Gospel to both
the Christians and non-Christians of
Japan.
Christianity is highly respected in Japan
for its charitable and educational works,
but it is less appreciated for its rich
spiritual tradition. The subordination of
the "contemplative" to the "active"
expression of Christianity in Japan may
be one of the reasons only a little more
than one percent of the population have
been baptized.
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
Our decision to change from a more
outwardly involved to a more inwardly
directed form of monastic life was born
out of our desire to offer the Japanese
people a clear manifestation of the
spiritual face of Christianity. We hope
that some may feel drawn to become a
part of a believing community that
worships the God revealed in Jesus
Christ and out of that deeply religious
motivation reaches out in loving service
to those in need.
We therefore decided that our daily
schedule would revolve around our
times of communal prayer. We begin
our day at 6:30 with the Office of
Readings. We return to the oratory at
8:00 for Morning Prayer (Lauds),
followed by a brief meeting during which
the appointed passage from the Rule of
Benedict is read and matters of common
concern are announced and discussed.
The remainder of the morning is
devoted to work and study.
Our celebration of the Eucharist is at
noon, and sisters from a nearby
convent and local Catholic laity often join
us. We pray the Day Hour at 2:30 and
then have the remainder of the afternoon
for individual activities. Sung Vespers
are at 6:00 and the day comes to a close
with Compline at 8:30.
We also decided that, to the
degree possible, we would do all
our own cooking and take care of
the normal maintenance of our
buildings and grounds. We want to
reduce costs, but we also want to
put into practice the wisdom of
Benedict who teaches that service
in the kitchen "increases reward and
fosters love" (RB 35,2). Our guests
appreciate the fact that the monks
whom they join in prayer are the
same people who prepare and
serve their meals.
Two years is just a beginning, but
there are hopeful signs for the
future. About ten men have
expressed an interest in the
monastic life and have visited us,
some having learned about us
through our website. In January we
welcomed our first candidate. We
hope and pray more will follow.
Given the small number of
Catholics — and the relatively large
number of dioceses and religious
orders — in Japan, Holy Trinity will
probably continue to be a small
monastery. But we hope that with
God's blessing and our generous
and faithful response to his grace it
will become a creditable witness
to the light of the Gospel in this
Land of the Rising Sun. v
17
ABBEY MISSIONS
l. to r., Fintan Bromenshenkel,
George Wolf, and Prior Mel Taylor
It’s Better
in the Bahamas!
by Daniel Durken, OSB
T
hat’s what they tell the tourists who
come to the Isles of June seeking
warm sun and white sand. But it
could have been a little better in the
Bahamas in January when the early
morning and late evening temperatures
shivered in the mid-40's for several days.
The three core members of Saint
Augustine’s Monastery in the Fox Hill
suburb of Nassau have long since
become acclimatized to the lows and
highs of their Bahamian home.
Prior Mel does the grocery and supply
shopping, serves as guestmaster for the
occasional visitor, celebrates Mass four
times a week with various groups of students of Saint Augustine’s College, does
weekend pastoral ministry on one of the
Family Islands of the Bahamas such as
San Salvador, Cat Island, or Harbour
Island, and tends to other assorted daily
duties and demands.
Father George, who has spent all 56
years of his priesthood in the Bahamas,
is the assistant plant manager of the
school, makes the daily trip to the
downtown post office and bank, and
spends each weekend as the pastor of
Saint Therese’s Church on the island
of Exuma.
18
Father Fintan oversees the school’s
computer operations, is the celebrant and
homilist for each Sunday’s well attended
Mass in the monastery chapel, and gets
his daily exercise by weeding the school’s
athletic track.
The monastery supports and sponsors
the 7th-12th-grades school with an enrollment of 940 boys and girls. The prestige
and popularity of Saint Augustine’s
College are evidenced by the 530
students who took the January entrance
exam for the fall of 2001 in the hope of
winning one of the 180 available
openings. The boys’ senior varsity
basketball team once again won the
Bahamian national championship, a
tradition that has created very crowded
trophy cases in the foyer of the school’s
administration building.
Abbot John and Brother Benedict
Leuthner, OSB, Saint John’s corporate
treasurer, visited Saint Augustine’s in
mid-March to continue the dialog with
school and archdiocesan leaders over the
future of the monastery and school. v
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
BANNER BITS
The abbey’s newest members:
l. to r. Brothers Jared,
Christopher and Xavier.
Three Novices Make
First Profession of Vows
by Alberic Culhane, OSB
T
hree Benedictine novices with
widely diverse and successful
experiences in former secular pursuits
made their initial public commitment to
the monastic way of life at Saint John’s
Abbey last September 14, the Feast of
the Holy Cross. They are: Brothers
Jared Rand, Christopher Fair and Xavier
Schermerhorn. Along with families,
confreres and friends, the three men
participated in the traditional ritual of
monastic profession followed by a festive
dinner in the abbey’s refectory.
Jared (Richard)
Rand, OSB
Life in community, with varying
challenges,
rewards and locations, has been a
consistent experience for Brother
Jared who was
born in
Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1971, the
eldest of four children. He has lived on
both of the country’s coasts and in a
number of central states.
"When I was in high school," he
observes, "I attended a junior boarding
school run by the Oblates of Mary
Immaculate. There 200 teenage boys
shared daily meals and morning and
evening prayer. By my senior year only
28 students remained in my class. Living
in such a small group setting taught me
that community life has its demands as
well as its rewards."
After high school graduation he twice
enrolled in college courses, dropping
each for a stint in a hardware store
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
before joining
the United
States Army
in 1992.
About this
experience he
commented,
"Basic training was
another communal experience for me,
although it
lacked the
fun of my high school years.
I learned to work with other persons to
achieve a common goal. Through such
teamwork we realized the importance of
supporting each other, especially through
stressful times."
After basic training he was sent to Fort
Benning, Georgia, to complete airborne
training. "If anyone wants to know what it
is like to jump out of a plane, I can only
say they will have to experience it for
themselves. I was too busy being scared
to remember much of what happened."
Later he became a medical specialist,
moved on to Fort Ord, California, and
worked in the flight surgeon’s clinic
where he began to consider a religious
vocation. "I visited a few religious orders,
including the Trappists at Saint
Benedict’s Abbey in Snowmass,
Colorado. I became aware of
Saint John’s Abbey through a
Vision magazine article, and I
decided to arrange a visit. I was
very impressed after that visit
and stopped looking at other
religious groups."
Between 1994-99, he continued the vocation process while
photo by Robin Pierzina, OSB
working in a Catholic elementary
school in San Antonio, Texas,
where he was a substitute teacher,
an after-school care manager, and
an assistant physical education
coach. He judges that "this job was
the most rewarding one I have yet
had."
Richard became a monastic candidate in the summer of 1999 and was
given the name Jared as a novice in
September of that same year. Since
his first profession of vows this past
September he is completing his
undergraduate studies in humanities,
enjoys recreational running, discursive reading and drawing.
Christopher (Jon)
Fair, OSB
Born in Omaha,
Nebraska in 1969,
Brother Christopher
is the youngest of the
six children in his
family. Until his
grade school years,
he was raised on an
19
BANNER BITS
acreage outside Ashland,
Nebraska. When the Fair family
moved to Omaha, he attended
Christ the King Grade School,
graduated from Archbishop
Daniel J. Gross High School, and
studied architecture and
engineering at the Lincoln
and Omaha campuses of the
University of Nebraska.
During those years he was
an active member of the
Knights of Columbus Squires
Council and served as a state
officer for two years. Later he
became a third-degree member of the Knights with the
Belleville, Kansas, council.
Before moving to western
Nebraska and Kansas he worked
as an inventory supervisor for a
heating and air conditioning
company in Omaha. He then
spent nearly eight years working
in the custom cattle operations,
about which he wryly remarks,
"I’ve spent sufficient time at both
the business and the duty ends of
a cow."
Although he has written scores
of poems and enjoys photography, writing short stories, model
railroading and other hobbies,
Christopher’s most developed
skills and talents find expression
in manual labor. Relying on his
varied work experiences, he can
fabricate and weld metal, do job
related construction, operate
large trucks and heavy equipment, repair grain elevators and
treat sick animals.
In the summer of 1998, he
participated in the abbey’s
Monastic Experience Program
and entered the novitiate in 1999.
During his novitiate year of
prayer and study he used his free
time for creative projects in the
woodworking shop and on a
20
special bookbinding project for the
formation program library. Currently
Christopher is continuing his monastic
formation studies and works both at the
woodworking shop and in the book
bindery of the university’s Alcuin
Library.
Xavier (David)
Schermerhorn, OSB
Brother Xavier, at 41
the oldest of this trio,
recalls some happy
days growing up on the
banks of the Saint
Lawrence River at
Hammond, New York.
His older sister and he
often swam in and
boated on that storied river when his parents ran a boat marina.
After graduating from high school and
unsure of what he wanted to do, he
worked at a Watertown, New York, bank
as a teller for four years before getting an
associate degree in liberal arts at the local
community college. Transferring to
Platsburgh State University of New York,
he then earned the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in elementary education. A teaching job
at Northwest Catholic School in Pascoag,
Rhode Island, occupied his interest for
some years before he moved "out West."
He traveled to Colorado because of an
interest in learning estate planning. In
Denver he supervised the housekeeping
staff of a four-star hotel and also served in
a variety of liturgical ministries at the
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
At the cathedral he came to know a
Benedictine monk from Saint Vincent’s
Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, who
was on home leave and was the church’s
organist. He interested David in
Benedictine life and encouraged him to
contact Saint John’s Abbey.
Following a number of extended visits
to the abbey, David was accepted into the
novitiate in 1999. He underlines that he
has "been engaged in many activities,
lived in many places, but nothing has
been as fully satisfying until my life here."
Since making his first profession of
vows Xavier continues the monastic
formation program and spends his work
time as a nursing assistant in Saint
Raphael’s Retirement Center and as the
assistant sacristan. In his free time he
enjoys walks in the woods, reading
mystery stories, swimming, music and
theater productions. v
A Novice
Begins
Monastic
Life
O
n September
10, 2000, the monastic community
welcomed Brother Matthew (Dennis)
Luft, 28, as a novice. He is the son of
Deacon Dennis and Sarah Luft of Adel,
Iowa, and has two older sisters and three
younger brothers. He credits his parents,
who work together as Family Life
Ministers of the Des Moines Diocese,
with helping to form his fundamental
values and beliefs.
After graduating from Saint John’s
University in 1996, Dennis enrolled in
Saint John’s School of Theology/
Seminary as a priesthood candidate for
the Des Moines Diocese. A year later
he transferred to The Catholic University
of America where he studied theology
for two years. After a requested twoyear leave of absence from these studies
during which time he taught in an elementary school in Arizona he decided to
return to Saint John’s to seek entrance
into the monastic community.
As a novice Matthew lives the full
monastic schedule of worship and work
while studying the Rule of Saint Benedict
and other topics related to his future
commitment as a monk. v
Individual photos by David Manahan, OSB
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
BANNER BITS
Obituaries
BENJAMIN STEIN, OSB
1910 - 2000
T
he ninety fruitful years of Father
Benjamin, which came to a peaceful
close on November 27, 2000, might be
summed up with two words:
books and bait.
Two days after his first
profession of monastic vows he
began to work in the library
of Saint John's University.
There he maintained the focus of
his service to the
community for
the next halfcentury. One of
the highlights of
his years as
director of the
library was his
chairmanship of
the building
committee which guided
the renowned architect
Marcel Breuer in the
award-winning design
and construction of the
Alcuin Library.
Years later a library
meeting space was named the Father
Benjamin Stein Conference Room. In
accepting the commemorative plaque he
remarked, with a typical twinkle in his
eye, "When you get tired of calling it the
Father Benjamin Stein Staff Conference
Room, you can just call it 'The B.S.
Room.'"
Moving from the quiet of the Alcuin
Library to the stillness of Lake
Sagatagan, Benjamin took his place in
Saint John's fraternity of famed
fishermen. He knew exactly where to
look for fish and what bait to use to catch
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
them. He
always shared
his captured
crappies,
sunfish, bass
and northerns
with the
library staff and the monastic
community.
Upon his retirement from the
library at the age of 71 he
volunteered for service at
Saint Augustine's Monastery
in Nassau, Bahamas. There
he worked as guest master,
librarian, archivist, and
weekend pastoral assistant.
He took special joy in his
ministry to almost all of the
mission churches of the
so-called Family Islands of
the Bahamian chain. He
added these parishes to his list
of the more than 120 out of the
145 churches of the Diocese of
Saint Cloud which he served on
weekends during the 64 years
of his priesthood.
In his funeral homily Abbot
John gratefully acknowledged
that Father Benjamin was
"blessed with great energy, a mixture of
gentleness and kindness with directness
and sometimes feistiness. His sense of
humor was quick and there was a conspicuous twinkle in his eye."
May he rest in peace!
ELMER CICHY, OSB
1915 - 2001
I
t has become a tradition after the
funeral of a Saint John’s monk to
display an assortment of unique items
associated with the deceased confrere.
The memorabilia of Brother Elmer, who
photos from abbey archives
died January 4, 2001, included the
following: a pair of faded red suspenders; a black back-support belt;
a bottle of odor-controlled garlic
pills; a 32-ounce bottle of Gatorade;
a supply of Relax-O-Zyme pills (a
dietary ingredient to nutritionally
support nervous system functions);
a container of Maxilife capsules
(Anti-oxidant Rich Multi-Vitamins
and Mineral Formula); a letter scale
and two rolls of 22- and 23-cent
stamps; and the 1999 National
Five-Digit ZIP Code and Post
Office Directory.
The plethora of pills testify to
Elmer’s lifelong effort to find the
formula that would restore his
fragile health. Hospitalized almost
60 times for respiratory ailments
before finally settling into the
abbey’s health center in 1988, he
nevertheless did not use his
ailments as an excuse for idleness.
For seventy years he served the
community in a variety of assignments: gardener, tailor, carpenter,
nursing aide, sacristan, secretary,
office manager of The Liturgical
Press, night watchman, farm hand,
and pastoral assistant.
Elmer’s hospitality as an ad hoc
guest master is captured in the story
of the time Al Quie, friend and
former governor of Minnesota,
called Elmer late one night to ask
for a room at the abbey so he
21
BANNER BITS
In 1954, Brother Elmer carried a
newborn calf at St. Mary’s Mission,
Redlake, Minnesota.
drawing by Placid Stuckenschneider, OSB
would not have to drive home in
a snowstorm. Elmer gave his
friend his own bed while he slept
on the floor. After his death, letters
of condolence from Francis
Cardinal Arinze of Vatican City and
Jaime Cardinal Sin of Manila,
Philippines, testify to his extensive
correspondence.
The letter scale, stamps and post
office directory in the above list
were his instruments of the good
work of forwarding the mail to
absent brethren, a task he conscientiously fulfilled during the final
twelve years of his life. His serious
search for zip codes was accompanied by his zipping along cloister
corridors in an electric-powered
cart with the privilege of eminent
right-of-way during his appointed
rounds.
In his funeral homily Abbot John
concluded his reflections on the life
of Brother Elmer:
"He had a deep devotion to the
Blessed Virgin Mary and to the
Holy Family. The story is told that
when he was helping Father
Ignatius Candrian at the Native
American mission outside Cloquet,
22
Minnesota, he dyed all of
Father’s underwear blue in
honor of Mary. Father
Ignatius, needless to say,
was not amused! It is one of
those stories that, if not
true, should be true. With
grateful hearts for Brother
Elmer’s life in our midst, 70
years of service, 70 years of
seeking and trusting in
God’s mercies that are new
every morning, we are confident that he now dwells in
a building from God, a
house not made with hands
but eternal in the heavens."
May he rest in peace! v
NOTE: For the memorial brochures of
Benjamin Stein and Elmer Cichy and their
complete funeral homilies by Abbot John
Klassen, please send a self-addressed,
stamped, business-sized envelope to: Abbey
Archives, Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville,
Minnesota 56321.
Remember our brothers and sisters
who have gone to their rest:
Leon Nolette, Oblate, January 6
Marcellus Schneider, Oblate,
January 9
Loretta and Gordon Millette,
former employees of Saint John’s,
December 31 and January 27
Mary Hagerman, Oblate,
January 27
Augusta Skochinski, OSB,
Monastery of Saint Benedict,
February 24
Hironimus Gu, father of visiting
student monk, Pranci Gale-Ea,
OCSO, February 24
Cordella Goertel, OSB, Monastery
of Saint Benedict, February 28
Catherine Klassen, mother of
Abbot John, March 26
Abbot
Timothy
Enjoys
Sabbatical
U
nlike old soldiers who, according to
General Douglas MacArthur, "just
fade away," former Abbot Timothy Kelly
has only gone away for a while to enjoy a
well-earned sabbatical. Shortly after the
election of his successor, Timothy took
up temporary residence at Saint
Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Illinois, twenty
miles from Chicago.
Settling into a monastic cell that
includes a new recliner, he takes
part in the public prayer and meals of
this 54-member Benedictine community.
He reports, "I haven't had this much time
to read and write in years." He is
working on a presentation to establish the
relationship of art, sacraments and
lectio (sacred reading) which he will give
in June at Mount Saviour Benedictine
community in Elmira, New York. Taking
advantage of the historical and cultural
treasures of Chicago he has visited
exhibits that included a dinosaur, Russian
gold and Chinese art.
During the first three weeks of March
he was in Rome for an executive
committee meeting of the Benedictine
Commission on China. He traveled with
confrere Luigi Bertocchi, OSB, to
Venice, stopped in Berlin, and paid his
ancestral respects during a brief stay in
Ireland. v
Bring them and all the departed
into the light of your presence,
O Lord.
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
BANNER BITS
Dietrich Reinhart, OSB,
Receives the
Saint Gregory Award
B
rother Dietrich, president of Saint
John’s University, received the
Saint Gregory Award at a presentation
by the Saint John’s Boys’ Choir at the
annual Saint Cecilia Concert on
November 19, 2000.
The accompanying citation applauded
Dietrich for his "energetic leadership and
expansive heart" and recognized him as a
"champion of the fine arts, encouraging
and supporting programs that provide
cultural education and entertainment
while nurturing the God-given creative
gifts of young people and advocating the
pursuit of the intellectual life."
In his response Dietrich reminisced:
"I remember watching Brother Paul
(Richards, OSB), founder and director of
the Boys’ Choir, take up this great dream
twenty years ago. He was way out on a
limb and no one knew if everything
would really come together. But then
the Boys’ Choir sang here for the first
Christmas Midnight Mass. I heard that
pure, fragile and utterly transcendent
sound that only boys’ voices can make —
for a few fleeting years, before vanishing
entirely — and I knew that all of Saint
John’s was being brought more deeply
into the beauty and power of music.
Every year since then the Saint
John’s Boys’ Choir has enlarged my
spirit. And I think we all have a
similar story of gratitude to tell."
The photo shows Dietrich
receiving the award from John
Shorba, president of the board of
directors of the Saint John’s Boys’
Choir. The statuette, designed and
executed by Marcia McEachron,
depicts the young Saint Gregory
singing. v
The Saint John’s Bible
Featured in Smithsonian
Washington, D.C., with a circulation of
more than two million.
T
he Saint John’s Bible was featured
as the cover story in the December
2000 issue of Smithsonian magazine.
Smithsonian is the official publication of
the Smithsonian Institution in
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
The article, “The Saint John’s Bible:
the Word into Art,” is the most extensive
feature story written about the project
since it was announced in March 1999.
Writers for Smithsonian, Per Ola and
Emily D’Aulaire, visited Saint John’s
University last August and met with various people involved in the project. A
week later the writers traveled with
photographer Michael Freeman, hired
by Smithsonian magazine, to Wales to
interview and photograph Donald
Jackson and his team working in the
studio. The result: a stunning
11-page story with nine beautiful
photographs.
Exposure in this cultural publication has created a new round of
interest in The Saint John’s Bible.
To preview a part of the article,
visit the Bible website at
saintjohnsbible.org and click on
"news." Or, if you prefer a free
copy of the entire article, please
call The Saint John’s Bible office at
320-363-2771 or email your request
to: [email protected]. v
23
BANNER BITS
Abbey Makes Significant
Annual Gift to
Saint John’s University
A
ccording to a brief article in
the November, 2000, issue
of Community, a newsletter for
the faculty and staff of our two
colleges, Saint John’s Abbey
yearly contributes to Saint John’s
University the equivalent of fiftyfive percent of the compensation
it receives for the monks who
are employed by the university.
This gift is commonly referred to
as the Abbey Grant.
This past
fiscal year the
Abbey Grant
totaled
$1,116,279,
and over the past decade it has amounted to more than $11 million. Without
the Abbey Grant, tuition costs would
increase by approximately $600 per
student, and it would take an endowment
of $180 million to replace this income.
"We are deeply grateful to the monastic
community for their annual support of
the University," noted Rob Culligan, vice
president for institutional advancement.
"The Abbey has been the largest
contributor to the University over the
past ten years. Indeed, it is the largest
benefactor in our history. I encourage
students, faculty and staff to join me in
thanking the monks of Saint John’s
Abbey for their generous ongoing
support." v
A mixed choir of children, women
and men perform at the fifth annual
HymnFest during the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity last January.
HymnFest for Christian Unity
A
highlight of this year’s Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity
(January 18-25) was the fifth
annual HymnFest in Saint John’s
Abbey Church on the afternoon
of January 21. An audience of
over 1000 people from various
religious demoninations came
together to listen to and sing
along with a choir of 130
women, men and children.
The featured choirs included
the Saint John’s Boys’ Choir,
directed by Paul Richards, OSB;
the adult and children choirs of
Mary Mother of the Church
Parish in Burnsville, Minnesota,
directed by Betsy Sullivan; and
The Cantabile Girls Choir of
Saint Cloud State University,
directed by Jane Oxton.
24
Organists were
David Jeske and
Nicholas Doub,
OSB.
With ecumenical
gusto the congregation sang such
favorite hymns as
"Jesus Christ is
Ris’n Today," "All
Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name," "Were
You There?" and the rousing finale,
"Praise to the Lord."
The most captivating of the choirs’
selections was the delightful rendition of
"Bless the Lord" by Andrew Carter,
published by Oxford University Press.
This song is inspired by the familiar
Canticle of the Three Boys in the Fiery
Furnace from chapter three of the Book
of Daniel that calls upon sun and moon,
stars of heaven, fire and heat, ice and
snow, light and darkness to bless the
Lord. This children’s version, however,
invokes the following:
"O ye parakeets and pelicans and
porcupines and penguins, guillemots and
guinea pigs and gallinules and godwits
and badgers and hedgehogs, bless the
Lord." v
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
BANNER BITS
A Touch of Benedictine Hospitality
T
he December 2000 issue of
Minnesota Monthly featured an
article by Phil Bolsta in which he asked
ten prominent Minnesotans, "What's the
nicest thing anyone you aren't related to
has ever done for you?" This is the
answer given by Glen Mason, head
football coach of the University of
Minnesota Gophers:
"Two years ago, we had expectations of
finishing the season on a high note as we
left to play the University of Indiana. But
we missed two extra points and two field
goals and lost the game by a point. I was
about as low as could be.
"The next morning my lovely wife Kate
decided we were going to go to a
different church. We ended up going to
Holy Name of Jesus Church of Medina.
During the service my mind was still on
the game. In the middle of the Mass,
the priest, Father Arnold Weber,
ventured out into the crowd. He
looked at me, pointed his finger and
said, 'Hey, aren't you the coach of
the Gophers?' I said yes. He asked
me a variety of questions while a
couple thousand people were staring
at me. He said, 'Tough game
yesterday,’ and then without
hesitation added, 'But have no
concern, you'll always find support
and welcome here at Holy Name.'
After Mass was over, as I walked
out, countless people stopped to talk
to me, and I'll remember their words
of encouragement forever."
Arnold Weber, OSB,
pastor of Holy Name of Jesus
Church, Medina, Minnesota
Father Arnold, a Benedictine monk and
priest of Saint John's Abbey, has been
the pastor of this thriving suburban
parish since 1981. v
photo by David Manahan, OSB
Football Monks Support Johnnies
C
ontinuing a well established
tradition of supporting Saint
John’s football team, two of the
abbey's “football monks” — l. to r.
Brothers Damian Rogers and
Patrick Sullivan — were in the
stands to cheer for the Johnnies at
the NCAA Division III national
championship game at the Amos
Alonzo Stagg Bowl, Salem,
Virginia, on December 16, 2000.
The game pitted Saint John’s
against Mount Union of Alliance,
Ohio. After holding the highly
touted Ohio team to a 7-7 tie, the
Johnnies lost the game by a last
second field goal to end the
contest by the score of 10-7.
photo by Roger Young
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
Other monks attending the game
were Brothers Dietrich Reinhart
and Mark Kelly and Father
Wilfred Theisen. v
25
BANNER BITS
The Benedictine Oblate Program
by Allen Tarlton, OSB
O
A Major Liturgical
Conference
T
o celebrate its seventy-fifth
anniversary, The Liturgical
Press is sponsoring a major
liturgical conference at Saint John's,
June 7-10. Entitled "Differing
Visions, One Communion:
Catholics and Liturgy in the United
States," the conference will bring
together speakers from across the
theological spectrum to offer a
fresh perspective on the state of the
Catholic liturgy today.
In addition to hearing keynote
addresses by liturgical leaders,
participants will be able to converse
with those from whom they might
otherwise feel estranged. With
God's grace, this will move us
closer to the unity all Catholics
hope for.
For complete registration material
please call: 1-800-858-5450, ext.
3096; or fax: 1-800-445-5899; or
email: [email protected]; or website:
www.litpress.org/differingvisions. v
26
n July 11, 2000, the
Benedictine Oblate
Program of Saint John’s Abbey
celebrated its 75th anniversary of
being initiated under the aegis of Abbot
Alcuin Deutsch, OSB, fifth abbot
(1921-1950). In its early years the
program enjoyed a truly impressive
membership. For a variety of reasons,
interest in the Oblate Program waned,
and it experienced a decline in the
number of Oblates.
Thanks to the mandate of Abbot
Timothy Kelly, OSB, to revive the
Oblate Program, a new energy has
infused the membership. At the present
the number of Oblates and Oblate
candidates is close to seven hundred
members. Who are the Oblates?
Oblates are primarily lay people striving
to live their lives according to the Rule of
Saint Benedict insofar as their lives
permit. Oblates are affiliated with a
particular Benedictine community of
men or women monastics. They may be
married or single, Roman Catholic or
members of any other Christian denomination. Although the program is
comprised primarily of lay men and
women, clergy are also invited to become
members. Early in March of this year
ten students of Saint John’s University
and the College of Saint Benedict
formed an Oblate group through the
Campus Ministry Office.
Oblates are invited to two days of
recollection a year — one in Advent and
one in Lent. They also take part in an
Oblate retreat each July. This year’s
retreat will be held at the abbey July 1315 under the direction of Father Cyril
Gorman, OSB.
For further information about the
Oblates of Saint Benedict, please contact
the Oblate Office at Saint John’s Abbey,
Collegeville, Minnesota 56321.
Phone: 320-363-2081. E-mail: oblates@
csbsju.edu v
Monthly Benedictine Day of Prayer
T
he Spiritual Life Program of Saint
John’s Abbey hosts a monthly
Benedictine Day of Prayer. This occurs
on the last Friday of every month, from 7
a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The abbey welcomes
men and women of all faith traditions to
join us for group and individual prayer
experiences, including Morning and Mid
day Prayer with the monks. The program includes a conference and discus-
sion on prayer. The $40 program fee
includes breakfast and lunch. For
information or to register, please contact
Father Don Tauscher, OSB, Director of
the Spiritual Life Program.
Phone: 320-363-3929. E-mail: Spirlife@
csbsju.edu
Web site: www.sja.osb.org/ slp/ v
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
SPIRITUAL LIFE
Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus
by Donald Tauscher, OSB
O
nce I humbly and deferentially
approached a Secret Service
agent in the White House and
said, "Sir, I would like to see the
President." He looked at me as if he
were sure I had just fallen off a turnip
truck, but being a well-trained
professional he merely said that it was
not possible. He could have said, "You
what? ‘Fraid not!" Another time I
asked a Swiss Guard at the Vatican, "Sir,
I would like to see the Pope." Guess
what he said! Right! "I’m sorry, Sir, but
that is not possible." You could compile
your own list of times and places when
you sought to see a celebrity (of sorts)
and were told that you needed an
appointment, or the celebrity was not in,
but in any case it was not possible.
Access denied.
In John’s Gospel (12:21-26) some
Greek Gentiles asked Philip, "Sir, we
would like to see Jesus." Would Jesus be
accessible? Philip says to the foreign
visitors, "Hold on a second; I’ll check it
out for you." One wonders what those
folks from Greece must have thought.
Did they feel like the person who had an
interview with God and asked, "Lord,
how long is a million years to you?" God
said, "A million years for you is just a
second to me." The interviewer then
asked, "Lord, if I have a million dollars,
how much is that to you?" God said, "A
million dollars to you is like a penny to
me." The person was feeling pretty
confident by now and asked God, "Could
I have one of your pennies?" And God
said, "Sure thing. Just wait a second."
The Abbey Banner Spring 2001
It was not like that with Philip. He
went to see his brother Andrew, and
together they told Jesus. What does
Jesus say? "OK. But the time has come
that if you want to see me, you have to
be willing to come where the grain of
wheat falls into the ground and dies."
Whoa. What kind of answer is this?
The question is: On whose terms did
these visitors from Greece want to see
Jesus? The question is: On whose terms
do you and I want to see Jesus? Can’t
we just get his autograph and bask in his
reflected glory? Can’t we just let Jesus
do the sweating and the serving and the
dying? The answer is: Yes, of course we
can. That would be one kind of
relationship with Jesus. We could
content ourselves with being a distant fan
of his. We could admire him and sing
"Praise Jesus" and let it go at that.
But Jesus Asks For and
Offers Much More
Having just observed Lent and Holy
Week, we continue to reflect on this
gospel. Those Greeks had come to
Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. So had
thousands of other people. So had Jesus
and his disciples. They had all come to
celebrate the memory of God’s
deliverance of Israel from the slavery,
oppression, abuse, and hopelessness of
Egyptian domination some thirteen
centuries earlier. They had come to eat
the Passover lamb and rejoice in God’s
favor toward them. They had not come
to suffer and die. Except Jesus. Jesus
knew that his Hour had come, that
Passover was much more than a church
picnic, much more than a religious
ceremony, much more
than a memory. Jesus
knew that this Passover
was a new Passover, when
he would unite himself so
perfectly to his Father’s purpose
for the world that he would
suffer and die as the new Passover
Lamb, the Lamb of God.
Passover is life born out of
death, not a church picnic. Not
for Jesus, and not for a true
disciple. So when some Gentile
pilgrims ask to see Jesus, he says,
"Whoever serves me must follow
me, and where I am, there also will
my servant be. The Father will
honor whoever serves me." Jesus is
making three important statements
here about every significant,
authentic relationship with him.
1. It entails service: learning from
Jesus, becoming like Jesus, doing as
Jesus is seen doing. "Whoever
serves me must follow me."
2. It means that the disciple is
never alone. Jesus and the disciple
(servant) are in this thing together.
"Where I am, there also will my
servant be." 3. It leads to honor
from the Father. "My Father will
honor whoever serves me."
A significant, authentic
relationship with Christ is at the
heart of Christian spirituality, that
is, a lifelong process of obeying
the Holy Spirit, who forms Christ
in us. Yes, we would like to see
Jesus, all right. And we can.
We have his word on it. v
27
Calendar of Events
April 19
100th Birthday of Angelo Zankl, OSB,
Saint John’s First Centenarian
June 29July 1
Saint John’s Preparatory School’s
Alumni/ae and Friends Reunion
April 20
Celebration of First Volume of The Saint
John’s Bible (Gospels & Acts)
July 1-5
May 26
Baccalaureate Mass and Graduation for
Saint John’s Preparatory School
Monastic Institute: "Symbols, Rituals, and
Practices: Making and Sustaining
Community Across Time." Featured
presenter: Mary Collins, OSB
May 27
Baccalaureate Mass and Graduation for
Saint John’s University
July 11
Feast of Saint Benedict: Profession of
Solemn Vows and Renewal of Vows by
Jubilarians
June 4-7
Saint John’s Abbey Community Retreat
directed by Paul Philibert, OP
July 13-15
Retreat for Oblates of Saint Benedict
June 7-10
Conference on "Differing Visions, One
Communion: Catholics and Liturgy in the
United States" to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of The Liturgical Press
August 7
Reception and Picnic with the Clergy of the
Saint Cloud Diocese
August 11
Reception and Picnic with the Monastics of
Saint Benedict’s Monastery
June 8-24
Second Annual National Catholic Youth
Choir
June 16July 13
Saint John’s Abbey Monastic Experience
for single Catholic men, ages 18-32
June 17-22
General Chapter of the American-Cassinese
Congregation of Benedictine Men
June 17-22
Fifth Annual Circus - Theatre Arts Group
June 18July 27
Summer Session of Saint John’s School of
Theology/Seminary
June 24-26
National Conference of Interfaith Sexual
Trauma Institute (ISTI): “Living Faith in a
Sexually Traumatized Culture"
Abbey Prayer Time
Visitors are welcome to join the monks for daily prayers
and Eucharist. Seating: choir stalls west of altar. Seating
for Sunday Eucharist is in the main body of the church.
7 a.m.
12 p.m.
5 p.m.
7 p.m.
Morning Prayer
Noon Prayer
Daily Eucharist*
Evening Prayer
* Saturday Eucharist, 11:30 a.m.
Sunday Eucharist, 10:30 a.m.
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