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ISSUE PREVIEW I lift my eyes to the mountains; from where shall come my help? My help shall come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. -Psalm 121:1-2
St. Benedict’s Abbey Monastic Horarium
Unite your prayer s w ith those of the Monk s of St . Benedict’s Abbe y Sunday Vigils (Office of Readings) - 6:30 AM Lauds (Morning Prayer) - 6:45 AM Mass - 10:00 AM Midday Prayer - 12:05 PM Vespers (Evening Prayer) - 5:00 PM Compline (Night Prayer) - 7:30 PM Monday-Saturday Vigils - 5:45 AM Lauds - 6:00 AM Midday Prayer - 11:45 AM Mass - 12:10 PM Vespers Mon-Fri - 5:00 PM Vespers Saturday - 5:45 PM Compline - 7:30 PM Holy Hour for Vocations with Compline Saturday - 7:00 PM
Contents 4 - From the Abbot
Abbot James invites us to follow St. Benedict’s exhortation to “hasten toward our Heavenly home.”
5 - A Heavenly Home
A pictorial journey through the construction of St. Benedict’s monastery and Abbey Church.
8 - Becoming an Apostle
Br. Leven offers a few tips to aid you in your prayer before, during, and after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
10 - The Abbey Church
A brief tour of the design, features, and intricacies of the Abbey Church.
12 - The Abbey Crypt
We explore the Abbey Church crypt.
13 - The Frescoes
We detail the three frescoes of the Abbey Church and offer a special fold out poster of the Abbey Church fresco on page 14.
16 - In Memoriam
We celebrate the life of our brother, Fr. Blaine Schultz.
17 - An Offering Help us bring Christ to the world. Stability is central to the life of the monk – this vow keeps us rooted in this place and reminds us that, no matter where we are, our spirituality flows from St. Benedict’s Abbey. Our very lives are sustained by the perpetual prayer of the Abbey. One of our most important works is sharing the love of Christ with all those we serve – you can actively take part in bringing with us to bring Christ to the world by becoming a Partner in Stability. Your monthly support is critical to making our prayer and work possible. For more information, visit our website:
KANSASMONKS.ORG/STABILITY
Fr. Gabriel discusses offering Mass for specific intentions and invites you to have a Mass offered for your intentions, friends, or loved ones.
18 - The New Abbey Church
Fr. Meinrad reflects on the Abbey Church and its relationship with the students of Benedictine College.
19 - A Tool for the Work of God Br. Karel explores the majesty of the Abbey Pipe Organ.
20 - The Monk & Holy Saturday Fr. Jay Kythe shares a reflection on the monastic choir and its placement between the Abbey Crucifix and Fresco.
22 - The Blessed Sacrament Chapel Fr. Daniel McCarthy explains why the Abbey has a separate chapel for the Blessed Sacrament.
24 - The Return to Nazareth We are excited to announce the completion of the Return to Nazareth Garden!
27 - The Infirmary Renovation The monks are currently updating the monastic infirmary – learn how you can help.
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unit y How would you describe your living room? Four walls, a ceiling, probably a place or two to sit and share a conversation, perhaps a table to gather around and share a meal, perhaps a Crucifix on one of the walls – each space in your home, its objects and history, likely carries a long, living memory and a unique experience every time you walk into it. Now let’s describe our Abbey Church: a place to sit, a table with bread and wine, a crucifix, so what makes it special? If you’re like me, as a kid your mom told you that your church, “is where Jesus (or God) lives.” But it’s not the only place he lives, for Christ is always with us, but rather it’s where we can truly meet God. Here all the other meeting places of our lives are taken up into the Mystery of God and transfigured in the light of his glorious love. In this place we encounter him in the sacraments. In this place we experience our greatest joys – whether in marriage, baptism, or religious profession. In this place we experience our deepest sorrows and regrets – in confessing our sins before the Lord, in saying goodbye to a loved one in a funeral, or even coming to the Lord to console us in our times of deepest need – it is here that the Lord extends himself to us. Since 1957, the Abbey Church has been the spiritual home to the monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey and the students of Benedictine College. It has played host to countless joyous occasions – but perhaps what we should remember most is that it is a place of communion. Here we are called together to receive Communion, here we lift up our intentions to the Lord in prayer together, here we are united in the one Body of Christ. For us, as monks and friends of St. Benedict’s Abbey, this communion has generated a unity and history we share in this place. Within the body of Christ we are united as a Benedictine family. While we may be separated by space (or indeed, even time) our prayers are gathered so we are one in the Father, that this living in every room of our lives is but a foretaste of our destiny, our eternal dwelling in the Father’s house, which, our Savior has told us, has many rooms. In these pages we explore our Abbey Church, its intricacies and more. We hope as you read you are transported here, that you can recall the sights, sounds, smells, and most of all the encounters in this beautiful place. Wherever you are, know that you are in our prayers, and that you have a spiritual home at St. Benedict’s Abbey.
F O R A S I N O N E B O DY W E H AV E M A N Y PA R T S ... S O W E , T H O U G H M A N Y, A R E O N E B O DY I N C H R I S T - R O M A N S 1 2 : 4 -5
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F r om the A bb ot
Our Heavenly Home “Are you hastening toward your heavenly home?” In chapter 73 of his Rule St. Benedict poses this question to the monk who desires to put on the yoke of obedience, let down the anchor of stability, and seek the path of fidelity and conversion to monastic life (the three vows of a Benedictine monk). “… your heavenly home?” That is the life of the monk, his ultimate goal: seeking Christ, and through him the Father, hastening toward our heavenly home. All else – our work, our relationships, our recreation, our daily rhythm – are ancillary. This is played out beautifully in our Abbey Church, where above the altar the double-sided crucifix shows the passion of Christ (facing the nave), the death of Christ (facing the choir section), and the glorified, resurrected Christ in the fresco (at the other end of the choir). In between these two realities: that of Christ’s passion and death and his resurrection we, as a monastic community, gather for prayer each day, offering psalms and canticles in the Divine Office, and offering the bread and wine of human life for the sacrifice of Christ in the celebration of the Mass. As monks we place our lives in this transitory reality between the world in which we live and the world to which we are hastening – our heavenly home, the New Jerusalem. We have a foot in both worlds to encourage humanity from one world into the next through our prayer and sacrifices; the offering of ourselves in the monastic, celibate life. Through this offering, there is a moderation, a balance, a firmness that is the calm rise and fall of our common life. The ebb and flow of monastic life has been very evident for our community in recent years. We have witnessed the final monastic perseverance in the deaths of four of our confreres, we have rejoiced in the celebrations of two priestly ordinations, and we have welcomed new life in monastic professions. One might say this is not “ebb and flow,” but these are “raise-the-flag” type moments. Yes, of course. However, if we answer that question posed to us by St. Benedict – “Are you hastening toward your heavenly home?” – these are moments that contribute to and help lead us along the 4
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way to our ultimate goal – they are the means rather than the ends. In death, our brothers who have gone before us have reached their final goal. For us their perseverance offers encouragement in our lives, to seek Christ through moderation and steadfastness, striving to keep on an even keel. Maybe a “steadiness” of life is a better way of putting it. Rejoice when we are called to rejoice; grieve when we are called to grieve; and recognize that these moments always lead us back to Christ: our goal and our center. Again, this is shown in the fresco of the Abbey Church. Two depictions of the life of St. Benedict, and two depictions of the life of our community, each in the four corners of the fresco painted in muted browns – the black habit standing out as the lone color-shift, a stark contrast against the world, yet ever a part of it. The vibrancy of color coming forth from the central figure of the Resurrected Christ in the Holy Trinity, a reminder that the glory is yet to come, and that he is at the focal point of it. If those ancillary events of our lives as monks – those muted browns: our work, our relationships, our recreation, our daily rhythm – don’t lead us back to the vibrancy of He who is the center, Christ, then we must work to form our interior, form our conscience, and bring “steadiness” to our lives so as to consider all those gains, “so much rubbish,” as losses “because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus [our] Lord,” (cf. Phil. 3:7-11). St. Benedict’s question to the monk who desires to follow the Rule is really a question for all of us, not just the monks. “Are you hastening toward your heavenly home?” “Then… we must run and do now what will profit us forever” (Rule of St. Benedict Prologue: 44).
The first profession of Abbot James Albers – Dec. 8, 1996. Pictured: (L to R) Br. Lawrence Bradford†, Abbot Barnabas Senecal, Fr. Hugh Keefer†, Fr. Meinrad Miller, Br. James.
A Heav e nly Home When Abbot Innocent Wolf retired from his office in 1921, the monastic community had outgrown their home (now Elizabeth Hall at Benedictine College). Having too many monks is certainly not a bad problem to have, but over the next few years it was clear that a new Abbey was needed. In 1922 the monks, now under the leadership of Abbot Martin Veth, decided to put the Abbey on hold in favor of a new gymnasium (at left, now the Haverty Center) for the college. By 1926 plans for an Abbey were created, a loan of $300,000 was secured, and on November 11, 1926, ground was broken for a magnificent new Abbey on the bluff overlooking the Missouri River Valley. The stone was quarried locally and cut on site.
The Abbey rose from the bluff stone by stone, but with each stone the construction costs mounted. An additional $100,000 was borrowed and by the time the Abbey was ready for occupancy the cost had ballooned to $780,000 (adjusted for inflation, a cost just shy of $12,000,000 in 2020). Plans for the Abbey Church were temporarily put on hold and on August 5, 1929 Abbot Martin blessed the new Abbey; a noble home for the deeper religious life that he desired for the monastic community.
After living in their new home for just two short months, the Great Depression racked the nation – jobs were scarce, prices plummeted and, to add to the mounting burden, local farms experienced a drought. The salaries from monks in parish work provided the only income – just enough to cover the interest on their loans; but, owing to the great depression, pastors could not be certain of their own salaries. Despite their own hardship, the monks sent financial aid to another abbey in even worse distress. Thus, for 25 years the monks gathered for Mass and prayer in their chapter room, modified to serve as a chapel (at left).
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As time wore on the western facade of the monastery stood incomplete – a stark reminder of the hardship wrought by the great depression. Doors within the monastery itself led to dangerous precipices; the foundation for the would-have-been Church took on the form of ruins – its walls and window frames shrouded in vines and surrounded by piles of unused stones. Through it all, however, the monastic community and college continued to grow. But with the onset of another global conflict, the future was, again, suddenly clouded with uncertainty.
As World War II raged, enrollment at St. Benedict’s College shrank to 75 students, most of whom were junior monks from other monasteries or those not able to serve in the military. To further complicate matters, Abbot Martin (at left) fell ill and petitioned the Holy See to allow him to retire from his office. He was hailed for enriching the monastic prayer life, increasing the size of the monastic community, developing the College, and seeing to the construction of the new Abbey. As he announced his retirement he reminded his brothers to continue to pray, “Let me ask you to fall back on prayer. This is God’s house... He knows what is for its greater welfare...May God protect and prosper the community and sanctify all its members; may he bless and assist my successor... Orate Pro Me.”
As the tide turned and an Allied victory seemed increasingly likely, the community readied itself for the post-war challenges ahead. Ten monks, most of whom had been professors, had been away serving as military chaplains. With their return, a massive influx of students was expected and new dormitories were urgently needed. Abbot Cuthbert McDonald turned to alumni Ernie Dunn and Leo Nussbaum to helm the $1,000,000 fundraising campaign, the Centennial Expansion Program began, and the long-awaited dream of a new Abbey Church suddenly felt achievable. In 1947 a plan was created for the Centennial Expansion with the Abbey Church and dormitory high on the bluff to the south of the monastery. Curiously, when ground was ultimately broken in 1950, the new dormitory was placed to the west of the Abbey down the hill – it was named Memorial Hall for all those who had sacrificed their lives in World War II. 6
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It was Abbot Cuthbert’s great hope to build a chapel so the students and monks could come together to praise God under one roof. Architect Barry Byrne, the designer of the Centennial Expansion of the campus, was commissioned to design a grand Abbey Church that would have room for 600 students and 160 monks, estimating the project cost at $1,000,000. It was decided that the structure would be more modern; though a departure from the Gothic design of the monastery, it would provide a compliment to the Abbey and serve as the bridge between the monastic community and the student body. On May 21, 1956, Abbot Cuthbert, flanked by the student body and the majority of the monastic community, laid the massive cornerstone in an elaborate ceremony.
The monks determined that all minor altars and shrines would be placed outside the main body of the Church to place the full focus on the high altar as the center of the church’s purpose and liturgy – the sole exception would be a large fresco on the church’s eastern wall. The communion rail was also omitted to provide those in the nave an unobstructed view of the sanctuary. Under the supervision of Fr. Anselm Llewellyn an organ was designed; a grand instrument with thirty-one stops and forty ranks of pipes was installed for $67,000. The organ was later expanded in 2002. Like the monastery before it, the cost grew to $1.62 million and a $233,000 loan was secured to cover the remaining debt.
With the completion of the Abbey Church celebrations abounded. The Abbey played host to the largest gathering of Abbots since monasticism was brought to the Americas to consecrate the 29 minor altars simultaneously. Centennial day followed (right) and 1,250 people crammed in to take part in the celebration of Mass with Archbishop Amleto Cicognani, the Apostolic Delegate of the Holy See to the United States. The student Mass and conventual Mass were united, realizing a now 100-year-old dream. Father Timothy Fry, Student Chaplain, in his homily at the opening of school Mass on September 14 said, “The family before had been invisibly united in the worship of God since Mass was celebrated in St. Benedict’s Church and in chapels in the various residence halls. . .Now we are all visibly united in offering our teaching, learning and other activities of college life together at a community Mass ‘that in all things God may be glorified.’” Continued on page 10 Fall 2020
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C a r i n g f o r o u r B r o t h er s updating the monastic infirmary
BEFORE
As we seek to care for our elder and infirm members, we have been raising funds and have started the process of renovating our infirmary facilities. By supporting this project you can provide for the needs of the retired monks of St. Benedict’s Abbey, men who have given their lives in service to Christ and His Church. The current monastic infirmary was established in the 1980’s and no longer provides an adequate standard of care. By renovating the rooms the monks will have a greater quality of life and increased mobility. A limited budget has allowed for the initial phases of the renovation.
Infirmary Renovation Project Room Renovation 7 Rooms x $8,000.00 $56,0000.00 Nurse Call System $22,000.00 Whirlpool Bath 2 Tubs x $12,000.00 $24,000.00 Bathroom Updates $15,000.00 Accessible Office $25,000.00
AFTER
The nurse call system is also in urgent need of replacement. The current system is difficult for elderly and infirm monks to operate. With a new system the nurses will be able to respond more quickly to the needs of the monks. Aside from improving their quality of life, this will greatly increase response time in emergency situations and make it possible for monks to request aid from anywhere in the monastery. New whirlpool baths are needed to provide an adequate standard of care and significantly improve the safe operation of the whirlpool.
Improve Accessibility $8,000.00
Current whirlpool
Additionally, many parts of the Abbey including the nurse’s station, do meet the standards for accessibility; this project will allow the monks full access to their home. We are excited to share that more than $45,000 was raised toward the infirmary renovation on #MonkMonday, November 30, 2020! Thank you to everyone who contributed to this campaign. In gratitude for all donations of $25 or more, we would like to offer you a copy of our new Christmas CD, Awake with Joy. Visit Kansasmonks.org/monkmonday or use the enclosed envelope to support the Infirmary Renovation Project and claim your copy (soon also available for streaming).
Total Project Cost $150,000.00 Funds raised to date $117,000.00 Current Need $33,000.00
KANSASMONKS.ORG FACEBOOK.COM/KANSASMONKS TWITTER @KANSASMONKS Fall 2020
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St. Benedict’s Abbey Atchison, Kansas 1020 N. 2nd Street, Atchison, KS 66002 Kansas Monks USPS 290-760 Abbey Advancement Office 913.360.7866 kans a sm onk s . or g
Winter 2020 | Volume 14 | Number 2
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presenting the lumen vitae medal to sr. irene nowell, osb and dr. scott & kimberly hahn
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