Monastery News

Priory monks finally practice the vow of stability!

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By Father Matthew Leavy, O.S.B.

The monastery should, if possible, be so constructed that within is all necessities are contained. Then there will be no need for the monks to roam outside, because this is not at all good for their souls.” (Rule of St. Benedict 66:6-7)

Was the Governor of California thinking of this as he mandated the first in the nation “Shelter In Place” order for the Bay Area? SIP has given new meaning to the Benedictine vow of stability!

SIP not only meant that the monks could not go out, but also that no one else could come in. Imagine an empty, totally quiet, Priory campus! No students, no faculty, a skeleton crew of administrators and essential personnel and three monks.

Some have asked, what did the monks do all day? Ora et Labora, Prayer and Work, as always. As for the Ora part, we continued living the monastic life as usual, praying the Liturgy of the Hours and Mass five times per day. The major difference being that there was no one in the congregation. Such a never before experience was particularly felt during Holy Week and Easter, the high points of the Church year. On the first Sunday of June, we were able to celebrate Mass publicly, both our Sunday English Mass and also our Hungarian Mass.

As for the Labora part, we, like everyone else in the world continued to carry out our responsibilities of administration, teaching, and pastoral care via Zoom and other such modalities. We’ve discovered that monks, too, can suffer Zoom fatigue! Along with all the other teachers and administrators at Priory, our concern was how to create an atmosphere of support for our students and each other during this uncertain and unprecedented time of change and challenge.

We asked ourselves other questions. How could we show hospitality when no guests were allowed on campus? How could we help to support the morale of our campus-dwelling community of 53 faculty, staff and their families during the Covid-19 Shelter In Place?

We noticed that though restaurants in the area remained officially closed, take-out was permitted. And so we created a “Benedictine Take-Out” program for our subcommunity of on-campus dwellers, offering a weekly take-out dinner for all. Menu items include pizza, turkey dinner, “Sloppy Isaacs” (named after Br. Isaac at St. Anselm whose recipe I stole), Chili with Cornbread, BBQ chicken with Mac and Cheese, gallettes, and the like. On festal occasions, a hemina of red or white wine is also available. “Hemina” is the measure of wine allotted to each monk by St. Benedict in his Rule. It means “half” of something, as in “hemi”sphere, but scholars disagree about the “something”. Is it half a glass or half a gallon? Most agree that the hemina is equal to a good pint. That is, of course, only for the adults on campus. For the kids, we tried a zoomed pretzel baking session which was judged successful, and a pizza baking session is in the

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planning for later this month. We are grateful to others on campus who continue to assist us in the TakeOut project, and who have also offered a weekend meal for all to enjoy. We are also deeply appreciative of the beautiful and creative art works of gratitude that we have received from the on campus children. Myles Somerville, assisted by Sean Sullivan, has been helping out with the food distribution and has offered his own version of the Benedictine takeout. In his invitations, he always comes up with some clever word plays to describe his menu, e.g., “Benedict-In and Out burgers”, or “Benedicti-Talian Sausage”. This, of course, is totally understandable as he is a graduate of the Benedictine Prep School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Thank you, Myles and Sean. Our seniors received a surprise innovation from the monks on the day each came to pick up caps and gowns, of course with staggered arrival times, faces masked and hands doused with Purell. For decades there has been a large bell in front of the monastery building. Originally a railroad locomotive bell, it replaced the even larger church bell that is now in the chapel tower. The cradle which held this smaller bell had deteriorated and the whole setting was in disrepair. Fr. Martin decided to refinish the bell’s surface and repair the broken parts of the cradle. Assisted by our expert physical plant crew, the bell and its surroundings were beautifully renovated and the bell was dedicated to the Class of 2020. Each senior 3

1. The monastic bulletin board fi lled with thank you notes and artwork from on campus children. 2. Class of 2020 students rang the newly restored monastery. 3. Myles Somerville and his sons Mickey and Westy pickup pizzas during the “Benedictine Take-Out”. 4. Father Maurus preps one of the many pizzas that were made for on campus families. 5. Hungarian representatives kindled a fi re as part of the 100 year anniversary of the peace treaty.

actually rang the bell before picking up the cap and gown. They loved it! The bell was also put to good use on June 4th, the 100 year anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty post World War I. This signing took place at Versailles in France in the palace called Trianon. It was significant for Priory’s Hungarian heritage, as it ordered the dismemberment of the Kingdom of Hungary, as war retribution for having sided with Germany. The treaty ceded 2/3 of Hungary’s territory and 1/3 of its population to neighboring nations, the largest portion, larger than the current landmass of Hungary was given to Romania and is known as Transylvania where nearly 2 million ethnic Hungarians still live. In terms of Priory history, it is interesting that three of our Hungarian monks came from territory ceded to Slovakia, Hungary’s neighbor to the North. All over the world, diaspora Hungarian communities gathered at 11:20 to plant a commemorative tree, to kindle a fire symbolizing solidarity, and to ring a bell in remembrance of a sad day in the annals of Hungarian history. Covid-19 obviously put great limitations on our ceremonial gathering, but 18 representatives of the Hungarian Scouts, the Protestant Church and our Catholic Hungarian Church safely gathered and joined the rest of the Hungarian world, with a new tree, a new fire and a re-newed bell, symbols of solidarity and hope.

MONASTERY NEWS

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