Magazine of Saint John’s Abbey 7 • Issue 3 ... Cover Stories Closing the Sesquicentennial The...

Closing theSesquicentennial, 4

Blessed FranzJägerstätter and hisCollegevilleconnection, 6

Benedictine heritageof Northeast England, 7

Collegeville pilgrimsvisit the Holy Land, 11

A Benedictine andBuddhist pilgrimage, 12

Minnesota Public Radio celebrates 40th anniversary, 14

Tombstone Tales, 16

Meet a Monk: Michael Naughton, OSB, 18

Teaching Award to Rene McGraw, OSB, 20

Monks publish, 22

Prep expansion, 30

Closing the Sesquicentennial

THE A B B EY B A N N E RVolume 7 • Issue 3 • Winter 2007

Magazine of Saint John’s Abbey

Pages 4 and 5

Cover Stories

Closing the Sesquicentennial

The Abbey BannerMagazine of

Saint John’s AbbeyVolume 7, Issue 3

Winter 2007

Editor: Daniel Durken, OSB [email protected]

Copy Editor and Proofreader: Dolores Schuh, CHM

Designer: Pam Rolfes

Circulation: Ruth Athmann, Cathy Wieme, Mary Gouge

Printer: Palmer Printing, Waite Park, Minnesota

Member Catholic Press Association

The Abbey Banner is published three times annually (spring, fall, winter) by the Benedictine monks of Saint John’s Abbey for our relatives, friends and Oblates.

The Abbey Banner is online atwww.sja.osb.org/AbbeyBanner

Saint John’s Abbey, Box 2015, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321

Contents

Features6Blessed Franz Jägerstätterand his Collegeville connection

7The Benedictine Heritage ofNortheast Englandby John-Bede Pauley, OSB

11Collegeville pilgrimsvisit the Holy Landby Eric Hollas, OSB

12A Benedictine and Buddhist on a Paul Bunyan pilgrimageby William Skudlarek, OSB

22Monks’ publications26Nickolas Becker, OSB, and Dan Morgan, OSB, profess first vows; Novice Aelred Senna, OSB, invested27Martin Rath, OSB, retires;new assignments28Rich Ruprecht, master bakerby Daniel Durken, OSB

30New Prep building begun

14Minnesota Public Radio’s 40th Anniversaryby Jean Scoon

16The Tales of Tombstonesby Daniel Durken, OSB

18Meet a Monk: Michael Naughton, OSBby Daniel Durken, OSB

20Rene McGraw, OSB, receives teaching award; his convocation address

Departments3 From Editor and Abbot

24 The Abbey Chronicle

29 Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps

31 Spiritual Life

Back Cover: Schedule for Sunday at the Abbey series

NOTE: Please send your change of address to: Ruth Athmann at [email protected] or P.O. Box 7222, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7222 or call 800-635-7303.

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The Abbey Banner Winter 2007 page 3

Obedient to the assignment of Alexius Hoffmann, OSB, pictured above with his 1887 stenography class, to tell, “How I spent the Sesquicentennial,”

I will say, “I spent it publishing articles on our nineteen-month celebration from April 5, 2006, to November 10, 2007.”

The initial notice of the Sesquicentennial appeared in the Winter 2004 issue with the article, “The Sesquicentennial is Coming!” by William Skudlarek, OSB, co-chair with Patti Epsky of the planning committee.

In the following nine issues 32 articles and 116 pho-tographs described key events and pertinent people who made memorable these 150 years of Saint John’s Abbey.

Five extra-special events occurred: the dedication of the Abbey Guesthouse, the dedication of the Petters Pavilion, the expansion of the Abbey Cemetery, the ground-bless-ing-and breaking for the addition to the Prep School’s Bede Hall, and the death of Angelo Zankl, OSB, whose 106 years made him the last living link with one of the original founders of the abbey.

After all has been sesquicentennially said and done, our heads and hearts overflow with wonder, gratitude and joy for the poignant reminders of what our 150 years of worship and work have wrought. There may be a few, however, who wish we had imitated the Sisters of Humility of Mary of Davenport, Iowa, who celebrated their Sesquicentennial two years ago and did it all . . . on a Friday to Sunday weekend. +

The Incarnation:building bridges rather than walls by Abbot John Klassen, OSB

O n June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg gate in Ber-lin, then President Ronald

Reagan spoke a stirring challenge: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek freedom, tear down this wall!” On November 11, 1989, an amazing event began to unfold. The people of Berlin began to gather on both sides of the wall and started to take it down.

Symbolically, forty years of history were moving in another direction, toward a unified Germany and the end of Soviet domination. Despite these powerful events be-ing in our living memory, there are people in our country who want to build a wall between Mexico and the United States. The state of Israel is also constructing a ten-foot high concrete wall to separate Palestinians from Israelites.

Surely one of the most profound meanings of the incar-nation, of Jesus taking flesh, is God’s saving intention to overcome the “wall” between heaven and earth, between the Triune God and humankind. That is why the angels cry out, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth!” If God has taken the wall down, surely we must not build them. If we do so, we are going in the wrong direction. The economic, environmental, and political issues in the Middle East and wherever there is mass migration are complicated, messy, seemingly intractable, and require in-tense effort to understand. Furthermore, we often discover how we as a nation have helped to create the conditions for the current awful state. In the face of such complexity, it is easy to throw up our hands in despair. However, it is also difficult to learn how to do a knee replacement, how to treat alcoholism—or how to do conflict transformation. But we work at them.

If we wish to follow the Word Made Flesh, walls will not do. In fact, when it comes to the big issues like global warming, migration, poverty, and violence, it is only our deep commitment to and engagement with how to extend the work of Jesus, how to help parents, here and in other places like Mexico, make a future for their kids, that will build bridges rather than walls. +

FROM EDITOR AND ABBOTA

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It’s over! by Daniel Durken, OSB

page 4 The Abbey Banner Winter 2007

SESQUICENTENNIAL CLOSING

One hundred and fifty years ago a handful of monks made an important decision. It was

made with very little information and not nearly enough resources. It just seemed like a good idea. Those monks made a preferential option for the education of the young. They committed themselves to bending their methods of teaching, their ideas about what was needed here in the backwoods of Minnesota, to the real-ity of the frontier. They committed themselves and the resources of the fledgling community to giving young people a chance.

They trusted that with a good edu-cation the students would do great things, becoming thoughtful and car-ing citizens. Whatever they did and wherever they went, they were pro-foundly impacted by the formation for community that they received, by the thickness of Benedictine spirituality that was everywhere.

In 150 years the Prep School has changed much. Boys and girls have studied together here since 1973 with a residential program for both and a strong international, multi-cultural program. The mission remains. All of you here this evening, and so many

others, have taken up this mission of providing a first-rate education for young people grounded in an experi-ence of community and the spiritual-ity of Saint Benedict. Today, however, it is education for citizenship in a global community.

On behalf of the monastic com-munity, I thank you for your strong, dedicated support. Without your help we could not continue the mission. It is very humbling and gratifying to be with you on this 150th anniversary of the opening of Saint John’s Prep. +

A preferential option for the young by Abbot John Klassen, OSB, at Saint John’s Prep School’s Legacy Dinner on November 10, 2007, the 150th anniversary of the opening of the school

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WHEREAS For one hun-dred and fifty years these Benedictine men, along

with the faculty and staff of Saint John’s, and with the support of the people of Minnesota, have faith-fully witnessed to their Benedictine charism of prayer and work, and have continued to serve us through their wisdom, courage, intellect and spiritu-al gifts, making a significant, remark-able and visionary contribution to the cultural, intellectual, social, political and religious life of Minnesota, the Midwest, the United States and the world.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, TIM PAWLENTY, Governor of Minnesota, do hereby congratulate Saint John’s Abbey and University for their 150 years of service to the people of Minnesota and proclaim November 9, 2007 as: Saint John’s Abbey and University Day in the state of Minnesota. +

A Proclamation by Governor Tim Pawlenty

The Sesquicentennial Proclamation of Governor Pawlenty presented by

Tim Marx, 1979 alumnus and Minnesota Housing Commissioner


SESQUICENTENNIAL CLOSING

The names of 312 volunteers are listed on this Sesquicentennial Thank You. In addition, a dozen groups such as Abbey Schola, CSB Campus Singers, SJU Men’s Chorus and Media Services Crew contrib-uted their time and talents.

The Closing Sesquicentennial Blessingby Michael Kwatera, OSB, edited and prayed by Prior Tom Andert, OSB, at Saint John’s Sesquicentennial Closing Celebration, November 9, 2007

Almighty and loving God, we give you praise and thanks for the life of Saint John’s community in this place for 150 years.

We praise you, God of our past,for showing us your love in Jesus Christ.You have been our refuge and our strength from one generation to the next,and you have held us in a lovethat is ever ancient and ever new.And so we pray: TO YOU BE GLORY FOREVER.

We praise you, God of our present,for making your salvation known to us in this placeand for calling us to renew the church in our time.We thank you for the monks of Saint John’s Abbey who generously exercised the ministry of Word and Sacrament,of pastoral care and works of charity.

We thank you for inspiring their worship and work,for strengthening them to serve you and your people,and for building up this community of faith so that they might glorify you in all things.Bless our communityand maintain our unity in the bond of peace.And so we pray: TO YOU BE GLORY FOREVER.

We praise you, God of our future,as we accept new challenges and opportunitiesto be faithful disciples of your Son, Jesus Christ. We trust your never-failing presencein our strengths and weaknesses,in our successes and failuresin our joys and sorrows.

Grant that your Holy Spirit help us to do your willso that we may remain close to you and to each other. Pour out your abundant blessings upon all the membersof this community – our students, staff and faculty,families, friends, oblates, alumni/ae and benefactors,and all who work with us,so that we may be a blessing for others.And so we pray: TO YOU BE GLORY FOREVER. +

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Hilary Thimmesh, OSB, sold and auto-graphed Saint John’s at 150: A Portrait of This Place Called Collegeville, the Sesquicentennial history he edited. The book is available from Liturgical Press (1-800-858-5450) or Saint John’s Bookstore (1-800-420-4509). $39.95.

Dan and Linda Marrin received the Prep School’s 39th Armor of Light Award at the Legacy Dinner that closed the Sesquicentennial on November 10. They served as the National Chairs of the successful To Light the Way Comprehensive Campaign that raised more than $18 million.


FEATURE

Icon by Fr. William McNichols. In upper left, a winged devil carries off the Nazi flag. The Greek words identify Saint Franciscus.

“Franz lived as a saint and died a hero” (prison chaplain).

Blessed Franz Jägerstätter and his Collegeville connection

In 1977 The Liturgical Press published the third edition of Gordon Zahn’s In Solitary Wit-

ness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter. Thirty years later the word Blessed can be prefixed to that proper name. On October 26 over five thousand people, including Franz’s 94-year-old widow, gathered in the cathedral of Linz, Austria, to celebrate the beatification of this martyr for his resistance to the unjust war of the Nazi regime. His feast day is May 21, the day of his baptism.

Born May 20, 1907, in St. Rade-gund, Austria, young Franz was a jolly, fun-loving, “he-man” type who expressed his daring by being the first in his community to own a motor-cycle. In 1936 he married a young, exceptionally devout woman who

supported his religious awakening. They became parents of three daugh-ters. He was a daily communicant and served as the sexton of his parish church. Hitler’s troops moved into Aus-tria in 1938, and Franz was the only man in the village to vote against the Annexation. He had a brief period of military training but publicly declared he would not serve in Hitler’s army.

When Franz was called to active duty in February, 1943, he steadfastly refused to fight. He was imprisoned and beheaded on August 9, 1943. His remains were cremated and buried next to his hometown church. Above his grave stands a crucifix with these words of Jesus: “Whoever wishes to save his life must lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

In his preface to the biography, author Zahn wrote, “Jägerstätter’s wit-ness has lost none of its relevance for our day. He went to his death resigned to the fact that few would know nor long remember what would happen to him, but that did not weaken his resolve in the least. It was enough that he knew and that his God knew, and he gave thanks for being permitted to offer his life for his faith.”

Zahn attended Saint John’s Uni-versity in 1946. For his witness to non-violence as a way of life and his co-founding Pax Christi USA with the late pacifist Eileen Eagan, Zahn was presented the Pax Christi Award in 1982. +

In Solitary Witness is available from Templegate Publishers, Springfield, Illinois, at 1-800-367-4844.

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A photograph of Franz

The biography of Blessed Franz published by The Liturgical Press


FEATURE

Visits to a region rich in monastic history

The Benedictine Heritage of Northeast England by John-Bede Pauley, OSB

The history of Christianity in England is unique because of the important cathedrals and

schools established by Benedictines. During my studies at Durham Uni-versity, I have discovered some of our monastic and Benedictine heritage in northeast England. Rich in monastic history, this region includes Jarrow (of Saint Bede of the eighth century), Lindisfarne (of Saints Aidan and Cuthbert of the seventh century), and Rievaulx (of Saint Aelred, one of the major figures of the twelfth-century Cistercian reforms).

Hadrian’s Wall, a short drive from Durham, marks the northern edge of the vast Roman Empire. Yet this northeastern part of England was at one time not peripheral but central. During the seventh and eighth centu-ries, when Oxford was a meadow and Cambridge a marsh, well before any of the European universities had been established, this part of England was a major center of learning and culture in Christian Europe.

This fact is all the more striking when one visits a re-created Anglo-Saxon site at Jarrow, a twenty-minute train ride from Durham. Known as “Bede’s World,” archeological remains and reconstructions plus a modern museum memorialize Saint Bede (673-735), monk, author of the invaluable Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the only English Doctor of the Church.

The kinds of timber buildings Bede himself would have known as a boy have been recreated here. One is the “pit house,” a common-room dwell-ing with its peaked covering over a rectangular depression some twenty inches deep, fifteen and a half feet long and almost thirteen feet wide. From such simple beginnings came one of the most learned scholars of his day.

The “pit house” was an Anglo-Saxon common-room shelter with a peaked roof.

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Brother John-Bede at the tomb of St. Cuthbert in the cathedral of Durham, England


FEATURE

At the age of seven, Bede entered Saint Paul’s Monastery at Jarrow and spent the rest of his life there, learning, teaching and writing. How impressive to Bede’s parents must have been the church and monastery, all built of stone in contrast to their timber structures, as they offered their son to the care of the community.

One of the buildings from Bede’s day, a free-standing chapel that stood to the east of the mon-astery church, forms the sanctuary of Saint Paul’s Church, the current parish church of Jarrow. Inside the church is the original stone slab that records the dedication of the church on April 23, 685, just seven years after Bede’s entrance into the monastery. Behind the church are the remains

of the Benedictine monastery of the Middle Ages that was refounded on the site of Bede’s monastery. Remains of the building from Bede’s day were found during excavation.

The relics of Bede now rest in the Galilee Chapel of Durham Cathe-dral. It is my privilege to walk past the saint’s shrine on my way to the university’s music department. The shrine of Saint Cuthbert, known as

The sanctuary of St. Paul’s Church, Jarrow

St. Paul’s Parish Church and the west wall of abbey ruins at Jarrow

How many sesquicentennials has this church celebrated since 685?


FEATURE

The priory on Lindisfarne or Holy Island off the coast near the Scottish border

The tomb of Saint Bede in Durham Cathedral

The nave of Durham Cathedral

“the most revered saint of northern England,” is at the east end of the cathedral. Cuthbert (634-87), the patron saint of Durham, lived both the communal and solitary monastic life and later became the bishop of Lindisfarne. Over one hundred Eng-lish churches are dedicated to him. A dense fog that saved the city from bombing in World War II was attribut-ed to his intercession. Given the vicis-situdes of England’s religious history, the survival of these two saints’ tombs into our own day is remarkable.

At Lindisfarne (also called Holy Island) situated off the coast a few miles from the Scottish border, the ruins of the monastery bear a striking resemblance to the Norman architec-ture of Durham Cathedral. Norman arches are also found at the Cistercian Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, to the south of Durham. Though the ruins contain some signs of later Gothic “modernization,” much of what endured until the dissolution of King Henry VIII (1537) was the original

twelfth-century Norman architecture. Rievaulx, the other large Cistercian mon-astery in Yorkshire, shows more signs of the Gothic.

After visiting several ruins, one longs to see one of these ancient buildings re-stored, even if only partially. Mount Grace Priory, the last of the ten English Carthu-sian charterhouses to be dissolved under Henry VIII, includes a restored two-sto-rey cell.

To take in an even fuller restoration, I made a pil-grimage much farther north to Pluscarden, Scotland. The monastic community has restored part of the origi-nal medieval buildings and church. Here the full monas-tic horarium is prayed, keep-ing the same hours Bede would have known. A few lines from a poem on the Pluscarden website capture the spirit of the site:


FEATURE

Cistercian Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, north of Durham

The Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire

A restored cell of Mount Grace Carthusian Priory

The altar of Pluscarden Abbey, near Elgin in Morayshire, Scotland

The Lauds and Matins of the past,In that calm place,

Still seem to linger in the airHalf-heard, half-dreamt . . .

[And] rise againTriumphant from defeated stone . . .

John-Bede Pauley, OSB, a monk of Saint John’s Abbey, is working on a Ph.D. in musicology at the University of Durham in northeast England.


FEATURE

As we twenty-five Colleg-eville pilgrims lined up at the great doors of the Church

of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Franciscan community escorted us into one of the holiest shrines of Christianity and led us to the tradi-tional tomb of Jesus. After the prior’s greeting of peace and blessing, we bowed and entered the tomb.

The solemnity of that experience, reserved for only a few groups, was a stark contrast to the days preceding it. For one week friends of Saint John’s Abbey, led by Geoffrey Fecht, OSB, and myself, as part of our Sesquicen-tennial celebration, had toured Galilee to visit sites associated with the life of Jesus.

“And now our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:2)

Collegeville pilgrims visit the Holy Land

by Eric Hollas, OSB

We wandered through the narrow streets of Nazareth to visit the church marking Jesus’ childhood. In Cana couples in the group renewed their marriage vows. On a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee we meditated on the Sermon on the Mount. At Capernaum we strode the pavements that Jesus trod and saw remains of homes and a synagogue that were familiar to his eyes. At the Jordan River we repeated our baptismal promises. At Bethlehem we celebrated the Eucharist at the Church of the Nativity in the crypt that once sheltered the remains of Saint Jerome, fourth-century Scripture scholar and Doctor of the Church.

Jerusalem was our ultimate desti-nation. Our visit coincided with the fortieth anniversary of the Six Day War that united Jerusalem. Emotion was especially evident at the Western Wall, the “Wailing Wall,” remnant of the Second Temple destroyed in 70 A.D. Places such as the Benedictine Dormition Abbey and the Mount of Olives served as sanctuaries from the summer heat and noise of the city. We were received by His Beatitude Mi-chael Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who described the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestin-ians. We proceeded to Qumran, the Dead Sea, Mount Sinai and Cairo where we visited a church that recalled the Holy Family’s sojourn in Egypt. In a papyrus shop we met a Benedictine pilgrim group from Manila, led by Gerardo De Villa, OSB, a Saint John’s University graduate. A small world indeed. The Holy Land still has the power to draw Christians from the ends of the earth. +

Eric Hollas, OSB, is senior associate of arts and cultural affairs for Saint John’s office of institutional advancement.

Collegeville pilgrims are blessed by Father Geoffrey as they renew their marriage vows in the church at Cana in Galilee where Jesus changed water into wine at a wedding.

Up and away to the top of Mount Sinai!


A Benedictine and Buddhist on a Paul Bunyan Pilgrimageby William Skudlarek, OSB

FEATURE

Jotipalo Bhikkhu and William Skudlarek

“It is possible for people of very different religious convictions to walk together in peace.”

Saint Benedict did not mince words when he spoke about monks who spent their lives

wandering from place to place. “Gyrovagues,” he said, are even worse than the “detestable sarabites,” whose only rule is to do whatever they desire.

So what was I thinking when I agreed to accompany a Buddhist monk on a tudong—a wandering pilgrimage—trusting in the generosity of strangers for our food and lodging?

I met Jotipalo Bhikkhu (“bhik-khu” is a Buddhist term for monks) at Abhayagiri Monastery in northern California three years ago. When he told me of his interest in doing a tudong and invited me to accompany him this past summer, I accepted the invitation. There is something about a pilgrim-age that crosses religious traditions and even attracts people who are not connected to any institutional religion.

Christian pilgrims walk to Compos-tella. Muslims undertake the Hajj. For others, as one writer put it, “pilgrim-age [itself] is the religion, and move-ment is the purest form of worship” (Michael Perry, Population 485, p. 209).

The tudong has a long and vener-able tradition in Buddhist monasti-cism, and I wanted to learn about it by actually doing it. I also wanted to walk with a Buddhist monk as a sign of interreligious harmony. In a time when religious and cultural differenc-es are exploited to produce fear and suspicion, I hoped that when people saw the two of us on the road—Joti-palo in his saffron robes, I in my black habit—they would recognize that it is possible for people of very different convictions to walk together in peace.

As we planned our itinerary, Jotipalo did an Internet search and discovered the 100-mile Paul Bunyan Trail in Minnesota, between Brainerd and Bemidji—the perfect length and

location. We began our pilgrimage at the trailhead on the afternoon of July 11, the Feast of Saint Benedict. The religion editor of the Brainerd Dis-patch was there to interview us, and shortly after we were on our way.

We each carried a small tent in our packs, and the first night we slept in the woods just off the trail. The next morning we arrived in Nisswa. A half hour of standing on a sidewalk hold-ing our empty alms bowls produced nothing but puzzled stares, so we had lunch at a restaurant, using monies people had donated before the trip and which I was carrying. (Jotipalo’s monastic rule does not allow monks to handle money.) We made our way to the local Catholic church to request permission to pitch our tents on the church grounds and were invited to sleep in the rectory instead. The fol-lowing night parishioners welcomed us into their home.

During the eight-day pilgrimage we only had to camp out one other time.

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Jotipalo and William on the Paul Bunyan Trail

FEATURE

Along the way people, some of whom had read about us in the Brainerd and St. Cloud newspapers, hosted us, gave us food, or simply stopped to say how grateful and happy they were to see the two of us walking together.

For Buddhists a tudong is an oppor-tunity to grow in trust by living in the present and experiencing how totally dependent we are on the goodness of others. That lesson was brought home to me most clearly the Sunday we went to Mass in Pequot Lakes.

Before the pastor started Mass he introduced us and explained what we were doing. He also announced a second collection for a shelter run by the parish. I thought it would be a good idea for us to contribute ten dol-lars from our limited resources. When

I asked Jotipalo how much we should give, he replied, “Fifty dollars.” Fifty dollars?! I panicked. We might run short; we might go hungry. But when the basket came around, I put in the forty-seven dollars I had on me. After Mass a woman sitting in front of us turned around, pressed a twenty-dollar bill in my hand, and said, “What you two are doing is really wonderful.” Outside the church a man did the same. When I told Jotipalo about it, he smiled and said, “I knew that would happen.”

Reliance on the generosity of house-holders (the laity) is central to the monastic code the Buddha entrusted to his followers. Jesus also wanted his disciples to be aware of their depen-

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dence on others. When he sent them to announce the kingdom, he told them to take nothing with them, but rather to accept the hospitality of those to whom they were sent. What better way to announce the kingdom than by witnessing to the way it is already present in the kind-ness people offer to strangers? +

William Skudlarek, OSB, is General Secretary of Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique/Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIM/MID). He and Jotipalo Bhikkhu posted a daily journal of their pilgrimage on www.monasticdialogue.org. Go to the News menu and click on “Interfaith pilgrimage.”

Trails from RailsPathways to Adventure and Discovery

Paul Bunyan State Trail - Heartland State Trail(Minnesota)


FEATURE

Minnesota Public Radio celebrates its 40th anniversaryby Jean Scoon

“In many ways I should be giving this award to Saint John’s Abbey. The unique characteristics of the Benedictine abbey enabled Minnesota

Public Radio to exist — and to succeed.” –Bill Kling ’64, on receiving the Colman J. Barry Award for Distinguished Contributions to Religion and Society last April in recognition of his leadership of Minnesota Public Radio for the past forty years.

Bill Kling, founding president and CEO of Minnesota Public Radio, accepts the Colman J. Barry Award.

It all started right here at Saint John’s. This nation’s premier public radio network was born

forty years ago in Collegeville. It was the brainchild of the visionary Col-man Barry, OSB, president of Saint John’s University from 1964-71, and Bill Kling ’64, an economics major with a passion for radio.

Those were the pioneering days of public radio, and Father Colman was excited by its potential to function as an extension of the university’s liberal arts mission on behalf of the

wider community. He dreamed of public radio serving as an “opening of windows to all clans and tribes in our times, as monasteries, those cherished first schools of Western society, have done for centuries.”

The monks of Saint John’s built a broadcasting studio on the fourth floor of Wimmer Hall in 1966. When it was completed Colman said to Kling, “Here’s your office. Start a radio sta-tion.”

And so he did.

On January 21, 1967, KSJR-FM Collegeville went on the air for the first time, with Kling as director of broadcasting. Tuned-in citizens of Central Minnesota were treated to a recording of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra that evening.

A few years later, in order to allow KSJR to expand and reach a wider audience, Saint John’s helped estab-lish an independent nonprofit entity. It gave the entire investment it had made in the station, including equipment and broadcasting licenses, to this new entity—an act of unusual generosity.


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• Largest regional public radio enterprise in the nation

• 800,000 Minnesotans listen an average of 8.5 hours a week

• Two full-time networks—news and classical music

• Subcarrier for the Radio Talking Book system with the State Services for the Blind

• Reaches nearly 15 million listeners weekly nationwide through its American Public Media Network

MPR TODAY

From these humble beginnings at Saint John’s, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), with Kling at the controls, has grown into the largest regional public radio enterprise in the nation, broadcasting award-winning program-ming from state-of-the-art facilities in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.

MPR’s fortieth anniversary was celebrated by alumni and friends at the annual “Saint John’s Day” held at the Minnesota History Center in

Colman Barry, OSB, and Bill Kling in the studio of KSJR in 1967.

St. Paul. The following excerpt from the Colman J. Barry Award citation presented to Bill Kling epitomizes his creative contribution: Today, as we celebrate both Saint John’s 150th anniversary and Minnesota Public Radio’s 40th year, there can be no greater affirmation of your success than this: You have fulfilled Fr. Colman’s dream beyond his wildest expectations—and he dreamed big. +

Jean Scoon is the director of Advance-ment Publications and Communications at Saint John’s University—and listens to MPR everyday.


FEATURE

Tales of the Tombstonesby Daniel Durken, OSB

Cemeteries are special places, made memorable by the earth-ly remains of our loved ones.

But there is something extra-special about the cemetery of Saint John’s Abbey. Here lie the monks —teach-ers, pastors, missionaries, craftsmen and skilled laborers, spiritual mentors,

superiors and the proverbial “charac-ters”—whom the monastic commu-nity welcomed, educated, assigned, loved or at least tolerated for the past 150 years. Here, too, are the men and women who worked and prayed with us as parishioners, teachers, neigh-bors, Oblates, friends.

Added to the uniqueness of this cem-etery are the tales of the tombstones. In contrast to the granite markers of the monks that are only engraved with their names and dates of birth and death, a number of the tombstones in the parish section display a creative flair for remembering the deceased. Come with me while I show you a few of these tombstone tributes.

Everyone’s favorite is the tombstone of Sherman Gogin (1904-1920). His tribute reads, “But fifteen years old was Sherman / Yet a giant in stature and mind. / From infancy wonder-ously pious and / Toward everyone considerate and kind.”

If Kenneth Borgert was anything like this description, I wish I had known him: “A musician, a storyteller. He loved fully and he remembered to laugh. Our beloved lives on in spirit.”

The marker of the Richard and Sharon Beach Family is engraved with the petals of a flower on which are their names and the names of their children (Jerome, Jeffrey, Jason, James and Joan) and these words: “As each petal falls, God tenderly takes it in his hand to reassemble, until one day his blos-som is complete. The family is God’s eternal daisy.”


FEATURE

Remember our loved ones who have gone to their rest:

William Earls

Martin Fruth

Leroy Jasmer

Kendrick Laloo

Jimmie McDonagh

L.T. Miller

Aloysius Nordick

Richard Pennock

Marie Schmit

Raphael Stovik, OSB

May they rest in peace.

The tombstones of parents sometimes list the names of their children. The marker of Joseph and Theresa Eisen-schenk gives these fourteen names: Jerome, Maurice, Marcella, Maryann, Coletta, Dennis, James, Arnold, Elvira, Rosalie, Leon, Kathleen, Theresa and Carol.

In a parish with a decidedly German character, the marker of Joseph and Gloria Ebacher stands out with its French saying, “With you on earth. With you in heaven.” Joseph was a university French teacher.

The tombstone of J.F. Powers, his wife Betty and daughter Mary quotes Alexander Pope: “Heav’n, its pur-est gold by Tortures try’d; The Saint sustained it, but the Woman dy’d.”

The careers of George and Isabelle Durenberger are remembered: “They lived their lives together in this com-munity from 1933. She as mother and executive assistant to university faculty. He as father, professor and as coach 1928-1960 and athletic direc-tor 1930-1972.” Then is added the coaching philosophy of “Big George”: “A coach should be judged not only on his ability to produce winning teams, but also on whether or not he has made a positive contribution to the moral, mental, social and emo-tional growth of students.”

The memorial of John and Jean Matzke capitalizes on the eastern orientation of the parish cemetery with this quotation from William Shakespeare: “But look, the morn,/ in russet mantle clad,/ walks o’er the dew/ of yon hi eastward hill” (by Horatio in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 1). +


Meet a Monk: From Iowa to Italy with Michael Naughton, OSBby Daniel Durken, OSB

FEATURE

A “checkered career” is the way Father Michael describes his life as a member of Saint

John’s Abbey. His cousin Marilyn taught him that there is a big world beyond the fertile fields of corn and soybeans surrounding his hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa, and he wanted to see it.

So Michael came to Collegeville, entered the abbey, was ordained in 1966 and accepted a variety of as-signments––associate pastor, director of pastoral education in Saint John’s Seminary, high school teacher in Nassau, Bahamas, editor and direc-tor of Liturgical Press, administrator of an abbey in Richmond, Virginia, and now the prior of the International Benedictine College of Saint Anselm in Rome.

The seventeen years (1984-2001) Michael served as editor and director of Liturgical Press were particularly productive ones. During his tenure new projects and products of the Press include the following: the introduction of desktop publishing that allows each typesetter to page design a publica-tion in one on-screen operation; the acquisition of titles and imprints of the publishing houses of Michael Gla-

Michael at the entrance to the International Benedictine College of Saint Anselm in Rome.

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The official language of the school is Italian. About this Michael says: “The Italian language is Baroque (probably echoing the architecture). One has to learn to think in a differ-ent way, inverting things such as, ‘It I know,’ or ‘To him I asked today to bring me the book new when he is returned from the city distant.’ It is like thinking in seventeenth-century English, a brain-fryer. Somehow Italians make it work, and work very quickly. It is easy to understand non-Italians when they speak Italian, but on the streets I hardly understand a word, and it is not because Italians speak quietly!”

zier, Inc., and the Pueblo Company to expand the Press’ academic offerings in Scripture, theology and liturgy; the publication of two new theological journals, several encyclopedic diction-aries and multi-volume commentar-ies on the Old and New Testaments; and the publication of Spanish titles such as the Spanish-English quarterly Misal del pueblo.

Three years ago Michael began his assignment as the prior of Sant’ Anselmo in Rome. Founded in 1687, restored in 1888, and settled in its present location on Rome’s Aventine Hill in 1893, the College of Saint Anselm is the international academic institution for Benedictines. The school’s name, “Atheneum,” originally meant a temple or building where scholars and poets read their works. Sant’ Anselmo is more aptly a university with graduate programs in theology, monastic studies, philoso-phy and liturgy. It is also the home of the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy, drawing students from all over Rome. Men and women enroll in the school but only men—thirty-five professors and administrators and eighty-five stu-dents from forty-six countries—live in the college.

Marshalltown


FEATURE

Michael relaxes with pipe in his office.

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As the prior of Sant’ Anselmo, Michael “runs the house,” serving those who are there to earn degrees. He organizes the academic year in conjunction with the rector of the Ath-eneum who sets the school schedule. Much of Michael’s time is spent as the “point man” for the acceptance of new residents. This involves obtaining the proper signatures and seals from the Congregation of Religious and the Vatican Secretariat of State. Michael has observed that every office and official has a seal. He fantasizes that Italian officials are buried with their seals instead of a rosary in their hands.

Non-European residents must also apply for a resident permit, a proce-dure that changes almost with the cy-cles of the moon. New students have to wade through a thirty-page booklet of data. The admission procedure has tightened up considerably in recent years due to world conditions.

Perhaps the most important duty of the prior is to show up at daily events such as Morning Prayer, Mass, meals, recreation and important social events of the house. His presence and some-times a few well-placed words to indi-viduals keep residents from becoming academic recluses or social gadflies. The college follows an adaptable monastic schedule: Morning Prayer and Mass are celebrated at 6:20 in lan-guage groups in small chapels around the house; Midday Prayer is at 12:50, Vespers at 7:15 and optional Compline at 8:00. Pranzo, the main meal at 1:00, and Vespers (celebrated in Latin with Gregorian Chant) draw the com-munity together. Having an excellent cook encourages attendance at pranzo. There are long stretches of time for study and classes each morning and afternoon.

“Checkered” indeed has been the Iowa-to-Italy jour-ney of this monk who is willing and able to respond generously and creatively to a multitude of ministries. There is no reason to believe that Rome will be the last of his assignments. Michael keeps his passport up-to-date and handy. +

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FEATURE

Rene McGraw, OSB, receives Teacher of Distinction Award

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“Rene is truly a master teacher, in and out of the classroom” (Dietrich Reinhart, OSB).

At the university faculty awards assembly in May, Father Rene, associate professor of

philosophy, received the Robert L. Spaeth Teacher of Distinction Award. Named after the popular teacher and dean of the college from 1979 to 1994, this award recognizes a col-league who brings a special passion and mastery to the learning commu-nity. This excerpt is from the citation read by Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president of Saint John’s University.

Rene is a philosopher who pursues philosophy—thinking about difficult and deep ideas—in communion with others. His following among decades of students is a legend; his classes are demanding and fascinating. He really wants students to understand the text by reading it one sentence at a time. Somewhere in this close word-by-word inspection, a world of thought opens up.

Rene is one of those rarest of us who, simply in conversation, makes our minds active, and we leave the conversation or his classroom en-riched. This special relationship is perhaps his greatest contribution to his profession. He has nurtured interest

and understanding in both his best and more casual students. A colleague of Rene observes, “I have watched a steady stream of confused, worried, troubled students make their way to Rene’s office for advice and comfort. And I have watched these students return years later to pay their respect for a man who extended kindness and wisdom when they most needed it.”

Rene is truly a master teacher, in and out of the classroom, and it is with great pleasure that I salute Father Rene McGraw as recipient of the 2007 Robert L. Spaeth Teacher of Distinction Award.

Opening a road to truth and insecurityby Rene McGraw, OSB

Excerpts from Father Rene’s Address to the Assemblyat the 2007 Academic Convocation and Matriculation of Saint John’s University

I am reading Michael Dillon’s book, The Politics of Security. Since his primary field is inter-

national relations, he begins with the way international relations have long been understood as nations struggling for security. Look at our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 9/11 our nation wants to make the country se-cure so that nothing like this will ever happen again.

People worry about their jobs and want to be secure from immigrants, even though they don’t want to take jobs the immigrants take. Nations build bigger and better weapons and then find out that they are not secure anyway because little countries defeat big countries. Where has all the secu-rity gone?

As Dillon looks at international relations, he sees that the search for security has become the pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. It is not just international relations that are guided by the search for security: it is educa-tion, business, housing, religion and philosophy. Indeed it is all our lives.


FEATURE

Father Rene moderates a class discussion.

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In first grade we work hard to secure the approval of our teacher and parents. If we are a bit shy and non-athletic on the playground, we work hard to make our life secure with friends who like us no matter what. In high school, where sports are all demanding, we are embarrassed if we are males who are also interested in theatre, music or art.

We look to get a good education in college to insure a good job so we will have security. Sometimes we even wonder whether we are securing a place in heaven.

Yet we are never secure. I love the gospel story in which Jesus talks about the man who decides to build bigger barns to take care of his abundant har-vest. He finishes and says to himself, “You have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” But God said to him, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you” (Luke 12:19-20). Death is our ultimate insecurity.

If education, international relations and life are not about learning how to gain security, then what is it all about?

Education should make us want to reach a fuller truth. Not security, but truth, which the great moral thinker Mahatma Gandhi said is the goal of life. It’s like a tree with thousands of leaves. We pick up a leaf here and there and gradually begin to see how one leaf is connected to a branch of the tree, and the whole tree is fed by the roots, the soil and the sun. We begin to pick up a hundred leaves. But ten thousand leaves remain that shall not be gathered up in this life. Truth never quite fully arrives.

The philosopher Martin Heidegger uses a different image. Truth is about uncovering. What students should discover is that what was once hidden becomes a little more uncovered. It is like the little theatre at the College of Saint Benedict. There is no curtain,

and so in darkness the actors come out. As the lights gradually come on, what was hidden is revealed. But each person in the audience never sees or hears everything. Never, even with repeat performances, will we get the whole story. Never will we get the whole truth. We shall always be inse-cure.

The fullness of truth would be the uncovering that comes when all is revealed. Then we would be secure. But that shall never happen this side of eternity. Only one hundred or one thousand of those leaves will be uncovered during our lifetime.

It is exciting when we uncover one more connection, when we see how math, physics, technology, war, peace, justice and literature are beginning to connect. When biology, poetry, anthropology and philosophy all touch each other, the exhilaration we experience is the very heart of liberal education which is the road totruth . . . and insecurity. +


FEATURE

Monks publish works on poetry, music and prayerYahweh’s Other Shoe by Kilian McDonnell, OSB

CD of multi-lingual hymns by Trinity Benedictine Monastery, Fujimi, Japan

Members of Saint John’s dependent priory in Japan recorded a CD of Japanese,

English and Latin hymns to com-memorate the sixtieth anniversary of Saint Anselm’s Parish and Priory in Tokyo (1947). From this foundation Trinity Benedictine Monastery was established in Fujimi in 1999.

The nine selections on the CD are as follows:

+ Morning Hymn, Japanese translation of Come, Thy Almighty King + Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79), Canticle with antiphon for the Feast of Saint Benedict+ Offering of Incense, arranged by William Skudlarek, OSB, from Gregorian chant, Psalm 141+ Japanese Evening Hymn composed by Trappists of Tobetsu, Hokkaido+ Magnificat (Luke 1:45-55), Canticle with antiphon for the Feast of Saint Scholastica+ Canticle of Simeon (Luke 2:29- 32) with antiphon, arranged by William Skudlarek, OSB+ Japanese Marian Hymn, composed by Saburo Takada+ Salve Regina in Latin, traditional Gregorian chant+ Easter Hymn (English) of the text O Filii et Filiae by Jean Tisserand; tune by Richard Proulx

Despite Father Kilian’s recognition that only five percent of the public read poetry, he is not deterred from publishing his poems. This collec-tion was one of the five finalists in the poetry category of the 2007

Minnesota Book Awards. One of the author’s favorites is:

JOSEPH, I’M PREGNANT BY THE HOLY GHOST

Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man . . . planned to dismiss her quietly.

Matthew 1:19

Life was simple before that angel pushed open the kitchen door, announced light and trouble, as though a foe had roiled the bottom of the well and now the pail brings up only

murky water. I’m chosen for some terrible grace beyond the well. After short light long dark, left to stumble through the Sinai

Desert. No manna to gather, no quail to catch. Nothing. When I tell Joseph I’m pregnant by the Holy Ghost, he stares, ox-dumb in hurt. I’ve asked

him to believe that I, God’s Moses-girl, part seas, give Torah. He turns, leaves without a word. Why should my dearest

love believe? Yahweh’s not fair. Where’s the voice of light? Where the pillar of fire? My man drops me cold, as though I were a concubine

dismissed without a drachma for cheating on her master’s blanket with that swarthy Roman soldier from the barracks. Joseph doesn’t expose me; I will not

be stoned. My heart eats Yahweh’s cinders; I drink the last date wine gone sour at the dregs. God does nothing. But I carry life.

FEATURE


Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform by Anthony Ruff, OSB

Anthony Ruff, OSB, associate professor of liturgy and liturgical music

at Saint John’s University/School of Theology•Seminary, has published the doctoral dissertation he defended at the University of Graz, Austria, in 1998.

Sacred Music and Liturgical Re-form: Treasures and Transformations (Chicago/Mundelein: Hillenbrand Books/ Liturgy Training Publications, 2007), is a 682-page comprehensive study of the historical and theoretical currents which led to the teaching on sacred music of Vatican II. The book is praised as “a balanced answer to the continuing debate about the place of the music of the past in the liturgy of the present.”

The Bells of the Banner CD by Martin Rath, OSB

Recently retired as chaplain of St. Mary’s Care Center in Winsted, Minnesota, Father

Martin produced a CD of original recitations and melodies to entertain and inspire the elderly, the sick and the blind whom he served.

Guitarist and vocalist Dale Strong provides the musical accompaniment. Selections include “A Man of Peace,” “In the Evening Twilight,” and “Oh How I Love You.”

The Collegeville Prayer of the Faithful Annual, 2008 Cycle A by Michael Kwatera, OSB

Father Michael, director of liturgy and of Oblates for Saint John’s Abbey, presents the

Prayer of the Faithful for the Sundays and major feasts of the new liturgical year. Included is a CD-ROM of inter-cessions easily adaptable for parish use.

The author recognizes that “prepar-ing prayers for the Christian assembly to pray is a challenging but rewarding task.” He meets this challenge admi-rably well.

These titles may be purchased from Liturgical Press (1-800-858-5450 or www.litpress.org) or Saint John’s Bookstore (1-800-420-4509 or www.csbsju.edu/bookstore.org). The publi-cations of Fathers Anthony and Martin are only available at the bookstore. +

■ The Minnesota Gophers’ new football coach, Tim Brewster, brought the team to Saint John’s for a week of creating esprit de corps and prac-ticing. Randy Taylor of the coach-ing staff visited Saint Raphael’s Retirement Center on August 10 and distributed University of Minnesota caps and t-shirts to the residents.

■ The community met on August 20 to “articulate a statement of expect-ed monastic practices for monks, whether living at the monastery or elsewhere. Among the practices, the statement addressed common and individual prayer, Eucharist, meals and communal decision making.”

■ Early in the academic year, Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict reported the largest


THE ABBEY CHRONICLE

What’s Up?The Abbey Chronicle

“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.”(Pietro Aretino)

Our midsummer drought was dissipated in August when we were

blessed with more than six inches of welcome rain on twelve days of measureable precipitation. The next two months followed the same pat-tern—3.11 inches of rain on fourteen days of September and 5.20 inches on eleven days of October. The first half of November, however, has been dry except for the first few snow flur-ries on the 5th, just enough to delight optimists as their first sign of spring.

August 2007

■ The south side of the Breuer wing of the monastery began showing its age several years ago with stains from rusting screens discoloring the façade. A display of photos entitled “Our Shabby Abbey” revealed that it was time to spruce up the building. Painters and carpen-ters restored “Our Clean Cloister” as these before, during and after photos show.

U of M coach distributes caps and t-shirts.

by Daniel Durken, OSB

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“The Icicle Bicycle” by Fran Hoefgen, OSB

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THE ABBEY CHRONICLE

combined enrollment of any national liberal arts college: 1,917 at Saint John’s, 2,049 at Saint Benedict’s for a total of 3,966 undergradu-ates. The School of Theology has 84 full-time students. The Prep School enrolled 337 students, a 39-year high. Orientation for freshmen Johnnies included a “Meet a Monk” session.

September 2007

■ Finian McDonald, OSB, orchid grower extraordinaire, won two first-place blue ribbons and one second-place red ribbon from the Orchid Society of Minnesota in conjunction with the Minnesota State Fair. His blue-ribbon winners were the denro-brium and the phalaenopis orchids. His orchid arrangement was a red-rib-bon winner. Congratulations, Finian!

■ A rain and wind storm, including a tornado warning swept through the Collegeville campus on September 21. Four large trees were snapped, crack-led and popped. Several downed trees had been designated for eventual elimination due to dete-riorated condition. The tree pictured had a cache of hickory nuts and pine cones stashed in the hol-low trunk by provident squirrels. The ever-effi-cient grounds crew had the tree debris cleared by noon the following day.

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October 2007

■ The newly completed Petters Pavilion won an award from the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota for preserving one of the state’s historic properties, the Saint John’s Abbey Church. The pavilion’s design carefully complements the church so that, as an architect for the building stated, ”It looks like it was always there.” Work has begun to reroute the roof drains to eliminate water leaking into the pavilion during heavy rains.

■ Dunstan Moorse, OSB, reported that approximately 100 bushels of organic Haralson, Connell Red and Honey Crisp apples were harvested from the abbey’s orchard. The qual-ity of the harvest is due to the selec-tive pruning done last spring by Benedict Leuthner, OSB, and Bruce Wollmering, OSB.

November 2007

■ The abbey continued its tradition of praying for deceased fam-ily members and friends of those who submitted the names of the dead on Remembrance Cards. Monks picked up one or several of the hundreds of such cards and during the Liturgy of the Hours and the Eucharist prayed for those listed.

■ Bruce Wollmering, OSB, coordinator of the abbey gardens, prepared an extensive inventory of the garden produce harvested from mid-May to early November. A sampling of the products by pounds includes: radishes, 60; lettuce, 54; peppers, 100; tomatoes, 1,823; zucchini, 204; cucumbers, 330; summer squash, 345; winter squash, 1,913; carrots, 68; Peruvian purple potatoes, 189; and 315 pumpkins. The total yield was 10,189 pounds or slightly over five ton.

■ Timothy Backous, OSB, said it first (in jest): As the MC of this month’s Administrative Assembly luncheon on November 14, he began by announcing, “Welcome to the first event of the Saint John’s . . . BICENTENNIAL.” +

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FEATURE

Focusing on obedience in his homily preceding the profes-sion of vows of these two

monks, Abbot John stated, “Each of us is called to obedience. We are called to listen to the Holy Spirit who works a slow transformation in ways we cannot imagine. Always the most difficult obedience is to do what we must do right now and not delay.”

And so without delay Father Nicko-las and Brother Dan made their initial commitment to obedience, stability and the monastic way of life on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14.

Nickolas Lee Becker, 32, one of five children of Robert and Mary Becker of Wesley, Iowa, earned degrees in history, Catholic life and thought, and divinity from the Univer-sity of Notre Dame and Saint Meinrad Seminary. Ordained for the Diocese of Sioux City, he ministered in several parishes and taught theology at Briar Cliff University, Sioux City. His inter-est in monasticism brought him to Saint John’s.

Nickolas, while serving as faith formation coordinator in university campus ministry, facilitates programs for students to learn more about our Catholic and Benedictine traditions.

He is also studying Greek at Saint John’s School of Theology.

Dan Patrick Morgan, 27, the third son of Bernie and Mona Morgan of Savage, Minnesota, is a 2003 Saint John’s graduate with a major in com-puter science. He was a championship swimmer on the swim team and is an accomplished performer on the Irish uillean pipes. For several years he managed the United States branch of a Swiss software company.

Dan is serving as assistant coach to the Saint John’s swim team and assis-tant to the abbey’s vocation director. He is taking a graduate course in Saint John’s School of Theology. +

Nickolas Becker, OSB, and Dan Morgan, OSB, profess first monastic vows

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L. to r.: JP Earls, (formation director), Father Nickolas, Brother Dan, Abbot John

Benedictine candidate invested

Having completed his three-month formation program as a candidate, Johnnie Haynes

Senna, 44, entered the novitiate on September 11. He received the name of Aelred, after Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, a twelfth-century reformer of Cistercians.

The oldest of the three children of Michael (deceased) and Patty Senna and a Texan by birth, Novice Aelred has spent the past decade as director of product management for National Geographic School Publishing/Hamp-ton-Brown in California.

Previously he worked as an English as a Second Language teacher, and as an actor and singer. He was a college seminarian for the Diocese of Dallas during the mid-80s and has been discerning a Bene-dictine vocation since then. +

L. to r.: brother Michael Damon, mother Patty, Novice Aelred, sister Dee Vos

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FEATURE


Martin Rath, OSB, retires

Robert Pierson, OSB, new Abbey guestmaster, previously served as pas-tor, director of field education, spiritual direc-tor and rector

of Saint John’s Seminary, vocation director and university chaplain. He continues as Spiritual Life Program director and volunteer chaplain at the St. Cloud Prison.

Corwin Collins, OSB, completed twenty-one-and-a-half years as pastor of Seven Dolors Church, Albany, Minnesota. He will spend the

spring semester in a renewal pro-gram at Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a teacher and administrator at Saint John’s Prep School and Benilde-Saint Margaret Mary High School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

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New assignments

Having celebrated his 85th birthday and the 57th anni-versary of his first profession,

Father Martin has retired from St. Mary’s Care Center, Winsted, Min-nesota, where he served as chaplain the past eleven years. He previously worked as gardener, monastic dining room supervisor, assistant manager of the university bookstore, night watch-man and Collegeville postmaster.

Ordained in 1983, Martin minis-tered to several Minnesota parishes and nursing homes. He founded and was the spiritual director of Nazareth House in St. Paul, a facility for prayer and hospitality. The publication of his CD, “The Bells of the Banner,” is noted on page 23.

Jonathan Licari, OSB, new pastor of Seven Dolors Church in Albany, Minne-sota, has taught in and chaired the university’s undergraduate

theology department, served as prior of the monastic community and as pastor of Holy Name Parish, Medina, Minnesota.

Luke Steiner, OSB, now serves as chap-lain of the Poor Clare Nuns in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. He previously was pastor of Saint Augustine’s

Church, St. Cloud, and Scripture teacher, director of the Jerusalem Study Program and rector of Saint John’s Seminary.

Cyprian Weaver, OSB, completed sixteen years of teaching and research at Fu Jen University, Taipei, Taiwan, and has accept-ed the position of Director and

Head of the Histopathology Core Laboratory Facility for the Lillihei Heart Institute at the University of Minnesota Medical School. +

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Rich Ruprecht, master baker, has made a lot of doughby Daniel Durken, OSB

At a dollar a loaf, he would almost be a millionaire.

If Rich Ruprecht received a dollar for every loaf of Saint John’s Bread he baked, he would

almost be a millionaire. Baking an estimated thousand loaves a week or about 50,000 loaves a year, Rich’s production total would be 900,000 loaves, give or take a few hundred, during his eighteen years in the Saint John’s bakery.

Beginning in 1978 as a cook, Rich gave us our daily bread from 1989 until his retirement last February for health reasons. He learned the process from lay employee Adrian Weber who succeeded Clem Meyer.

It took a couple of years to master the intricacies of the machinery and the environment of the bakery where the temperature is ten degrees warmer

than in the kitchen. His work began at 3:30 p.m. and ended at midnight.

The process begins by mix-ing the basic flour with All Purpose Swany White flour milled in nearby Freeport. A pitcher of water is gradually added to create just the right consistency. When the large batch of dough is ready, it is cut and weighed into loaves of two pounds, two ounces. The extra ounces compensate for the weight lost in the baking. Then the loaves are baked.

The hot, dry heat of the ovens creates the tougher crust, one of the likeable features of the genuine Saint John’s Bread not matched by the com-mercial variety. Each batch of dough

produces between sixty-three and sixty-five loaves in two to two-and-a-half hours. Four or five batches are baked during the eight-hour shift.

Paschal Botz, OSB, of happy memory, was a frequent visitor to the bakery. From him Rich learned

that when Marie Antoinette said of the rebellious poor, “Let them eat cake,” she did not mean dessert cake. Rather, the burnt bottom of the baker’s loaf that was sliced off and tossed away was called cake.

Since his retirement Rich has given full attention to his gardening. He specializes in growing two hundred varieties of hosta on his two-acre plot near Rockville, about fifteen miles from Collegeville. Without benefit of identification signs, Rich names from memory the “Paul’s Glory,” “Regal Splendor,” “Big Daddy,” “Big Mama” and “Baby Bunting.” Primacy of place is given to the lancifolia variety, the original hosta developed by a German botanist from a plant in Japan and brought to the United States by Ger-man immigrants in 1850.

Rich Ruprecht’s life is therefore circumscribed by flour and flower. He has done extraordinarily well with both. +The hosta with the mosta

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BENEDICTINE VOLUNTEERS


The buildings of the Abbey of Jesus Christ Crucified in Esquipulas, Guatemala

Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps gains six new members and a new location

Informed and inspired by a two-week orientation program under the direction of Paul Richards,

OSB, program founder, six recent graduates of Saint John’s University have departed for their service assign-ments at Benedictine communities in the States and abroad.

Teaching at Hanga Abbey in Songea, Tanzania, are 2006 graduates Lewis Grobe, German and humanities major from Minnetonka, Minnesota, and Derek Johnson, economics major from Edina, Minnesota. The 123 monks of Hanga Abbey, the largest Benedictine community in Africa, operate primary, secondary and industrial schools, a seminary, hospital and dispensary. Four Benedictine Volunteers are 2007 graduates. Jonathan Seldat, theology major from Marshall, Minnesota, and Ted Welle, sociol-ogy major from Pierz, Minnesota, are student tutors and teacher assistants at Saint Benedict Prep in Newark, New Jersey.

This inner-city school was estab-lished by the Benedictines of Newark Abbey, founded in 1857. It has an enrollment of 575 students in grades seven through twelve.

Elementary education major Michael Anderson from Waconia, Minnesota, and Liam Sperl, peace studies major from Menomonie, Wisconsin, are the first Benedictine Volunteers to serve at the Abbey of Jesus Christ Crucified in Esquipulas, Guatemala.

Founded in 1959 by the monks of Saint Joseph Abbey, Saint Bene-dict, Louisiana, the abbey is known throughout Central America as a place of pilgrimage. A million and a quarter pilgrims visit Esquipulas annually to venerate the more than 400-year-old shrine of El Cristo Negro.

The twenty-three Benedictines minister to the pilgrims, townspeople and villagers. They also operate a pre-K–12 school, a dairy farm, citrus grove, radio station and a remarkable flowering park around the basilica and monastery. +

L. to r., Michael Anderson, Paul Richards, OSB (director), Liam Sperl

Back row: Derek Johnson, Ted Welle. Front row: Brendan McInerny, Lew Grobe, Jon Seldat. (Brendan withdrew from the program for personal and family reasons.)

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Ground-blessing-and-breaking for Prep School expansion

FEATURE


The addition to Bede Hall, Prep School

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Hard hats and shovels were in style on October 27 at the ground-blessing-and-break-

ing for a 22,600 square-foot addition to Bede Hall, the academic building of Saint John’s Preparatory School. Seventy-five people gathered for the occasion that concluded with a supper of bean soup and Saint John’s Bread, reminiscent of the meal the first stu-dents and monks had 150 years ago.

Thanks to the 1997 addition of a middle school for seventh- and eighth-grade students plus the increase of international students, Prep School enrollment has nearly doubled during the past dozen years. The current total of 337 students is a thirty-nine year high. With an anticipated goal of 360 students, these teen-agers are out-growing their buildings as fast as they outgrow their clothes.

The four-story addition will house classrooms, restrooms and common space for the middle school, two

music rooms, an elevator to make both old (1962) and new buildings handicapped acces-sible, a large multipurpose conference room and space for expansion.

Rice Building Systems, Inc., of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, is the design/build contractor who expects to be finished for the 2008-09 school year at a cost of $3 million. +

A phalanx of hard hats and shovels start the construction of the Bede Hall expansion at the Prep School.

Guests enjoy a bean soup and black bread supper, the daily fare of the first Preps 150 years ago.

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SPIRITUAL LIFED

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Benedict, Balance, and Burnoutby Robert Pierson, OSB

We need to learn from Benedict’s example.

Slowing down on the Highway to Heaven

Many people are too busy these days. Too often the retreatants I direct tell me

they struggle to find time to pray. Many of them have a hard time keeping their work and other commit-ments in balance. St. Benedict has an answer: Do a bit of everything that is needed to be well, and all will be well. The daily monastic schedule that Benedict lays out provides time for all the important things in a monk’s life: community prayer, private prayer, work, meals, sleep, etc. If we want to translate the wisdom of Benedict’s way into our lives outside the monas-tery, we need to learn from his exam-ple. We must make sure that we have time for all the essentials for a good life such as prayer, fulfilling work, good nutrition, exercise, time with loved ones, adequate sleep. This kind of balance does not come naturally. Too often work becomes the most important thing on our plate. We find that work occupies more and more of our time and energy, even

when we are not working. Many of us also have a hard time saying “no” to requests for our time and talent, and we end up with too many good things to do. When we recognize ourselves being pulled in too many directions, we need to remember that sometimes saying “no” is the most loving thing we can do. A friend recommended a good book that has helped me practice what I am preaching here: Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How to Create a More Peaceful, Simpler Life from the Inside Out (HarperCollins, 1997). The authors, Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey, maintain that much of the stress in our lives comes from how we think about our lives. I do not have enough space here to go into more de-tail. Check out their book for yourself. I highly recommend it. You may order it from the Saint John’s Bookstore at 1-800-420-4509. +

Robert Pierson, OSB, is the director of the abbey’s Spiritual Life Program and the abbey guestmaster.

Retreat Schedule for 2008We have two group retreats

scheduled at the Abbey Guest-house in the next few months.

February 29 to March 2 Our Lenten Retreat will be led by Father Eric Hollas, OSB.

His topic will be: “The Pilgrim’s Way from Ash Wednesday

to Easter.”

May 30 to June 1 Our Spring Retreat will be led by Father Nathanael Hauser,

OSB. His topic will be:“The Human Face of God.”

For further information about these retreats, please contact the

Spiritual Life Office at 320-363-3929 or e-mail us at

[email protected].


Sunday at the AbbeyThe 2008 Abbey Lecture Series

PO Box 2015Collegeville, MN 56321-2015www.saintjohnsabbey.org

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID Saint John’s Abbey

Sunday at the Abbey is a January-April/September-December lecture series sponsored by Saint John’s Abbey. Monks and invited speakers address the relationship of monasticism to theology, culture, and contemporary issues facing the church and society. The presentations are held on designated Sundays at 7:00 PM in the Chapter House of the Petters Pavilion adjoining the Abbey Church. The lectures are free of charge.

January 20 Anthony Ruff, OSB, Associate Professor of Liturgy and Liturgical Music “Sing to the Lord” — How United States Bishops Write a Music Document

February 10 Adam Minter, American journalist in Shanghai who writes regularly about the Catholic Church in China Catholicism with Shanghai Characteristics — Faith’s Future Meets Its Past

March 9 Hilary Thimmesh, OSB, Professor of English Flawed Monasticism: Religious Ideals and the Good Life in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

April 13 Jerome Coller, OSB, Composer, Pianist, Organist 21st Century Hymns: One Composer’s View Can We Create a Legacy?

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