Abbey Banner
Fall 2012
do not reduce in size
(size or place between 100% and greater)
use alternative logo for smaller size
O LORD, how great are your works!
How deep are your designs!
--Psalm 92:6
Alan Reed, O.S.B.
This Issue
Abbey Banner
Listen, my son, to your master’s precepts,
and incline the ear of your heart.
--Rule of Benedict, Prologue 1
Magazine of Saint John’s Abbey
Published three times annually (spring, fall,
winter) by the monks of Saint John’s Abbey.
Editor: Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
Editorial assistants: Aaron Raverty, O.S.B.;
Dolores Schuh, C.H.M.
Fujimi bureau chief: Roman Paur, O.S.B.
Abbey archivist: David Klingeman, O.S.B.
University archivist: Peggy Roske.
Design: Alan Reed, O.S.B.
Circulation: Ruth Athmann, Mary Gouge,
Jan Jahnke, Cathy Wieme, Danielle Ziehl.
Copyright © 2012 by Order of Saint
Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.
All rights reserved.
Printed in Waite Park, Minnesota,
by Palmer Printing.
Saint John’s Abbey
Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-2015
[email protected]
http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/banner/
index.html
Change of address:
Ruth Athmann at [email protected]
Box 7222, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7222
Phone: 800.635.7303.
This issue of Abbey Banner celebrates Saint Benedict as depicted in
bronze by Brother David Paul Lange and Mr. Steven Lemke, a young
man, just beginning his search for God. On a campus that is home to
over two thousand students, Saint Benedict invites another generation
of explorers to listen to the voice of the master. Abbot John Klassen
reflects on the role of reading and learning in the spiritual journey of
Benedict and in each of our lives, and how Brother David Paul’s statue
captures that reality. Brother Simon-Hòa Phan introduces us to this
latest sculptural addition to Saint John’s, tracing its transformation from
computer drawing to clay model to finished bronze, sharing the sculptor’s inspiration, and critiquing the statue’s significance. Brother Alan
Reed presents other images of our monastic patron and spiritual guide.
Our community observed the feast of Saint Benedict, 11 July, with glad
celebration as Brother Peter Sullivan and Father John Meoska professed
their solemn (lifetime) vows as Benedictine monks and Brother Isaiah
Frederick professed his first vows. We are introduced to this generation
of seekers as well as to nine jubilarians celebrating their silver, golden, or
diamond anniversary of monastic commitment.
Not all those who seek the mercy of God do so within the fellowship of
a monastic community. Brother Daniel Morgan outlines the Youth in
Theology and Ministry program that brings scores of teenagers to Saint
John’s each summer to deepen their faith and explore their vocation.
Mr. Ben DeMarais and Brother Paul Richards update us on The Saint
John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps, the newest members and the newest
program. Mr. Matthew Palmquist reflects on how his Benedictine heart
was formed as an undergraduate at Saint John’s.
Violence, crime, and evil have confronted every generation of humankind.
Father Robert Pierson shares the story of our community’s ministry to
those in jail or prison, while Sister Kathleen Hughes tells of the service to
prisoners of war by our late confrere Father Godfrey Diekmann.
In this issue we also outline the work of our missionary confreres
in Japan, reflect on how prayer changes things, and learn about the
avocation of one of our senior members, Father Fintan Bromenshenkel—
who is rumored to have been taught his woodsman skills by Paul Bunyan!
Father Timothy Backous closes this issue with a story of how sadness can
be transformed into service.
Cover: Saint Benedict sculpture by Brother
David Paul Lange and Steven Lemke in the
auditorium plaza.
Photo: Alan Reed, O.S.B.
4
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
The editorial staff joins with Abbot John and the monastic community
in extending prayers and best wishes to all our readers for the Spirit’s
guidance in their search for God. --Brother Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
Reading and Learning
Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B.
W
hen speaking of Saints Dominic, Clare, Francis, Ignatius
of Loyola, Francis de Sales, or Elizabeth Ann Seton, many
people make reference to the “charism of the founder.” But
such a designation does not really apply to Saint Benedict (or Saint
Scholastica). Benedict is the beneficiary of three hundred years of
monastic exploration: in the Egyptian desert, in the ten-membered cells
of Pachomius, in the communities of Augustine, Basil, Caesarius of
Arles, and other immediate precursors.
Benedict had a genius for reshaping, synthesizing, and adding new
material in his “little Rule . . . for beginners” (Rule, 73.8). He created a
structure of community life that is truly sacramental, functioning as a
fundamental graced medium for each member’s salvation and journey
to God.
Abbey archives
The word “community” can easily become a buzzword—like
Philadelphia Cream Cheese, just spread it over everything! It then
lacks the specificity that supports its true meaning and purpose.
Not so for Benedict and his Rule. There are, in fact, numerous
elements in the Rule that give substance and definition to Benedictine
community, such as calling it together for counsel, coming together
at specified times for prayer, practicing lectio divina, or having all
members take their turns at serving in the dining room or elsewhere
in the monastery. For Benedict, community also means disallowing
murmuring, complaining, and gossiping; giving each member a place
in the community so that each knows where he or she stands; treating
each person with respect; and constantly referring to the holy purpose
of the community.
The statue of Benedict created by Brother David Paul Lange, O.S.B.,
images Benedict as a young man, such as one of our students. The
sculpted monk has a full head of hair, a muscular gesture and stance,
with a stature comparable to the viewer. He is not on a pedestal;
he is not monumental. At his feet is a stack of books, a reference to
Benedict’s expectation that monks are to be given books, especially the
Bible, that are to be read from beginning to end.
In the concluding chapter of the Rule (73), Benedict points to the
literature that he found beneficial for his own monastic life and for
crafting the Rule itself. The sculpture of Benedict boldly reflects the
truth of his life and of ours: ongoing reading and learning are essential
dimensions of our spiritual journey.
Abbey Banner
Fall 2012
5
Monastic Profession
O
n the feast of Saint
Benedict, 11 July, the
monks of Saint John’s
Abbey rejoiced in God’s blessings
as Brother Isaiah Frederick
professed simple (temporary)
vows, and Brother Peter Sullivan,
O.S.B., and Father John Meoska,
O.S.B., professed solemn (lifetime)
vows as Benedictine monks.
Nine other confreres were
honored on the occasion of their
silver, golden, or diamond jubilee
of monastic profession.
Brother Isaiah Frederick, from
Phoenix, Arizona, graduated
from Saint John’s University in
1995 with a bachelor’s degree in
accounting and was a member of
the U.S. Army Reserve Officers’
Training Corps (ROTC). He then
served four years in the Army as
a field artillery officer. Following
active duty he worked in public
accounting as an auditor, first in
Minnesota and then in Arizona.
Sensing a calling to the religious
life, Brother Isaiah returned
to Saint John’s, this time to
visit the abbey. He became a
monastic associate in June 2008
and continued to work full time
as an auditor for a firm in Saint
Cloud, Minnesota. Since April
2010 he has worked in the abbey
business office.
Discerning that he was being
called to monastic life in this
community, Brother Isaiah
made his oblation as a claustral
oblate in October 2010. He
recognizes now that “The feeling
of community and family that
originally brought me from
Arizona to college here in 1991
also drew me back as a monk,
and that is why I am professing
vows in this community.”
Brother Peter Sullivan grew up
in Mattituck, New York. In
1997 he received a bachelor’s
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
Newly professed confreres (l to r) Brother Peter Sullivan, Father John Meoska, and
Brother Isaiah Frederick.
6
Abbey Banner
Fall 2012
degree in world religions
from Muhlenberg College in
Pennsylvania. He also earned
a master’s degree in elementary
education at Oakdale College
in New York. Before coming
to Saint John’s he worked as
an elementary school teacher,
started a small lawn care
business, and managed a large
pet store in New York.
At Saint John’s, Brother Peter
has worked in the university
campus ministry office and
currently serves as a certified
nursing assistant in the abbey
retirement center. Over the
last few years he has developed
a passion for drawing and oil
painting. He is now taking art
classes that may eventually lead
to a career in art.
Brother Peter is very happy that
the community has accepted him
for solemn profession, saying,
“The monastic way of life has
helped me to discover talents
and interests I never knew I had.
I have been greatly supported
and encouraged by my brothers
to pursue that which is lifegiving. I am extremely grateful
for the love this community has
shown me. It is quite humbling.
I hope that I will be able to
return that love when any of my
confreres need my support and
encouragement.”
One of five children, Father
John Meoska was born into
a farm family and raised near
Bloomington, Wisconsin. After
physical plant, and grounds of
the monastic community. A
good steward, he has personally
planted over four hundred
trees at Saint John’s and helped
coordinate the installation of
the abbey’s solar photovoltaic
panels.
attending high school seminary
he pursued his interest in science,
receiving a bachelor’s degree in
natural science from Saint John’s
University in 1978. Four years
later he completed a master of
divinity degree at Saint John’s
School of Theology·Seminary and
was ordained to the priesthood for
the Diocese of Madison, prior to
entering the Spiritual Life Institute
in 1986.
After living as a Carmelite hermit
for twenty-one years, Father
John returned to Collegeville to
explore Benedictine life, professing
simple vows in 2009. Currently
he serves the community as manager of abbey woodworking
and assistant formation director,
and assists with pastoral duties,
including celebrating Mass at the
Minnesota Correctional Facility–
Saint Cloud. His interests include
woodworking, iconography, gardening, and cooking.
Father John was drawn to Saint
John’s Abbey because, “Since my
student days here, I have had a
deep love for the monastic life as
a viable way to seek God. Saint
Benedict’s wisdom, embodied
in the Rule, and the wisdom of
countless other Benedictine men
and women have formed me,
guided me, and inspired me for
many years. I love the Benedictine
tradition and the way we live it,
the daily schedule with its balance
of prayer and work, and ‘the
help of many brothers’ which I
experience each day.”
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
Silver jubilarians Brothers David Paul
Lange (l) and Benedict Leuthner.
Monastic Jubilarians
Brothers David Paul Lange,
O.S.B., and Benedict Leuthner,
O.S.B., were honored on the
twenty-fifth anniversary of their
monastic profession. A skilled
artist and tenured member of
the university art department,
Brother David Paul has shared
his creativity as a member of
the design committee, a guide to
Benedictine pilgrimage sites in
Europe, and a strong tenor voice
in the abbey schola. He has also
clowned around with summer
circus campers and been an
advocate for peace and justice.
For the past fifteen years Brother
Benedict has served as the
abbey procurator (treasurer),
overseeing the financial affairs,
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
Brother David Manahan receives a
cane for the next fifty years of monastic
service.
Golden jubilarian Brother
David Manahan, O.S.B., has
skills, will travel: helping
maintain the physical plants of
Saint Augustine’s Monastery
(Bahamas), the Redlake Indian
Mission (Minnesota), and Sant’
Anselmo (Rome). He has also
designed and crafted furniture at
the abbey woodworking shop,
served as curator of the abbey
art collection, and worked as a
graphic artist for Liturgical Press
for twenty-two years.
Six diamonds (in the rough?)
remain of the monastic class of
1952. Throughout his sixty years
of monastic life, Brother Urban
Pieper, O.S.B., has been a master
gardener, both for the abbey and
for Saint Augustine’s Monastery,
The Bahamas. In addition
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
7
Monastic Profession
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
Diamond jubilarians (left photo, l to r): Fathers Tom Thole and Thomas Wahl, Brother Gregory Eibensteiner, and Fathers
Meinrad Dindorf and Julian Schmiesing; (right photo): Brothers Gregory Eibensteiner (l) and Urban Pieper.
to harvesting produce for his
confreres, he has been a beekeeper, manager of the university
greenhouse, and occasional
repairman.
A mentor and dear friend of
generations of international
students at Saint John’s
University, Father Thomas
Thole, O.S.B., extended
Benedictine hospitality as a
faculty resident for forty years.
He also found time to serve as
weekend minister at Minnesota
parishes and, until his retirement,
was chaplain at a local senior
care center.
The first director of the Melk
study abroad program of Saint
John’s Preparatory School,
Father Julian Schmiesing,
O.S.B., has also shared his
down-to-earth spirituality and
considerable pastoral skills as
prior and subprior (monastic
superiors) both at the abbey and
in Puerto Rico, as prep school
prefect, and as pastor in several
Minnesota parishes.
8
Abbey Banner
Fall 2012
A thoughtful and inquisitive
presence in our midst, Father
Meinrad Dindorf, O.S.B., has
been a teacher and scholar in the
School of Theology·Seminary, a
pastoral presence to the Native
American population in Redlake
and in the Archdiocese of Saint
Paul and Minneapolis, and
chaplain for hospital patients
and senior care residents.
graces many campus classrooms
and monastery rooms. Dozens
of purple martins have Collegeville homes, thanks to his habitat
hobby.
A student of Hebrew, Greek,
Latin, Italian, and German,
Father Thomas Wahl, O.S.B., now
wrestles with Japanese at Trinity
Benedictine Monastery in Japan,
where he and his bread rise early
each day. He has shared his
love of Scripture, particularly
the psalms, as a teacher in the
School of Theology·Seminary
and as a Holy Land guide.
Jesus is urging us to
give ourselves decisively
to our vocation, to fully
cooperate with the grace
that has been given to us,
to trust the God who has
called us on this path.
Brother Gregory Eibensteiner,
O.S.B., has served the Native
Americans of the Redlake and
White Earth reservations in
Minnesota, and in the abbey
woodworking shop he has
crafted handsome furniture that
Truly, by the mercy of
God, [these confreres]
have done their best to
let the Holy Spirit work in
them.
With Saint Paul, we
know that the cross is
surely part of our life
together, and that true
transformation happens
on this path. But as
Father Arnold Weber
used to say, we have to
make sure that we carry
the cross, and not drag it!
--Abbot John Klassen,
O.S.B.
Youth in Theology and Ministry
Daniel Morgan, O.S.B.
T
his summer I worked with
participants of the Youth
in Theology and Ministry
(YTM) program, a program
that began in 2000 with a grant
from the Lilly Endowment and
is sponsored by Saint John’s
School of Theology·Seminary.
Saint John’s Abbey is a vocation
partner to YTM, providing
financial and ministerial support.
With a mission to “apprentice
Catholic leadership youth and
their adult mentors to live as
disciples of Jesus Christ,” YTM
aims to stimulate and nurture
excitement about theological
learning among youth and
adults; encourage a new generation of young Christians to
consider vocations in Christian
ministry; recruit youth to the
YTM summer institute that
represent the diversity of
American Catholicism; foster the
development of pastoral ministry
skills among the counselors;
and become a laboratory for
Catholic youth ministry and
vocation research.
I served as a spiritual director for
the summer institute’s counselors
and high school youth, an
experience that was an eye
opener for me. The quality of
the YTM program is remarkable!
I was especially impressed by
the enthusiastic faith expressed
by these young people, who love
learning, working, and praying
with the Saint John’s community.
In their own words:
•
•
•
•
•
•
YTM archives
Brother Daniel Morgan
“I’ve become much closer to God. I’ve learned to be a good
member of my faith community; YTM has given me a strong
sense of thankfulness.”
“My relationship with God has strengthened 110%. I better
understand my religion and have a clearer image of what my
vocation is. I’m ready to go home and share my experience. It is
now clear to me that wherever life may take me, it is always my
responsibility to care for God’s creation. I’m lucky to be made in
God’s image.”
“Now I know that I should pray, not only for my family but
for others. YTM really showed me that people suffer and that
kindness does wonders.”
“YTM helped me learn about my faith. I can’t find words to
explain the impact that YTM had on me.”
“I learned that I really like helping people, and I really want to
help people.”
“YTM has taught me to not always be asking, but to listen.”
Each summer institute focuses on
a different theological question
or theme; this summer’s question
was, “How can we be silent?”
The youth explored the multiple
dimensions of this question by
engaging in theological study,
service work, prayer, community
building, and vocational
discernment.
The effect the YTM program
has had on youth has been
significant. Nearly half the
participants have considered
becoming a priest, sister, or
brother; three-quarters have
considered lay ecclesial ministry.
The program also has inspired
youth to study theology in
college (before YTM, twenty-five
percent considered theology;
after YTM, near three-quarters
have considered theology;
one-quarter of participants
actually go on to major/minor in
theology). Since the year 2000
more than sixty YTM alumni/
alumnae have enrolled at Saint
John’s University or the College
of Saint Benedict.
Brother Daniel Morgan, O.S.B., is
a faculty resident for Saint John’s
University and student in the
School of Theology·Seminary.
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
9
Benedictine Volunteer Corps
Year Ten: New Volunteers
Benjamin DeMarais
T
his year marks a milestone
as The Saint John’s
Benedictine Volunteer
Corps (BVC) begins its tenth
year of operation with fifteen
new volunteers—all graduates of
Saint John’s University—serving
eight different Benedictine
communities in seven countries
across the globe.
Minnesotans Joseph Gair, Coon
Rapids, and Kyle Auringer,
Mantorville, have already
arrived at Hanga Abbey in
southwestern Tanzania. Also
in East Africa from Minnesota
will be Timothy Hendrickson,
Rochester, and Michael
McCarty, Champlin, who will
live and work in Nairobi with
the Tigoni monastic community.
Serving at Glenstal Abbey in
Ireland are Minnesotans Michael
Doyle, Lakeville, and Robert
Floren, Kenyon. In the Holy
Land Paul Vanasse from Wilson,
Wisconsin, and Joshua Seaburg
from Moorhead, Minnesota,
will continue the work at “the
Meeting Place,” a camp for
the mentally and physically
handicapped in Tabgha on the
shore of the Sea of Galilee. This
is perhaps the most distinctive
site of all as the volunteers will
live in the Holy Land with a
community of German monks
where most of the campers and
locals speak either Hebrew or
Arabic!
10
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
Ælred Senna, O.S.B.
Benedictine volunteer corps 2012 (l to r, front row): Michael McCarty, Evans Yamoah,
Joseph Gair, Ted Kain, Robert Floren, Michael Doyle, Moses Adeagbo, Joshua
Seaburg; (back row): Ryan Miller, Jacob Ingalls, Paul Vanasse, Aaron Stolte, Timothy
Hendrickson, Kyle Auringer, Lucas Kennedy.
The Benedictine volunteer corps
has a tradition of training young
men to be true pioneers in their
discovery and development of
new sites. This year’s newest
site is Saint Thomas Benedictine
Abbey in Kappadu, India. Aaron
Stolte from North Saint Paul and
Moses Adeagbo from Irvington,
New Jersey, will be the BVC
pioneers in India. Rounding
out the international volunteers
for this year, and continuing the
BVC presence in Latin America,
Evans Yamoah from Rosemount,
Minnesota, and Lucas Kennedy
from Wausau, Wisconsin, will
serve at Resurrection Priory in
Cobán, Guatemala.
The two domestic volunteer
sites this year will be Saint
James Parish in Chicago, and
Newark Abbey in New Jersey.
Minnesotans Ted Kain of Saint
Cloud will serve in Chicago,
while Ryan Miller, Stillwater,
and Jacob Ingalls, Saint Louis
Park, will serve in Newark, the
BVC’s oldest site.
Mr. Ben DeMarais, a former
Benedictine volunteer in Tanzania,
is a faculty resident at Saint John’s
University.
New Initiative: Bahamas
Paul Richards, O.S.B.
O
n 20 May the fifteen
new members of the
Benedictine volunteer
corps boarded a plane to
Nassau, The Bahamas, where
they completed their BVC
retreat, which this year included
painting, repairing, and cleaning
Saint Augustine’s Monastery
where monks of Saint John’s
Abbey had served for more than
one hundred years. These men
are part of the “regular” BVC
program, as noted above. Their
May project was to prepare the
former monastery in Nassau
for a new initiative of the Benedictine volunteer corps.
In August four men—Tyler
Etheridge, John Dwyer, Peter
Blattner, and Charlie Swanson—
who just completed their year
of service in the corps, began
a second year as Benedictine
volunteers, this time in The
Bahamas. They now pray,
work, and live the common
life in service of the Catholic
Archdiocese of Nassau. The
impetus for this project came
from Saint John’s University
president emeritus Father Robert
Koopmann, O.S.B.
In January 2010, along with
other university administrators
and three university regents—
Mr. Prince Wallace, Mr.
Jim Sexton, and Mr. Chris
Coborn—Father Bob called on
Archbishop Patrick Pinder. The
archbishop talked about how
much the Benedictines did for
the Church and for education
in The Bahamas. During
the conversation Father Bob
emphasized that he prefers to
look to the future rather than
talk about the past. “We do not have monks to send
to The Bahamas,” he explained.
The community at Saint John’s
made a painful but necessary
decision some years back that
Roman Paur, O.S.B.
Benedictine volunteers, Bahamas (l to r): Charlie Swanson, Tyler Etheridge, John
Dwyer, Peter Blattner.
we could no longer send monks. “But,” Father Bob said, “what
about sending Benedictine
volunteers who would lead
Benedictine prayer and serve the
archdiocese in various ways?”
Archbishop Pinder was very
excited about the idea. He asked
Father Bob and the other visitors
to stop at Saint Augustine’s,
which the archdiocese now
owns, to inspect what would be
the housing and chapel for a new
venture. The work of the BVC in The
Bahamas is and will be aimed
at teaching in the schools of the
archdiocese, providing youth
ministry on New Providence
and the family islands, as well
as praying the Divine Office at
the monastery. May God bless
this good work, these dedicated
volunteers, and all those they
serve!
Brother Paul Richards, O.S.B., is
the founder of the Benedictine
volunteer corps.
Feast of Saint Benedict
Hanga Abbey, Tanzania
The Mass was epic—with traditional singing, percussion, little girls dancing
and singing. My God, the singing! That was the first hour. Then a onehour homily, thirty minutes of ceremony to recognize the monk making
solemn vows, thirty minutes for the Eucharist. I thought we were done, but
there was another hour of random speeches. It was all in Swahili, but there
were some cognates. I think they were talking about the education system. I heard “sociology, business administration, information technology,” who
knows.
After Mass everyone started playing traditional drums and dancing and
singing and chanting. I couldn’t believe the energy. . . . Finally they brought
out the cake, accompanied by a “cakey song” and “cakey dance,” which was
a bit depressing because the cake wasn’t nearly big enough to serve everyone
there. Or was it? Watching the cake being served was like watching the
seven loaves and fishes feed the masses. Each person got a slice the size of
two fingers, so everyone got some; and there was about one fourth left over! --Joseph Gair, Benedictine Volunteer
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
11
Woodland Stewards
Molly Roske
“What I did all last winter
could have been done in a
week with a machine. It took
me eight months! I’m just
glad they let me keep doing it.”
--Father Fintan
Bromenshenkel, O.S.B.
F
or being a pioneer of
computer science, Father
Fintan’s refusal to use a
machine for splitting firewood
is surely an irony not lost on
the monk himself. His wry
understatement underscores that
he has personal motivations
more than efficiency or speed
for undertaking the activity; it’s
the sensory poetry of the woods
that keeps him coming back in
autumn, winter, and spring. His
comment also suggests that the
management of timber resources
on abbey land is now shared
with others—the unnamed
“they” is the Saint John’s Abbey
Arboretum staff—to which he
makes a voluntary contribution
in the Benedictine tradition of
stewardship.
At age 93 Father Fintan still can’t
be kept out of the woods. Using
a hand-held splitting maul that
resembles a larger and heavier
ax, he splits whatever wood
Brother Walter Kieffer, O.S.B.,
and the arboretum staff can
find for him. Sometimes it’s the
leftovers from the arboretum’s
annual permitted timber harvest;
sometimes it’s the trees blown
down during a storm. Trudging
12
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
out to the woodpiles, Father
Fintan splits wood by hand at
the times of year when many
seek refuge indoors. While there
is a mechanical wood-splitter on
campus (built by Brother Walter
and former Brother Arnie Jirik
in 1969), Fintan prefers to do it
by hand: “It’s excellent therapy;
it’s exercise! I’m nearly ninetyfour years old, and my health is
perfect.”
Father Fintan splits wood in
order to get out in nature and
to exercise in the way God must
Father Fintan Bromenshenkel
have intended human beings to
do. Even before he joined the
monastery as a novice in 1939,
he enjoyed a close connection
with nature, having grown up
on a farm outside Sauk Centre,
Minnesota. He remembers
helping to reforest abbey lands
while at Saint John’s Prep School
in 1933, and many of those trees
are now being harvested.
After Father Fintan pursued
graduate studies in physics and
mathematics at the University
of Minnesota and Notre Dame,
Paul Wegner
he put his education and talents
to work assisting with land
surveying at Saint John’s. He
was instrumental in initiating
computer science research in
the Midwest, securing funds in
1963 from the National Science
Foundation to purchase a computer for Saint John’s, one of the
first computers in the state. (“I
think only Carleton may have
beat us,” he recalls.)
The next portion of his professional life was in large part
dedicated to teaching computer
science and programming. He
educated students as well as
Saint John’s employees, and
helped many departments’
operations, including the business office, registrar, and even
Minnesota Public Radio, into the
nascent digital age. Yet with all
those responsibilities, he found
time for splitting wood nearly
every day for most of the year,
for most of his life.
In 1990 Father Fintan undertook
missionary service in The Bahamas, where he spent several
hours each day cutting down
dead brush and pulling weeds.
Returning to Saint John’s in 2005
he again took up the splitter
and resumed his old hobby.
He is not alone. Father Knute
Anderson, O.S.B. (a youthful 83),
has split wood by hand for the
last ten years or so, also seeking
a connection to the wonder of
the natural world. “Puzzling
over things like how frogs live
through the winter, you begin
Father Knute Anderson
Abbey archives
to think after a while that God
is there, and God is working.
There’s something marvelous
that’s being preserved here,”
observes Father Knute.
The demand for the firewood
that Fathers Fintan and Knute
split has waned. Firewood is
now used occasionally in a few
fireplaces on campus but is not
a principal heat source, though
a great deal is used for the
production of maple syrup each
spring. Most of the abbey land
is reforested, but that does not
mean its ecological significance
is in any way diminished, thanks
to the continued vigilance and
commitment to conservation
demonstrated by the abbey and
the arboretum staff. Fathers
Fintan and Knute have found a
way to express that commitment
in a more personal, tangible
manner, consistent with the long
tradition of monks caring for
their land.
“In some ways I feel like we’re
losing the woods as we open
it up to the public,” Brother
Walter admits. “But we can’t
keep it closed up; it’s a matter of
education, not just nostalgia. We
must pass along this heritage.
As things get developed, this is
going to be a sanctuary.” Indeed,
it already is.
Ms. Molly Roske, a 2008 graduate
of the College of Saint Benedict,
was a summer intern for the Saint
John’s Abbey Arboretum.
Timber Tales
Some of Father Fintan’s wood-splitting exercises have been more
dramatic than others. Once, while walking back to the monastery from
his woodpiles near the prep school, he neglected to cover his splitting
maul. Alarmed at the sight of this white-haired, wizened old man in
coveralls carrying a huge ax, “Somebody called Life Safety Services,
and I got arrested!” No, not really arrested, he admits; but the officer
did give him a talking-to about keeping his splitter covered.
Father Fintan also recalls a lively moment this past spring. He wears an
emergency call button on his chest “in case I need help.” But no one
thought about the sensitivity of that button to the regular actions of a
man splitting wood. “So I’m holding a load of wood in my arms, you
know, in front of my chest,” he demonstrated, “and unbeknownst to me
it alerted the abbot, the head nurse, and two Life Safety Services cars in
two different places.”
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
13
Saint Benedict
Simon-Hòa Phan, O.S.B.
T
he young man turns
toward the source of
sound, the task at hand
half abandoned. In one arm a
heavy volume, its pages opened,
is awkwardly braced against his
body. The other arm is lowered
to his side, the forgotten quill
enclosed in its hand. On the
ground are more books, stacked
high, with a pet bird perched
nearby. The man is on the verge
of making a decision, to stay
with the task or to heed the call.
This image is not that of
a studious undergraduate
distracted from homework by
friends and video games in a
dorm room but rather that of
the young Benedict of Nursia—
who would mature into the
wise leader of fifth-century
communities of Christian monks
in central Italy and eventually
be declared the Patriarch of
Western Monasticism. The
bronze sculpture stands slightly
more than six feet tall on the
ground of the auditorium plaza,
in the shadow of the abbey and
university church.
Commissioned by Gene and
Mary Frey in honor of their
son, Jim Frey, university
alumnus and former chair of
the university board of regents,
this latest addition to the
collection of outdoor sculpture
at Saint John’s is a labor of
love by our Brother David Paul
Lange, O.S.B., who was assisted
14
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
Once the clay figure
was built but still wet, a
team of fabricators from
New York constructed
molds from which
the bronze form was
poured and refined. After transforming
thousands of pounds
of solid clay into the
three-sixteenths-inchthick bronze statue, the
casting team painted
on the patina by hand,
as with a painting. “In
some ways I was just as
surprised as everyone
else when the bronze
statue was revealed,
because the process
required a certain
degree of detachment,”
said Brother David Paul. “I couldn’t be there at
Thomas O’Laughlin
every step along the
by university alumnus Steven
way to make the thousand and
Lemke. Beginning with pencil
one little decisions that go into
and computer sketches the two
making a bronze sculpture of
artists first created the figure
this scale. The overall form is
using nearly three thousand
the same as the clay original, but
pounds of Saint John’s clay. The
I can tell that someone else has
creative method they followed
worked on it.”
for six months was not typical
of sculpture of this scale. They
This is not the first time
used no maquette (small model),
that Brother David Paul has
so the whole figure acted as
portrayed Benedict as a young
both the sketch and the final
man. His charcoal drawings of
design. They sculpted from
the saint and his twin, the young
the top down, starting with
Scholastica, are displayed in the
the head and finishing with the
monastery. Unlike most images
books and raven on the ground.
of Saint Benedict, who is often
They worked with solid clay,
depicted as a wise patriarch in
struggling to keep it from drying
his later years, this portrait (like
out too quickly and cracking
the statue) captures him in his
during the process. early years, stirred to follow his
calling.
Thomas O’Laughlin
Situated among trees and
outdoor tables and chairs
of the auditorium plaza, the
bronze Benedict turns toward
the church banner and bells,
“the source of the musical
notes that call us to common
prayer.” Depicting him in lifesize dimensions and placing
him on the ground instead of
on a pedestal expresses Brother
David Paul’s desire to present
Benedict as an accessible figure,
someone to whom young people
can relate in their formative
years. “His height is such that
we can look him directly in
the face,” he noted. And the
gravel base on which he stands
echoes the rugged terrain of
Subiaco, where for three years
the young Benedict lived a life
of solitude and prayer in a
cave. “He was still struggling
to sort out things,” explained
David Paul. “Who cannot relate
to the experience of searching
spiritually, of being uncertain
about the future, and needing to
trust solely in God?”
Benedict’s closed eyes were
the last element added to the
almost finished clay figure. He
closes his eyes to push away the
surrounding distractions. When
one “listens with the ear of one’s
heart,” as Benedict would later
invite his followers to do (Rule,
Prol.1), it is the inner urgings of
the divine to which one needs to
listen and to heed.
Brother David Paul chose the
location for the home of the
young Benedict. “I love the site,”
he stated. “The canopy of leaves
overhead is just right. And
the shade is so inviting on a
hot summer day. It definitely
reminds me of Subiaco. Also, I
love the fact that people want
to touch it. A lot of artwork is
never meant to be touched, but
bronze lends itself well to human
touch and the various textures
on him are exciting to experience
in person.”
The figure of the young monk
is surrounded by linden trees,
red brick buildings, and people
relaxing at nearby tables. Its
presence is seen and felt, as if he
were a part of the Saint John’s
community—among the monks
in their daily prayer and tasks;
among the students, faculty, and
staff in their studies and work.
With simple gestures and quiet
posture it invites us to follow
its example: to pause and listen,
to ponder, and perhaps to be
transformed.
Brother Simon-Hòa Phan, O.S.B., is
an associate professor of art and
faculty resident at Saint John’s
University.
Thomas O’Laughlin
Top Photo: Blessing and dedication ceremony. Above (l to r): Mary W., Mary F., and
Jim Frey, Steve Lemke, Gene Frey, and Brother David Paul Lange join Saint Benedict.
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
15
Top left: The oldest known portrait of Saint Benedict from an eighth-century fresco
in the Catacomb of Hermes in Rome. Bottom left: A stencil print by the Japanese
artist Sadao Watanabe (1913–1996) commissioned by our Benedictine priory in Japan.
Mr. Watanabe also created a print of Saint Scholastica. Though crafted almost
thirteen hundred years apart, these two iconic portraits of Saint Benedict display
remarkable similarities.
Above: Two sculptures by one of Saint John’s founding members, Father Cornelius
Wittmann (1828–1921). Rather than carving in a highly realistic manner, the artist
employed simple, iconic elements to express the holiness of the twin saints,
Benedict and Scholastica, each of whom holds a copy of the Rule. In the 1930s
Brother Clement Frischauf (1869–1944), who painted the apse in the Great Hall, the
former abbey church, repainted the two figures. They are 21 inches high and reside
in the Saint Scholastica chapel in the crypt of the abbey and university church.
Opposite page: A lithographic print of Saint Benedict commissioned by Abbot
Alexius Edelbrock (1843–1908). In the background of this image of Saint Benedict
is an 1881 view of Saint John’s from the east shore of Lake Sagatagan. The stains
and discoloration in the image come from years of being framed with pine boards
supporting the back of the print.
Prison Ministry
Robert Pierson, O.S.B.
I was in prison
and you visited me.
--Matthew 25:36
S
hortly after I was ordained a
deacon in 1983, Father Omer
Maus, O.S.B., who was the
Catholic chaplain at the Saint
Cloud Reformatory, as it was then
called, hosted our Saint Cloud
Benedictine Deanery. The meeting
included a tour of the prison, and
I still remember the sick feeling
in my stomach as I heard the
large iron gate clang shut behind
us. I thought to myself, “I don’t
think I could ever do this kind of
ministry.”
About ten years later a Saint
John’s School of Theology
student, who was a volunteer for
the Sunday Mass at the Stearns
County Jail, asked me if I could
help that coming Sunday by
presiding at their jail Mass. I
said, “Yes,” and I have been saying
“yes” ever since. I became a
regular volunteer at the Stearns
County Jail on Sundays along
with Father Anthony Ruff, O.S.B.
When Father Joel Kelly, O.S.B., was
relieved of his full-time chaplain’s
position at the Minnesota Correctional Facility–Saint Cloud,
as it is now called, I was one of a
group of monks asked by Abbot
John Klassen, O.S.B., to provide
Catholic ministry at the prison on
a volunteer basis.
18
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
Each Monday evening a priest
from the abbey accompanies
a group of volunteers into
the prison for Mass with the
inmates. We usually have
between twenty-five and forty
men join us for the liturgy, and
that celebration of the Eucharist
is often the high point of my
week. During the school year
students from the College of
Saint Benedict and Saint John’s
University are the volunteers,
and several other monks and
I preside on a rotating basis.
In the summer months the
volunteers come from the REC
(Residents Encounter Christ)
retreat program and also include
one or two sisters from Saint
Benedict’s Monastery.
Because there is no one else
to play the piano when the
students are gone, I have the
privilege of helping lead the
music at the keyboard, assisted
by one or two song leaders. I
am often reminded of Father
Daniel Durken’s comment about
our liturgies: “They sing like a
bunch of Lutherans!” And yes,
they do!—especially when we
sing one of their favorites, such
as “Amazing Grace” or “How
Great Thou Art.”
The monks who currently
provide pastoral ministry at the
prison in Saint Cloud include
Fathers Mark Thamert, John
Meoska, J. P. Earls, Ian Dommer,
and Nathanael Hauser, and
Brother Joseph Schneeweis, who
also serves as the coordinator
of Saint John’s Prison Ministry
Program. Other Benedictines
who have been involved over the
years but are no longer active
include Fathers Daniel Durken,
Jerome Tupa, and the late
Patrick McDarby.
Father Robert Pierson
Abbey archives
One reason this ministry is so
rewarding is we know that those
who are sitting in front of us
really need to hear the Good
News about God’s love and
mercy for them. We can tell
when the words of a homily or
the lyrics of a hymn touch their
hearts. Sometimes we also get
the chance to know the men
more personally when they ask
to talk to us on an individual
basis for confession, for example.
Many times I have thought, “If
I had grown up in as difficult a
family situation as they have, I
might be here, too.” We learn
early on that the inmates are real
people just like all the rest of us;
only they made mistakes and got
caught.
After helping at the Stearns
County Jail for a couple
of years, I was invited to
get involved with the REC
program. Residents Encounter
Christ is a two-day retreat in a
correctional facility, sponsored
by the Diocese of Saint Cloud,
and conducted by a group of
about fifty trained volunteers
from central Minnesota. I
have assisted with REC retreats
at the prison in Saint Cloud
and at the Stearns County,
Benton County, and Morrison
County jails. The retreat is
based on another program—
TEC (Together Encountering
Christ)—which began as a very
popular youth ministry program
in dioceses around the country.
The basic theme of the retreat is
the paschal mystery—the dying
and rising of Christ. I do not
know of any other program that
is so effective in presenting the
gospel message in a form that is
readily accessible to people of all
ages and backgrounds. It really
works well in prisons and jails.
On every weekend we witness
people’s lives being changed.
What a privilege!
Of course, as with any ministry,
there are ups and downs. It is
very disheartening, for example,
to see someone return to jail
or prison after having been
released. Sometimes the changes
that take place in prison are
permanent, but sometimes they
aren’t. When these people go
home to the situations that may
have contributed to their being
in prison in the first place, they
do not always succeed, especially
the first time. But when they do
succeed, thanks be to God!
After almost twenty years in
prison and jail ministry, I am
not sorry that I said yes to God’s
call. “Whatever you did for one
of the least of these, you did for
me” (Matt 25:40).
Father Robert Pierson, O.S.B., is
guestmaster and director of the
Saint John’s Abbey Spiritual Life
Program.
Small Group Retreats at Saint John’s
7–9 December 2012: Advent Weekend Retreat with Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B. February 2013: Lenten Weekend Retreat with Father Joseph Feders, O.S.B.
22–24
The retreat begins with supper at 6:00 P.M. on Friday and concludes
following lunch on Sunday.
Cost: Single room, $190; double room, $320 ($160 per person); meals
included.
Register online at www.abbeyguesthouse.org; or call: 320.363.3929.
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
19
Prisoners of the
WarStorm: Forest Stewardship
Weathering
headache until he could get some
food.
Kathleen Hughes, R.S.C.J.
F
or several years during
World War II Father
Godfrey Diekmann,
O.S.B., served as a chaplain for
prisoners of war, first for Italians
and later for German soldiers.
Italians captured in North Africa
had been incarcerated in camps
near Princeton, Minnesota.
Every Sunday Father Godfrey
celebrated Mass for them and
delighted to converse with them
in Italian. A large number, as
he recalls, had relatives in the
United States, but they were
only vaguely aware of their
whereabouts—“New York,”
for example, but whether city
or state they did not know.
Godfrey became a “one man
Red Cross,” writing scores of
letters to Italian parishes around
the country, helping to identify
and contact relatives. A good
number of grateful Italian
soldiers stayed in touch with him
when the war was over.
A less rewarding assignment was
that of chaplain to the German
prisoners of war held in four
different camps in northern
Minnesota. Each weekend
Godfrey would take a bus as far
as Ball Club (170 miles), where
an old Chevy was available
for his use. Godfrey was a
notoriously bad driver who
had almost killed Abbot Alcuin
Deutsch, O.S.B., and himself in a
snowstorm and has subsequently
Abbey archives
Father Godfrey and Italian prisoners of
war.
driven only under duress. In this
instance duty called. From Ball
Club he drove great distances on
back roads and logging trails,
getting stuck, praying to Saint
Anthony, moving on, trying to
make it to at least three of the
four camps each Sunday.
The laws of the Eucharistic
fast were very strict in those
days. It was after 4 P.M. on
Sunday before he was able to
break his fast. As an auxiliary
military chaplain, he wrote
to the Military Ordinariate
requesting permission to drink
water during the long Sunday
fast—which permission was
refused! Looking back, Godfrey
muses, “And like a damn fool
I complied!” Sunday after
Sunday he had a fierce, constant
Unlike the Italians, who flocked
to Mass, the young Germans had
been completely indoctrinated
and remained Nazis to their
fingertips. They were forbidden
by their officers to have anything
to do with outsiders. When
Godfrey arrived at a camp, one
of the higher officers would
attach himself to Godfrey so
that there would be no chance
for anyone to go to confession.
In two years’ time only five or
six men were able to sneak to
confession, and twelve to fifteen
men assembled for Mass on any
Sunday. Once Godfrey asked a
lieutenant how it was possible
for these young men to remain
so staunchly loyal to Hitler. He
was informed, “They have to
believe in someone.”
These trips were hard, the work
discouraging. Late Sunday
night a bus deposited Godfrey
about a mile and a half from the
monastery, and he would hike
back to Saint John’s between one
and two in the morning, having
covered about five hundred miles
in the course of the weekend.
Sister Kathleen Hughes, R.S.C.J.,
a former resident scholar of
the Collegeville Institute for
Ecumenical and Cultural Research,
interviewed Father Godfrey in
preparation for writing The Monk’s
Tale: A Biography of Godfrey
Diekmann, O.S.B.
Excerpted from The Monk’s Tale: A Biography of Godfrey Diekmann, O.S.B. (pages 141–143), copyright © 1991 by the
Order of Saint Benedict. Published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota. Reprinted with permission.
20
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
Ministry in Japan
Roman Paur, O.S.B.
W
hen Father Edward
Vebelun, O.S.B., decided
to take some time off
for discernment of his vocation,
I was asked to return to Trinity
Benedictine Monastery and
resume my duties. We are
grateful for the blessings of
Father Edward’s dozen years
of service in Japan; we miss
and pray for him. I’ve now
unpacked my bags and will be
here a while longer.
We are delighted that Father
William Skudlarek, O.S.B.—with
his cello!—has rejoined our community, even as he continues his
commitments with Monastic
Interreligious Dialogue in
Rome and around the world.
Previously Father William served
our community during the
transitional years from Tokyo
to Fujimi. His accomplished
language skills in both Japanese
and Portuguese will be strong
Trinity Benedictine archives
Prior Roman Paur blesses new oblates at Trinity Benedictine Monastery.
assets in our pastoral ministry
and retreat program.
One junior monk, Brother
Toshihisa Francisco Shimose,
completed his fifth semester
at Saint Francis Seminary,
Tokyo. Another junior, Brother
Hong Ching Andrew Lam,
finished his master’s degree in
monastic studies at the Jesuit
Sophia University, Tokyo. Both
confreres have returned to
Fujimi to participate fully in the
community life and formation
program.
Imperial Visit
On the afternoon of 26 July, to joyous bell ringing, Her Imperial Majesty
the Empress of Japan graced Our Lady of Nasu Monastery with a visit.
After meeting current abbess Mother Angela, former abbess Mother
Agnes, and Sister Francha, who knew the empress as a student at the
University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo, Empress Michiko joined the
sisters in the chapel of the Trappist community for prayer. She was then
greeted with great applause in the chapter room where the sisters and
chaplain Father Tony Gorman, O.S.B., were assembled. The sisters shared
music in Japanese and Vietnamese, and the empress joined the sisters in
singing most of the pieces. The afternoon visit concluded with tea, after
which Father Tony remarked to the empress in Japanese, “Today was
very enjoyable.” The empress responded in perfect English: “Remember
us in your prayers.”
Our other juniors, Brothers
Shuuta Maximillian Oka and
Liting John Chrysostom (JC)
Long, enjoyed their visits to
Saint John’s Abbey where they
were able to become more
grounded in our monastery’s
founding history and meet their
Minnesota confreres. We were
also honored by the spring visit
of Brother JC’s mother, who
came at considerable sacrifice
to visit her son and learn more
about our Catholic Benedictine
monastic tradition.
Our community now includes
four Japanese men, two from
Hong Kong and the People’s
Republic of China, and four
Americans. Our senior monk,
Father Thomas Wahl, after
celebrating his diamond jubilee
of monastic profession in
Collegeville, continues to be
active with weekend parish
ministry, vegetable gardening,
and culinary surprises.
Father Roman Paur, O.S.B., is
the prior of Trinity Benedictine
Monastery in Fujimi, Japan.
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
21
RunningChanges
the Path ofThings
Life
Prayer
Roger Schoenbechler, O.S.B.
O
ne thing about prayer
is certain: one learns to
pray by praying. We can
read books and listen to homilies
and lectures on prayer; we can
have discussions on prayer, and
these are helpful. But we shall
never really know what it means
to pray until we have repeatedly
made new and daily beginnings
at prayer itself. We should not
mind how clumsy our attempts
at prayer may seem to ourselves.
Just start praying, no matter how
ragged the thoughts or words
and phrases may be.
One does not go into the
business of prayer as one sets
about producing a fine piece
of writing or a work of art or
craftsmanship. Beautiful things
are for our pleasure, admiration,
and use. If we can make our
prayer beautiful, well and good.
But prayer for me was usually an
uplifting personal experience.
As a young boy I was constantly
thrilled, and still am, by the vast
prairies of North Dakota with
the hot sun and blowing winds
in the summer, infrequent rains
and occasional downpours with
the accompanying thunder and
lightning, wild winter blizzards
and sub-zero temperatures,
colorful sunsets, the bright
stars at night, and the clean,
fresh, unpolluted air. I had no
difficulty in turning from these
rugged beauties of nature to
God, their creator. Prayer was
Edited and excerpted from
Symposium Two: On Private Prayer
(May 1971) by the members of Saint
John’s Abbey.
Alan Reed, O.S.B.
22
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
a joyful contemplation and
admiration of God’s greatness
and majesty, God’s justice and
mercy, God’s goodness and
divine concern for us.
Presence of God. In prayer, I
think of where I stand in relation
to God and to others, also in
relation to the material things
around me. I think of what God
means to me, what my fellow
humans mean to me, and what
I should mean to them. I also
think of the things around me
and how I am to use them as
gifts of God.
The spirit of prayer depends
not only on our being aware of
God’s presence everywhere, but
also on our being aware of the
people around us. We are not
alone on this earth as isolated
individuals. An old proverb
says: “All are brothers and
sisters, and God is our Father.”
This is the spirit in which we
should pray, the spirit of the
Lord’s own prayer as he gave it
to the apostles. True Christians,
living in the presence of God and
their neighbors, will therefore
have a certain zest for life and
enthusiasm in living for God and
others. Enthusiasm is a word
that means “full of God.” That
is what prayer does to a person.
Reflection and Recollection.
Prayer is basically religious
reflection and recollection. Once
we have this spirit of prayerful
reflection, it will seek to break
out into words or song or
bodily movements, the playing
of instruments and the like. It
will express itself in joy in our
work, in peace and harmony
with others. Then our words,
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
our singing, dancing, or playing
of instruments will take on a real
meaning, expressing the spirit
of prayer within us. Periods of
silence, listening to the Word
of God, applying the Word of
God to our lives, are therefore
essential to bring about the spirit
of prayerful recollection.
Prayer and Life. Learning to
pray is the task of a lifetime,
something we continue to pursue
all the days of our life. That is,
we should be learning through
the years how to pray better.
Prayer is certainly not to be
engaged in only on occasion, as
our mood prompts us. Prayer
should be continuous, part and
parcel with the daily flow of life
within us. It enters into the very
heart of our being as Christians.
Prayer Changes Things!
Willingness to serve others, even
at the cost of great sacrifice, is
necessary for prayer, because
God does not accept the prayer
of one who hates or willfully
ignores others. “Forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us” (Matt
6:12). “And when you stand in
prayer, forgive whatever you
have against anybody, so that
your Father in heaven may
forgive your failings too” (Mark
11:25).
Prayer changes things. Prayer
changes us. It will change our
lives if we really mean what
we say about forgiving others,
about depending on God and
trusting in God. It will change
our lives if we mean what we say
about loving God and loving our
neighbor, about helping others in
need, about respecting the rights
of others, about promoting peace
and justice and the spirit of unity
and cooperation.
Yes, prayer changes things!
During his sixty-four years of
monastic life Father Roger
Schoenbechler, O.S.B. (1900–1986),
was a Latin scholar, chaplain,
publisher of scriptural and devotional works, and translator of
hymns and psalmody.
Conversing with God
Prayer is simply a conversing with God, a lifting
up of mind and heart to
God. Prayer must have
the qualities of any sincere
and friendly conversation.
In order to carry on a conversation with others we
must be on friendly terms,
believe in each other and
trust each other. So it is
with prayer. We must have
faith in God, trust that
God will do what has been
promised, and love God by
being ready to do God’s will
and serve others, since “we
are all children of the same
God.”
--Roger Schoenbechler,
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
O.S.B.
23
Revolutionary Heart
Matthew Palmquist
Let us open our eyes to the
deifying light, let us hear with
attentive ears the warning
which the divine voice cries
daily to us, “Today if you hear
God’s voice, harden not your
hearts.”
--Rule of Benedict, Prol.9-10
D
uring these first months
since I left Collegeville,
out there “on the edge of
the prairie,” I have been struggling to adjust to the world of
my new daily life. Initially I
kept thinking that my friends
and I would simply return from
our summer adventures for
another year of laughter, late
night conversations, long walks
through thick woods, bottomless
cups of coffee, and endless
stacks of papers. But that didn’t
happen. It is September, and I’m
not at Saint John’s.
But Saint John’s is in me.
I realize now that to be
truly Benedictine is to be a
revolutionary at heart. To be
Benedictine means fighting
against the mundane, and
sucking the marrow from the
bone. The Benedictine way
challenged me to ask difficult
questions, to think critically,
to challenge myself, and
especially to grow physically,
emotionally, spiritually, and
communally. To be Benedictine
is to possess the antidote that
cures the Professional Sick Man
or Woman. For me the true
challenge has come outside of
and after school, where I am
encountering a world whose
streets have no concept of
Benedictine values.
Now, more than ever, I hold on
to those revolutionary ideas and
ideals of the Benedictine way,
to guide and remind me of the
values I learned at Saint John’s.
These ideals give me purpose,
and they give me strength. I
carry them with me like some
secret antidote, like a hidden
light in the darkness that calms
my nerves and helps me to face
the uncertainties of life.
Each morning when I wake up
to the church bells across the
street, or am moved by the hues
of a rusty sunset, or breathe
deeply of the air in a pine forest
and smell the rotting humus
beneath my boots, or hear the
chickadees, I am reminded of
that place and of those people
and of those ideas, and I feel
once again at peace with myself
and the world. And so I walk on
with a quiet, happy disposition
and with the confidence to say:
I got my money’s worth at Saint
John’s!
Mr. Matthew Palmquist graduated
in May from Saint John’s University
with distinction in Hispanic studies.
John-Bede Pauley, O.S.B.
24
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
Abbey Chronicle
New University President
March 2012 Abbot John
Klassen, O.S.B., nominated and
the Saint John’s University
Board of Regents elected Dr.
Michael Hemesath president
of Saint John’s University,
effective 1 July. Dr. Hemesath,
a Saint John’s alumnus, previously served as professor of
economics at Carleton College,
Northfield, Minnesota. He is
the thirteenth president of the
university, succeeding Father
Robert Koopmann, O.S.B.,
and will be inaugurated on 20
October.
On 28
Steve Voit
on the Gemini Lakes, and
for perhaps the first time in a
century, trumpeter swans nested
at Saint John’s and added three
cygnets to the local population.
The dog days of August arrived
a month early; the Fourth of
July was oppressively hot and
humid. July dew points in the
upper 70s made indoor prayer
uncomfortable, and outdoor
work dangerous.
U
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
nseasonably warm
weather and abundant
rains throughout April
and May hastened the arrival
of spring, budding trees, and
flowers. Fragrant lilacs that
normally celebrate Mother’s Day
or Memorial Day were in full
bloom before the end of April.
Hail, the size of golf balls, pelted
Collegeville on Memorial Day,
and might be the reason that
two loon chicks, offspring of
Big John, were not sighted after
May. Several pairs of Canada
geese hatched large families
Cool Canadian air in August
announced another change in
seasons—but which season? A
couple of flowering crabapple
trees and a magnolia were blossoming again! Unambiguous are
the sounds of students settling
into dorms and the first hints
of orange and red maple leaves
in the woods, confirming that
summer has rushed by us.
April 2012
• Abbot John Klassen led
the monastic community in
the solemn celebration of the
Triduum liturgies on 5–7 April.
Prior Tom Andert and Father
Jerome Tupa presided at the
Easter Sunday liturgy for the
Saint John the Baptist Parish
and monastic community. On
Easter Monday two hundred
employees and other members
of the local community gathered
for a midday Eucharist, followed
by lunch in the Great Hall. One
employee observed: “This is
why I work at Saint John’s; this
would not happen anyplace
else.” • Four university undergraduates
—freshman Christopher J.
Heitzig, sophomore Andrew
M. Hovel, junior Carlos J.
Dabu, and senior William
R. Newkirk— were honored
with the Caritas Award “Man
of Extraordinary Service” on
13 April. Sponsored by the
university campus ministry office
and Saint John’s Abbey, with
funding from an anonymous
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
25
donor, the award recognizes
Saint John’s students who are
actively involved in service
organizations, student activities,
and academic service. Each
honoree receives a $500 award
for a volunteer organization of
his choice.
• Competing with ninety
participants, many of them
college athletes, Brothers Daniel
Morgan, Nickolas Kleespie,
and Lew Grobe took first-place
honors in the Banana Swama
Bike O’Rana—Fruit at the Finish
Triathlon (the course was only
slightly longer than the name
of the contest) on 28 April. The
team posted the fastest time of
1:06:52 (Dan, swimming .75K in
10:43; Lew, biking 22K in 39:15;
and Nick, running 5K in 16:54).
Alas, their winning times did
not qualify them for the London
Olympics.
June 2012
• The monastic community
celebrated the milestone
NCYC
archives
The National Catholic Youth Choir (NCYC) graced a number of
liturgies at Saint John’s with a repertoire that ranges from medieval
Gregorian chant to twenty-first-century music. For the past twelve
years founding program director Father Anthony Ruff has sought to
implement the directive of Vatican Council II that the “treasury of
sacred music” be preserved and fostered in the modern liturgy. This
year’s choir, conducted by Dr. Axel Theimer, included thirteen boys
and twenty-one girls from fifteen states who also presented concerts
during a tour of parishes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
anniversaries of several confreres
in June. Fathers Barnabas
Laubach and Don Talafous
were ordained sixty years ago.
Fathers Rene McGraw, Simeon
Thole, Allan Bouley, and Henry
Bryan Beaumont Hays were
ordained fifty years ago.
• Father Mark Thamert was
appointed director of the Benedictine Institute of Saint John’s
University, effective 1 January
2013, succeeding
Father Hilary
Thimmesh who has served
in that role since July 2009.
The Benedictine Institute was
established by the university’s
board of regents in 2008 to
honor the late Brother Dietrich
Reinhart who had envisioned,
during his last days as president,
an organization to strengthen the
Catholic, Benedictine character
of the university.
On 21 May the campus community celebrated the culmination of eight years of
prayer, study, and negotiations resulting in
the reorganization of Saint John’s University
as a civil corporation.
During a prayer service and missioning
ceremony Abbot John (left), board chair
Ms. Ann Huntrods, and university president
Father Robert Koopmann signed the Sustaining Agreement in which the abbey and
university pledge their ongoing commitment
to each other. A festive meal followed,
during which the new university trustees
presented a Heritage Edition of The Saint
John’s Bible to the monastic community.
26
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
Paul Middlestaedt
• For two and onequarter hours on
the morning of 26
June Abbot John
(right) and university
president Father Bob
Koopmann signed
twelve copies of fiftyseven documents,
representing all the
agreements between
the monastery and
university in the new
corporate structure
that came into effect
on 1 July.
July 2012
• Oblate director Father Don
Tauscher welcomed seventyfive oblates of Saint Benedict
to their annual retreat on
13–15 July. Highlights of
the weekend included four
spiritual conferences by
Father Robert Pierson on “the
wideness in God’s mercy” in
which he shared insights and
experiences of coming to a
deeper understanding of God’s
love and mercy through his
reflection on gospel passages.
Pat DeGroot, Heidi Joos, Tom
Keul, Jan Robitscher, and Helen
Wang made their final oblation
promises at Saint John’s while
Elizabeth Liew made a “long
distance” commitment in
Malaysia. Seven new candidates
were also enrolled during the
retreat.
• Last year during their annual
service inspection of weather
instruments at Saint John’s,
August 2012
Patti Epsky
representatives of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA)
recommended that Saint John’s
move to a digital system. (The
monks of Saint John’s Abbey
have been collecting weather
data since October 1892.) A twometer pole with a temperature
hive was recently added to the
backyard of the monastery. A
Nimbus thermometer remembers
the highs and lows for the last
thirty-five days and records the
times they occurred. Primary
observer Brother Neal Laloo,
with assistance from Brothers
John Brudney, Eric Pohlman,
and Isaiah Frederick, records
the data and shares it with
the University of Minnesota
climatology department, various
departments at Saint John’s,
and with NOAA. The biggest
challenge this summer was to
keep confused monks, who
mistake the mechanism for a
bird feeder, from filling it with
sunflower seeds.
• Some confreres see things
that no one else can see, so
initial reports of a black bear on
campus were met with smiles
and polite nods. But when
Brother Paul Fitt and Fathers
George Wolf and Don Talafous
all claimed, soberly, to have seen
a bear, the community took note.
Arboretum staff members and
life safety officers have confirmed
that a young black bear has been
exploring the woods and even
the monastic gardens.
• Rarely seen because of their
nocturnal lifestyle, southern
flying squirrels have been
observed in the Saint John’s
woods. Two undergraduates
have been working with biology
instructor Kristina Timmerman
as part of a summer research
project of the chipmunk-size
creatures, which do not actually
fly but glide twenty to thirty feet
between trees. Seven females
and four males were trapped on
the east side of Lake Sagatagan
in a 300-square-meter plot,
suggesting that there may be
thousands of flying squirrels at
Saint John’s!
Glaucomys volans
Wikimedia Commons
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
27
Fifty Years Ago
Excerpted from The Record,
official newspaper of Saint John’s
University:
11 May 1962
• On 13–14 May the Johnny
Players will present T. S. Eliot’s
Murder in the Cathedral. The
production is the final program
in the special series “Worship
and the Arts in Christian
Tradition” which has been
presented in commemoration
of the consecration of the new
abbey church. The play, directed
by Father Dominic Keller, is
essentially an imitation of the
passion of Christ written in the
classical form of Greek tragedy.
25 May 1962
• A recording of the monastic
choir singing Gregorian chants
for the feast of Corpus Christi
has just been released and is
now available at Liturgical Press.
This is the first recording of
the monastic choir in the new
church.
29 June 1962
• Senior Bob Gavin, co-captain
of the 1961 Johnny football
squad, was awarded the first
Father Adelard trophy. This
was the first annual award in
honor of the late Father Adelard
Thuente who died in April. It
will be presented to the most
outstanding senior Johnny
athlete in the area of academics,
character, and athletic ability.
24 August 1962
• The Saint John’s University
Men’s Chorus, directed by
Gerhard Track, climaxed a
22-concert tour of Western
28
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
Europe this summer by being
named “best of the Eisteddfod”
at the International Musical
Eisteddfod in Llangollen,
Wales. In appraising the chorus’
performance, adjudicator Felix de
Nobel of the Netherlands stated,
“They made the music glitter and
sparkle.” When the chorus was
named “best of the Eisteddfod,”
there was a standing ovation
The dozen clerics who conduct
tours of Saint John’s Abbey
and University Church get a
lot of mail. It’s been that way
since 24 August 1961 when the
church was consecrated. Father
Gordon Tavis has scheduled
reservations that include:
Minneapolis Art Association,
Waverly Grade School, eight
Brazilian farmers, thirty servers
from Saint Timothy’s, Moorhead
Trinity Lutheran group, Phi
Delta Kappa from the University
of Minnesota, Northwestern
Lutheran Seminary, Saint Ann’s
Girl Scouts, twenty-four officials
of the German government.
For the theologians who act as
shepherds to these visiting groups
and families, the experiences
have been variously amusing,
alarming, and enlightening.
Adapting the language of the
theology seminar to the parlance
of the Ogilvie Hobby Club was
one of the challenges. Among the
responses to the tours:
• From a Lutheran minister,
who drew out pad and pencil to
record the explanation of the
relationship of altar to lectern—
from the audience of more than
persons.
10,000
• The third annual Scriptural
Institute, directed by Father
Alberic Culhane, opened on 6
August. The speakers included
Father Raymond E. Brown, S.S.;
Father Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P.;
and Father Louis Bouyer.
of Word incarnate to word—
“Someday I want to build a
church.”
• One woman called the church
“a huge, overbearing hunk of
concrete.”
• A fifth grader recognized the
greenery near the baptismal
font as a “return to the garden
of paradise through baptismal
water.”
• Responding to the absence
of statues in the main church,
a minister exclaimed: “Calvin
would buy this.”
• A letter from a group of nuns
paid the church its most integral
compliment: “As soon as we
entered, we felt like praying.”
The Record archives
About the same time that Life magazine (27 July 1962) included the Saint John’s
church in its list of “spectacular feats” and “startling structures,” a fifth grader from
Saint Therese’s School, Saint Paul, interpreted the north façade in this hand drawing.
Monks in the Kitchen
Bahamian Adventure
Ælred Senna, O.S.B.
W
ow! Where to
start? That was my
question when I first
saw the kitchen at the former
Saint Augustine’s Monastery,
in Nassau, The Bahamas, this
past May. Though Saint John’s
monks served in The Bahamas
for more than a century, this
kitchen had been little used
since the last monks returned to
Collegeville in 2006.
The Saint John’s Benedictine
Volunteer Corps is establishing
a new presence at Saint Augustine’s this fall (see article on
pages 10–11). My job in May
was to feed the fifteen volunteers,
three monks, and two local, livein caretakers while we did some
renovation work. That’s twenty
men to feed (fifteen of them
recent college grads) for ten
days in a foreign country, from a
kitchen that was limping along
with a few mismatched pots and
pans, and nothing in the pantry!
So, where to start?
Two of the Benedictine volunteers were assigned to help in
the kitchen each day. As we
worked to keep up with the
meal schedule, we used what
we had for cooking equipment,
borrowing a few things from the
nearby retreat center. We learned
to shop wisely—for example, we
didn’t buy center-cut pork chops
when those with bones were $2
cheaper per pound! And, we
ate well—lots of banana bread,
pasta salads, pork and beans,
turkey and dressing, steamed
snapper, stews made with local
ingredients such as cassava and
malanga, citrus cakes, and more.
We even invited the nearby
community of sisters over for
brunch one Sunday. Some of
our favorite dishes were the old
standbys, such as potato salad
and deviled eggs. (My deviled
egg recipe, right, has been a
favorite in my family for ages—
tried, true, always well received!)
Old-Fashioned Deviled Eggs
In the end, everything turned
out well. We prepared 491 meals
and spent less than $10 per day
per person. Given the price of
food in The Bahamas, this could
be considered something of a
miracle. I definitely attribute it
to the watchful guidance of the
Holy Spirit!
Combine yolks with remaining
ingredients (except paprika) and
mix well to smash the yolks smooth.
Spoon or pipe yolk mixture onto
reserved egg whites. Sprinkle with
paprika (or cayenne) to garnish.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
• 12 hard-boiled eggs
• 7 T. mayonnaise
• 2 ½ T. sweet relish
• 2 t. yellow mustard
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Paprika (or cayenne pepper for
a little kick!)
Peel the eggs carefully. (It’s easiest
to do while they’re still warm—to
avoid leaving any pock marks in
the whites.) Cut the eggs in half
lengthwise and remove the yolks to
a small bowl. Reserve whites on a
serving platter.
Brother Ælred Senna, O.S.B., is the
vocation director of Saint John’s
Abbey.
Renovation zone: Saint Augustine’s Monastery kitchen.
Ælred Senna, O.S.B.
Abbey Banner Fall 2012
29
In Memoriam
Please join the monastic community in prayerful remembrance of our recently deceased family and friends:
Kenneth C. “Ken” Beach, Jr.
Matthew McSorley, O.S.B.
Daniel C. Vickerman, Sr.
Mary Carol Beirne
Everista Mitchell
Thomas J. Walsh, Jr. Gilbert Burke, O.S.B.
Abbot Patrick Moore, O.S.B.
Mildred A. “Milly” Waltman
Ann Burns
S. Terence Nehl, O.S.B.
Janet Wenninger
Mayrellen Hanson Dahlke
Urban A. Notsch
James A. Wheeler
Lawrence J. “Larry” Dreis
Margaret O’Gara
Elizabeth A. “Bette” Young
Michael J. Ford
Donald F. Orth
Judi Ann Young
Thomas A. Foster
Thomas J. Patella, Jr.
Gerald J. Gelbmann
Ruth Pohlman
Adam Gott
James J. “Jim” Primus
Charles Henry, O.S.B.
Franklin J. Ross
John N. Janey
Loretta Ryan
Verna Koehn
John Scott, O.S.B.
Mary Lou Kuisle
Irene M. Selinski
Benjamin Laloo
Joseph M. Stang, Jr.
John P. Larson
James Stolpa
Al Leighton
Robert Studer
Jeanne Marie Lortie, O.S.B.
Laurence C. Supalla
Mary Ellen Machtemes, O.S.B.
Robert Swenson
Albert Marflak, O.S.B.
Eugene M. Thelen
Nancy McDarby
Columban Trojan, O.S.B.
Precious in the eyes
of the LORD
is the death
of his faithful ones.
--PSALM 116:15
Charles Henry
Born on 23 March 1923, Father
Charles (William) Henry,
O.S.B., enrolled at Saint John’s
University in 1941 but left
college to serve in the Army
Air Force during World War
II. He resumed his academic
studies at Saint John’s in 1946,
entered the abbey’s novitiate in
July 1947, and professed his first
vows as a Benedictine monk
a year later. After completing
theological studies in Rome, he
30
was ordained to the priesthood
in 1953. he continued his studies
at The Catholic University of
America, receiving a doctorate in
canon law.
In 1957 Father Charles was
sent to Saint Maur’s Priory, a
foundation of Saint John’s, in
Kentucky; he continued teaching
at its seminary until it closed in
1975. After completing clinical
pastoral education, he served
as a hospital chaplain from
Father Charles later
transferred to Newark Abbey in
New Jersey; with the blessing of
that community, he returned to
his native Saint Cloud several
years ago and served at the St.
Cloud Hospital.
1976–2002.
Father Charles died in the Saint
John’s retirement center on
17 June and was buried in the
abbey cemetery.
From Sadness to Service
Timothy Backous, O.S.B.
“Minneapolis Market” is a rather ordinary name for an extraordinary
place. The brainchild of Saint John’s University alumnus Kurt
Vickman, it is a food shelf with a twist that I’ll get to in a moment. Look to
your
sadness to
find your
passion. Kurt’s service of the poor grew from a deeply felt sadness and from a
determination to act on that sadness—a technique that he says we can
all use to find our true passions in life. He shared his insights with
the confirmation class of Saint John’s Preparatory School, asking the
students what makes them sad in the depths of their hearts. Once
they identified it, he challenged them to think about possibilities for
addressing it. In his own heart Kurt felt sadness about poverty and especially hunger. Why, he thought, should people go without food when we live with
such abundance? He felt called to help feed the hungry. He began
visiting food shelves to discover how they work and who uses them. How is food donated? How often can a person return for more
food? The lack of dignity for the customers particularly bothered
him. Most were given pre-assembled boxes with recognizable staples;
he wondered, “Are they actually getting the food they want or need?” This provides the twist in Kurt’s vision. The Minneapolis Market resembles a much smaller Costco or Sam’s
Club. Customers receive a photo I.D. and pass that is loaded with
points. After swiping their card, they take a shopping cart and select
food, as in a real supermarket. This allows each customer, not the
food-shelf staff, to decide what to take home. Kurt finds that this
process promotes respect for the person’s or family’s needs, and dignity
in the face of searing disappointment and embarrassment. It allows
those who would shy away from the shame of food shelves to seek
the help they need. Each item in the store represents points, and each
family is sponsored by individuals or organizations for a month or
year, depending on the size of the donation. Kurt hopes to provide opportunities for card holders to earn points
themselves. For now the Market relies on individual gifts that Kurt
uses to put cards into the hands of the most needy. (Our confirmation
class is sponsoring a family of four for one year.)
Kurt’s efforts are inspiring! His advice to our preps was remarkably
insightful: look to your sadness to find your passion. He has brought
hope to a small neighborhood in south Minneapolis. What, do you
suppose, your sadness could accomplish?
Father Timothy Backous, O.S.B., is headmaster of Saint John’s Preparatory
School.
31
Nonprofit
Organization
U. S. Postage
PAID
Saint John’s Abbey
Abbey Banner Magazine
Banner Magazine
P.O. Box 2015
BoxAbbey
2015
Saint John’s
Collegevi
lle MN 56321-2015
Collegeville,
MN 56321-2015
www.saintjohnsabbey.org
www.saintjohnsabbey.org
Change
Service
Requ
CHANGE
SERVICE
REQUESTED
Abbey Banner
Fall 2012
Volume 12, Number 2
4 This Issue
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
14 Saint Benedict
Simon-Hòa Phan, O.S.B.
24 Revolutionary Heart
Matthew Palmquist
5 Reading and Learning
Abbot John Klassen, O.S.B.
16 Saint Benedict in Art
Alan Reed, O.S.B.
6 Monastic Profession
18 Prison Ministry
Robert Pierson, O.S.B.
25 Abbey Chronicle and
Fifty Years Ago
Robin Pierzina, O.S.B.
9 Youth in Theology and Ministry
Daniel Morgan, O.S.B.
20 Prisoners of War
Kathleen Hughes, R.S.C.J.
10 Benedictine Volunteer Corps
Benjamin DeMarais
Paul Richards, O.S.B.
21 Ministry in Japan
Roman Paur, O.S.B.
12 Woodland Stewards
Molly Roske
22 Prayer Changes Things
Roger Schoenbechler, O.S.B.
29 Monks in the Kitchen:
Bahamian Adventure
Ælred Senna, O.S.B.
30 In Memoriam
Obituary: Charles Henry
31 From Sadness to Service
Timothy Backous, O.S.B.
Benedictine Days of Prayer
19 October 2012:
16 November 2012:
18 January 2013:
Hearing the Word of God: Jesus heals the deaf. What about death? I feel deathless.
The conversion of Saint Paul.
The day begins at 7:00 A.M. with Morning Prayer and concludes about 3:30 P.M.
Cost: $50, which includes retreat materials, breakfast, and lunch.
Rooms are available in the abbey guesthouse for an overnight stay the night before.
Register online at www.abbeyguesthouse.org; or call: 320. 363.3929.