The Clerestory Summer 2014

Summer 2014

SUM

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S T . P R O C O P I U S A B B E Y 5601 College Road

Lisle, Illinois 60532-4463 (630) 969-6410

W W W . P R O C O P I U S . W E B S . C O M

T H E E D I T O R I A L B O A R D Br. Guy Jelinek, O.S.B. Fr. David Turner, O.S.B. Fr. Philip Timko, O.S.B Fr. James Flint, O.S.B.

ADVANCEMENT ASSISTANT Mrs. Joyce Schultz (630) 969-6410, ext. 252 [email protected]

ABBOT The Rt. Rev. Austin G. Murphy, O.S.B.

E D I T O R / DIRECTOR, ABBEY ADVANCEMENT Fr. T. Becket A. Franks, O.S.B. (630) 829-9253 [email protected]

D E S I G N Wolf Design, Inc. /Mary Kay Wolf [email protected]

P H O T O G R A P H E R S Benedictine University Staff Fr. Becket Franks, O.S.B.Peter HoffmanSr. Carol Hoverman, O.S.F. Br. Guy Jelinek, O.S.B. Mr. Keith Ward, ROOT Studios/HR ImagingMary Kay Wolf

FROM THE EDITORHappy summer!

I draw your attention to some new things here at the abbey.

First, we produced a new video about the community and Benedictine life as lived in Lisle. You can find it on our homepage at www.procopius.webs.com and at www.youtube.com/user/AustinOSB.

Second, we’ve adopted a new motto and logo for the abbey. Abbot Austin discusses it in his “Dear Friends” article on the next page.

Third, Archbishop Daniel celebrates a multitude of anniversaries — among them is the 50th anniversary of his being chosen fifth abbot of St. Procopius Abbey. Take a look back at his abbatial blessing and read his reminiscences of Pope John Paul II. His confreres wish him well as he turns 91 years old. This issue’s page quotes are from the article entitled, “The Meaning of Monastic Renewal,” American Benedictine Review, June, 1966, Vol. XVII:2, by Archbishop Daniel and

“The Ceremony of Blessing” of Abbot Daniel, August 19, 1964.

God bless you for your interest in our monastic community. Please pray for us and for vocations to our community. We pray for you, our friends, everyday at community prayer.

Also, we consider your financial support as a sacred trust since, according to our Holy Father St. Benedict, we are “to regard all the utensils of the monastery, including property, as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar.” (Rule of Benedict, Chapter 31.) Thank you for the generosity you’ve shown us.

Fr. T. Becket A. Franks, O.S.B. Director, Abbey Advancement

FIND US ON FACEBOOK The Clerestory Magazine of the Monks of St. Procopius Abbey

If you are interested in giving to the monastic community there are many options! They include:

• Cash gifts — You can make out a check to St. Procopius Abbey.

• Stock gifts — In making a gift of stock you may be eligible for a tax benefit.

• Tribute or memorial gifts — These honor loved ones, living or deceased; their names will be submitted to the abbey prayer ministry.

• Matching gifts — Many companies match or even double your charity.

• Planned gifts — You can make a bequest in your will or trust.

• IRA Rollover — A charitable rollover from your IRA may be a convenient way to make a gift to the Abbey. Please call to receive more information about the potential benefits of this type of giving.

You can assist the monks in their great venture of Christian discipleship!

Online Giving is now available on the abbey website—procopius.webs.com/giving.

St. Procopius Abbey 5601 College Road, Lisle, IL., 60532-4463

Our (Federal ID#) F.E.I.N. is 36-2169184. We are a tax-exempt institution and listed in the Official Catholic Directory under the diocese of Joliet, Illinois. Bequests, etc., are deductible for federal estate and gift tax purposes.

Call the office of Abbey Advancement for assistance with a donation or for more information at (630) 829-9253

YouTubevideo link.

Ren

ewal

is a

n on

-goi

ng p

roce

ss t

hat

impl

ies

a co

nsta

nt s

earc

h fo

r im

prov

emen

t an

d a

cons

tant

re-

eval

uati

on.

The Clerestory • SUMMER 2014

ONE

Dear Friends

T H E R I G H T R E V E R E N D A U S T I N G . M U R P H Y , O . S . B . , A B B O T

When as a college student I started to sense a call to religious life or priesthood, I did not know much about the options before me. I had been raised Catholic and I knew there were priests in parishes, as well as members of religious orders, such as the Franciscans, Jesuits, and Dominicans. But I did not know much about them and I tended to lump all priests and religious together as those Catholics who do not marry!

I think the same is true for many young Catholics today. They have never learned, or had the opportunity to learn, about priesthood or religious life and the various kinds of religious vocations there are.

To increase the awareness of our Benedictine way of life at St. Procopius Abbey, we recently chose a motto of three words — Prayer, Work, Stability. The words summarize major or distinctive elements in our life. (Many will notice that the first two echo the Benedictine motto of Ora et Labora, “Pray and Work.”) In the rest of this letter and in the next one, I would like to describe what these three words indicate about our life.

Prayer comes first in this motto — and not by accident. Prayer has primacy in the Benedictine life. Ours is a life of prayer. As such, the Benedictine way of life witnesses to the importance of putting God first.

The importance of prayer is seen in our commitment to the Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours. We gather three or four times a day to pray the Divine Office, in addition to gathering for Mass. St. Benedict calls the Divine Office “the work of God” (opus Dei) and says that nothing is to be preferred to it.

Also, monks are committed to private prayer, particularly lectio divina, the prayerful reading of sacred scripture. Each monk in our monastery is asked to spend at least a half hour each day in lectio divina. We thus learn to hear God’s word, which guides us to eternal life.

It is not that monks are necessarily masters in prayer. We struggle at times. But the Benedictine way of life calls us to prayer and helps us to make progress in it. May the risen Lord pour the Spirit into our hearts, to teach us to pray better and better.

Peace in Christ,

Abbot Austin G. Murphy, O.S.B.

FIND US ON FACEBOOK Abbot Austin G. Murphy, O.S.B.

S T . P R O C O P I U S A B B E Y

TWO

Mon

asti

cism

itse

lf is

a d

ynam

ic in

volv

emen

t...

Celebrating the Milestones of Archbishop Daniel W. Kucera, O.S.B.

Seventy Years a Benedictine Monk | Sixty-Five years a Catholic Priest | Fifty Years an Abbot

Thirty-Seven Years a Bishop | Thirty-One Years an Archbishop

TThe real frontier these days is in the

minds and hearts of human beings.

Understanding of self, of others, of

people interacting in society — these

are the challenges that face all of us

and influence our lives directly. And

what is more, this is a frontier where

most of us have some competence and

all of us have responsibility.

From an address by Abbot Daniel as Chancellor and President of St. Procopius College, May 15, 1965, at the Third Annual Trustees’ Dinner.


THREE

Ren

ewal

is b

asic

ally

a m

atte

r of

bal

ance

, mor

e th

an n

ew r

ules

, reg

ulat

ions

, or

cust

oms.

LA Look Back | Fifty Years an Abbot

by Fr. David , Fr. Becket, and Fr. Julian

Little did the monks of St. Procopius Abbey know how important the abbatial election of

1964 would be for the monastic community and the entire church in America. Reflecting

back on the last fifty years of the community, Fr. Julian, a novice monk under Abbot Daniel

in 1969, claims that Abbot Daniel “was the pivotal abbot of the community. He led the

monastic reforms after Vatican II, united the priests and brothers in a new abbey building,

and preserved both schools, now named Benet Academy and Benedictine University.”

On Wednesday, July 8, 1964, the monks elected Fr. Daniel Kucera, O.S.B., as their fifth

abbot. The Vatican confirmed his election as having “canonical status” the following day.

On August 19, the Rt. Rev. Daniel Kucera received the abbatial blessing in St. Raymond

Nonnatus Cathedral in Joliet. The blessing began at 11:00 a.m.

Due to the illness of the bishop of the Joliet diocese, the Most Rev. Martin D. McNamara,

Cardinal Albert Meyer, archbishop of Chicago, officiated at the abbatial blessing. He was

assisted by the Rt. Rev. Denis Strittmatter, O.S.B., president of the American Cassinese

Congregation and Archabbot of St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and by the

Rt. Rev. Gerald Benkert, first abbot of Marmion Abbey in Aurora, Illinois.

Cardinal Meyer, Abbot Daniel, Abbot Denis, and Abbot Gerald concelebrated — the first

time this new form for the abbatial blessing was used in the United Sates. Previously, only

the bishop presiding at the Abbatial Blessing celebrated Mass. Fr. John Eidenschenk of

St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, was commissioned as the Holy See’s official

observer at this rite and photographs of the ceremonies were also requested. Articles

appeared later in the Chicago archdiocese’s newspaper, The New World.


FOUR

Thi

s ba

lanc

e m

ust

exis

t in

a t

hree

fold

pro

port

ion:

fir

st, i

n th

e in

divi

dual

mon

k; s

econ

dly,

in t

he c

omm

unit

y; a

nd, t

hird

ly, i

n th

e re

lati

onsh

ip o

f the

com

mun

ity

to it

s ap

osto

lic w

orks

.

Some of Abbot Daniel’s family at the abbatial blessing dinner: one of his brothers, Fr. Edward, then Air Force Chaplain, and his parents, Lillian and Joseph Kucera.

Abbot Daniel’s coat of arms: Benedicite Domino, “Bless the Lord.”

St. Raymond Nonnatus Cathedral, Joliet, Illinois. Above (left to right): Fr. Cletus Lynch, Abbot Denis Strittmatter, Abbot Daniel, Cardinal Albert Meyer, Abbot Gerald Benkert, Fr. Mathias Kucera, Fr. Dismas Kalcic, Fr. Terence Fitzmaurice, and Bishop Andrew Grutka.


FIVE

Inte

llect

ual b

ackg

roun

d, e

mot

iona

l mat

urit

y, t

he p

rope

r us

e or

dis

cipl

ine

of b

asic

hum

an d

rive

s-al

l go

to fo

rm t

he p

ilgri

m m

onk

on h

is w

ay t

o pe

rfec

tion

.

Abbot Daniel presided over the

monastic community for seven

years, from 1964-1971, renewing the

community after the Second Vatican

Council, and moving the monks off

the St. Procopius College campus in

Lisle, Illinois, to the property at the

southeast corner of College Road and

Maple Avenue. In February 1966 he

and our Fr. Michael hired renown

Mid-Century modern architect Edward

Dart to envision a new monastery for

a “renewed community.” The building

received a distinguished award from

the American Institute of Architects in

1973 and the Twenty-Five Year Honor

Award in 1993.

Abbot Daniel has a long history with

Benedictine education, beginning as a

student and graduate of St. Procopius

College. In 1959, at the age of thirty-

six, he served as the youngest president

of then St. Procopius College (now

Benedictine University) until 1964.

In 1971, Abbot Daniel resigned the

office of abbot and asked to be called,

“Fr. Daniel.” He again became the

president of the newly named Illinois

Benedictine College and served in that

position until 1976. During his tenure

he presided over the construction of

Lownik Hall (library and administrative

building) in 1969 and the Rice Center

(athletic facility) in 1976.

1968-1970: As fifth abbot, Abbott Daniel moved the community forward with the construction of a new abbey. Abbot Daniel, Bishop Romeo Blanchette of Joliet, and Msgr. Lester Kiley, pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Downers Grove, Illinois, view the architect’s model. Abbot Daniel, architect Edward D. Dart, and Fr. Michael study the blueprints.

From 1959 to 1964 Abbot Daniel served as the youngest president of St. Procopius College. In 1971 he resigned the abbatial office to become president of the newly named Illinois Benedictine College.


SIX

All

of u

s en

tere

d th

e m

onas

tery

bec

ause

we

wan

ted

the

help

of o

ur b

reth

ren.

Thi

s he

lp is

the

leas

t w

e ca

n ex

pect

from

the

com

mun

ity.

In 1977, Pope Paul VI named Fr. Daniel as Titular Bishop of Natchez,

Mississippi, and Auxiliary to the Bishop of Joliet. Three years later, in 1980,

Pope John Paul II named Bishop Daniel to be the eighth bishop of

Salina, Kansas. Three years after moving to Kansas, the same Pope

named him to be the eighth archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa. He presided

over the Church of Dubuque for thirteen years. He resigned in 1996

and moved to Aurora, Colorado, to be close to his brother, Fr. Edward.

After assisting in the archdiocese of Denver for a few years, “Archbishop

Dan,” as his fellow monks refer to him, returned to Dubuque where he

lives at Stonehill Care Center administered by Franciscan Services. There he

celebrates the sacraments and even assists as a member of the development

team for the center. Fund raising has always been part of his life, even his

spiritual life, as the archbishop once said in an article for Archdiocese of

Dubuque’s official newspaper, The Witness. The strength of the abbey’s

schools and the success of many programs in the dioceses he served give

witness to the his innate ability to build good friendships that last well into

the twenty first century.

In an interview with the editor of the The Witness, the Archbishop

“says he plans to live to be 100 years old....” He summarizes his 91 years

and 65 years of priesthood this way:

On his many anniversaries of his leadership in the abbey and in the church

itself, his confreres send him greetings with Ad Multos Annos.

“A merciful God used my

faults, my ambition, my

pride, my desire to succeed

for his own purposes.

He changed me from a

man who could have been

making money in the world,

into a man working for

Him. It’s a miracle that

God chose me.”

June, 1984: Archbishop Daniel receives the pallium from Pope John Paul II. The woolen liturgical garment that lays on the shoulders of archbishops signifies that they are in union with the Bishop of Rome.


SEVEN

The

Div

ine

Off

ice

and

the

Con

vent

ual M

ass

are

not

only

the

cen

ter

of m

onas

tic

wor

ship

but

als

o th

e ov

erflo

win

g of

frat

erna

l lov

e of

bro

ther

mon

ks...

Memories of meetings with Pope John Paul II

As he celebrates his ninety-first birthday and his many other anniversaries at a retirement center

in Dubuque, Iowa, Archbishop Daniel quietly reflects on meeting Saint John Paul II in the

Vatican and the Czech Republic. by Sr. Carol Hoverman, O.S.F., Editor, The Witness

RRetired Archbishop Daniel W. Kucera, O.S.B., has many

memories of St. John Paul II, as he met with him several

times during the archbishop’s active years.

“I made four ad limina visits — one for Salina, Kansas,

and three for Dubuque, Iowa,” he recalled in an

interview in his room at Stonehill Care Center.

Ad limina apostolorum visits to Rome usually occur

every five years when bishops report on the state

of their dioceses.

For almost twenty years, Pope John Paul II met with

the visiting bishops four times — at an individual

audience, at a luncheon, at Mass in the morning, and in

a group meeting with the bishops of the United States

Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) region making

their visit. As the pope’s health deteriorated, all of that

protocol was reduced significantly.

Archbishop Kucera laughed as he recalled his first

meeting with the pope. Going in to see Pope John Paul,

the archbishop felt quite nervous. He had his skull cap

in his hand and inadvertently dropped it. He felt more

relaxed when Pope John Paul just smiled and said,

“Put it on your head.”

Pope John Paul brought back the practice of giving the

pallium to new archbishops (see photo, page six). This

white stole, made of lambs’ wool and worn around the

neck, symbolizes communion with the pope as bishop

of Rome. Archbishop Kucera was in the first group that

received the pallium in June 1984. He recalled the pope’s

language skills during the luncheon after the ceremony.

The new archbishops present from around the world

represented at least four languages. “We spent an hour

and a half at the luncheon, with the Holy Father himself

interpreting and translating everything to us that wasn’t

understood by all. And he did it so easily,” recalled

Archbishop Kucera.

In his world travels, Pope John Paul went to the Czech

Republic four times. “Being of Czech ancestry, I thought

I had to represent the Czech bishops so I went there each

time, too,” said the retired archbishop. “I was sitting at

a table of bishops once, and from a distance John Paul

looked over and asked with a smile, “What are you

doing here?”

Archbishop Kucera saw John Paul as he interacted with

the local people on these trips. “John Paul was a very

human man and in that humanity lay his sainthood,

because he gave so much attention to people,” he said.

“I think his contribution to the Church was to be a

human witness for what Christ must have been when

He was on earth.”

When the USCCB sent a delegation to Rome to meet

with Pope John Paul to explain the problem of sexual

abuse by the clergy that was unfolding in the United

States, Archbishop Kucera went as treasurer of the

conference. He said the pope listened intently and

asked questions. Members of the delegation had the

impression that action would follow their meeting.

The archbishop believes it wasn’t until a few years later,

when the scandals hit Europe, that it became evident

that this wasn’t just an American problem.

Archbishop Kucera agrees with many who say that

administration was not John Paul’s primary interest.

The pope saw the whole world as his global mission.

“In his travels during times of world political unrest,

Pope John Paul often put himself in danger, just to be

with the people of the various countries,” reflected

Archbishop Kucera. “The Holy Spirit must have told him,

‘You’re a world leader — make use of it,’ and he did.”


EIGHT

The

abb

ot, i

n m

aint

aini

ng t

he p

rope

r or

der

of t

he c

omm

unit

y, m

ust

prov

ide

effe

ctiv

e le

ader

ship

tha

t m

akes

col

legi

alit

y a

fact

and

con

sens

us a

pos

sibi

lity.

by Abbot Austin

On September 24, 2013, Fr. Robert Barron,

the well-known theologian and current

rector of Mundelein Seminary, gave the

second talk in St. Procopius Abbey’s

lecture series, The Documents of Vatican II

(co-sponsored by Benedictine University).

Given in the Abbey Church, and addressing

the document Gaudium et Spes, the lecture

drew more than five hundred people. The

following summarizes Fr. Barron’s talk.

Additionally, this portion of the lecture

series, as well as the question-and-answer

session that followed was videotaped and is

available for viewing at the abbey’s website.

Time codes are listed for reference.

Controversy around Gaudium et Spes (6:10)

Barron noted the controversy around Gaudium et Spes (GS). Proponents consider it the “canon within

the canon” of Vatican II documents, the interpretive key to the rest of the Council’s documents. But critics say it is accommodating to the spirit of the world and too optimistic. The difference of opinion is compounded by the length of the document. Because it is so long, GS is open to multiple, varying interpretations.

“Welcome to the last fifty years in many ways — right? — as the Church has struggled to understand these texts,” Barron remarked.

The documents of Vatican II

l e c t u r e s e r i e s Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary

of the Second Vatican Council

Gaudium et SpesThe Right Reading of Vatican II

Presented by

the very rev. Robert Barron

President and Rector

University of St. Mary of the Lake

Mundelein Seminary

Mundelein, Illinois


NIINE

The Christifying project of Gaudium et Spes (13:50)

The first section of GS, says Barron, presents the Church’s task of Christifying the world. Some of the great theologians of the Council had researched seminal ideas from the Bible and the Church Fathers.

One major idea was that the human race had been created to offer right praise to God. Originally, in the garden of Eden, all had been centered on the right praise of God and as the human race multiplied and covered the earth, it was to spread this right praise of God throughout the world. In other words, the human race was to “Eden-ize” the world, said Barron.

However, original sin interrupted the project. In response, God decided to begin the project anew with a chosen people, the people of Israel. The Israelites were called to right praise and, in turn, all the tribes of the earth would gather around them to offer right praise to God. The original project was to “Eden-ize” the world and now this meant “Israel-itizing” the world.

But Israel falls into sin. So, God restarts the project again, now by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. Jesus is the new Adam and the true Israelite. He offers perfect praise to the Father. He is Himself the new garden of Eden wherein a new people are formed and multiply. This people is the Church, which is to be the new Israel that magnetizes all the tribes of the world in the right praise of God. The Church thus takes up anew the task of

“Eden-izing” and “Israel-itizing” the world. Or in the language of Vatican II, the Church is to “Christify” the world.

This is why the Church shares the joys and hopes, trials

and sorrows of the world. She shares in them because she

engages the world in order to bring Christ to it. Barron noted,

therefore, that Cardinal George has been correct to consider

the Second Vatican Council a missionary council. Barron also

recalled the famous theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, who

wanted to knock down the bastions that kept the Church from

flooding the world with Christ’s life. “That, it seems to me,”

said Barron, “is Gaudium et Spes.”

Barron argued that in this vein one should read the famous line: “The Church has the duty in every age of examining the signs of the times and of interpreting them in light of the gospel.” After the Council “the signs of the times” were taken to mean positive things in contemporary culture and, in turn, the task was to get in line with the signs of the times. But the signs of the times do not always refer to good things and the quote says that these signs are to be examined and understood in the light of Christ’s gospel. They are therefore “not the data of revelation but the data of examination.” Christ sheds light on our situation and shows us the way to human fullness. GS thus called the Church to bring this light to the world. As GS says, “It is accordingly in the light of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, that the Council proposes to elucidate the mystery of humankind.”

Gaudium et Spes is

about bringing the

light of Christ into

the world and not

about, as the critics

fear, accommodating

the spirit of the world.

GS did not call the

Church to let the world

set her agenda, but for

the Church to set the

agenda for the world

by bringing Christ to it.

“It’s about Christifying

the world not so much

modernizing the

Church,” said Barron.

If c

olle

gial

ity

is a

fact

, the

n th

e bu

rden

of l

eade

rshi

p an

d de

cisi

on r

ests

on

the

com

mun

ity

as w

ell a

s on

the

abb

ot.


TEN

...B

ened

icti

ne in

fluen

ce. S

uch

influ

ence

mig

ht b

e m

ore

easi

ly a

ccom

plis

hed

thro

ugh

the

indi

vidu

al m

onks

who

tea

ch, c

ouns

el, p

reac

h, a

nd h

ear

conf

essi

ons.

The deep humanism of Gaudium et Spes (25:26)

Fr. Barron sees in the first half of GS a deep, biblically-based humanism. GS locates human

dignity in the fact that we are children of God, each of us being made in the image and likeness of God. Because we are made in God’s image, we long for Him. We are made for God and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him, as St. Augustine said. We see this longing for the transcendent in the human person’s intellectual power, which seeks to know more and more. Also, the thirst for the transcendent is seen in conscience, which seeks not simply particular goods, but ultimately the unlimited good that satisfies fully.

GS also points to human dignity in human freedom, but Barron points out that this is not a freedom of indifference or of self-expression. Rather, this is the freedom that comes from “disciplining desire so as to make the achievement of the good first possible and then effortless.” With this freedom we are able to attain what is good and become more ordered toward God.

In opposition to this view of freedom is atheism, which GS spoke of in a way that has proven prophetic for our own day when a new atheism is afoot. GS identified the causes of this atheism in a few things: logical positivism (or we might say, scientism); the notion that one must say “no” to God in order to say “yes” to oneself; human suffering; and the bad example of people in the Church.

Barron addressed especially the idea that saying “no” to God is needed to say

“yes” to oneself. The correct view, which is so important for evangelization today, is that a “yes” to God is a “yes” to oneself. God is not a being among other beings that is in competition with our being. Rather, God is “the sheer act of to be itself” and “the creative ground of the existence of the world.”

This is seen in the biblical account of Moses’ encounter with God in the bush that burns but is not consumed. When Moses thus encounters God, he seeks to find out who this God is. God

identifies Himself as “I am who I am,” thus showing that He is not this or that god and that He is not contained in a category. God transcends all. He is not on our level so as to compete with us. Accordingly, the bush is on fire, but not destroyed. So it is with our human nature that is aflame with God; our lives become illumined, not destroyed. We see this in the teaching that Christ is fully human and fully divine, for the fullness of His divinity does not compromise or lessen His humanity. So, when we approach God through Christ, we are not destroyed, but set ablaze with His life.

The Church needs to bring this good news to the world. But after the Council, we turned in and fought each other, especially over sex and authority. While these are not bad questions, still it is not what the Second Vatican Council was about. Rather, the Council wanted the Church to go out to the nations, confidently bringing to them the great light of Christ. It seems that Pope Francis is asking the same thing, noted Barron. If we do so, we will set the world on fire.

Some urgent problems addressed by Gaudium et Spes (42:49)

The second half of GS addresses urgent problems in the modern world and Fr. Barron chose a

few to briefly address in the time he had left. For instance, Barron noted the statement in GS about family; it says, “The family exists as an image and symbol of the divine love in the world.” Family and marriage in the Church have an important role of witnessing to God’s love in the world.

GS also comments on culture and how a healthy culture relies on faith. Barron explains that a healthy culture is predicated on the search for the true, the good, and the beautiful, and that the Catholic faith keeps a society reaching for these in their transcendent fullness. But if a society does not reach for the transcendent, people fuss over particular truths, their search for the good is turned in on themselves, and their idea of beauty is reduced to kitschy prettiness.

Finally, Barron quoted GS’s statement: “Economic progress ought to remain within the control of the people and not committed to the sole possession of the few or groups possessing too much economic or political power.” He finds that this statement nicely summarizes much of the Catholic social teaching tradition.

Conclusion (51:54)

To conclude, Fr. Barron returned to the idea advanced by some proponents of GS that the

document is the canon within the canon of Vatican II texts. Barron remarked that it is not. Rather, two other documents have greater weight, being dogmatic constitutions, namely, Dei Verbum (DV) and Lumen Gentium (LG). DV comes first because it is about the Word of God, which is Christ. LG is next for it speaks of the Church as the one charged to bring Christ, the Word of God, to the world. After this we can appreciate GS as a statement of what the world looks like when Christ, the light of the nations, is brought to it. Fr. Barron ended with the statement:

“So, I would suggest some of the trouble after Vatican II, some of the confusion, might have been avoided if Gaudium et Spes had not been given such a prominent place. I think if Dei Verbum and Lumen Gentium come first, then we will properly read this document and allow it to be unleashed in all its genuine power.”

Use this QR code to link to Fr. Barron’s talk and the question- and-answer session that followed at www.procopius.webs.com.

Dorothy Day, an oblate of St. Procopius Abbey, was a deeply spiritual woman.

Her spirituality sprang from a love of the world and a love for God in the

world. It was also a spirituality fully synthesized with her life as a radical

social activist. The basis for that synthesis is the Incarnation. Because

God came into the world and into our history, she knew that all creation

was holy—everything from the ailanthus tree that she saw struggling on

the sidewalk to the sad and lonely alcoholic priests she cared for when

no one else would.


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LOVE IS THE MEASURE The Incarnational Spirituality of Dorothy Day by Rosalie Riegle

Rosalie Riegle presented this

article as a talk to the abbey

oblates and monks on

Sunday, January 12, 2014.

The monks are proud to

publish this article in memory

of our most famous oblate.

As a peace activist during the

Vietnam War, Rosalie Riegle

met Dorothy Day. That brief

meeting changed her life. After

collecting and publishing an

oral history of the Catholic

Worker movement Day

co-founded, Rosalie co-founded

two Catholic Worker houses

of hospitality in Saginaw,

Michigan, and went on to

write Dorothy Day: Portraits

of Those Who Knew Her.

She recently published two

other oral histories of Catholic

Worker and other nonviolent

faith-based war resisters.

Rosalie received her doctorate

from the University of Michigan

and taught English at Saginaw

Valley State University for

thirty-three years. A widow, she

is the mother of four daughters

and the grandmother of seven.

She now lives in Evanston,

Illinois, where she is active in

St. Nicholas Parish.

Whatever she did for the poor, especially for the least and most unloved, Dorothy Day did for Christ. And it was

all of a piece. Unlike some Catholics, Dorothy saw no separation between her spiritual life of prayer and her active life as a leader of a large and often unruly lay movement which lived in poverty with the people it served, resisted war, and addressed contemporary social problems. In the Catholic Worker movement she cofounded, her interior spirituality was able to coexist as one with her activism.

Born to a newspaper family on November 8, 1897, Dorothy’s growing-up years were spent in Chicago, where she graduated from what is now Lincoln Park High School. She left the University of Illinois in Urbana after two years to make her living as a writer in New York. There she socialized with Eugene O’Neill and other progressive writers, and became known both for her writing and for her activism, with the first of several arrests for civil disobedience occurring in the cause of women’s suffrage. But she was mysteriously drawn to Roman Catholicism and often found herself visiting the immigrant churches that dotted lower Manhattan. Even as a child, she had loved the psalms, a love she treasured until her death in 1980. 1

As Dorothy wrote in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, it was reading the later novels of the Benedictine oblate Joris Karl Huysmans that helped her to feel that she, too, could be at home in the Catholic Church. 2

After leading a chaotic life and publishing her only novel, a thinly disguised autobiography where she confessed to an abortion, Dorothy settled down and lived happily on Staten Island with a very human love, Forster Batterham. When their daughter Tamar Therese was born, Dorothy had the child baptized and soon afterwards became a Catholic herself. True to his anarchist principles, Forster wouldn’t marry her, so she painfully severed the relationship and remained celibate for the rest of her life.

For several years Dorothy battered around, Tamar in tow, trying to figure out how to live out as a Catholic her passion for writing and for confronting social and economic injustices. She prayed fervently that God would send her a way, and He did, for she met Peter Maurin, a loquacious and well-schooled French peasant who introduced her to the social teachings of the Church, particularly through papal encyclicals. Together they started a newspaper on May Day of 1933, and before they knew it, a movement was born — the Catholic Worker — named after the newspaper. The movement flourishes ninety years later, and the website www.catholicworker.org documents 227 houses of hospitality, mostly in the U.S., but now on all continents but Asia. The Catholic Worker still sells for its original

“penny a copy.”

What a God-send Peter Maurin was! His three-point program was Benedictine-inspired. It called for informed social criticism, houses of hospitality for the homeless,

THE PROCOPIAN OBLATE


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and communal farms where the unemployed could learn a skill. With her luminous personality and ability to attract volunteers, Dorothy was able to translate his vision into the continuing practice of the Catholic Worker. “Pray and work” is the Benedictine motto and it was Peter’s as well. (Whenever I see those two words together, I hear Dorothy’s sage advice to spend even more time in prayer when the work appears to be overwhelming. Counter-intuitive in the way of the world, but deeply realistic in the world of God.)

The idea of applying basic Christianity to social problems struck a chord in a nation still recovering from the Great

Depression, and, through The Catholic Worker, the word spread rapidly throughout the country. Emanating from the first communities on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, houses of hospitality opened in Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, South Bend, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities. People also started Catholic Worker farms which attempted—at first unsuccessfully— to live out Maurin’s agrarian ideal. This aspect of Peter’s Benedict-inspired plan is finally thriving, especially on the Catholic Worker farms which dot the Midwest. New Hope Catholic Worker Farm, outside of Dubuque, is exemplary in combining agriculture and scholarly critique.

What is this Catholic Worker or CW as it is often called? Simply defined, it’s a loosely-knit movement of mostly Christian, mostly pacifist, men and women who live together in small communities and resist the ways of the world. Some Workers come and stay only a week; some come and stay a lifetime. Together they practice voluntary poverty, living with and serving in a personal way those who are poor, hungry, and homeless. While the communities are united through a network of newsletters and national and regional gatherings, there is probably more diversity than conformity between them.

CW houses are supported primarily by private donations, and anarchism and disenchantment with the state pervade the movement. From its founding in 1933 until today, it has attracted people who reject the militarism and materialism of contemporary society. Dorothy led the way in this rejecting of the world and thinking out of the box to solve social problems. For example, in an essay in The Catholic Worker in 1958, she wrote, more as musing than as a plan of action, that “the

Benedictine oblates amongst us would like to go to some of the Benedictine monasteries and become squatters on their vast tracts, and so induce them to start again the guest houses which are part of the rule of the order. They don’t need all the land they have, and we have plenty of landless folk.” 3

The philosophy of personalism, which calls us to take personal responsibility for changing conditions instead of relying on the state or other institutions, enables Catholic Workers to work for social change while holding fast to the belief that “success, as the world judges it, is not the final criterion for judgment.” 4 Many Catholic Workers are active war resisters who spend time in prison and jail for their principled stance against war. 5

Dorothy’s relationship to the Church of her conversion was steady, loyal, and intense. When she became a Roman Catholic, she accepted the entire Church—doctrine, devotional practices, ecclesiastical structure—but went beyond the conventional passivity most clerics at the time expected from the laity and instead acted out of her own informed conscience to discover how to live as a lay Catholic. Both she and Peter Maurin learned from Benedictines. They were deeply influenced and often in correspondence and visits with Fr. Virgil Michel, O.S.B., of St. Johns Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. This great liturgist’s introduction of a responsorial Mass and his revival of the Pauline doctrine of the Mystical Body spoke volumes to this single mother who wanted to live her Catholicism to the fullest.

In fact, Dom Virgil Michel’s thought permeated much of Catholic intellectual life in the 1940s and 1950s. Liturgy was central and today, some Catholic Worker houses still say portions of the Hours. It’s hard for post-Vatican II Catholics to understand the excitement lay Catholics felt in actively participating in daily Mass, receiving the Eucharist, and being told that we lay people were responsible for changing the world—in other words, for Catholic social action. An important and oft-neglected point about Dom Michel: He was not only a great liturgist, but a believer “that our responsibility for our neighbor flowed from the fact that we were all connected to one another, believer or not, in the Body of Christ and the Eucharist. 6

For Dorothy, as for Dom Michel, the Mass was the fountainhead of social action and intimately connected with everything she did. It would grieve her that for some, the Mass has become

divorced from the social action which should flow from it. She never could understand Catholics who speak of their intimate prayer life but don’t see how that such devotion must necessarily find fruit in practicing the works of mercy and resisting the culture of materialism and war. These issues that private Catholics see as politics, Dorothy saw as faith. She knew that action for peace and justice had to come from faith and be alive with faith.

Another important Benedictine influence was Dom Remberg Sorg with his theology of work. Brian Terrell, a Benedictine Oblate who is also a Catholic Worker farmer and resister in the tiny spot on the map called Maloy, Iowa, has written cogently of Sorg and other Benedictines in “Monastic Roots of the Catholic Worker Movement.” 7

Dorothy learned of St. Procopius Abbey shortly after the CW began, mentioning it in the paper in 1935 and making her

first formal visit in 1940. She returned in 1954 and on April 26, 1955, became an oblate of the Abbey, a connection she cherished. Dorothy was particularly drawn to Chrysostom Tarasevitch, O.S.B., a monk who worked tirelessly for rapprochement between Roman Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox churches. 8 Probably because of his influence, St. Procopius had taken up the Pope’s call for religious orders to promote unity between Roman Catholicism and the Eastern Churches. Dorothy had an affinity for Eastern Rite liturgy and would participate in it wherever she could, both at St. Procopius and in New York.

She had always loved the Russian people and their great literature, and Russian spirituality added yet another dimension to her faith. Jim Forest recalls a time when she spoke at New York University. The Cold War was at its height and the media fanned the flames of fear, much as it does of the Muslim world today.

We went into this really smoke-filled room and somebody asked her, with great venom, “Miss Day, you talk about loving your enemy. Well, what would you do if the Russians invaded?”

Without any trouble at all, not annoyed or incensed or ready to cross swords, Dorothy just said, “I would open my arms and embrace them, like anyone else.” A staggering response at the time. 9


THIRTEEN

Oblates today may wonder at Dorothy’s long-distance affiliation with St. Procopius. She made her Act of Oblation, for instance, at Holy Innocents Parish in New York City. Oblation in those days seems to have been primarily for spiritual nourishment, not for the building of community one finds today. But one can have community while not

“living with,” and Dorothy certainly had that with St. Procopius. As she wrote in 1957, “I am a part of the Benedictine family all over the world and a member of the Benedictine community at Lisle.”10

While the Catholicism Dorothy found through Peter and the Benedictines anticipated themes the contemporary Church embraces, she could also be critical of the church, particularly its materialism and support of our many wars. She wanted it to live up to the doctrines it preached and would quote Romano Guardini:

“The Church is the cross upon which Christ is crucified.” 11

Her voluntary poverty can be hard talk for both the hierarchical church and the laity. Even Catholic Worker

houses have begun to soften it by calling for “living with simplicity.” But Dorothy meant it. She counseled giving our goods away and living with very little, as the poor do. She wrote in The Catholic Worker of December, 1948, “Love of brother means voluntary poverty, stripping oneself....It also means nonparticipation in those comfort and luxuries which have been manufactured by the exploitation of others.... If our jobs do not contribute to the common good, we pray God for the grace to give them up.

Dorothy Day’s spirituality was truly immanent and Incarnational, a love of God as seen in creation, especially in those the world has forgotten. Jim Forest would often quote her as saying that “the real test of our love for God is the love we have for the most repulsive human being we know.” But she also saw the goodness or

“God-ness” in everything, whether it was in the haggard faces of women waiting in line for food, a fine linen handkerchief, or the scraggly beauty of a city weed. Frequently she repeated the line from Dostoevsky which reminds us that “the world will be saved by beauty.”

Dorothy was a praying person and she had absolute faith in the power of prayer, even praying for suicides because she knew there is no time with God. One oft-quoted line of hers is “When you are left alone, pray.” 12 Notice she did not say, “When you are alone,” but “when you are left alone.” For Dorothy was also a people person, loved to be “just sitting around talking,” as she says in the Epilogue of The Long Loneliness. Her friends recount fondly what a wonderful private conversationalist she was. 13

As a Catholic, Dorothy felt both the communion of saints and communion with saints, and was particularly devoted to some of them. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St.Teresa of Avila and St. Francis of Assisi come to mind — all saints to whom she has been compared. She even wrote a book about St. Thérèse. Her devotion to the saints gives us an unusual story. Jim Forest remembers how startled he was to find, next to Dorothy’s bed, a tiny statue of Joan of Arc, wearing armor. He asked her about it and Dorothy responded, “Well she wasn’t canonized for being a soldier. She was canonized because she followed her conscience.”

It seems one morning a well-dressed woman came into the Catholic Worker

house. Walked up to Dorothy and said, “Miss Day, I have a little something

I’d like to give you.” It was a large diamond ring. Jim Forest, who lived at

the New York Catholic Worker at the time, tells it like this:

Dorothy received the diamond ring with exactly the same appreciation she

would have given to a crate of frozen frankfurters and put it into her pocket. An

hour later, in comes “the Weasel.” (Everybody at the Worker had a nickname.

You rarely knew their real names.) Now the Weasel was in a permanent state of

rage. Had a voice that could strip paint off the wall. She was the kind of person

who makes you wonder if you’re cut out for life in a house of hospitality.

Dorothy took the diamond ring out of her pocket and gave it to this woman.

Later, someone [at the Worker] asked if it wouldn’t have been better to sell

the ring and pay the Weasel’s rent or arrange for care for her retarded son.

Or use it to pay the Worker’s bills, or to give better food to those who came

through the soup line.

Dorothy said, “She has her dignity. If she wants to sell the ring, she is free

to do so and pay her rent. But if she wants to take a cruise to Bermuda,

she can do that, too.” And then she said, “Or she can wear the ring just

like the woman who gave it to us. Do you suppose God made diamonds

just for the rich?” 18

She truly didn’t see any difference between the Weasel and the woman

who gave her the diamond ring. Even though we give lip service to equality,

most of us think the world would be a better place if everyone not only looked

like us, but acted more like us. Unlike many of us, Dorothy worried mostly

about herself and how she should live.

Dorothy, the Diamond,

and the WeaselThere’s a story about Dorothy

that she often told herself, one that encapsulates many

themes I find important in her spirituality: her Incarnational love for

the beauty in the world, her love for the unlovable, and also her reliance on the concept of precarity,

supported by the providence of God, who tells us to be as carefree as the lilies in the field. It’s the diamond ring

story, famous in Dorothy lore.

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The more I think about it, the more I think that Dorothy admired St. Joan’s armor as much as her conscience. And thought all of us should be willing to put our lives on the line, to fight for what we think is right. Use every resource at our disposal to do what needs to be done. 14

The armor Jim Forest speaks of brings to mind what Dorothy and the Catholic Workers of the time called “The Great Retreat.” She called it “food for the strong.” These retreats strengthened her spirituality, especially during the hard times of World War II, when her pacifism was at odds with almost everyone, including many in the Catholic Worker movement itself. The retreats were loosely based on the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises and first developed by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Onesimus Lacouture of Montreal.

In 1941, she made the retreat with Fr. John Hugo, returning “exuberant and filled with joy,” according to her friend Sr. Peter Claver. 15 Dorothy encouraged, almost ordered, those who were in charge of CW houses to make the retreat but it was controversial, both within the movement and without because, on the surface, it seemed neo-Jansenistic. Fr. Hugo was called

“a detacher” because he counseled detachment from material goods. Dorothy Gauchat tells us:

It was all very St. John of the Cross. For instance, Dorothy was a terrible chain smoker, but she gave herself completely to all the ideals that Father Hugo presented to us. Right then and there, cold turkey, she stopped smoking.

Gauchat continues:

At that retreat . . . we’d gather in the dining room, and these nuns made such beautiful meals. But people would sit down and not eat that food. To sacrifice it. And I still can see [Fr. Hugo] at the table saying, “Hey! That’s not the message. If somebody puts a good steak in front of you, you don’t say you can’t eat it, you thank God. On the other hand, if having steaks every day and having all the extras and niceties in your life is your consuming drive, then you’re on the wrong track.” 16

Julian Pleasants, who taught at Notre Dame and was one of the founders of Holy Family Catholic Worker in South Bend has perhaps the best description of the retreat and Dorothy’s attraction to it:

If you only read one book by or about Day, read her autobiography, The Long Loneliness. When I first read it as a young woman, I saw it as a search for God. During the Vietnam War, I saw it politically because that’s where my heart was at the time. When I re-read it today, with older eyes, I see a woman whose deep love is inexorably linked in both her beliefs and actions. Now, in reading The Long Loneliness it is this love that stands out—love for the people with whom and for whom she lived her life, love for her family and for Forster Batterham, the father of her child; most of all, love for God.

—Rosalie

Dorothy said [the Catholic Workers] had to make a retreat. Said if we didn’t make a retreat, we’d fall by the wayside. So I hitchhiked to Pennsylvania and we had an eight-day closed retreat — very impressive. The most important thing I got out of it was the necessity of daily meditation. Not the regular kind, but just saying, “What would Jesus do with what I have to do today?”

Now Fr. Hugo said that the best thing to do with good things was to give them up. And I just didn’t think that was Dorothy’s attitude at all. She didn’t want to give them up, she wanted to give them away — a totally different approach. Dorothy liked her good literature, her good music, and she never really felt obligated not to enjoy them. I think she got out of the retreat only the notion that you had to be ready to give them up. 17

In this kind of detachment, she was very Benedictine and balanced. Part and parcel with this detachment is the CW concept of precarity so important to Dorothy. Jesus told his followers to carry little for the journey, to travel lightly, and to beg for their food. Dorothy, too, embraced a commitment to uncertainty and told stories time and time again of relying on God’s providence and being rewarded. This vision of moving beyond a life of accumulation and fear of the future to a life which trusts that God will provide strikes at the heart of our acquisitive culture. “As long as she had money in the bank, she’d never put out an appeal,” remembered Tom Cornell, unlike some charities which beg incessantly to build for the future.

It’s easy to create one’s own Dorothy because there were so many facets to her spirituality. Perhaps because I met her while working against the

Vietnam war, my Dorothy is attracted to resisting the power of the state, and I must resist the temptation to remake her into a political figure. Many make her solely the feeder of the hungry, and in the process narrow and dilute her message. Dom Helder Camera’s comment applies to Dorothy Day:

“When I feed the poor, they call me a saint; when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a Communist.” 19

Dorothy believed, with other peacemakers like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., that in the era of total war, nonviolence was not just a moral but a practical imperative. She

proclaimed this message in season and out—regardless of public opinion, the threat of persecution, or the disapproval of fellow Christians. Jim O’Gara, once editor of Commonweal, told me:

Dorothy was not radical in the way that many people are in the church today, she was only at odds with Catholics who were not familiar with the encyclicals and other avenues of Catholic social thought. She read things that most people don’t bother to read, so she was for an orthodox position. She was for a papal position. She may have differed from the majority of American Catholics, but she was completely orthodox. 20

She would be thrilled, of course, by our new Pope Francis, with his concern for the poor, critiques of free-market capitalism, and calls for world peace. What makes Dorothy Day’s spirituality so special is this consistency in making the connections, in both feeding poor people and in questioning the social

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FIFTEEN

priorities which cause so many to be poor. Thus Dorothy is beloved by most of the left, and either reviled or co-opted or worshiped by the right. It seems to have always been so. I recently read a reprint from one of her 1949 essays where she wrote, “Our actions are admired and praised but only as palliatives and poultices, and our efforts to do away with the State by nonviolent resistance and achieving a distributist economy are derided and decried.” In both her writings and her actions, she consistently both subverted and transcended distinctions between liberal and conservative, between left and right. In fact, she would have thought such distinctions spurious. She was just doing what the New Testament told us all to do, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. Feed the poor, love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you.

Her actions and her words still speak to us. She didn’t just give to the poor, she lived with them. She didn’t just talk about how Jesus lives in everyone, she treated everyone as Jesus, even if he or she were drunk and smelly. She didn’t ask for proof that people were poor but simply fed them, just as Jesus fed the multitudes. She loved the world and trusted that the God who became Incarnate because He loved the world would guide her. And He did.

1 Dorothy Day. The Long Loneliness. San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1952, 1981, 29.

2 Ibid, 107.

3 “Workers of the World Unite.” The Catholic Worker, May, 1958, 1,3.

4 “Aims and Means of the Catholic Worker.” www.catholicworker.org/aimsandmeans.cfm

5 See Rosalie G. Riegle, Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community (Vanderbilt University Press, 2012) and Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace, (Wipf and Stock, 2013.)

6 Mark Zwick. Houston Catholic Worker. Vol. XX, No. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2000.

7 The Catholic Worker (December 1999), 8.

8 Pope Benedict XV and Pope Pius XI.

9 Riegle, Dorothy Day, 87

10 The Catholic Worker (April 1957), 6.

11 Ibid, 93.

12 Loc. Cit.

13 Riegle, Dorothy Day, especially Chapters 4 and 5.

14 Ibid, 82.

15 Ibid, 83.

16 Ibid, 85.

17 Ibid, 84-85.

18 Ibid, 145-46.

19 Helder, The Gift: A Life that Marked the Course of the Church in Brazil, 53

20 Riegle, Voices from the Catholic Worker, 80.

You are welcome to write or call me at: [email protected] or (630) 829-9279.W

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world’s hustle and bustle. Society might indeed be improved by the schools and other enterprises that monasteries would establish, but the Benedictine style has ever been far more one of providing stable foundations for charitable impulses than one of pointing fingers at injustice. No doubt exceptions exist, but exceptions they are. So how does Benedictine life serve as “the Church’s conscience”?

Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus. That in all things God may be glorified. That in every part of life God is seen as present, and God comes first. God first. Not as a pious motto or aspiration, but as an organizing principle. That is what St. Benedict does in his Rule, and that is what he challenges every Christian conscience to consider. From how and when we pray, to the motivation for the work we do, to the sort of food and even the quantity of food that we eat, to the manner in which material objects are to be received and treated, and to many more facets of life,

Benedict provides a fundamental organizing principle, one with the potential to challenge many a conscience: God first.

Along with Abbot Austin, I attended in early December, 2013, a National Religious Vocation Conference workshop entitled

“Men Religious Moving Forward in Hope” at St. Meinrad Archabbey, St. Meinrad, Indiana. As intended, the talks and the sharing generated a variety of thoughts, some of them circling around the comment of one speaker that, historically, religious orders have served as

“the Church’s conscience.”

Many images came to mind. Francis Xavier, picturing himself making the rounds of European universities, screaming out like a madman to the complacent scholars that, while they engaged in idle disputation, souls were being lost all over the world. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa, witnessing in deeds, and in words if necessary, to service and poverty, at least implicitly challenging us all to think. Our own oblate of St. Procopius, Dorothy Day, who served the poor.

All of which led me next to wonder, in what way has — does — the Benedictine order serve as “the Church’s conscience?” How did Benedict himself? The life that Benedict modeled, the life to which his disciples responded, was one of withdrawal from the

Vocations Ministryby Fr. James

FIND US ON FACEBOOK Fr. James Flint, O.S.B.

Abbey Prayer & WorshipThe monks invite you to join them for morning and evening prayer, especially solemn vespers on Sundays. These are the usual Mass times, please call the abbey switchboard at (630) 969-6410 or visit www.procopius.webs.com to confirm Saturday or Solemnity times or any other schedules.

Worship will be in the abbey church, unless noted (LC) indicating the Lady Chapel.

Monday thru SaturdayLauds (LC) ....................... 6:25 a.m.The Conventual Mass ....... 7:00 a.m. Mid-day Prayer (LC)......... 12:00 noon Vespers (LC) .................... 7:00 p.m.Compline (LC) .................. 7:00 p.m.

SundayLauds (LC) ....................... 6:25 a.m.The Conventual Mass ..... 11:00 a.m.Solemn Vespers (LC) ........ 5:00 p.m.Compline (LC) .................. 7:00 p.m.


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C h r o n i c l i n g o u r g r e a t v e n t u r e o f C h r i s t i a n d i s c i p l e s h i p .

Abbey AdVentures

Monks Make Two Trips to New Mesa Branch CampusOur University has gradually been establishing a branch campus in Mesa, Arizona, a city of 450,000 people which has been anxious to attract private higher education in general, and Catholic higher education in particular. Classroom instruction began in the Fall Semester of 2013.

With Abbot Austin being the Chancellor of Benedictine University, and St. Procopius Abbey the school’s sponsoring institution, the monks have a natural interest in this expansion into a new region.

Today, alas, the limited manpower of the Abbey prevents the community from stationing any of its members at the Mesa campus. But Abbot Austin wishes to do all possible to be encouraging, and so he visited Mesa in November 2013 along with Fr. David, Fr. James, and Br. Kevin.

The four Benedictines saw both impressive physical facilities and an

inspiring camaraderie among these pioneers of the Benedictine educational charism in Arizona. The administration, staff, and faculty of the Mesa branch campus are making a concerted effort to listen to (another very Benedictine value!), and work with, the ninety students in fashioning a curriculum and a spirit that will set the campus on a solid Catholic footing.

The monks prayed the Divine Office and celebrated Mass with those who were available. They also offered several sessions explaining the monastic tradition out of which Benedictine University has developed over the past 126 years; and Fr. David, as director of oblates for the abbey, gave a short presentation on Benedictine oblate life. On the morning of November 14, they joined in the morning prayer and Mass with the community of Queen of Peace Parish, near campus, whose associate pastor, Fr. Dan Vanyo, serves as University chaplain.

In April 2014, Abbot Austin, Fr. David and Br. Kevin returned to campus to celebrate Mass and pray with students, faculty, and staff, and to connect with new oblates on campus.

Though short, both visits seemed worthwhile to those involved, and the monks look forward to visiting again!

n During December 2013, Fr. James gave the monastic retreat at Portsmouth Abbey in Rhode Island, using as his theme the “Saints of December.” Two other retreats (a weekend retreat in mid-February to about a dozen Knights of Columbus from St. Alphonsus Parish, Chicago, at the Cardinal Stritch retreat house in Mundelein, Illinois; and the monastic retreat at Assumption Abbey, Richardton, North Dakota, in May) had as the theme a novel, Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis.

n Abbot Austin and Fr. James attended the FOCUS (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students) convention in Dallas, Texas, at the beginning of January. “Answering the Church’s call for a new evangelization, FOCUS, is a national outreach that meets college students where they are and invites them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith.” (www.focus.org/about/the-main-thing.html) Abbot Austin and Fr. James joined many of the thousands of students in prayer. Many asked about the abbey and it gave them a chance to speak about vocations.

n Abbot Hugh and Fr. James took part in the spring meeting of the President’s Council of the congregation at the Benedictine Priory in Savannah, Georgia, at the end of March.

n May 26 was a day of gratitude for all who came to St. Raphael Cathedral (Dubuque, Iowa,) to help Archbishop Emeritus Daniel W. Kucera, O.S.B., celebrate the 65th anniversary of his ordination to thepriesthood at an 11 a.m. liturgy

His Benedictine brother, Fr. Ed, 86, sat next to him in the sanctuary (above, right).

At the time of the homily, Archbishop Kucera moved his electric wheelchair to the center of the sanctuary. “I did this to show you I could still drive,” he quipped.

Then he began by referring to the prayer of Jesus in John, 17:21: “I pray that all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; I pray that they may be one in us.”

The jubilarian said God talks to us in our varied vocations through the circumstances of our lives and the people who surround us, our families, parishioners, and others. “All of us must fulfill our vocation to the best of our ability so we fulfill the priesthood of Jesus Christ,” he continued.

At end of his homily, he reminded his listeners that all vocations are calls from God. He thanked the congregation for “being here to celebrate with me.” The congregation responded with a long and enthusiastic standing ovation.

by Sr. Carol Hoverman, O.S.F.Editor, The Witness


SEVENTEEN

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In Memoriam of all of our confreres, relatives, friends and benefactors

+ Donnell Anderson, friend of the abbey.

+ Frank J. Fatur, friend of the abbey.

+ Pamela Laz, oblate, wife of Oblate David Laz.

+ Charles McGowan (above), friend of the abbey, and, project manager for Pepper Construction Co., for construction on the new abbey, 1968-1970.

+ Rt. Rev. Claude J. Peifer, O.S.B., seventh abbot of St. Bede Abbey, great friend of the abbey.

+ Mildred V. Sutulovich, sister of our late Fr. Stanley Vesely, O.S.B.

+ Alice Vesely, sister-in-law of our late Brother Joseph Vesely, O.S.B.

Br. Kevin and Kevin Blaney at the opening of “Toy Stories”at Benedictine University’s Fr. Michael E. Komechak, O.S.B, Art Gallery.

A r t i s t S t a t e m e n t

Toy Stories by Br. Kevin

When I see a toy, I see a story. In my still lifes I combine and arrange different varieties of toys to create unexpected scenarios and situations that reveal timeless qualities in human behavior and relationships that anyone at one time or another could find relatable.

Depending on the toy’s form, character, history, and/or genre, the stories the paintings tell can be epic in a biblical, historical, or mythological sense, or they can be brief, tender, and charming, similar to a short tale that friends might share with each other over a cup of coffee. All the stories my paintings tell intermingle the awkward, ironic, cute, and surprising with the sometimes harsh and edgier moments in life that have the potential to become surprisingly relevant experiences over time.

St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II, pray for us.

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5601 College RoadLisle, Illinois 60532-4463

2 Celebrating the Milestones of

Archbishop Daniel W. Kucera

8 Gaudium et Spes— The

Right Reading of Vatican II

11 The Procopian Oblate:

Love is the Measure

15 Vocations Ministry

Prayer and Worship Schedule

16 Abbey Adventures

17 In Memoriam

1969 — Abbot Daniel surveys the progress of construction. Here he stands in what is now the guest dining room looking out towards the community room.