ABBEY BANNER - St. John's Abbey

Meet a Monk: 

Luke Dowal, OSB, 4 

Printing ABBEY BANNER, 

6 

Abbey’s Vision Statement, 9 

Saint Benedict’s Church, 

Avon, Minnesota, 10 

Review of Abbot Boniface 

Wimmer’s Letters, 12 

Retirement Center 

renovation, 14 

Obituaries: 

Dietrich Reinhart, 

Bruce Wollmering, 

Simon Bischof, 16 

Bottle building in 

Guatemala, 19 

Architect awards, 20 

Woodworking at St. Paul’s 

Monastery chapel, 21 

Abbey Chronicle, 24 

Monks in the Kitchen, 29 

AND MORE 

Volume 9 • Issue 1 • Spring 2009 

ABBEY BANNER 

Magazine of Saint John’s Abbey 

Brother Luke, OSB, at his easel

Contents 

Aelred Senna, OSB 

Features 

6 Printing ABBEY BANNER 

by Heidi Everett 

10 Saint Benedict’s Church of Avon 

Articles 

Editorials 

3 From editor and abbot 

Monastic Matters 

9 Abbey approves Vision Statement 

20 Architect awards for Guesthouse 

and Blessed Sacrament Chapel 

21 Abbey Woodworking’s furniture 

for Saint Paul’s Monastery 

Abbey Banner 

Magazine of 

Saint John’s Abbey 

Volume 9, Issue 1 

Spring 2009 

Orchids, primrose 

and sand verbena 

flowers by Luke 

Dowal, OSB 

Benedictine Volunteers 

19 The bottle building 

Vocations 

22 Two sponsored events 

Pages 4 and 5 

Cover Story 

Meet a Monk: 

Luke Dowal, OSB, 

self-taught artist 

by Daniel Durken, OSB 

12 Review of Wimmer’s Letters 

by Columba Stewart, OSB 

14 Renovation of Abbey Retirement 

Center 

Obituaries 

16 Dietrich Reinhart, Bruce 

Wollmering, Simon Bishof 

The Abbey Chronicle 

24 November - March 

Editor: Daniel Durken, OSB 

ddurken@csbsju.edu 

Copy Editor and Proofreader: 

Dolores Schuh, CHM 

Designer: Pam Rolfes 

Circulation: Ruth Athmann, Cathy Wieme, 

Mary Gouge 

Printer: Palmer Printing, Waite Park, 

Minnesota 

Banner Bits 

23 New publications 

27 Carol Marrin retires 

28 Sugar Shack 

30 William Schipper, OSB, Ph.D 

Monks in the Kitchen 

29 Distance Learning 

Spiritual Life 

31 What is God like? 

Back Cover 

Poems by Kilian McDonnell, OSB 

NOTE: Please send your change of address to: Ruth Athmann at rathmann@csbsju.edu or P.O. Box 7222, 

Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7222 or call 800-635-7303. 

Abbey Banner is published three times 

annually (spring, fall, winter) by the 

Benedictine monks of Saint John’s Abbey for 

our relatives, friends and Oblates. 

Abbey Banner is online at 

www.sja.osb.org/AbbeyBanner 

Simon-Hòa Phan, OSB 

Saint John’s Abbey, Box 2015, Collegeville, 

Minnesota 56321-2015

The might of night 

and light 


T 

he Collegeville campus had 

a surreal experience of the 

might of night and light on 

March 15-16 when a primary fuse 

of a transformer exploded at Saint 

John’s Xcel Energy substation, causing a power outage 

that lasted some 25 hours. The Record, the weekly student 

paper, reported how one student was caught off guard by 

the outage: “A few buddies and I were playing basketball 

and I was literally in mid-shot when the lights went out.” 

When the sudden silence of my humidifier, the blinking 

of my alarm clock and the darkness in the bathroom across 

the hallway convinced me of the situation, one of my first 

thoughts was of the first creation account in the Book of 

Genesis. What are the very first words the Creator says? 

“Let there be light.” The all-seeing God had to flick the 

primordial switch to find where to begin and what to do 

next. 

Making a quantum leap to the vision of the New Jerusalem 

in the Book of Revelation, I recalled the resolution of 

this tension between night and light: “The city had no need 

of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it 

light. The nations will walk by its light. During the day its 

gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there” 

(21:23-26). 

During this Easter Season we remember the interplay of 

night and light that was the focus of the Easter Vigil. As the 

Easter Candle was lit in the dark church, we prayed, “May 

the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our 

hearts and minds.” 

Rather than curse the darkness, the Easter Proclamation 

praised the night. “This is the night when first you freed 

the people of Israel from slavery . . . when the pillar of fire 

destroyed the darkness of sin . . . when Christians everywhere 

are restored to grace . . . when Jesus Christ broke the 

chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave to shed 

his peaceful light on all.” 

The Easter Season renews our gratitude for the risen Jesus 

who says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows 

me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” 

(John 8:12). + 

“I want to know 

Christ and the 

power of his 

resurrection.” (Saint Paul) 

FROM EDITOR AND ABBOT 

by Abbot John Klassen, OSB 

I 

n listening to the accounts of 

Jesus’ resurrection, I am always 

struck by how the disciples undergo a conversion 

as they appropriate the fact and its meaning. In this closing 

Year of Paul, consider what happened to him as a result of 

his conversion. Saul becomes Paul; the one who harassed 

Christians now is a Christian; the Pharisee now becomes 

the premier Christian missionary to the Gentiles. 

Paul is utterly in love with Christ and has an intensely 

personal relationship with the Risen Christ. This is a powerful, 

mystical experience that pushes Paul beyond what 

would normally be possible. This kind of transformation 

can never be a surface phenomenon. Our inner attitude has 

to be transformed. 

Paul’s inner attitude becomes one of joy and inner peace. 

He writes in 2 Corinthians 7:4, “I am filled with comfort. 

With all our affliction, I am overjoyed.” This inner attitude 

is solid, not forced, sweet and pious, ignoring real 

hardships. Paul writes earlier in this letter, “We hold this 

treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent 

power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:7). Paul 

recognizes that this extraordinary joy comes from God— 

he could not possess it on his own. It is not merely the 

fruit of good character, good habits, a human gift. 

All Paul’s letters begin with a prayer of thanksgiving. 

His attitude of gratitude is not mere formalism but grows 

out of his sense of being blessed by God. Blessed because 

of the gift of his life, despite all the hardships, all the mistakes, 

all the stupid things he has said and done. Blessed 

because he has come to know Jesus Christ as his savior. 

Paul is no longer committed to the hopeless task of trying 

to earn his salvation by following the law perfectly. He 

is blessed because of the communities and individuals that 

crossed his path and enriched him immeasurably. Blessed 

because he has been given the mission to the Gentiles and 

is privileged to preach the Gospel across the entire Roman 

world. Blessed because on countless occasions he should 

have died, and for some reason he is still on the planet, 

breathing the air. Truly, he has come to know Christ and 

the power of his resurrection. + 

Abbey Banner Spring 2009 page 3

FEATURE 


Meet a Monk: Luke Dowal, OSB, 

self-taught artist 


After sixteen years of working 

off the east coast as a seaman 

in the United States Merchant 

Marine, in 1958 Zygmond Dowal 

traded his love for the sea for the 

monastic life of Saint John’s Abbey 

on the shore of Lake Sagatagan in the 

state that boasts of 10,000 lakes. 

page 4 Abbey Banner Spring 2009 

“The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping 

alive the sense of wonder in the world.” 

(G. K. Chesterton) 

Upon his entrance into the novitiate, 

Zygmond traded his Polish 

first name and nickname “Ziggy” for 

Luke, the author of the third Gospel 

and the Acts of the Apostles. His new 

name is a link with the ancient Luke 

who gives readers of the Acts the 

whopping good sea stories of Saint 

Sunrise at 

Mt. Hood 

by Luke 

Dowal, OSB 

Paul’s and his sailing companions’ 

missionary journeys and also connects 

with the tradition of Luke being 

both a physician and artist. Brother 

Luke later became a registered nurse 

but his artistic accomplishments are 

the focus of this article.

Community Directory 2008 

Luke Dowal, OSB 

During his early years as a monk, 

Luke worked in the garden, the carpenter 

shop, the monastic dining 

room, the sacristy and as a pioneer of 

Saint John’s foundation in Mexico. 

He obtained the nursing degree from 

the St. Cloud Hospital and had nursing 

duties at the abbey for six years. 

He then resumed sacristan duties for 

the next thirty years until his retirement 

in 2008 shortly before his 85th 

birthday. 

Luke’s artistic work is not an 

assignment but a hobby. He slowly 

developed his God-given talent that 

began as a youngster who enjoyed 

drawing and water colors. He moved 

into oil paintings in 1969. The only 

formal art class he took was a course 

on color from Sister Thomas Carey, 

OSB, of the College of Saint Benedict 

in 1975 for which he received an “A.” 

Calling his style “realistic,” Luke 

uses a composite of colored photographs 

from magazines as the models 

for his paintings of flower arrangements 

and landscape and seascape 

scenes. His meticulously detailed 

work demands intense concentration 

whereby he feels drawn into another 

world and immersed in color. His 

room in the Breuer wing of the abbey 

is his studio where he works on a 

painting no more than two hours at 

a time. He makes his own picture 

frames. 

Luke has given away most of his 

paintings, often as gifts from the 

abbey to retiring employees. The 

offices of student accounts and registrar 

have his painting on display. One 

of his largest and most detailed paintings—“Sunrise 

at Mt. Hood” from 

a photo in National Geographic— 

enhances a wall of the Walter Reger 

dining room. 

Brother Luke’s 

paintings have succeeded 

wonderfully 

in “keeping alive the 

sense of wonder in 

the world.” + 

A waterfall 

FEATURE 

Trees in autumn 



Eagle Harbor on Lake Superior 



FEATURE 

Printing ABBEY BANNER: 

From Ideas to the Issue 

Established in 1966 in St. Cloud, 

Minnesota, by Mike Palmer 

and succeeded by his son 

Steve as president in 1987, Palmer 

Printing is the company that puts 

each issue of ABBEY BANNER on 

the paper that you now hold in hand. 

This tour of the production process 

moves the magazine from the original 

disk containing the layout of articles 

and photos through the massive and 

sophisticated printing machinery to 

the final trimmed, folded and stapled 

copies ready for distribution. 

When the articles for ABBEY 

BANNER have been written, edited, 

proofread and formatted and the disk 

delivered to Palmer Printing, the Prepress 

Department performs a preliminary 

check to make sure the original 

magazine file is correct. Photographs 

are checked to assure they are crisp, 

properly sized and color corrected. 

Then the team arranges the pages into 

press sheet forms. 


by Heidi Everett; photos by Steve Palmer 

An inside look at Palmer Printing 

and its production process 

A 16-page signature of press sheets 

A press sheet measures 28” x 40” 

with each sheet holding sixteen different 

pages of the magazine, eight pages 

Steve Palmer, owner and 

president of Palmer Printing 

on the front of the sheet and 

eight pages on the back. This 

sheet of sixteen pages is called 

a signature. Thus the 32-page 

ABBEY BANNER has two 

such signatures. 

Using integrated software, 

the Prepress team codes the 

files to run on the press. As 

Steve Palmer explains, “Our 

Prepress technicians protect 

the integrity of the magazine’s 

file with this amazing 

system. When they are done, 

this file information goes from 

the brains of their Macintosh 

computers to the brain of the 

press. The technical language 

is spoken and understood from 

one machine to the other so 

the press knows precisely how 

much ink to put on each press sheet 

without intervention of a press operator. 

This shared information between 

Prepress and the press room allows 

for greater quality and efficiency in 

the production process.”

Before the actual printing begins a 

sample proof of the issue is reviewed 

and approved by ABBEY BANNER 

editor Father Daniel who makes sure 

that skin tones are accurate, glares are 

removed and images are true to life. 

Final page-proofing by Father Daniel, 

editor, and Gwen Spengler, Palmer 

Printing sales reprentative 

The CMYK color separations 

This final check ensures that copy 

and color are correct and represent 

what the printed product will look 

like before it is actually printed. With 

Daniel’s final approval, the files are 

digitally sent to the plate imaging 

machine. 

Each issue of ABBEY BANNER 

is alive with color from the calming 

hues of the Collegeville lakes and 

forest to the rich details of the stained 

glass window of the abbey church. 

The colors are made from combinations 

of only four colors identified 

as C (cyan or blue), M (magenta, a 

deep purplish red),Y (yellow) and K 

(black). 

Each of these colors has its own re- 

—K 

—C 

—M 

FEATURE 

cyclable aluminum 

plate 

on the press 

that prints that 

color on the 

press in tiny 

dots too small 

for the eye 

Magnified dots on the 

to detect. The 

press sheet 

dots appear as a 

continuous tone even though they 

are not. Looking at a printed page 

with a magnifying glass will show 

the way the combined dots create 

the color images. 

The electronic file information from 

Prepress is then sent to a machine that 

interprets the information, separates 

the four colors and images four aluminum 

plates for each side of the press 

sheet. When these plates are put on 

—Y 

—Composite 


FEATURE 

the press and locked into position, ink 

is loaded in each of the four ink units, 

then applied to each of the four plates 

and transferred to the press sheet as 

it goes through each of the four color 

units. Palmer Printing uses vegetablebased, 

non-toxic, biodegradable and 

recyclable inks to reduce the company’s 

impact on the environment. 

Aluminum plate being made 

Most printing presses are made in 

either Germany or Japan. Palmer has 

both Heidelberg and Komori presses. 

The Komori press prints ABBEY 

BANNER and can run 16,000 28” x 

40” sheets per hour. With 16-page signatures 

per sheet, that totals 128,000 

pages per hour. 

The Komori 40-inch press 

The printed BANNER signatures 

are then taken to the cutter for trimming. 

Each cut has automatically 

been pre-programmed into the 


machine so the operator does not 

have to measure, re-measure and 

draw guidelines. Instead he sets 

up to 700 sheets of paper onto the 

cutter table and engages the cutter, 

watching swift, clean cuts made 

through the stack by a very large 

and sharp steel blade. 

Once the cutting is completed, the 

signatures go to the folder which 

is capable of many types of folds 

although ABBEY BANNER is a 

simple, single fold. 

The folder 

When each 16-page signature has 

been printed, cut and folded, it is 

dropped into a pocket on the collator/ 

stitcher. Signatures are loaded based 

on where they fall in the magazine. 

The middle pages are dropped on the 

conveyor belt followed by the outside 

pages. Much like a piggyback ride, 

the middle pages carry the outside 

PALMER PRINTING 

pages to 

the stitcher 

where 

staples bind 

the two signaturestogether. 

The 

machine 

makes a 

final trim to 

the folded 

and stapled 

magazine 

so all the 

pages are even. 

The automated cutter 

The collator/stitcher 

Voila! The finished ABBEY 

BANNER is packed into cartons, 

delivered to the mailing center at 

Saint John’s where the issue is 

address-labeled, distributed and 

shipped to you, its readers. + 

• produces zero hazardous waste. Fewer than 5% of 

Minnesota printers have this distinction. 

• recycles 98% of its production and office waste, 

including print, plastic and metals. 

• follows Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) 

certification standards. 

• is a Printing Industry of Minnesota Great Printer. 

• in 2004 was named the Small Business of the Year 

by the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce. 

Heidi Everett is the director of advancement 

communications for the College of 

Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota. 

The mark of responsible forestry 

SW-COC-003234 

© 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C.

Abbey approves 

seven-year Vision Statement 

Introduction 

We, the monastic community 

of Saint John’s Abbey, affirm 

the life and work of 

our forebears and wish to hand on to 

future generations of monks of this 

house the gift we have received: a 

vital monastic witness. With gratitude 

we recognize the saving work of Jesus 

Christ in our life together. We affirm 

that witnessing to his Kingdom is central 

to our lives of prayer and work. 

The following statement grows out 

of this response to the Gospel of Jesus 

Christ and the Rule of Saint Benedict. 

With these for our guide we put this 

Vision Statement forward for the next 

seven years. 

Placid Stuckenschneider, OSB 

Vision elements with goal statements for 2015 

Our monastery will be a place where we: 

Next steps 

We will begin the work of creating 

a five-year plan that orders and 

prioritizes the goals which make these 

vision elements concrete and that is 

grounded on the fiscal and human 

resources of our community. 

FEATURE 

Strengthen our Catholic, Benedictine identity by 

• becoming a more vibrant monastic community, participating strongly in prayer 

• working toward creating a balance of prayer and work with a eucharistic 

spirituality 

• drawing vocations to the Benedictine wisdom tradition 

Support our apostolates and vital ministries by 

• invigorating and sustaining the Benedictine Volunteer program 

• retaining a commitment of presence to the local community as well as to our 

students 

• working to develop leadership and the monastic presence in the 

University, Prep School, Liturgical Press, pastoral ministry and the Abbey 

Guesthouse 

Practice environmental stewardship and sustainable living by 

• making a commitment to simplicity of life and frugality 

• deepening our commitment to moderation and sharing goods in common 

• having simple, nutritious food, produced here or purchased locally 

Create stronger working relationships with lay women and men by 

• continuing to strengthen the bonds that our Oblates and Benedictine Volunteers 

have with us 

• expanding the ability of Oblates to be a working part of the abbey’s mission 

• guiding the laity to administer some of our apostolates 

Serve the poor and under-resourced, locally and globally by 

• preparing alumni, Oblates and Benedictine Volunteers for service in poor 

countries 

• embracing inclusivity and diversity in our community and in the people we 

work with 

• engaging with Southeast Asian, African-American and Hispanic 

Catholics in the local communities and in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue 

This Vision Statement, of which the 

above is a synopsis, was approved by 

the monastic community on March 3, 

2009. + 


Daniel Durken, OSB 

FEATURE 

The village of Spunk Lake originated 

in 1858 when Nicolaus 

and John Keppers bought government 

land three miles west of a nascent 

Benedictine monastery for $1.25 

per acre. The name may have derived 

from Ojibwa Chief Spunk whose tribe 

had sparsely inhabited the Indianbush 

area now called Collegeville. 

By 1869 ten families had settled 

the locale and applied to Rupert 

Seidenbusch, OSB, first abbot of 

Saint John’s, for pastoral services. 

The abbot appointed Prior Benedict 

Haindl, OSB, to begin this new mission, 

dedicated to Mary’s Immaculate 

Conception that had been defined as a 

dogma of faith in 1854. The Keppers’ 

wagonshop served as the first church 

and school until 1871 when a new log 

house was built to house both entities. 

The following year James J. Hill, 

founder of the Great Northern Railroad, 

changed the name of the settlement 

to Avon; he liked to give English 

names to communities along his train 


“The greatest memorial we can give to our pioneers 

is to fill with credit their places in the parish.” 

(Abbot Baldwin Dworschak, OSB) 

route. Avon is the river in England associated 

with the city of Stratford and 

William Shakespeare. 

Avon parishioners were soon planning 

a new frame church, completed 

in 1878 and dedicated to Saint Benedict 

in honor of the first pastor. This 

building was in use for nearly half a 

century. 

Throughout these formative years 

the parish was served by a multitude 

of Benedictine and diocesan priests. 

The parish history, A Century of Sacrifice 

and Prayer, lists more than forty 

pastors assigned during these 100 

years for as brief a time as two months 

and as long as thirteen years. 

In 1901 a two-story brick veneered 

rectory was built and is still in use. 

A grade school was added, built and 

owned by the parish but paid for by 

the city. This building now houses the 

parish center, a Montessori school for 

three to six year olds and several offices 

for local businesses. 

Saint Benedict’s 

Church of 

Avon, Minnesota 

Blane Wasnie, OSB, pastor 

Meinrad Seiferman, OSB, was 

pastor when the present church was 

built in 1928. Gilbert Winkelman, 

OSB, who taught architecture at Saint 

John’s, was the architect. When Abbot 

Alcuin Deutsch, OSB, inquired 

about the payment for Father Gilbert’s 

Daniel Durken, OSB

professional services, Father Meinrad 

replied, “Father Abbot, you promised 

us a donation, so let’s call it even.” 

In 1997 during the pastorate of 

James Reichert, OSB, the entrance 

to the church was extended to create 

a gathering space that includes an 

elevator to the nave, stairway to the 

basement, reconciliation room, cry 

room and bathrooms. 

Supported by the successful capital 

campaign initiated by pastor Eugene 

McGlothlin, OSB, a thorough 

renovation and updating of the present 

church was planned and supervised 

by the present pastor, Blane Wasnie, 

OSB, and parishioners. In early 2007 

the project, which includes the following, 

was completed in six weeks of 

intensive labor without interruption of 

weekend liturgies. 

• expansion of the sanctuary with a 

new hardwood laminated floor 

and the leveling and partial 

carpeting of the nave 

• restoration and repositioning of 

the original main altar of gneiss, 

a beautifully mottled stone older 

than granite, and moving choir to 

area once occupied by the altar 

• new baptismal pool and font for 

adult and infant baptisms 

• renovated tabernacle 

• new sound system, lighting, 

organ, ambo and choir chairs 

• new cabinets in the sacristy 

Inspired by their parish Mission 

Statement—“We are people of God, 

welcoming, proclaiming, celebrating 

and serving one another”—the 600 

current Catholic households are dedicated 

to nurturing the seeds of faith, 

hope and love planted by their pioneers. 

In the spirit of Saint Benedict, 

“May they prefer nothing whatever 

to Christ, and may he bring them all 

together to everlasting life” (Rule of 

Saint Benedict, chapter 72). + 

FEATURE 

The renovated sanctuary. The oil painting is the work of B. Imhoff in memory of 

Eileen A. Roche, a young parishioner killed in a car accident in 1930. 

Small statues of saints and vigil lights 

occupy a space at the rear of the 

church. 


This unique statue of Saint Benedict, 

the parish patron, is the work of Mark 

Kurtz, known locally as “The Chainsaw 

Man,” who carved it using only a large 

and small chainsaw. The white oak tree 

trunk is about 200 years old and was 

harvested from the Alfred Jacob farm 

near Holdingford, Minnesota. It weighs 

800 pounds, stands 6’ 10” and was 

cured for fifteen years. 




FEATURE 

Boniface Wimmer: 

Letters of an American Abbot 

American Benedictines of the 

German tradition, which 

includes Saint John’s Abbey 

and Saint Benedict’s Monastery, owe 

their presence in this country to Archabbot 

Boniface Wimmer (1809-1887). 

Sebastian Wimmer was a diocesan 

priest in his native Bavaria when he 

entered the recently refounded Bavarian 

monastery of Metten Abbey. He 

was given the religious name Boniface 

after the eighth-century English 

monk who brought Christianity to 

the Germanic world. The name was a 

foresightful choice, for Wimmer was 

to become one of the greatest German 

missionaries of all time, bringing both 

pastoral service and vibrant monastic 

life to the United States. 

Wimmer is a complex and controversial 

figure for American Benedictines. 

His undeniable energy in 

establishing monasteries and parishes 

created a monastic culture that often 

seemed more directed toward external 

mission than cloistered contemplation. 

His strong-willed direction of 

Benedictine expansion in America 

frequently led to clashes with his 

monks, with bishops, and with the 

Benedictine women whom he thought 

essential for Benedictine success in 

the United States. 


Edited by Jerome Oetgen 

Reviewed by Columba Stewart, OSB 

For some, Wimmer represents 

all that is dynamic and admirable 

in American Benedictine 

life. For others, he represents an 

authoritarian, patriarchal model 

of monastic leadership best left 

in the nineteenth century. Indeed, 

his favorite motto was omnis sanctus 

pertinax, “every saint must be stubborn.” 

Gaining a sense of the man is 

difficult for those who have heard the 

many caricatures that circulate in the 

oral history of American Benedictine 

life. 

The recent sesquicentennial celebrations 

of American monasteries 

have again brought Wimmer and his 

complexities to the forefront of our 

efforts to understand where we came 

from and where we might be headed 

in these early years of the 21st century. 

Now, in the bicentennial year of 

Wimmer’s birth, Jerome Oetgen has 

done a great service by providing us 

the best possible glimpse of Wimmer 

himself. 

The 200 letters in this selection 

open with Wimmer’s efforts to leave 

his diocesan parish assignment to 

become a Benedictine at Metten 

Abbey and close with his very last, 

unfinished letter. These are long letters, 

filling almost 600 printed pages. 

Wimmer was typical of the great men 

and women of his age, who regarded 

the art and labor of letter-writing as a 

matter of daily obligation, but the unusual 

detail found in Wimmer’s letters 

sets them apart from the more banal 

correspondence of his contemporaries. 

Oetgen knows his subject well, 

having written a major biography of 

Wimmer (An American Abbot, rev. ed. 

Catholic University of America Press, 

1997). The letters he has chosen are 

almost all translated from German, 

Wimmer’s preferred language. Gathered 

from archives in Rome, Germany, 

and various monastic foundations 

in North America, the majority were 

translated in the 1960s and 70s. Some 

letters of particular interest for the 

history of Saint John’s Abbey were 

published between 1958 and 1960 in 

The Scriptorium, a journal produced 

by the junior monks of Saint John’s. 

Given the fifty-year sweep of this 

collection and Wimmer’s incredible 

achievements during that half-century 

of activity, a review of this kind can 

only summarize major themes that 

recur throughout the correspondence.

Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, OSB, presents the volume to Pope Benedict XVI. 

A letter written and signed by Wimmer Historic Saint Joseph’s Mission Church, near Carrollton, 

Pennsylvania, visited by Wimmer 

First was his commitment to the 

German Catholic immigrants in the 

United States. Second was his belief 

that establishing rural Benedictine 

monasteries was the best means to 

care for German Catholics and to 

spread the Catholic faith. 

For Wimmer, missionary work was 

the highest form of Christian ministry, 

and he considered professed religious 

to be better suited than diocesan 

priests for such apostolic labor. 

Because monks settle in one place, 

immersing themselves in the culture 

and lives of the people they serve, 

he deemed monastic community to 

be the most successful means for 

missionary work. Wimmer wanted 

these Benedictine mission centers to 

be genuine monasteries, with strong 

monastic discipline and a full round 

of liturgical prayer and devotional 

practices. 

Wimmer’s letters show him to be 

deeply pious in the traditional sense 

of having a lively, sure belief in God, 

FEATURE 

joined to a firm conviction that the 

Catholic Church was the best means 

to bring such faith to others. As he 

aged he wrote with touching honesty 

of his growing sensitivity to criticism 

and about the cracks developing 

within the cloisters he had labored so 

hard to build. 

Those interested in the history of 

the Minnesota foundation will find 

several letters to the first two abbots 

of Saint John’s, Rupert Seidenbusch 

and Alexius Edelbrock, as well as a 

letter Wimmer sent to Rome to explain 

his side of the legendary clash 

of wills with Mother Benedicta Riepp. 

Wimmer was also 

involved in the larger 

controversies of his 

day, writing to Abraham 

Lincoln in 1863 to 

request exemption from 

the draft for his monks 

and the following 

year urging one of his 

monks to vote against 

Lincoln in the hope of 

an early peace. 

As someone who has 

struggled to make sense 

of Wimmer’s legacy, 

I am grateful for this 

chance to encounter this 

monumental monk 

more directly. + 

Columba Stewart is Professor of Monastic 

Studies and Executive Director of the Hill 

Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint 

John’s. 

Boniface Wimmer: Letters of an 

American Abbot may be ordered from 

Saint John’s Bookstore at 1-800-420-4509 

or www.csbsju.edu/bookstore.org. 

The price is $39.99 plus postage 

and handling. 

All photos courtesy Saint Vincent 

Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania 


FEATURE 

Abbot John celebrates Mass in the chapel of the retirement center. 

The health care of the community 

was a priority for Saint 

Benedict as he wrote, “Care of 

the sick must rank above and before 

all else, so that they may truly be 

served as Christ, for he said: I was 

sick and you visited me (Matt 25:36) 

and, What you did for one of these 

least brothers you did for me” (Matt 

25:40). In 1977 this solicitude was 

renewed with the construction of the 

original Saint Raphael Hall Abbey 

Retirement Center on the second floor 

of the monastic quadrangle to provide 

24/7 care for fifteen monk residents. 

In successive decades more rooms 

were added to bring the current 

number to twenty-six. 


The Renovation of 

the Abbey Retirement 

Center 


This past winter the Collegeville 

version of ABC-TV’s “Extreme Makeover: 

Home Edition” was completed 

without sending the residents on 

a vacation. Lee Tollefson was the 

architect. The carpentry, electrical 

and plumbing work was done by area 

companies. The renovation includes 

the following: 

■ All twenty-six resident rooms 

received new paint, flooring and 

grab bars in the half-bath. Aided 

by a $15,000 grant from Support 

Our Aging Religious, Inc., each 

room has a “Help Needed” 

signal button connected to corridor 

emergency call lights to assure 

rapid response. 

“The abbot should be extremely careful 

that the sick and the elderly suffer 

no neglect.” (Rule, chs. 36, 37) 

■ The nurses’ station was relocated 

and a treatment room for special 

medical procedures, a medication 

room and an observation room 

for post-operation and injured 

patients were created. 

■ The director’s office, laundry 

room, staff locker room, nurses’ 

bathroom, ice-pack and snack 

room, custodian’s room, linen and 

supplies areas were established. 

■ A large walk-in whirlpool tub and 

shower were added to the bathing 

area. 

■ An enlarged recreation area 

provides tables and chairs, a

Abbot John distributes communion to the residents. 

piano, and a bird cage for two of 

the center’s favorite residents, 

parakeets Freddy and Frieda. A 

TV and two recliners are nearby. 

■ The residents’ dining room was 

enlarged, new flooring, kitchen 

cupboards and appliances 

installed, tables refinished and 

new chairs purchased. 

■ The renovated chapel includes the 

spatial rearrangement of the room, 

new flooring, refinished chairs 

and a new altar. The granite 

The dining room of the center 

A resident’s tidy room 

altar—designed 

by Marcel Breuer, 

the architect of the 

abbey church, 

for a chapel origi- 

nally adjacent to 

the abbot’s 

office—was 

rescued from a 

disposal area, 

cleaned and polished. It replaces 

the decoratively carved wooden 

altar from the chapel of the former 

campus infirmary, now a student 

residence. 

The recreation area of the center 

FEATURE 

■ Corridors and other open areas 

were recarpeted. New lighting 

considerably brightens the area. 

The staff of Saint Raphael’s Hall 

numbers two registered nurses (RNs), 

seven licensed practical nurses 

(LPNs), seven certified nursing assistants 

(CNAs), seven provisional staff 

members and sixteen student workers 

who individually average eight hours 

per week of assistance. Carol Loch, 

RN, is the director of the facility. 

The current twenty-four residents, 

the nursing staff, visitors and the 

monastic community are very pleased 

with the extensive renovation of this 

essential facility. The cost of the renovation 

is close to a million dollars. + 

Photos by Daniel Durken, OSB 


OBITUARIES 

Dietrich Thomas 

Reinhart, OSB 

1949-2008 

Thomas was the oldest of the 

four children of Donald and 

Eleanor (Noonan) Reinhart of 

Minneapolis. Following graduation 

from DeLaSalle High School, he enrolled 

at Saint John’s and graduated 

magna cum laude in history in 1971. 

That summer he entered the abbey 

as a novice and asked for the name 

Dietrich in honor of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 

the German Lutheran theologian 

who was executed by the Gestapo for 

his resistance to Nazism. 

Brother Dietrich obtained the 

doctorate in history at Brown University, 

Providence, Rhode Island. 

He taught in the SJU history department 

from 1981- 1988 at which time 

he was named dean of the College of 

Arts and Sciences. In 1991 the Board 

of Regents elected him the eleventh 

president of Saint John’s University, 

the first non-ordained monk of Saint 

John’s Abbey to hold this position. 

In 2003 he began his third term as 

president. 


The following excerpt from Abbot 

John’s homily at Dietrich’s funeral 

recalls some of our confrere’s accomplishments. 

“Dietrich had many gifts—one of 

his strongest was a stereo-optic vision 

that allowed him to keep the big 

picture in focus while drilling down 

into the smallest details of a project. 

He made long-lasting friendships both 

inside and outside the monastery. 

“He was truly an outstanding 

president because he cared for all 

of Saint John’s. He was aware of the 

needs of our undergraduate students, 

the challenges for the School of 

Theology•Seminary, the Hill 

Museum and Microfilm Library, 

the Collegeville Ecumenical Institute, 

the pottery kiln and studio, the prep 

school and of course the abbey. 

“His willingness to take calculated 

risks is most obvious in the creation 

of The Saint John’s Bible when his 

initial reaction to the proposal was, 

‘I need this like I need a hole in the 

head.’ But he quickly changed his 

mind and completely supported 

Donald Jackson’s dream to produce 

the first handwritten, hand-illuminated 

bible in 500 years. 

“As I prepared this 

homily, a thousand 

memories washed over 

me: Dietrich’s capacity 

to be late for any and all 

occasions because he 

was always getting one 

more thing done; his 

absolute commitment to 

never eat at a fast food 

restaurant; the countless 

times I heard the wheels 

of his luggage on the 

rough brick floor of the 

Breuer wing as he 

headed to the airport. 

“Dietrich struggled to live in the 

tension of accepting the tough prognosis 

of Stage IV metastatic melanoma in late 

September. He had a fierce desire to 

beat the odds, but wily melanoma does 

not yield to typical control strategies. 

Ultimately he was able to step into 

the new future with God that our faith 

promises. Truly Dietrich was a faithful 

servant, ready for our Lord’s call that 

came on December 29, 2008.” 

The Mass of Christian Burial was 

celebrated for Brother Dietrich on 

January 6, 2009. May he rest in peace. + 

Abbot Jerome Theisen, OSB, and 

Regents‘ Chair Thomas McKeown, invest 

Dietrich with the presidential medallion at 

his first inauguration in 1971. 

On April 4, 2008, Dietrich witnessed the presentation 

by the Papal Foundation of the Wisdom volume of the 

St. Peter Apostles Edition of The Saint John’s Bible to 

Pope Benedict XVI. 

Copyright by Photographic Service L’Osservatore Romano

Bruce Luverne 

Wollmering, OSB 

1940-2009 

Luverne was the oldest of the 

five children of Gregory and 

Marie (May) Wollmering who 

farmed near Hastings, Minnesota. Before 

his fourteenth birthday he began 

studies at Saint John’s Preparatory 

School, entered the abbey as Novice 

Bruce and professed his first vows in 

1961. He completed the undergraduate 

degree in philosophy and classical 

language and his seminary studies and 

was ordained in 1967. 

For the next thirty-six years Bruce 

dedicated his considerable talents to 

academic affairs, primarily as associate 

professor and chair of the department 

of psychology at St. John’s. He 

interspersed his teaching assignments 

with master’s and doctoral degrees 

in psychology at the University of 

Arizona. 

Bruce conducted more than fifty 

workshops and seminars on topics 

such as dream analysis, therapeutic 

hypnosis, human sexuality and 


healthy spirituality. He was recognized 

as a hard worker, a skilled teacher, a 

good leader and a tireless administrator. 

Upon his retirement from the university, 

Bruce gave proof to the saying, 

“You can take the boy out of the farm 

but you can’t take the farm out of the 

boy.” He chose to concentrate his 

energy and enthusiasm on the good 

earth. Working with Paul Schwietz, 

OSB, he helped establish Saint John’s 

Arboretum and its restoration of prairie 

grass, wild flowers, oak savannah 

and marsh lands of the Collegeville 

campus. He served on the Arboretum 

Advisory Council and chaired the 

Abbey Forest and Lands Committee. 

For the past four years Bruce increased 

the amount and variety of food 

grown and served at Saint John’s. His 

volunteer gardeners enhanced monastic 

dining with an abundance of fresh 

vegetables. He renovated the root cellar 

for the winter storage of vegetables 

and supervised the new “hoop house” 

nursery for the early and late growth 

of plants. 

Bruce deserves the title “The Bird 

Man of Collegeville.” He identified 39 

species of birds that visited the campus 

including his favorite, the Eastern 

bluebird. He built more than 70 nesting 

boxes to encourage the re-popula- 

OBITUARIES 

tion of the bluebird and kept meticulous 

records of the nesting success. 

Like his parents who died suddenly 

in an automobile accident in 2001, 

Bruce died unexpectedly on February 

4 from a traumatic head injury caused 

by a collapse in the basement locker 

room of the monastery. 

In his homily Abbot John remarked, 

“I don’t think Bruce ever imagined 

becoming an elderly monk. He said 

more than once that he prayed that 

God would take him quickly when the 

time came. At the same time, I don’t 

think Bruce ever imagined dying in 

this particular way. But he would have 

had little patience with the year by 

year diminishments that are part of 

growing old. . . All of us will miss his 

outgoing energy and care.” 


celebrated for Father Bruce on February 

10, 2009. May he rest in peace. + 

Bruce and his garden 

harvest 

Bruce and a blue bird nest 



OBITUARIES 

Simon Robert 

Bischof, OSB 

1926-2009 

Robert was the third son of the 

nine children of Nicholas and 

Tecla (Lauer) Bishof who 

farmed near Eden Valley, Minnesota. 

Born during a 1926 mid-December 

blizzard so severe that his father had 

to pull the doctor’s car to the farm 

house with a tractor, he was fittingly 

buried the day after a late February 

six-inch snowfall. 

Robert began his studies for the 

priesthood at Saint John’s Preparatory 

School in 1942. An older and a 

younger brother also received their 

education at Saint John’s and two 

of his sisters are members of Saint 

Simon’s grandniece sleeps in his arms. 


Benedict’s Monastery, Saint Joseph, 

Minnesota. While in the prep school 

Robert began his life-long love of 

music, singing in the glee club and 

learning to play the cello. 

Entering the abbey after two years 

of college and receiving the name 

Simon, he made his first profession 

of vows in 1949 and continued his 

college and seminary studies. During 

the six years prior to ordination he 

was one of the four lead cantors of the 

monastic schola and sang with gusto 

the inspired music of Gregorian chant 

and Latin hymns. He was ordained in 

1955. 

The bulk of Simon’s priesthood was 

dedicated to pastoral ministry. For a 

decade he served as associate pastor 

of Saint Augustine’s Church, St. 

Cloud. For two years he was chaplain 

of the prep school and for another two 

years was the abbey’s director of vocations. 

He then resumed his ministry 

as pastor of parishes clustered around 

the abbey as well as chaplaincy and 

parish assignments in the Archdiocese 

of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the 

Dioceses of Duluth and Crookston. 

He concluded his parish ministry with 

another decade of service at Saint Augustine’s 

Church before his retirement 

in 2002. 

A strong focus of Simon’s ministry 

was music. In the years following 

Vatican II he visited many Minnesota 

parishes to introduce and promote 

congregational singing. His favorite 

motivational motto was, “If 

God gave you a bad voice, 

Sunday Mass is the time and 

place to give it back to God.” 

Simon’s hope for a restful 

retirement was not realized. 

Early on he enjoyed working 

for the grounds crew, zooming 

over campus lawns atop a 

power mower. He also helped 

in the production of the Saint 

John’s Cross. But it soon became apparent 

that Simon was to do more than 

make crosses. He became the cross of 

the suffering Christ as he experienced 

debilitating problems in his spine, 

heart and feet. 


celebrated for Father Simon on February 

27, 2009. May he rest in peace. + 

Simon blesses his parents, Nicholas 

and Tecla Bischof, at his First Mass. 

Remember our deceased 

loved ones: 

Joan Andert 

Andrew Auer 

Vada Berhow 

Galen Doub 

Isabelle Durenberger 

Mary R. Garcia 

Stella Jirik 

William Macomber 

Dottie Maiers 

Dr. John Murphy 

Joe Parisella, Sr. 

Jeanne Remmick 

Bernard Schlumpf 

Sr. Barbara Schwan, OSF 

Michael Steinke 

Michael Taylor 

Paul Wahler 

May they rest in peace. 

Abbey Archives

Can you construct a building out 

of trash-filled bottles? Michael 

Anderson and Liam Sperl, last 

year’s Benedictine Volunteers at the 

Abbey of Jesus Christ Crucified in 

Esquipulas, Guatemala, decided to try 

it. They learned that a nearby orphanage 

called “City of Joy” needed a 

library and decided to kill the proverbial 

two birds with one . . . bottle, 

namely, clean up area trash and build 

the needed structure. 

With the help of Andrea Francia, an 

Italian engineer who has spent the past 

seventeen years on the construction 

of similar orphanage projects, and the 

advice of members of the Congregation 

of Martha and Mary who sponsor 

the City of Joy, these two SJU 2007 

graduates went to work. 

Michael and Liam visited local 

schools and talked to classes about 

BENEDICTINE VOLUNTEERS 

Benedictine Volunteers 

build a library out of 

trash and bottles 


Brian Adamek, 2006 SJU 

management and economics 

graduate, volunteered for two 

months of service at the Benedictine 

Monastery of the Resurrection in 

Coban, Guatemala. This foundation 

of Blue Cloud Abbey, Marvin, South 

Dakota, is situated in the highlands 

approximately 120 miles northeast 

of Guatemala City. The community 

numbers thirteen monks, ten of whom 

are Guatemalans. 

“We are amazed at how much trash 

can be forced into a bottle.” 

A new Benedictine Volunteer, Brian Adamek 


the importance of recycling trash and 

litter, how the students could help and 

how their efforts would pay off. Using 

bamboo sticks to force trash into 

20-ounce plastic bottles, the students 

received 25 centavos (about three US 

cents) for each bottle they filled. The 

bottles become as tough as rocks. 

To pay for the needed bottles and the 

construction of the building, Michael 

and Liam raised over $14,000 from 

their families and friends, with a good 

portion of that amount raised by Sister 

Stefanie Weisgram, OSB, a CSB/ 

SJU librarian, along with a $300 grant 

from Saint John’s. 

Over 4000 bottles were used, 

amounting to over 2000 pounds of primarily 

recycled plastic material. The 

basic construction strategy used the 

bottles as insulation within an encase- 

ment of cement. The structure was 

made of wood with studs every square 

meter and chicken wire on both sides 

of the frame. The filled bottles were 

secured within the two sides of the 

chicken wire and cemented over. To 

insure that the cement stayed in place, 

the gaps not filled by the bottles were 

filled with loose assortments of trash. 

This year’s Volunteers, Theo 

Eggermont and Phil Hanson, have 

purchased a thousand dollars worth 

of books for the library and added 

an outdoor shelter to the building. 

They plan to build a playground out 

of wood and recycled tires as well as 

a pure water project for which they 

are currently looking for funds. For 

information about this project, please 

contact Theo at taeggermont@gmail. 

com. + 

Brian arrived at the monastery on 

February 2 and returned home April 

1. His work was different each day. 

He quickly established himself as 

the top dish dryer in the community 

and worked in the carpenter shop and 

laundry. He helped install a Wii 

Nintendo system and projector in 

a community room used by all and 

installed computers in classrooms of 

a nearby school. He also helped 

students with their English classes. + 


Paul Crosby 

MONASTIC MATTERS 

Abbey receives two architectural awards 

On December 5, 2008, Saint John’s Abbey and the architectural firm of Vincent James Associates Architects were 

presented with two awards for design and architecture from the American Institute of Architects—Minnesota. The 

awards were presented for the Abbey Guesthouse and the Abbey Church Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Below are the 

jury comments. 

Adjacent to Marcel Breuer’s 

Abbey Church, this guesthouse 

greatly impressed the 

jury with its minimalist handling of 

materials and details and the clever 

way in which it handles the complex 

program with the simple plan of two 

Paul Crosby 

This tiny chapel sits in a small, 

trapezoidal space between 

Marcel Breuer’s Abbey Church 

and the adjacent cloister walk. Visible 

from inside the church as a sliding 

wood door and a small window with a 

lit candle in it, the chapel surprises the 


overlapping L-shaped structures 

around the central court . . . Inside, 

the ingenious use of custom-designed 

concrete block filters light, reduces 

noise, and echoes the patterned block 

screens that Breuer used in the original 

abbey buildings. The interiors also 

visitor with a warm, wooden interior 

whose single built-in bench and small 

built-in shelf for the placement of 

candles all focus on the reredos, an 

ornamental screen that serves to block 

the light from the rear window and 

highlight the spiritual sense of light 

retained the spare modernist aesthetic 

of Breuer’s best work, warmed with 

wood finishes where needed and illuminated 

with translucent glass-plank 

walls where privacy is required. + 

in the room. One juror said, “It’s a 

breathtaking little project” and another, 

“Loved the juxtaposition between 

the brutalist concrete of Breuer’s 

building and the warm, wood-lined 

space of the chapel.” +

Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit 

Abbey Woodworking 

produces chapel 

furnishings for 

Saint Paul’s Monastery 

Carol Rennie, OSB, prioress 

of the Benedictine women of 

Saint Paul’s Monastery, St. 

Paul, states, “It was clear from the 

beginning that we would engage the 

Woodworking Shop at Saint John’s as 

our continued commitment to the abbey 

in order to sustain our relationship 

since 1948.” 

The new Saint Paul’s Monastery 

It was in 1948 that 178 members 

of Saint Benedict’s Monastery, St. 

Joseph, Minnesota, founded a daughter 

monastery in a residential complex 

close to the Saint Paul Cathedral. 

Ten years later this community had 

built and staffed the Archbishop Murray 

High School on an 86-acre plot 

bordering St. Paul. In 1965 the community 

completed its new 100,000 


“Our goal was to have chapel 

furnishings that would be beautiful 

in simplicity, authentic and above all, 

feminine in character.” 

(Mary Lou Dummer, OSB, liturgist) 

square-foot monastery, adjacent to 

the school, to house the more than 

200 monastics engaged in religious 

formation, education and health care 

ministries. 

As the sisters aged and numbers decreased 

to the current 53 members, the 

community decided to build a smaller 

monastery directly behind the larger 

structure. This building was occupied 

this past February 10, the feast of 

Saint Scholastica. 

Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking 

was chosen to build the furnishings 

for the new monastery’s chapel. This 

major project included the design 

and construction of sixty-two chairs 

with upholstered seats and backs, 

the wooden altar top, ambo, prayer 

leader’s stand, presider’s table and 

credence table, all made of hard, 

white maple wood or maple veneer. 

Under the direction of Christopher 

Fair, OSB, shop steward, John 

Meoska, OSB, office manager, Jim 

Tingerthal, OSB, shop assistant, 

Robert Lillard and Michael Roske, 

master craftsmen, and the work of 

their crew, the project was completed 

in eight months. 

MONASTIC MATTERS 

Prioress Carol Rennie, OSB, at the entrance to the new chapel with chairs 

in background 

Susan Bourauel, OSB, liturgical 

musician of Saint Paul’s Monastery, 

praised the efforts of the woodworkers: 

“The sensitivity of the craftsmen 

to our design was always met with 

respect, reverence and a willingness to 

adapt.” 

For information about 

Abbey Woodworking, 

go to their website: 

sjawood.org or e-mail at 

sjawood@csbsju.edu. + 

Brother Christopher Fair, OSB, 

and the chapel chair 


Abbey Banner Spring 2009 page 21 

Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit

VOCATIONS 

Paul-Vincent Niebauer, OSB, at the Los Angeles 

Religious Education Convention 

The Abbey Vocation Office 

sponsored a booth at the Los 

Angeles Religious Education 

Congress, February 26-March 1. 

With over 35,000 attendees and approximately 

150 exhibitors, the L.A. 

Congress is one of the largest annual 

gatherings of Catholics in North 

America. 

David Paul Lange, OSB, and I 

personally handed out over 4000 

wallet-sized magnets featuring an 

image of the young Saint Benedict 

created by Brother David Paul. The 

new vocation website address is 

included on the magnet. 

The young Benedict by 

David Paul 


Abbey Vocation Office 

sponsors two events 

by Paul-Vincent Niebauer, OSB 

A booth at the Los Angeles Religious Education 

Congress and a house for the Central Minnesota 

Habitat for Humanity 

A number of connections were made 

with men interested in exploring 

monastic life at Saint John’s as well 

as participating in the annual summer 

Monastic Experience Program (MEP). 

The second event, sponsored by 

the Abbey Vocation Office, was an 

alternative spring break retreat, March 

2-6. Participants resided in the abbey 

in the same area where the monastic 

candidates, novices and juniors live. 

Their schedule focused on lectio 

divina (prayerful reading), both private 

and as a group, as well as public 

prayer, meals and recreation with the 

monastic community. 

During three days the retreatants 

performed volunteer work with the 

Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity 

at a project in St. Cloud. Immediately 

after Morning Prayer, they 

boarded a van with a good supply of 

soup, bread, fruit, fresh vegetables 

and beverages and headed for the 

building site. 

Most of the work took place outdoors 

with the construction of four 

decks on the back side of a four-plex 

unit. The families that will move into 

two of the units worked alongside the 

retreatants and made the experience 

particularly rewarding. 

When all stopped for lunch, a hymn 

was sung and Midday Prayer recited. 

No disposable paper or plastic products 

were used for the meal. Though 

the weather was very cold, the participants 

were most enthusiastic about 

being involved with the local community 

in this Habitat project. This 

was the first time for such a retreat. 

Given the positive response, it will be 

repeated next year. + 

Volunteers at the Habitat for Humanity 

project: l. to r., Jason Ziegler, Paul- 

Vincent Niebauer, OSB, Michael Wollmering, 

Joe Weichman, Nick Kleespie 

Paul-Vincent Niebauer, OSB, is the 

abbey’s vocation director.

BANNER BITS 

New publications by monks – from piano to poetry 

Robert Koopmann, OSB, has 

recorded a second collection of 

seventeen piano improvisations of 

hymns, spirituals and chants. Entitled 

Wondrous Love: More Sacred Improvisations, 

this 58-minute CD includes 

“Nobody Knows,” “Jesu Dulcis 

Memoria,” “Were You There?” and 

“Wondrous Love.” Father Robert is 

joined by clarinetist Bruce Thornton 

on three spirituals: “Deep River,” 

“Swing Low,” and “Precious Lord.” 

$15.95. Saint John’s Bookstore: 

1-800-420-4509. 

“Great editors do not discover nor produce great authors; 

great authors create and produce great publishers.” (John Farrar) 

Michael Kwatera, OSB, writes 

in a down-to-earth, crisp style 

What Every Catholic Needs To Know 

About The Eucharist (San Jose, CA: 

Resource Publications, Inc.). With 

abundant references to the Bible, 

documents of Vatican II, comments of 

early and contemporary theologians 

and homespun anecdotes, Father 

Michael helps readers better understand 

and celebrate the Eucharist. The 

56-page booklet is ideal for school 

and parish study. $9.95. Saint John’s 

Bookstore: 1-800-420-4509. 

Anthony Ruff, OSB, took seriously 

the U.S. bishops’ recommendation 

that for daily Mass the 

Responsorial Psalm be sung “in a 

simple chanted setting.” He produced 

Responsorial Psalms for Weekday 

Mass (Liturgical Press) for Advent, 

Christmas, Lent and Easter. Father 

Anthony intends these psalms to be 

sung unaccompanied and led by a single 

cantor. Keyboard accompaniments 

and guitar chords are provided. 148 

pages, spiral-bound. $34.95. Liturgical 

Press: 1-800-858-5450. + 

Kilian McDonnell, OSB, entitles 

his third book of poetry God 

Drops and Loses Things (Saint John’s 

University Press). He has picked up 

those dropped and lost things and 

made poignant poems of the pieces. 

Most of the 46 poems are headed by 

a biblical quotation that sets the stage 

for Father Kilian’s re-imaging the text 

in a surprising and delightful way. See 

the back cover of this issue for two of 

the poems. $11.95. Liturgical Press: 

1-800-858-5450. 

Robert Koopmann, OSB, is the abbey’s 

director of music. Michael Kwatera, OSB, 

is director of abbey liturgy and Oblates. 

Kilian McDonnell, OSB, is professor 

emeritus of theology and founder of the 

Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and 

Cultural Research. Anthony Ruff, OSB, 

is assistant professor of theology and 

founder of the National Catholic Youth 

Choir. 


Fran Hoefgen, OSB 

THE ABBEY CHRONICLE 

There is a better answer to 

the above question, “What’s 

up?” But the Easter Season 

rephrases the question—“Who’s up?” 

Of course, Jesus is up! But he is not 

the only one, for we pray, “Let our 

celebration raise us up and renew our 

lives by the Spirit that is within us” 

(Easter Sunday, Opening Prayer). 

The editor and staff of ABBEY BAN- 

NER wish readers an uplifting Easter 

celebration. 

Between November and March, 

Saint John’s experienced a winter 

worthy of MinneSNOWta. Lake 

Sagatagan iced over on November 21 

and the first sub-zero temperature was 

December 10. Twenty-five inches of 

snow in December made for a White 

Christmas. We had ten more in February 

and twelve in March. Forty-one 

days of below-zero temperatures were 

recorded with the lowest a frigid -31 

on December 16. A hint of spring 

arrived in mid-March and 2 ½ inches 

of rain fell on the 23rd. 


God’s design of an ice crystal cross 

What’s Up? 

The Abbey Chronicle 


We worship you, Lord, we venerate your cross, 

we praise your resurrection. 

Through the cross you brought joy to the world. 

November 2008 

Dunstan Moorse, OSB, and his Craft 

Fair items 

(Good Friday Antiphon) 

■ On November 8 the Great Hall 

bulged with sellers and shoppers at 

the annual Collegeville Craft Fair. 

The wares of community members 

included polyhedrons by Magnus 

Wenninger, OSB; photo greeting 

cards by Fran Hoefgen, OSB; cards, 

framed dried flowers, homemade jams 

and jellies by Dunstan Moorse, OSB; 

hand knitted items, greeting cards, 

jellies and bread by Aelred Senna, 

OSB. 


■ Saint John’s Annual Family-Style 

Student Thanksgiving dinner was 

served on November 19 to 1,345 

university, 90 School of Theology and 

Light or dark meat? 


98 prep school students by 65 volunteers. 

Dining service director Dave 

Schoenberg reported that eager eaters 

consumed 210 turkeys, 800 lbs. of 

mashed potatoes, 600 lbs. of corn, 425 

lbs. of dressing, 70 gallons of gravy, 

210 pumpkin pies, 60 pounds of 

whipped cream, 115 gallons of milk, 

and 230 bottles of catawba juice.



■ The monastic community celebrated 

Thanksgiving Day as Mark 

Thamert, OSB, and Walter Kieffer, 

OSB, prepared several turkeys on 

outdoor grills to add to those cooked 

by the kitchen staff. To create a turkey 

flambeau effect, waiters attached firework 

sparklers to the trays of turkeys 

paraded from the kitchen into the 

serving area. The community enjoyed 

mincemeat pies by Raphael Olson, 

OSB, and pumpkin and apple pies by 

Aelred Senna, OSB. 

Walter Kieffer, OSB, at the grill 

December 2008 

■ A special devotion for the Feast 

of Our Lady of Guadalupe was celebrated 

before Morning Prayer on 

December 12. Gregorio Congote, 

OSB, a native of Colombia, South 

America, and a monk of St. Michael 

Abbey, Elkhorn, Nebraska; Efrain 

Rosado, OSB, a monk of the Abbey 

of Tepeyac, Mexico; and our own 

Aelred Senna, OSB, prepared a brief 

ceremony of Marian prayers and 

(l. to r.) Brothers Aelred, Efrain and Gregorio 

sing to Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

hymns honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

This feast celebrates the appearance 

of the Blessed Virgin Mary to 

Juan Diego in 1531. 

■ Nominated and endorsed by his supervisors 

and co-workers at Liturgical 

Press, Daniel Durken, OSB, received 

the fall 2008 Extraordinary Performance 

Award given by the College of 

Saint Benedict and the Order of Saint 

Benedict to a designated administrator. 

At a luncheon on December 15 he 

received an engraved commemorative 

clock plus a donation to his designated 

charity. Father Daniel began his association 

with Liturgical Press in 1967, 

served as its director from 1978-1988, 

and has continued writing and editing 

for over twenty years. 

■ As the Christmas Season 

approached, the monastic community 

decided to continue last year’s pine 

tree conservation program. Whereas 


A wreath replaces a 

Christmas tree. 

in the past, nine Christmas 

trees were decorated, only 

three survived the elimination 

process, namely, the 

monastic dining room and 

the quadrangle’s third and 

fourth floor recreation areas. 

Not even the popular Christmas 

Cookie Tree was spared. 


January 2009 

■ The opening session of the annual 

Community Workshop, held January 

5-7, was an inspiring DVD presentation 

by Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, on 

“The Banquet of Faith: Reflections on 

Trinitarian Theology.” Several senior 

panelists considered, “What it meant 

to be a Catholic monastery when they 

entered and how that has changed.” 

Younger panelists spoke of “What it 

might mean to be a Catholic monastery 

in the next ten years.” 

■ Every three to five years a Benedictine 

community has an official 

Visitation by several monks of other 

(l. to r.) The Visitators: Fr. Charles, Abbot 

Hugh, Br. Alban, Abbot Barnabas 

monasteries who interview members 

and then share their observations with 

the host community. From January 

21-27, Saint John’s Abbey was visited 

by Hugh Anderson, OSB, Abbot of 

St. Procopius Abbey, Lisle, Illinois; 

Barnabas Senecal, OSB, Abbot of St. 

Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, Kansas; 

Father Charles Buckley, OSB, Vocation 

Director, St. Gregory’s Abbey, 

Shawnee, Oklahoma; and Brother 

Alban Petesch, OSB, Novice Master, 

Assumption Abbey, Richardton, 

North Dakota. 

Abbey Banner Spring 2009 page 25 

Daniel Durken, OSB

Luigi Bertocchi, OSB 


In their report to the community, 

the visitators concluded: “One of you 

in his interview said that he is witnessing 

a ‘real springtime’ at Saint 

John’s. What you need to take with 

you from this ‘springtime’ is a sense 

of hope and courage for the future so 

that you not only survive but thrive. 

Considering your past and your present 

and God’s grace, you may do that 

with a lot of hard work and prayer.” 

■ To celebrate the Chinese New 

Year on January 25, Chinese students 

of the School of Theology•Seminary 

were dinner guests of the monastery. 

Their token gifts were taped to the 

bottom of chairs and Chinese symbols 

decorated the room. Chinese undergraduate 

students at SJU and CSB 

number 54. There are 13 in the prep 

school and 5 in the School of 

Theology for a total of 72. 

February 2009 

■ Abbot John opened the Lenten 

season with a conference to the monastic 

community on the theme of 

simplicity and frugality. One point 

that struck home was the reminder 

that “within 48 hours of our death, 

the clothes, books and other personal 


possessions that we could not bear to 

part with will all be sorted, dispersed 

or dumped.” 

March 2009 

Chinese students celebrate their New Year: l. to r., Fr. Augustine 

Wang, Sr. Therese Ge, Abbot John, Sr. Johanna Jiao, Br. Aelred 

Senna, OSB, Br. James Phillips, OSB, Fr. John Bai, and 

Sr. Joyce Zhang. 

■ At the Vigil Service of the Feast 

of Saint Benedict on March 20, the 

monastic community 

received the prestigious 

gift of the Books of 

Wisdom volume of the 

Heritage Edition of The 

Saint John’s Bible. The 

Heritage Edition is the 

full-size (24 inches by 

36 inches when open) 

fine art reproduction of 

the original version of 

The Saint John’s Bible. 

This Number One set of 

the 299 published sets is the gift to 

the abbey from Saint John’s University 

and the 

Hill Museum 

& Manuscript 

Library. The 

seven volumes 

of the Heritage 

Edition 

are intended 

for display 

by churches, 

museums, 

libraries and 

other cultural 

institutions to 

make better 

known this 

first handwritten 

and hand-illuminated Bible 

produced in the last 500 years. The 

stand for the Bible was made by Saint 

John’s Woodworking. 

■ Walter Cardinal Kasper, President 

of the Pontifical Council for Promoting 

Christian Unity, received the Pax 

Christi Award, Saint John’s highest 

honor, and delivered the Godfrey 

Diekmann, OSB, lecture on March 23. 

The Pax Christi citation highlighted 

the Cardinal’s aim in ecumenical di- 

Abbot John blessing the bible 

logue to “find and foster unity among 

Christians by resisting facile fraternity 

in favor of genuine concord based not 

on compromise, but on the full expression 

of faith and meaning.” The 

Cardinal spoke on “The Timeliness 

of Speaking of God: Freedom and 

Communion as Basic Concepts 

of Theology.” + 

Walter Cardinal Kasper 

David Manahan, OSB

Alan Reed, OSB 

After eight years of service as 

director of The Saint John’s 

Bible project, Carol Marrin 

officially retired on June 30, 2008. 

On December 2 her retirement was 

publicly recognized and properly celebrated 

as her colleagues and friends 

gathered in the Hill Museum & Manuscript 

Library to honor her leadership 

and wish her well. 

Columba Stewart, OSB, executive 

director of the Hill Library, said 

of her, “Carol has been part of Saint 

John’s as long as I have been here. 

When The Saint John’s Bible was 

moved under the umbrella of HMML 

and I became Carol’s supervisor, she 

would periodically stop by my office 

and say, ‘You can tell me if I’m out 

of line for bringing this up, but . . .’ I 

never did tell her she was out of line. 

Her wisdom and insight were precious 

gifts that helped me immensely.” 

As a token of appreciation Carol 

was presented with Thomas Ingmire’s 

illumination of the messianic prophecies 

of Isaiah in the Prophets’ volume 

of The Saint John’s Bible. 

Carol began her work at Saint John’s 

on September 11, 1972, as assistant to 

the book manager of the Saint John’s 

Bookstore, then housed in the quadrangle 

area now occupied by Information 

Technology Services. Three years 

later she became manager of the book 

department and in 1980 was named director 

of the SJU Bookstore. Because 

she was one of the few early women 

administrators at Saint John’s she 

served on seven different committees. 

In 1991 Carol was appointed the 

director of both the SJU and CSB 

Bookstores. Two years later 

she directed the move of 

the Saint John’s Bookstore 

to the newly constructed 

Sexton Commons and managed 

the two stores for the 

next seven years. During 

this time she was active in 

the National Association 

of College Stores and the 

Tri-State Bookstore Association. 

Customers at the 

bookstores could always 

count on Carol to recommend 

a good book, whether 

it be a new mystery, a 

historical novel or a work 

by a classic author. 


Carol Marrin 

retires as director of 

The Saint John’s Bible 

“I always felt at home as a woman at 

Saint John’s.” (Carol Marrin) 

In 2000 Carol was asked to accept 

the directorship of The Saint John’s 

Bible project, a position she embraced 

with her customary enthusiasm, efficiency 

and professionalism. 

In early March, 2008, Carol was 

diagnosed with breast cancer which 

was successfully treated. This past 

March, she was diagnosed with Stage 

IV metastatic breast cancer and has 

begun weekly chemotherapy. Carol, 

her husband Kevin (KC) and their son 

Matthew and daughter Annie ask for 

our prayers. + 

Father Columba, OSB, presents Carol with an illuminated 

page of The Saint John’s Bible. 

Wayne Torborg 



FEATURE 


The section to the right of the door is the new addition. Deacon Walter welcomes 

visitors. 

Long before William P. Young 

named his current best-seller 

The Shack, the Collegeville 

campus had its own shack in the 

woods. In September, 1942, the original 

“Sugar Shack” was built at the 

entrance to the Mount Carmel ski hill 

on the north side of the former entrance 

road to the abbey. The structure 

housed the equipment used to produce 

maple syrup from the many sugar 

maple trees of Saint John’s forest. 

Fire destroyed the original shack in 

1971. The following year Operation 

Maple Syrup was relocated near the 

present soccer field and radio antenna. 

A larger 26’ x 16’ building was 

erected through the labor of Sebastian 

Schramel, OSB (deceased), and 

Fintan Bromenshenkel, OSB, and 

in 1996 yet another 8’ x 14’ addition 

provided more space for the cooking 

equipment, a stepped down firing area 

and a south entrance. 

With the growth of Saint John’s 

Aboretum and the increase of visitors 

to observe the syrup-making 

procedure and sample the product, an 

enclosed space for classes and hospitality 

was needed. As the 2009 sap- 

page 28 Abbey Banner Spring2009 

to-syrup season began in mid-March, 

a new 26’ x 14’ addition neared completion. 

This extension doubles the 

size of “The Shack” and offers shelter 

during inclement weather for the 

daily groups of students and visitors. 

Last year 900 students came during 

the month of syrup production. The 

addition will now attract year-round 

visitors wishing to learn more about 

the flora and fauna throughout the 

four seasons of Saint John’s extensive 

forest. 

A generous donation from Larry 

Schwietz, father of Paul Schwietz, 

OSB (deceased), the founder of the 

Arboretum, made the addition 

The wood pile under roof 

The Maple Sugar 

Shack is enlarged 

possible. Deacon Walter Kieffer, 

OSB, who became involved as a prep 

school sophomore in 1962, begins 

another season as the leader of the 

labor intensive operation that begins 

with the insertion of nearly a thousand 

spiles or spouts into tree trunks and 

ends with bottling the luscious liquid. 

A crew of eager and experienced 

assistants is on hand to keep the 

schedule moving and manage the 

many details. 

Adjacent to “The Shack” is the 

extensive supply of wood used to fire 

the cooking operation. This wood pile 

is covered by a 32’ x 32’ roof. The 

wood chopping crew includes Fintan 

Bromenshenkel, OSB, Knute 

Anderson, OSB, and Walter Kieffer, 

OSB. 

In the silence of the woods the slow 

and steady drip-drip-drip of maple 

sap is witness to this welcome rite of 

spring and a credit to those who work 

hard to convert 40 gallons of sap into 

one gallon of maple syrup that makes 

pancakes, waffles and ice cream doubly 

delicious. + 

Daniel Durken, OSB


Simon-Hòa Phan, OSB, prepares vegetables for one of his famous 

stir-fry dinners with a small group of confreres. 

Vietnam native Simon-Hòa 

Phan left the home of his birth 

at the age of eleven upon the 

fall of Saigon. Though far from his 

homeland, he was never far from its 

culinary traditions as his family kept 

them alive when they came to the 

United States. Brother Simon-Hòa’s 

mother made sure that dishes such 

as pho (a rice noodle soup with thin 

slices of beef), goi cuon (spring rolls) 

and sup mang cua (asparagus and 

crabmeat—see recipe on page 30) 

remained family favorites. 

In 1986, however, while at graduate 

school in Belgium, this young 

student found himself far from the 

family kitchen with its familiar tastes 

and smells. He began to yearn for the 

MONKS IN THE KITCHEN 

Distance Learning . . . 

Vietnamese cuisine in 

a Belgian kitchen 

by Aelred Senna, OSB 

comfort of his beloved Vietnamese 

cuisine. Beginning to experiment on 

his own, he searched for the ingredients 

he remembered from his youth 

and combined them with success in 

his away-from-home kitchen. With a 

bit of practice and some long distance 

help from his mother and sisters, he 

was soon able to perfect his technique 

and satisfy his cravings for the foods 

of his native land. 

Simon-Hòa made his profession of 

monastic vows at Saint John’s in 1993, 

and shortly thereafter he occasionally 

began to prepare Vietnamese cuisine 

for his monastic confreres. While he 

still prefers to cook Vietnamese foods, 

he has expanded his culinary range 

to include dishes from other parts of 

“From holy Easter to Pentecost, 

the brothers eat at noon 

and take supper in the evening.” 

(Rule 41) 

Asia, most notably China and Thailand. 

He shares these delectable delights with 

the monks, preparing meals for small 

groups for special events or for the occasional 

informal get-together. 

When Simon-Hòa visits his family, 

however, his nieces and nephews press 

him to prepare Western-style desserts, 

especially cakes and pies. It seems 

those of us at Saint John’s have some 

cajoling to do during the festive days 

of Eastertide—just the right season for 

a lovely sweet treat baked up by our 

Brother Simon-Hòa. + 

Aelred Senna, OSB, is parish product 

manager for Liturgical Press. 

RECIPE ON PAGE 30! 


MONKS IN THE KITCHEN 

Asparagus and Crabmeat Soup (Sup mang cua) 

INGREDIENTS: 

6 cups chicken stock 

1-1/2 inch fresh ginger, 

peeled and cut into pieces 

fish sauce or salt, to taste 

(optional, only if stock 

needs salt) 

1/2 cup finely diced onion 

1-2 cloves garlic, minced 

1 tsp. vegetable oil 

8 oz. fresh or canned lump 

crab meat, picked over and 

drained 

1 lb. fresh asparagus, woody 

ends removed 

2 tbsps. corn starch, dissolved 

in 2 tbsps.water 

chopped green onion and 

cilantro, for garnish 

William Schipper, OSB, 

completes doctoral studies 


Simon-Hòa Phan’s delicious soup recipe... 

DIRECTIONS: 

1) Combine chicken stock with sliced ginger and fish sauce 

or salt. Bring to a boil, simmer for 20 minutes. 

2) Julienne aasparagus spears and cut into 2-inch lengths. 

3) Heat oil in small skillet; saute onion, garlic and crabmeat 

five minutes. 

4) Remove ginger slices from stock. 

5) Add asparagus pieces and cook 3-5 minutes until 

asparagus is tender. Add crab meat and stir. 

6) Cook until soup returns to a boil. Add cornstarch/water 

mixture, stirring until thickened and clear. 

The soup should have a consistency similar to egg drop 

soup. Serve garnished with chopped green onion and 

cilantro. 

William Schipper, OSB, 

has received the Doctor of 

Philosophy in Interdisciplinary 

Studies with a concentration 

in Psychology and a specialization in 

Men’s Studies from Union Institute & 

University, Cincinnati, Ohio. The title 

of his doctoral thesis is “Masculinity, 

Spirituality, and Sexuality: The 

Interpreted, Lived Experience of the 

Traditional Age College Male.” 

Father William gathered data from 

twenty traditional age (18-22) college 

men at two small private men’s 

colleges in the Midwest. Of the 


twenty men, nineteen reported that 

spirituality influences their decision 

about sexual activity. They believe 

that integrating spirituality and sexuality 

is beneficial and desirable. 

William grew up in Cincinnati and 

has been a member of Saint John’s 

Abbey since 1997. He is a faculty 

resident in student housing, the coordinator 

of the men’s spirituality 

program on campus and an adjunct 

faculty member in Men’s Studies at 

Saint John’s University. Congratulations, 

William. +

Recently I read a book that 

changed my life, or at least 

changed the way that I answer 

some of Life’s Big Questions. The 

book is entitled The Shack by William 

P. Young. The story’s protagonist, 

Mack, is a Christian who had a 

difficult upbringing but nevertheless 

continues to believe in God. That is 

until one day his youngest daughter, 

Missy, is kidnapped and presumably 

killed. After a lengthy search the only 

What does God look like? 

by Robert Pierson, OSB 

Upcoming Events in the Spiritual Life Program 

SPIRITUAL LIFE 

“Fiction can often take us to a place of acceptance in a way 

that doctrine and dogma and preaching can’t.” 

thing the authorities find is her bloodstained 

dress in an old shack far out 

into the woods. 

(Tom Gilbert, reviewer) 

Mack’s faith is seriously challenged 

by the loss of his daughter. He begins 

to experience a depression he calls 

“The Great Sadness.” While he tries 

to continue to believe, he is confused 

and not sure about who God really is. 

One day Mack finds a typewritten note 

from God in his mailbox, inviting him 

to come to the shack. (Yes, this is fiction.) 

After struggling about whether 

or not to go, he ends up going to the 

shack one weekend. 

There Mack encounters God as three 

persons. And how unique they are! 

His interactions with God help him 

May 2, 2009 – “Fearproof Your Life.” 

Dr. Joseph Bailey will speak on his new book, Fearproof Your Life: How to Thrive in a World Addicted to Fear, 

from 9 a.m. to noon at the Abbey Guesthouse. The suggested offering for his presentation is $25.00. 

May 29-31, 2009 – Pentecost Retreat presented by Fr. Don Tauscher, OSB. 

The Holy Spirit is alive and well and closer to us than many realize. During this retreat we will trace the path of the 

Spirit of God in the Old Testament, in the life of Jesus, in the early church, and in the Christian life today, praying for 

a new Pentecost in our lives. 

Contact the Spiritual Life Office at spirlife@osb.org or call 320-363-3929 to register for either or both of these events. + 

Robert Pierson, OSB, is the director of the abbey’s spiritual life program and guest master. 

to understand and accept not only 

what happened to his daughter but 

also what happened to him as a child 

growing up. 

The book provides some compelling 

answers to questions such as, “Why 

does God allow bad things to happen 

to innocent people?” and “How is forgiveness 

possible when the guilty are 

not able to acknowledge what they 

have done?” 

I was persuaded to read The Shack 

after three retreat directees in the 

same day asked if I had read it. I now 

know why it has been on the best 

seller list for some time, and I highly 

recommend it. + 


PO Box 2015 

Collegeville, MN 56321-2015 

www.saintjohnsabbey.org 

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED 

Two Poems by Kilian McDonnell, OSB 

JUDAS RECEIVES THE BODY OF CHRIST 

So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave 

it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received 

the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. 

John 13:26,27 

Judas takes the bread I dip 

into the wine, extend across 

the table. He knows I know, 

but won’t betray him. A twisted 

heart, no doubt wanting 

a different kingdom. When he eats 

my body, a dark presence 

enters him and I must let 

my Judas go. I urge 

my friend to act quickly. 

Before we say the last prayer, 

sip the last cup of wine 

he slips into the black night 

and scuttles toward the temple. 

He once loved me, loves 

me now. I grieve for the companion 

who stood beside me when Lazarus 

stumbled from the tomb. 

THE WOMAN 

WRESTLER WINS 

[Jesus] said to her, “Let the 

children be fed first, for it is not 

fair to take the children’s food 

and throw it to the dogs.” 

Mark 7:27 

Tired of bickering with scribes about clean/ 

unclean, he crosses the border 

between Jewish lands and Gentile country 

for the first time; only to call 

a Greek woman dog, 

you know the kind: little yapping 

lap beasts with angry teeth. 

She brushes off his words 

as if swatting picnic flies. 

And like a wrestler using her opponent’s 

weight against him, nails him 

on the Kingdom of God. This dog says, 

let the children be fed first, 

but even dogs under 

the table eat scraps 

your children give them. 

Like a woman erasing chalk 

that marks the hem from upper skirt, 

with her wet dishrag 

she wipes away the line 

dividing Jew from Greek. 

From God Drops and Loses Things. To order the book, please see page 23. 

Nonprofit 

Organization 

U.S. Postage 

PAID 

Saint John’s Abbey 

Luigi Bertocchi, OSB

ABBEY BANNER - St. John's Abbey

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