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Art and Artifacts<br />
Collection, 4<br />
Elmer Eisenshenk, OSB:<br />
Water-Witch or Water-<br />
Finder?, 7<br />
Environmental<br />
Sustainability, 10<br />
Healthy menu for monks<br />
and others, 13<br />
Darwin’s Origin of Species:<br />
Theology or Science?, 15<br />
Monks in the Kitchen, 17<br />
Meet the Monks:<br />
Ninety-year-old<br />
avid readers, 18<br />
Update on Phoenix Rising<br />
fundraiser for Tanzania, 20<br />
Review: Uncommon<br />
Gratitude, 21<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong> Chronicle, 22<br />
Obituaries, 25<br />
Banner Bits, 28<br />
Live out loud!<br />
Alleluia!, 31<br />
Volume 10 • Issue 1 • Spring 2010<br />
A B B EY B A N N E R<br />
Magazine of Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong><br />
Alan Reed, OSB (l.)<br />
and David<br />
Manahan, OSB<br />
Co-Curators of<br />
Art and Artifacts<br />
Collection
Contents<br />
Features<br />
4 The <strong>Abbey</strong>’s Art and Artifacts<br />
Collection by Alan Reed, OSB<br />
7 Fr. Elmer Eisenshenk, OSB:<br />
Water-Witch or Water-Finder?<br />
by Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
Articles<br />
Editorials<br />
3 From editor and abbot<br />
Monks in the Kitchen<br />
17 Caribbean roots yield fruit<br />
in Collegeville<br />
OSB Volunteers<br />
20 Update on Phoenix Rising<br />
fundraiser for Tanzania<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner<br />
Magazine of<br />
Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong><br />
Volume 10, Issue 1<br />
Spring 2010<br />
In the cover photo, Alan (l.) is holding<br />
a “Retablo” of San Martin of Tours by<br />
the New Mexican artist Charles M.<br />
Carrillo.<br />
David is holding an unidentified<br />
fragment of a very old statue of<br />
Saint Benedict.<br />
Pages 4, 5, 6<br />
Cover <strong>St</strong>ory<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong>’s Art and<br />
Artifacts Collection<br />
10 <strong>Abbey</strong>’s Task Force for<br />
Environmental Sustainability<br />
by Isidore Glyer, OSB<br />
13 Reflections on a healthy menu<br />
for monks and others<br />
by Abbot John Klassen, OSB<br />
Review<br />
21 Uncommon Gratitude: Alleluia<br />
for All That Is<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong> Chronicle<br />
22 Highlights of December, 2009,<br />
January, February, March, 2010<br />
Obituaries<br />
25 Mathias Spier, OSB<br />
Florian Muggli, OSB<br />
Paul Marx, OSB<br />
Editor: Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
ddurken@csbsju.edu<br />
Copy Editor and Proofreader:<br />
Dolores Schuh, CHM<br />
Designer: Pam Rolfes<br />
Circulation: Ruth Athmann, Cathy Wieme,<br />
Tanya Boettcher, Jan Jahnke, Mary Gouge<br />
Printer: Palmer Printing, Waite Park,<br />
Minnesota<br />
15 Darwin’s Origin of Species:<br />
Theology or Science?<br />
by Wilfred Theisen, OSB<br />
Banner Bits<br />
28 Drawings of Saints Benedict<br />
and Scholastica<br />
29 Liturgical Press goes for the gold<br />
30 Novices explore hermit’s life<br />
Spiritual Life<br />
31 Live out loud! Alleluia!<br />
NOTE: Please send your change of address to: Ruth Athmann at rathmann@csbsju.edu or P.O. Box 7222,<br />
Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7222 or call 800-635-7303.<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
18 Meet the Monks: The <strong>Abbey</strong>’s<br />
Ninety-Year-Old Avid Readers<br />
by Dolores Schuh, CHM<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner is published three times<br />
annually (spring, fall, winter) by the<br />
Benedictine monks of Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong> for<br />
our relatives, friends and Oblates.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner is online at<br />
www.saintjohnsabbey.org/banner/index.html<br />
Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong>, Box 2015, Collegeville,<br />
Minnesota 56321-2015
A Triple Treat<br />
by Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
February 14, 2010, was<br />
a Triple Treat Day:<br />
1. Valentine’s Day<br />
2. Chinese New Year 4708<br />
3. Annual Monks’ Day at Saint<br />
Benedict’s Monastery to celebrate<br />
the feast of Saint Scholastica.<br />
The original visit of our founders is recorded in Pope<br />
<strong>St</strong>. Gregory’s Life and Miracles of Saint Benedict. When<br />
Benedict was unwilling to talk all night with Scholastica<br />
about the joys of heaven, she prayed earnestly and a rainstorm<br />
kept her law-abiding brother from returning to his<br />
monastery—a triumph of love over law.<br />
Our celebration was highlighted by an inspiring DVD<br />
honoring the 80th anniversary of the Sisters’ mission to<br />
China and Taiwan. In 1930 the monastery was asked to<br />
send teachers to the Catholic University of Peking. Of<br />
the 992 community members, 109 volunteered. Six were<br />
chosen.<br />
Sisters’ letters describe conditions: “There is an abundance<br />
of wiggly, wooly centipedes along with scorpions,<br />
fleas and even a bed bug crawling on my scapular. The<br />
chapel is so cold that we can see our breath. There is little<br />
relief from homesickness.”<br />
After two years of language study the Sisters opened<br />
schools for young women. Their educational efforts were<br />
disrupted by the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1941),<br />
World War II and the Communist takeover. From 1941-<br />
1945 the Sisters were moved to concentration camps where<br />
they were safe but with very little food. They moved to<br />
Taiwan in 1948 and established a monastery which now has<br />
independent status.<br />
The Haehn Museum of Saint Benedict’s Monastery<br />
features this extraordinary exhibit: “1930-2010—Mission<br />
to China and Taiwan” from mid-March to December 23.<br />
I highly recommend it. I also recommend that when the<br />
Vatican-sponsored visitation of women’s religious life in<br />
American reveals the stories of thousands of these valiant<br />
and determined women, Cardinal Rodé should insist that<br />
Benedict XVI follow the current “A Year for Priests” with<br />
“A Year for Women Religious” and canonize hundreds<br />
of them. +<br />
Making a<br />
vision statement<br />
actionable<br />
by Abbot John Klassen, OSB<br />
FROM EDITOR AND ABBOT<br />
In March 2009 the monastic<br />
community finalized a vision<br />
statement that takes us to 2015.<br />
One of the traps in such statements is that they can take on<br />
a life of their own. “If we edit this one more time, maybe<br />
we will get it perfect . . . .” The real question is, “Is the<br />
vision statement actionable?”<br />
Here are the results of a planning process we did last<br />
January. Each vision element (in bold) is followed by an<br />
actionable goal for fiscal year 2011.<br />
In our monastery we will:<br />
• strengthen our Catholic, Benedictine identity<br />
Beginning Ash Wednesday, each confrere commits to<br />
being present for five liturgies or meals per week above<br />
and beyond his current typical observance.<br />
• support our apostolates and vital ministries<br />
We will develop and solidify the recruitment, staffing,<br />
formation, placement sites and funding for a Benedictine<br />
Volunteer Corps for 20-25 SJU graduates for 2011.<br />
• practice environmental and sustainable stewardship<br />
We will serve one meat, one starch and two vegetables at<br />
the evening meal. We also removed desserts from all meals<br />
except on Sundays and feast days to reduce sugar sources.<br />
• create stronger working relationships with laity<br />
During 2010 we will develop an integrated volunteer<br />
program with a coordinator [or team] to assist in essential<br />
abbey operations.<br />
• serve the poor and under-resourced, locally and<br />
globally<br />
We will provide educational, cultural and social support<br />
to minority groups in transition, focusing especially on<br />
local Hispanics and Somalis.<br />
I appointed four confreres to coordinate the implementation<br />
of these five elements and to assure leadership and<br />
necessary resources in each area. Results will be reported<br />
at the January 2011 community workshop. It should be an<br />
exciting year! +<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 3
<strong>Abbey</strong> Archives<br />
FEATURE<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong> Art and Artifacts Collection<br />
by Alan Reed, OSB<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong> Art and Artifacts<br />
Collection traces its beginning<br />
to a community museum<br />
established in 1901 and composed of,<br />
as an early report put it, “an enviable<br />
collection of specimens and curios,<br />
products of years and centuries gone<br />
by . . . Compared with other wellknown<br />
and elaborate museums of this<br />
country, this museum is still quite<br />
an (sic) humble one. In its own way,<br />
however, it follows its famous models<br />
in its well-arranged and well-labeled<br />
exhibits.”<br />
page 4 4 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
“The dignity of the artist is to keep awake the sense of<br />
wonder in the world.” (G. K. Chesterton)<br />
Some of the museum’s early<br />
exhibits include the following:<br />
• a variety of Native American items<br />
presented as gifts to the Benedictines<br />
working on Indian reservations in<br />
northern Minnesota<br />
• specimens of the Tlingit Indians<br />
and Eskimos of Alaska including two<br />
miniature kayaks, a miniature totem<br />
pole and basketry presented by a<br />
friend of the school<br />
• a set of stud-buttons of President<br />
John Quincy Adams<br />
1918 photo of the <strong>Abbey</strong> Museum<br />
• a sword of President Theodore<br />
Roosevelt in the sword and gun<br />
collection<br />
• conch shells, sponges, sea fans<br />
and other coral products from the<br />
Bahamas where the monks of Saint<br />
John’s labored for over a century<br />
• a duho, a carved, wooden ceremonial<br />
stool used by the pre-Columbian<br />
tribal chiefs of the Arawak people,<br />
earliest inhabitants of the Bahamas,<br />
and discovered in a cave by a Saint<br />
John’s missionary<br />
Paul Jasmer, OSB
Penitential hair shirt, pre-1940<br />
Snuff box with picture<br />
of Pope Leo XIII<br />
(pope 1878-1903)<br />
• a thousand stuffed birds, from the<br />
eagle and vulture to the extinct<br />
passenger pigeon<br />
• three large snake skins, the longest<br />
measuring 18 feet<br />
• a mounted buffalo and other<br />
animals, thanks to the taxidermist<br />
skill of Norbert Gertken, OSB<br />
12th century<br />
Madonna and<br />
Child, gift<br />
of Mary and<br />
James Mabon<br />
Duho: wooden, carved ceremonial stool<br />
of pre-Columbian tribal chief of Arawak<br />
people, earliest inhabitants of<br />
the Bahamas<br />
Front view of duho: discovered in Bahamian<br />
cave by Arnold Mondloch, OSB, missionary<br />
FEATURE<br />
• collections of insects as well as<br />
geological and mineralogical<br />
specimens<br />
• coin, medal and stamp collections<br />
including a large bronze disc bearing<br />
the date MCCCCXLVI (1446)<br />
• art dating from the Medieval to<br />
contemporary by some notable and<br />
some less-than-notable artists<br />
Plate of Twin<br />
Towers of<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Church<br />
“Fiddle-back” chasuble, Mass<br />
vestment of detailed embroidery<br />
Paperweight, c. 1910<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 5
FEATURE<br />
As the museum was moved from<br />
place to place to accommodate other<br />
facilities, the holdings fell on hard<br />
times. Many pieces came into disrepair,<br />
some were misplaced and<br />
others stolen by souvenir hunters.<br />
The museum became a kind of<br />
dumping area for the paraphernalia<br />
of deceased confreres.<br />
Beginning in 1979 a serious effort<br />
was made to recover, restore, and give<br />
the holdings proper storage on the<br />
ground floor of the Breuer wing of the<br />
abbey. A computerized inventory of<br />
these art pieces and artifacts has been<br />
created. Brothers Alan Reed, OSB,<br />
and David Manahan, OSB, the current<br />
co-curators of the collection, face<br />
the formidable task of continuing this<br />
effort to sort the genuine from the<br />
junk and thereby preserve the really<br />
valuable items related to the history<br />
of Saint John’s. +<br />
Brother Alan Reed, OSB, former art<br />
curator of the Hill Museum & Manuscript<br />
Library, is the co-curator of the <strong>Abbey</strong> Art<br />
and Artifacts Collection.<br />
Crucifixion painting of Georges Rouault,<br />
French artist (1871-1958)<br />
page 6 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Drawing of original log cabin on Mississippi River, 1856<br />
College football team photo-printed<br />
stuffed pillow, c. 1915<br />
<strong>St</strong>. Florian, patron<br />
of firefighters, puts out<br />
a fire in the abbey church.<br />
Drawing of Saint<br />
John’s from across<br />
Lake Sagatagan by<br />
Julius Locnikar, OSB,<br />
1892<br />
Photos of art objects by Alan Reed, OSB
<strong>Abbey</strong> Archives<br />
Known and beloved as a Benedictine<br />
monk, teacher, pastor,<br />
convent chaplain and builder<br />
of a large church in Moorhead, plus a<br />
nursing home and additional school<br />
facilities in Cold Spring, Minnesota,<br />
and the one who in 1950 personally<br />
asked Pope Pius XII to permit school<br />
children to receive Holy Communion<br />
on school days without observing the<br />
Eucharistic fast, Father Elmer (1895-<br />
1976) has an additional claim to<br />
humble fame. He was a dowser.<br />
In the early 1800s geologists were at<br />
a loss to explain how certain individuals<br />
were able to locate underground<br />
water in areas where they themselves<br />
could not. Rather than study the unexplainable<br />
abilities of these individuals,<br />
geologists simply referred to these<br />
water-finders as “water-witches.”<br />
<strong>St</strong>ories of Elmer’s ability to locate<br />
underground water abound. When a<br />
small group of Benedictine women<br />
missionaries of Saint Benedict’s Monastery<br />
moved from China to Taiwan<br />
FEATURE<br />
Fr. Elmer Eisenshenk, OSB:<br />
Water-Witch or Water-Finder?<br />
by Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
“Many knew Father Elmer for his uncanny performance<br />
as a dowser, locating underground veins of water.”<br />
(Obituary)<br />
in 1948, they invited Elmer to come<br />
to their foundation to locate water for<br />
their garden. He asked the Sisters to<br />
send him a photograph of their garden<br />
upon which he successfully designated<br />
a site of underground water.<br />
Despite his knowing that oil and<br />
water do not mix, Elmer was asked to<br />
find oil on the land of an Oklahoma<br />
friend. Using a state map, he pinpointed<br />
the place where soon there<br />
was a gusher of oil.<br />
“Gone but not forgotten” could<br />
be Elmer’s epitaph. His work as a<br />
dowser is kept alive by James and<br />
Carol Kuebelbeck of <strong>St</strong>. Joseph,<br />
Minnesota. They own and operate<br />
the Underground Water Locating by<br />
Dowsing business. Their motto is<br />
“Call Us BEFORE You Drill.”<br />
James was a youngster when his<br />
father Max hired a well digger to<br />
provide more water for his expanding<br />
dairy herd. The strenuous work<br />
of hand-digging a well was about to<br />
begin when Father Elmer drove up.<br />
He listened to the discussion about<br />
where the well should be dug, got out<br />
his dowsing rod (a Y-shaped willow<br />
branch), and walked in an expanding<br />
circle around the spot Max had<br />
marked for digging. At one point the<br />
end of the dowsing rod dipped toward<br />
the ground as though attracted by a<br />
magnet. It was there Elmer told Max<br />
to dig.<br />
When Max asked Elmer just how<br />
deep the crew would have to dig for<br />
water, Elmer again applied his rod to<br />
the site and replied, “If you dig 23 feet<br />
you’ll have all the water you need.”<br />
Max countered, “All the wells in this<br />
area are about 50 feet deep,” but he<br />
reluctantly agreed to start digging.<br />
Several days later he found a great<br />
supply of water at exactly 23 feet.<br />
This experience sparked the curiosity<br />
of young James and he was determined<br />
to discredit Father Elmer. But<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 7
FEATURE<br />
Carol and James Kuebelbeck<br />
the more he talked with well diggers<br />
who depended on dowsers plus the<br />
research he did, the more he was convinced<br />
that Father Elmer had a Godgiven<br />
talent that could not be denied<br />
despite the many scientific studies that<br />
found no acceptable explanation for<br />
this phenomenon.<br />
The earliest known historical records<br />
of dowsing are 8,000-year-old cave<br />
drawings in France, Australia and<br />
Africa. Donald Jackson, illustrator<br />
of The Saint John’s Bible, includes a<br />
drawing of an aborigine using a dowsing<br />
rod in the creation scene of the<br />
Book of Genesis.<br />
The Book of Exodus, chapter 17,<br />
recounts the story of the Israelites’<br />
demand of Moses to “Give us water<br />
to drink.” The Lord directed Moses to<br />
“Go over there in front of the people,<br />
holding in your hand the staff with<br />
which you struck the river. . . <strong>St</strong>rike<br />
the rock, and water will flow from it<br />
for the people to drink.” This Moses<br />
page 8 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
did—and left us an<br />
ancient account of<br />
dowsing.<br />
Jim Kuebelbeck<br />
admits, “Never would<br />
I have guessed that<br />
my concerted efforts<br />
to discredit dowsing<br />
would lead to my<br />
full-time occupation.”<br />
During the past thirtyplus<br />
years, James and<br />
his wife Carol have<br />
located over 4,000<br />
satisfactory well sites.<br />
James’ filing cabinet is<br />
bulging with testimonials<br />
of gratitude from<br />
satisfied customers.<br />
The Kuebelbecks used<br />
to specialize in “last<br />
resort” cases but now<br />
they work for anyone<br />
in need of satisfactory<br />
groundwater supplies.<br />
■ A newly married couple decided<br />
to drill for water before building their<br />
home. A professional company drilled<br />
420 feet but found no water. Second<br />
and third drillings to 400 and 440 feet<br />
produced no water. The driller then<br />
suggested hiring the Kuebelbecks.<br />
Jim and Carol selected a site. The<br />
drillers found water at 57 feet with<br />
an output of 15 gallons per minute.<br />
■ A Foley, Minnesota, customer<br />
reported that area granite made drilling<br />
for water difficult and expensive.<br />
His original well of 450 feet into the<br />
granite only produced a gallon of<br />
water an hour. Jim located a likely<br />
spot and the well driller found water<br />
at 55 feet, directly over the granite<br />
and producing 12 gallons per minute.<br />
James Kuebelbeck and his dowsing rod
■ The builder of a hunting lodge<br />
in northern Minnesota hired a well<br />
driller who drilled five unsuccessful<br />
holes for water. The driller then called<br />
the Kuebelbecks who located three<br />
promising sites, one of which became<br />
a new 120-foot well producing 30<br />
gallons per minute.<br />
Saint John’s benefitted from the<br />
Kuebelbecks who located an abundant<br />
supply of water in November, 2004,<br />
near the abbey’s vegetable garden.<br />
This well and one other source continue<br />
to supply all the water for the<br />
Collegeville campus except for lake<br />
water for lawns. These wells pump<br />
an average of 238,630 gallons each<br />
day for a total of 87,100,000 gallons<br />
yearly.<br />
In the summer of 2006 Jim and<br />
Carol helped locate future water supplies<br />
for the Crazy Horse Memorial,<br />
the world’s largest mountain carving,<br />
near Custer, South Dakota. Recently<br />
they were informed that one of their<br />
sites has been drilled and the well is<br />
an artesian flowing at an estimated<br />
75 gallons per minute.<br />
The day Father Elmer found water<br />
for Max Kuebelbeck he took young<br />
Jim by the arm and said to him, “Hey,<br />
my boy, you can also do this. You are<br />
one of us.” As a prophet as well as a<br />
dowser, Elmer would surely confirm<br />
this statement of Jim: “I am a professional<br />
water dowser. It is my belief<br />
that everyone has been given special<br />
talents from God and it is our responsibility<br />
to try and discover these special<br />
gifts. I believe God gave me my<br />
special talent to carry out God’s will<br />
for the good of others so that those<br />
who see and benefit from my efforts<br />
will appreciate God even more.” +<br />
A cave drawing possibly<br />
showing a dowser with<br />
his rod appears on the<br />
second-last panel of this<br />
detail from Creation by<br />
Donald Jackson with<br />
contributions from<br />
Chris Tomlin, The Saint<br />
John’s Bible.<br />
The Lord tells Moses, “<strong>St</strong>rike the<br />
rock, and the water will flow from it<br />
for people to drink” (Exodus 17:6).<br />
Was Moses a dowser?<br />
FEATURE<br />
Google Monica Bokinskie<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 99
FEATURE<br />
page 10 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Isidore Glyer, OSB, chair of Task Force for<br />
Environmental Sustainability<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong>’s Task Force<br />
for Environmental<br />
Sustainability<br />
In his letter of June 6, 2008, Abbot<br />
John wrote, “As a Christian<br />
monastic community gifted with<br />
rich resources in land, lakes and forest,<br />
we are called to bear witness to<br />
our students and those who work with<br />
us, that we receive everything we<br />
have from the hand of God; that our<br />
journey on this earth is a short span of<br />
years and we are gone; that our commitment<br />
must be to leave our earth in<br />
such a condition that the next generation<br />
will be able to flourish. With this<br />
awareness, I wish to establish a Task<br />
Force for Environmental Sustainability<br />
with its focus on life in the<br />
monastery.”<br />
by Isidore Glyer, OSB<br />
“Care for God’s creation is an urgent<br />
call for the present generation.”<br />
(Abbot John Klassen, OSB)<br />
As chair of this Task Force I am<br />
grateful that the abbot gave us these<br />
goals:<br />
• to conduct an environmental audit<br />
of our monastic life in terms of energy<br />
used and waste generated that cannot<br />
be recycled;<br />
• to focus on the most basic elements<br />
such as reducing or eliminating<br />
our use of plastic in such areas as<br />
garbage bags, plastic water and soda<br />
bottles on campus and plastic picnic<br />
tableware;<br />
• to evaluate our use of cars with a<br />
view toward recommending changes<br />
that lessen the environ-impact;<br />
• to work with the refection committee<br />
towards the use of locally grown<br />
food;<br />
• to propose an education program<br />
for the monastic community that<br />
raises our level of awareness of environmental<br />
issues;<br />
• to insure that the abbey’s commitment<br />
to environmental sustainability<br />
is integrated into the core messages<br />
for vocations and the larger public;<br />
• to work with others on campus<br />
to enhance the overall awareness of<br />
creating and sustaining the beauty and<br />
integrity of our lands, forest and lakes;<br />
• to address sustainability issues in<br />
our new building construction and<br />
renovation projects;<br />
• to have representatives from the<br />
College of Saint Benedict and Saint<br />
John’s University engaged in work<br />
related to the Association for the<br />
Advancement of Sustainability in<br />
Higher Education.<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB
FEATURE<br />
Live Simply. Be Green.<br />
Slowly but surely the Task Force<br />
has been looking at all aspects of<br />
our community life with a view to<br />
recapturing Saint Benedict’s spirit<br />
of moderation, simplicity and the<br />
elimination of superfluities. Our<br />
mantra is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”<br />
The message on a new abbey cloth<br />
shopping bag puts it this way:<br />
“Live Simply. Be Green.”<br />
An early examination of monastery<br />
trash revealed that 50% of it could<br />
be recycled but only 20% was actually<br />
being recycled. Small baskets for<br />
recyclable items are now available for<br />
monks to use in their private room.<br />
Incandescent light<br />
bulbs are being replaced<br />
by energy-saving, longer<br />
lasting fluorescent twister<br />
bulbs. The use of community<br />
cars has been<br />
reduced by establishing<br />
a once-a-week shopping<br />
trip to <strong>St</strong>. Cloud to buy<br />
various needed items.<br />
Paper napkins for meals<br />
in the monastic refectory<br />
have been replaced by an<br />
individual monk’s cloth<br />
napkin that is laundered<br />
weekly. Batteries are<br />
being recycled.<br />
At recent meetings of the Task<br />
Force, agendas included the following<br />
items:<br />
Household cleaners: Laundry detergents<br />
were to be phosphate-free as of<br />
January 1; individual cleaning chemicals<br />
are being tested to determine<br />
how effective these “greener” options<br />
might be.<br />
Lawns: Can we find organic methods<br />
to fertilize and treat for weeds?<br />
Compact fluorescent light bulb. $55.00 is<br />
saved in energy costs over the average rated<br />
life (10,000 hours) of this lamp compared to<br />
a 75-watt incandescent bulb.<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
Bee keeping: There is a desire to have<br />
sufficient bee hives to pollinate the<br />
apple orchard and garden and increase<br />
production. Is there a community<br />
member interested in this project or<br />
can a local bee-keeper be found who<br />
would be willing to place some hives<br />
here?<br />
Printer paper: The clean side of<br />
printed pages should be used instead<br />
of a new sheet. Better use of computer<br />
or projection generated notices will<br />
reduce the need to print copies for<br />
everyone.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> church lighting: Is it time to<br />
change the lights in the church so they<br />
are more energy-efficient? On a practical<br />
level, what habits in our daily use<br />
of lighting can we change to decrease<br />
our electrical use?<br />
Food: At the conclusion of Abbot<br />
John’s remarks on a healthy monastic<br />
diet (see p. 13), he proposed such<br />
changes as these:<br />
• At the evening meal only one kind<br />
of meat (chicken, turkey, pork or beef)<br />
plus fish and vegetarian; one kind of<br />
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 11
FEATURE<br />
carbohydrate such as brown rice, pasta<br />
or potato; two kinds of vegetables;<br />
vegetarian and meat-based soup; salad<br />
table; varieties of fruit; low-fat yogurt;<br />
• dessert only at mid-day and<br />
evening meals on Sunday and at the<br />
evening meal on special feast days;<br />
otherwise, eliminate desserts from<br />
lunch and supper in Ordinary Time<br />
and sweet rolls from breakfast; provide<br />
a variety of fruits such as apples,<br />
oranges, bananas and melons;<br />
• menus to be checked by a<br />
dietitian for overall balance and total<br />
caloric intake with regular attention<br />
to portion awareness.<br />
The items at the right are part of<br />
Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong>’s slow but certain<br />
readjustment to the simplicity of Saint<br />
Benedict’s vision of monastic life<br />
and our desire to accept and act on<br />
Pope Benedict XVI’s theme of World<br />
Peace Day of January 1, 2010: “If<br />
you want to cultivate peace, protect<br />
creation.” Our efforts towards environmental<br />
sustainability are motivated<br />
by our dream and our desire “that<br />
in all things God may be glorified”<br />
(Rule, chapter 57). +<br />
page 12 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Household cleaning<br />
chemicals are being<br />
tested to determine<br />
how effective these<br />
“greener” options<br />
might be.<br />
Blue “We Recycle” baskets are now<br />
available for monks to use in their<br />
private rooms to recycle items.<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
Brother Isidore Glyer, OSB, is assistant<br />
guest master and chair of the Task Force<br />
for Environmental Sustainability.
FEATURE<br />
Reflections on a healthy menu for monks and others<br />
by Abbot John Klassen, OSB<br />
Monks at lunch in the monastery refectory<br />
In a fine book entitled In Defense<br />
of Food (The Penguin Press),<br />
Michael Pollan summarizes his<br />
thinking about nutrition with three<br />
short phrases: Eat food. Not too much.<br />
Mostly plants.<br />
Eat food. A comedian noted that he<br />
was going along a counter in a supermarket<br />
and came across a package<br />
labeled “cheese food.” Anytime we<br />
have to be reassured that something<br />
is food, it probably isn’t.<br />
Not too much. Eating slowly and<br />
having a good sense of portion control<br />
is essential to healthy eating. Each<br />
of us has an individual balance of<br />
exercise to eating that will keep us at<br />
a good weight. For me, it is probably<br />
A synopsis of Abbot John’s remarks to the monastic<br />
community on January 12, 2010<br />
25% exercise and 75% eating.<br />
Snacking in mid-morning and<br />
mid-afternoon with an apple, orange<br />
or banana is important to reduce<br />
overeating at mealtime.<br />
Mostly plants. Plants provide an<br />
enormous array of macro and micro<br />
nutrients. They are available in a<br />
highly unprocessed form so that most<br />
nutrients are still there. However,<br />
vegetables and other plant nutrition<br />
can be utterly ruined in the preparation,<br />
both in terms of taste and<br />
nutrition. Our dining service<br />
is working hard to<br />
improve the<br />
preparation of<br />
vegetables.<br />
What strikes me is how distant we<br />
are from the time of Saint Benedict in<br />
terms of:<br />
• how food is produced and<br />
distributed<br />
• the technical expertise and<br />
understanding of a healthy diet<br />
• the demands of our work as<br />
pastors, chaplains, educators,<br />
Simon-Hoa Phan, OSB<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 13
Aelred Senna, OSB Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
FEATURE<br />
Fresh fruits and healthy snacks<br />
Meat and vegetables on the lunch<br />
buffet line of the monastery refectory<br />
administrators and multiple other<br />
things we do<br />
• the mobility and variety that are<br />
part of our lives. Only a few of us<br />
do daily heavy manual labor in<br />
which we can burn large doses of<br />
fat in the diet.<br />
From a nutritionist’s point of view,<br />
we orient the nutritional agenda for<br />
the day at breakfast. Nutritional input<br />
should be biased toward the front end<br />
of the day rather than with a big<br />
page 14 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
The salad bar of the refectory<br />
supper or evening snacking that are<br />
heavy in the fatty acids that locate<br />
themselves around our midsection.<br />
Benedict would say, “Don’t snack;<br />
you will lose your appetite for the<br />
main events.” Nutritionists say, “Do<br />
snack with good stuff because you<br />
will be less likely to overeat.”<br />
If a monk of Benedict’s time missed<br />
the main midday meal (followed by<br />
a siesta), he was in trouble because<br />
there was no other place to get food.<br />
The evening meal was probably the<br />
light fare of the Mediterranean culture.<br />
By contrast, we have a tradition<br />
of fairly substantial meals at midday<br />
and in the evening. With very few<br />
monks working side by side anymore,<br />
we generally see each other only at<br />
meals and at scheduled prayer times.<br />
We need to come to a clearer understanding<br />
of the spiritual, theological<br />
and social significance of our dining<br />
together, for we are communitycentered<br />
cenobites, not self-centered<br />
sarabaites (see Rule, Chapter 1, “The<br />
Kinds of Monks”).<br />
Given Benedict’s admonitions<br />
regarding the eating of meat, I do not<br />
know how we came to have such an<br />
intensely meat-centered diet. It is time<br />
for us to seriously question our focus<br />
on meat. For one thing, most meat in<br />
this country is produced under factory<br />
farming conditions with containment<br />
and forced feeding procedures.<br />
In addition, raising meat is a resource-intensive<br />
activity in terms of<br />
fossil fuel and water. For example, it<br />
takes 16 pounds of grain and soybeans<br />
to produce one pound of beef,<br />
6 pounds of grain and soybeans to<br />
produce one pound of pork, 4 for one<br />
pound of turkey and 3 for one pound<br />
of chicken. This is not to mention the<br />
use of antibiotics, growth hormones<br />
and other strategies to improve the<br />
efficiency of converting grain into<br />
meat on the humble animal body.<br />
Changing our diet around meat will<br />
dramatically change the way we are<br />
plugged into a system that I believe is<br />
unsustainable. +<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB
Darwin’s Origin of<br />
Species: Theology<br />
or Science?<br />
by Wilfred Theisen, OSB<br />
“The antithesis that some assume exists<br />
between the concept of creation and<br />
evolution is absurd.” (Pope Benedict XVI)<br />
Charles Darwin’s Origin of<br />
Species is the most significant<br />
scientific work of the past 350<br />
years. Quite an achievement for a man<br />
whose father told him, “You care for<br />
nothing but shooting, dogs and ratcatching<br />
and you will be a disgrace to<br />
yourself and all your family.”<br />
Darwin (1809-1882) was confident<br />
that natural selection was the chief<br />
means for explaining the origin of<br />
species. But biologists of his time<br />
were convinced that the contemporary<br />
species of plants and animals were<br />
directly created by God. Consequently<br />
the Origin argues that natural selection<br />
is the only explanation for the<br />
origin of species, not special creation.<br />
Darwin had to address a fundamental<br />
theological concept—God as creator<br />
of the world.<br />
Before the religiously conservative<br />
Darwin could convince others, he had<br />
to be certain that special creation must<br />
be rejected as an explanation for the<br />
existence of species. He was a great<br />
Charles Darwin<br />
admirer of the works of William<br />
Paley, especially his Natural<br />
Theology.<br />
Natural theology is the belief<br />
that one can infer the existence and<br />
wisdom of God from the order and<br />
beauty of the world, implying that<br />
every detail of the physical world was<br />
carefully designed by God: the hand<br />
for grasping, the eye for seeing, the<br />
ear for hearing. The key word here is<br />
design. When he began his roundthe-world<br />
voyage on the Beagle,<br />
Darwin was prepared to find<br />
evidence confirming this belief.<br />
Instead, he found many facts that<br />
seemed to contradict it. When he<br />
returned from his voyage he wrote a<br />
note to himself: “Permanence of species<br />
doubtful.”<br />
The plan of the Origin is simple.<br />
Darwin first gives facts that can be<br />
explained through his theory of descent<br />
with modification by means of<br />
natural selection but are incompatible<br />
with belief in special creation. Then<br />
he shows that the belief in special<br />
FEATURE<br />
creation is incompatible with these<br />
facts. For example, in chapter 11 he<br />
deals with the issue of geographical<br />
distribution of plants and animals<br />
throughout the world. He was amazed<br />
to find distinct species of finches and<br />
mocking birds on the various islands<br />
of the Galapagos Archipelago, even<br />
though these islands are proximate.<br />
In chapter 13 Darwin points out the<br />
similarity in basic structure between<br />
“the hand of a man, the leg of the<br />
horse, the paddle of the porpoise and<br />
the wing of a bat. Why should they all<br />
be constructed on the same pattern?<br />
Nothing can be more hopeless than to<br />
attempt to explain this similarity of<br />
pattern. . . On the ordinary view of the<br />
independent creation of each being,<br />
we can only say so it is, that it has so<br />
pleased the Creator to construct each<br />
animal and plant. On the theory of<br />
natural selection, we can satisfactorily<br />
answer this question. The old argument<br />
of design in nature, as given by<br />
Paley, which formerly seemed to me<br />
so conclusive, fails, now that natural<br />
selection has been discovered.”<br />
Google<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 15
Google<br />
FEATURE<br />
Darwin’s The Origin of Species<br />
But Darwin could not completely<br />
suppress Paley’s ideas of design, defining<br />
natural selection as the “preservation<br />
of favorable variations and the<br />
rejection of injurious variations.” This<br />
definition implies that natural selection<br />
is an “active agent that preserves<br />
and rejects, always ready to act, daily<br />
and hourly scrutinizing, throughout<br />
the world, every variation, even the<br />
slightest; rejecting that which is bad,<br />
preserving that which is good, . . .<br />
working at the improvement of each<br />
organic being.”<br />
Yet natural selection<br />
is not the cause of<br />
the preservation of<br />
favorable variations<br />
and the rejection of<br />
injurious ones, but the<br />
consequence. Darwin<br />
really means that<br />
natural selection is the<br />
result of “the survival<br />
of favorable and the<br />
disappearance of unfavorable<br />
variations.”<br />
page 16 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Darwin’s critics lampoon him.<br />
There was a strong religious reaction<br />
to the Origin. Atheistic societies<br />
rejoiced, claiming that the Origin<br />
had done away with the need of a<br />
creator. Religious leaders saw it as<br />
a direct attack on the veracity of the<br />
biblical account of creation. Cardinal<br />
Henry Manning called Origin “a<br />
brutal philosophy, to wit, there is no<br />
God and the ape is our Adam.” His<br />
sentiments were shared by Cardinal<br />
Nicholas Wiseman. However, Cardinal<br />
John Henry Newman did not find<br />
it difficult to believe that humans had<br />
non-human ancestors.<br />
On the whole, the official reaction<br />
of the Roman Catholic Church has<br />
been quite restrained and careful to<br />
defend its belief in the inerrancy of<br />
the bible, the dogma of original sin<br />
and the uniqueness of humans. As<br />
late as 1941 Pope Pius XII insisted<br />
that Catholics must hold that Eve was<br />
physically taken from Adam’s body.<br />
But in his 1951 encyclical On the Human<br />
Race, the pope allows Catholics<br />
to accept the theory of evolution.<br />
More recently Pope John Paul II<br />
praised the work of scientists that<br />
supported evolution but restated that<br />
the soul is directly created by God.<br />
Benedict XVI<br />
stated, “The<br />
belief in the<br />
Creator does<br />
not exclude<br />
accepting<br />
the theory of<br />
evolution . . .<br />
and the antithesis<br />
that some<br />
assume exists<br />
between the<br />
concept of<br />
creation and<br />
evolution is<br />
absurd.”<br />
Google<br />
The handwritten title page of Darwin’s<br />
manuscript of Origin of Species<br />
Cardinal Walter Kasper in an<br />
address at Saint John’s last year was<br />
very positive: “Darwin is not a new<br />
doctor in the church or evolution a<br />
new dogma. Evolution is and remains<br />
a scientific theory . . . and not a matter<br />
of faith. So those who believe they<br />
have the evidence can deny evolution,<br />
but they cannot do it in the name of<br />
Christian faith.”<br />
The official Catechism of the<br />
Catholic Church is very positive:<br />
“The question about the origins of the<br />
world and of man has been the object<br />
of many scientific studies which have<br />
splendidly enriched our knowledge of<br />
the age and dimensions of the cosmos,<br />
the development of life forms and the<br />
appearance of man.” It is therefore<br />
clear that these are scientific issues,<br />
not biblical ones. +<br />
Wilfred Theisen, OSB, is professor<br />
emeritus of physics at Saint John’s<br />
University. This article is a condensed<br />
version of his “Sunday at the <strong>Abbey</strong>”<br />
lecture on January 17, 2010.<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
Brother Neal prepares rolls of fresh bread<br />
for the monastic community.<br />
Born and reared in San Fernando,<br />
Trinidad, Neal Laloo,<br />
OSB, learned to cook from<br />
his mother. She made sure that her<br />
two daughters and five sons learned<br />
to cook, clean and do laundry, teaching<br />
them that there is no such thing as<br />
men’s work and women’s work.<br />
From an early age, Brother<br />
Neal learned by trial and<br />
error to marinate and cook<br />
meat, gather herbs for<br />
seasoning and bake bread<br />
and cakes. There were no<br />
Caribbean roots yield<br />
fruit in Collegeville<br />
by Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
cookbooks, just recipes that his<br />
mother passed along with loving<br />
care to her children.<br />
Food preparation methods in<br />
Trinidad are somewhat unconventional<br />
and used to prepare<br />
“poor man’s dishes.” Methods<br />
of outdoor cooking are popular<br />
such as placing planks of green<br />
wood that imparts a smoky flavor<br />
over a charcoal fire so that meats<br />
are cooked directly on the wood<br />
rather than on a grate. Fish are<br />
placed within a large piece of foldedover<br />
chicken wire that is turned over<br />
to grill both sides.<br />
In 1984 Neal went to Kingston,<br />
Jamaica, and worked for five years<br />
Jerk Chicken (serves 4-6)<br />
1 onion, coarsely chopped 4 oz. grated fresh ginger<br />
6 cloves garlic Zest and juice of 1 orange<br />
1 T. fresh thyme leaves or salt/pepper to taste<br />
1½ t. dried thyme ½ c. olive oil<br />
¾ c. white vinegar 4-6 boneless skinless<br />
8 whole cloves chicken breasts<br />
MONKS IN THE KITCHEN<br />
with the Missionary Brothers of the<br />
Poor. He helped run a soup kitchen<br />
by collecting donations of soup from<br />
local hotels. He befriended the chef<br />
at the Four Seasons who inspired him<br />
with her knowledge of foods and her<br />
easy way of bringing out the best in<br />
those who worked with her.<br />
Coming to Collegeville in 1990 via<br />
<strong>St</strong>. Augustine’s Monastery in Nassau,<br />
Bahamas, Neal now serves as the<br />
abbey’s refectorian, sharing his<br />
culinary skills with the monks and<br />
students of Saint John’s. +<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB, is the administrative<br />
assistant to the abbot and prior<br />
and assistant monastery<br />
refectorian.<br />
• Place all ingredients except chicken in blender and process to a puree.<br />
• Pierce chicken pieces all in several places with fork and place in zip lock bag or<br />
baking dish. Pour marinade over chicken and coat well. Marinate overnight.<br />
• Heat grill to 350˚F. Place disposable aluminum pan on grill to preheat for several<br />
minutes; begin cooking chicken on pan, keeping oily marinade from causing<br />
flare ups.<br />
• After a few minute, chicken can be removed directly to grill grate and basted<br />
with drippings from pan.<br />
• Marinade can be made ahead and stored in tightly closed jar in refrigerator.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 17
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
MEET THE MONKS<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong>’s Ninety-Year-Old Avid Readers<br />
by Dolores Schuh, CHM<br />
When I lived on the Saint<br />
John’s <strong>Abbey</strong>/University<br />
campus from 1974-2004,<br />
I occasionally visited the retired<br />
monks in Saint Raphael Hall. I retired<br />
in Iowa but when I get to Saint John’s<br />
twice each year I spend at least a<br />
few minutes with the monks in<br />
Saint Raphael’s.<br />
Edwin <strong>St</strong>ueber, OSB<br />
Edwin <strong>St</strong>ueber . . .<br />
On one recent visit I learned that<br />
Father Edwin, an avid reader, could<br />
read several languages. This intrigued<br />
me so I decided to visit Edwin. What<br />
a delightful experience!<br />
When I entered Edwin’s room I<br />
immediately recognized the mellow<br />
voice of Dean Martin singing “That’s<br />
Amore.” To my amazement, on a<br />
small table right inside the door was<br />
an old phonograph spinning a twelve-<br />
page 18 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
inch vinyl record (remember those?).<br />
Edwin enjoys good music.<br />
This gentle monk was raised by an<br />
aunt and uncle in New Ulm, Minnesota,<br />
when his mother died at age 39.<br />
His father suffered from chronic ill<br />
health most of his life but ironically<br />
lived to the ripe old age of 109.<br />
Edwin attended<br />
Catholic schools<br />
in New Ulm and<br />
followed his older<br />
brother Everardo to<br />
Saint John’s to study<br />
for the priesthood.<br />
His first pastoral assignment<br />
was Saint<br />
Bernard’s parish in<br />
Saint Paul. It was<br />
here he developed an<br />
interest in languages.<br />
In the early 1960s<br />
a Learn-A-Language<br />
record service in<br />
Saint Paul fascinated<br />
Edwin. He said it<br />
was a cheap way of<br />
getting an education as each course<br />
consisted of four long-playing records<br />
and each record cost only $1.10!<br />
Over the next fifty years Edwin<br />
learned to read Arabic (most difficult),<br />
Dutch, German, Greek, French,<br />
Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Norwegian,<br />
Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish,<br />
Swahili, and Swedish. There are<br />
bibles and other spiritual books in<br />
various languages on his bookshelves.<br />
He has read Leo Tolstoy’s War and<br />
Peace in English and in Russian!<br />
Remember the size of that volume?<br />
Although his eyesight is remarkably<br />
good at age 93, Edwin doesn’t read<br />
much anymore. He is not familiar<br />
with John Grisham, <strong>St</strong>even King or<br />
Nicholas Sparks. He loves to listen to<br />
music. Well organized is his sizeable<br />
collection of records, cassettes, and<br />
CDs by artists such as Johnny Cash,<br />
Luciano Pavoratti, Nat King Cole,<br />
Patsy Cline, and Floyd Kramer. He<br />
can fill almost anyone’s request for a<br />
classical hit song (not rock n’ roll) or<br />
a symphony.<br />
I left Edwin’s room feeling inspired,<br />
entertained and informed.<br />
Fintan Bromenshenkel, OSB<br />
Fintan Bromenshenkel . . .<br />
Another avid reader is 91-year old<br />
Father Fintan. This soft-spoken monk<br />
grew up in Sauk Centre, Minnesota,<br />
with his parents and eight siblings.<br />
He graduated from Saint John’s Preparatory<br />
School and University, made<br />
monastic profession in 1940 and was<br />
ordained in 1945.<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB
In 1961 Fintan started work on the<br />
brand new main computer frame and<br />
was involved with the development of<br />
computer services at Saint John’s for<br />
the next thirty years.<br />
Fintan was assigned to Saint Augustine’s<br />
Monastery in Nassau, Bahamas,<br />
in 1990. He worked in the business<br />
office of the school (grades 9-12), and<br />
also spent many hours each week pulling<br />
weeds on the campus.<br />
Fintan developed a love of reading<br />
in grade school. Spiritual books, novels,<br />
biographies, histories are all now<br />
on Fintan’s reading list. He likes thick<br />
books with lots of pages so he doesn’t<br />
have to go to the library so often! He<br />
is reading the bible in English and<br />
Spanish and enjoys works by Thomas<br />
Merton, Flannery O’Connor, Helen<br />
Prejean, and Walker Percy. One of<br />
his favorites is The Long Walk: The<br />
True <strong>St</strong>ory of a Trek to Freedom by<br />
Slavomir Rawicz.<br />
<strong>St</strong>ill an outdoor lover, Fintan can<br />
often be found pulling weeds in the<br />
monastery garden in the summertime<br />
and splitting logs for the fireplaces on<br />
campus in the fall and winter months.<br />
It can be said that he doesn’t let the<br />
weeds grow under his feet.<br />
George Wolf. . .<br />
George Wolf, OSB (l.) and Don LeMay, OSB<br />
The oldest member of Saint John’s<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> is also an avid reader. Father<br />
George, 94 years young, spends most<br />
of every day reading; that is, when<br />
he isn’t out for his mile or more daily<br />
walk!<br />
George does spiritual reading each<br />
morning and prefers the works of<br />
Columba Marmion, a Belgian Benedictine<br />
abbot who did extensive<br />
writing on the Holy Spirit.<br />
Along with spiritual books,<br />
George finds good biographies<br />
and nonfiction works<br />
in the abbey library. The<br />
story of Our Lady of Fatima<br />
is one of his favorites and<br />
he prefers a mix of light and<br />
heavy reading but doesn’t<br />
like comedies.<br />
Don LeMay . . .<br />
MEET THE MONKS<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
Not eligible for the nonagenarian<br />
club for a couple years, Father Don,<br />
too, enjoys reading and has several<br />
books going at one time. Recently<br />
he enjoyed The Horse Whisperer<br />
by Nicholas Evans; Fifteen Days of<br />
Prayer with Alphonsus Ligouri by<br />
Jean-Marie Segalen et al; The Code of<br />
the Wooster by P.G. Wodehouse; The<br />
Good War: An Oral History of World<br />
War II by <strong>St</strong>uds Terkel.<br />
With the computer and the Kindle<br />
rapidly becoming America’s methods<br />
of reading the works of both old and<br />
new authors, it is refreshing to know<br />
there are still readers who enjoy turning<br />
the pages of a good book. More<br />
power to these avid readers in the<br />
monastery. +<br />
Sister Dolores, CHM, was the executive<br />
associate of the Collegeville Institute<br />
for Ecumenical and Cultural Research<br />
at Saint John’s for thirty years. She now<br />
lives with the Sisters of the Humility of<br />
Mary in Davenport, Iowa, and serves<br />
as copy editor and proofreader for<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner and a proofreader for<br />
Liturgical Press.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 19
BENEDICTINE VOLUNTEERS<br />
Over two years have passed<br />
since Lew Grobe and I<br />
hatched the idea of Phoenix<br />
Rising, a 900-mile bicycle safarifundraiser<br />
through Tanzania, East<br />
Africa. I initially wrote off the idea as<br />
ludicrous. Did we really need to go<br />
to such extremes to raise educational<br />
funds for poor Tanzanian youth?<br />
Why not? So we took off on what was<br />
an unforgettable two weeks. We never<br />
imagined that our efforts would result<br />
in 23 Tanzanian students now being<br />
well on their way to graduating.<br />
Gloria Sanga, student of <strong>St</strong>.<br />
Laurent’s Primary School, happily<br />
holds her scholarship certificate.<br />
This past summer I returned to<br />
Tanzania as the leader of a service/<br />
immersion trip for university students.<br />
Revisiting the village of Hanga where<br />
I spent three years with the Benedictine<br />
Volunteer Corps, I checked<br />
in with the recipients of the Phoenix<br />
Rising Scholarships. I am thrilled to<br />
page 20 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Update on the<br />
Phoenix Rising bicycle<br />
safari-fundraiser for Tanzania<br />
by Paul Conroy<br />
report that seven of the original 23<br />
have graduated and all the others are<br />
diligently continuing their studies.<br />
One recipient is 19-year-old Neema<br />
Msanga who spent three years working<br />
as a maid for a relative who had<br />
lured her away from home with the<br />
false promise of sending her to school.<br />
Neema was able to reconnect with<br />
her sister who approached me to help<br />
Neema fulfill her dream of going to<br />
school. Each student’s story is equally<br />
moving and their lives have truly been<br />
forever changed.<br />
Our original expectations for Phoenix<br />
Rising have been greatly surpassed<br />
by the $23,000 raised to date. These<br />
funds are sufficient to support all<br />
currently studying scholars for their<br />
remaining years of secondary school,<br />
and for this we thank our generous<br />
donors.<br />
<strong>St</strong>ephen Komba, student of the Hanga<br />
Vocational Training School, displays his<br />
scholarship certificate.<br />
Paul Conroy with <strong>St</strong>. Benedict’s Secondary<br />
School scholars<br />
Charlie McCarron awards Shaibu Nyoni<br />
at <strong>St</strong>. Benedict’s Secondary School his<br />
scholarship certificate.<br />
We invite <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner readers to<br />
join us in our ongoing safari of giving<br />
the gift of education through the Phoenix<br />
Rising Scholarship. Please use the<br />
attached remittance envelope to send<br />
your tax deductible donation. +<br />
Paul Conroy is a supervisor in a student<br />
residence of Saint John’s University.
Monica Bokinskie<br />
Sometimes a book is the end<br />
point of an author’s early planning<br />
and long labor. But sometimes<br />
a book explodes in a moment<br />
of unexpected insight, of surprise.<br />
Uncommon Gratitude is of this second<br />
sort.<br />
Sister Joan Chittister, OSB,<br />
recounts that moment when she and<br />
Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams<br />
of Canterbury were talking about the<br />
spiritual life as they know it—and are<br />
always learning it.<br />
“Finally I asked him directly, ‘What<br />
really interests you most about the<br />
spiritual life?’ He said, ‘I find myself<br />
coming back again and again to the<br />
meaning of alleluia.’ And then we<br />
were off.”<br />
These two soon realized that God<br />
is calling them not to the easy task of<br />
praise for all things wonderful, but to<br />
a much tougher assignment: how to<br />
find the meaning of alleluia in “moments<br />
that do not feel like alleluia<br />
moments at all.”<br />
The wide range of topics is daunting:<br />
faith, doubt, differences, conflict,<br />
sinners, saints, life, crises, death,<br />
future, to name a few. Most chapters<br />
are written by Chittister. There is no<br />
attempt to blend the styles of the two<br />
A Review —<br />
Uncommon Gratitude:<br />
Alleluia for All That Is<br />
by Patrick Henry<br />
How to find the meaning of alleluia.<br />
authors, but there is deep resonance<br />
between their understandings of how,<br />
as John Lennon put it, “Life is what<br />
happens to you while you’re busy<br />
making other plans.” Or, as Joan’s<br />
very wise mother used to tell her, “Of<br />
two possibilities, choose always the<br />
third.”<br />
I can best explain why I recommend<br />
the book by pointing to two of the<br />
chapters in which I found the authors’<br />
message especially intense.<br />
Rowan Williams’ riff on “Friday”<br />
is one of the freshest things I’ve read<br />
on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.<br />
Monica Bokinskie<br />
Chittister is an<br />
international<br />
lecturer and<br />
author of some<br />
40 books.<br />
Williams is an international<br />
theological<br />
writer, scholar<br />
and teacher.<br />
Monica Bokinskie<br />
REVIEW<br />
He begins with Friday as in “Thank<br />
God it’s,” harks back to creation when<br />
God rested on Saturday, marvels at<br />
the wisdom of the Jewish reverence<br />
for the Sabbath, and takes us deep<br />
into the experience of Christ and his<br />
disciples in those culminating hours<br />
of Holy Week. Williams helps me see<br />
what it means that one fully human<br />
and fully divine was on the cross.<br />
Throughout the book Chittister<br />
makes skillful use of her own story,<br />
most poignantly in “Darkness.” Her<br />
mother was afflicted with Alzheimer’s<br />
for many years, an excruciating<br />
estrangement from one to whom Joan<br />
was so close. Only toward the end<br />
did Joan come to “understand that<br />
God is at work in our lives even when<br />
we believe that nothing whatsoever<br />
is going on.”<br />
A friend has paraphrased an observation<br />
of novelist Gail Godwin: our<br />
lives can keep on making more of us.<br />
Uncommon Gratitude is a guidebook<br />
for that journey.<br />
Order this 136-page, hardcover<br />
book from Liturgical Press, Box<br />
7500, Collegeville, MN 56321-<br />
7500; email: sales@litpress.org;<br />
phone:1-800-858-5450. $16.95 plus<br />
postage/handling. +<br />
Patrick Henry is the former director of<br />
the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical<br />
and Cultural Research.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 21
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
THE <strong>ABBEY</strong> CHRONICLE<br />
Minnesota and Collegeville<br />
lost their winter bragging<br />
rights to places like Boston,<br />
New York City, Atlanta, and Waco,<br />
Texas, that made our snow total of 22<br />
inches look wimpy compared to their<br />
accumulations of 40 to 50 + inches.<br />
During January we had 15 days of<br />
below-zero temperatures with -24 on<br />
the 3rd the lowest. March leaped in<br />
like a lamb and stayed long enough for<br />
us to revel in a welcome early spring<br />
of above-freezing temperatures and<br />
plentiful sunshine.<br />
The Wimmer family and relatives of<br />
Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, OSB<br />
page 22 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Early spring arrivals<br />
What’s Up?<br />
The <strong>Abbey</strong> Chronicle<br />
by Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
December 2009<br />
“The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an<br />
example of the external seductiveness of life.”<br />
■ Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe,<br />
Pennsylvania, has the most boasting<br />
rights to Archabbot Boniface Wimmer,<br />
founder of Benedictine life in<br />
the United <strong>St</strong>ates and first abbot of<br />
the Latrobe community. However, the<br />
great-great-great grandnephews of<br />
Boniface settled in our area and operate<br />
Wimmer Opticians in <strong>St</strong>. Cloud.<br />
They were invited to celebrate the<br />
200th anniversary of their great-greatgreat<br />
granduncle’s birthday (January<br />
14, 1809) at<br />
Saint John’s.<br />
Jeff and Deb<br />
Wimmer and<br />
Joel and Annette<br />
Wimmer<br />
with son Ryan,<br />
a SJU senior<br />
and All-American<br />
middle line<br />
backer on the<br />
2009 football<br />
team, and daughter Lindsay, a CSB<br />
junior, joined the monastic community<br />
for dinner on December 7.<br />
(Jean Giraudoux)<br />
■ How do you get a 27-foot tall, 20foot<br />
wide white spruce tree through the<br />
8 x 8-foot entrance to the Great Hall<br />
to set up Saint John’s Christmas Tree?<br />
With a lot of pulling by a team of volunteers.<br />
These photos are from a video<br />
by Ben DeMarais, former Benedictine<br />
Volunteer to Tanzania and current SJU<br />
supervisor in student housing. See the<br />
whole show at: http://www.youtube.<br />
com/watch?v=Rd-XigVFVTY.<br />
1-2-3 PULL!<br />
Ben DeMarais
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
■ Directed by Michael Bik, OSB,<br />
chaplain for retired and ill confreres, a<br />
“Secret Santa” program began in Advent.<br />
Monks randomly picked names<br />
of <strong>St</strong>. Raphael Hall residents and<br />
secretly gave them small, inexpensive<br />
gifts during pre-Christmas weeks. Just<br />
before Christmas the “Secret Santas”<br />
gave their final gift and revealed their<br />
identity. Presents included a 2010<br />
calendar with pictures of Saint Augustine’s<br />
Monastery in Nassau, Bahamas<br />
for George Wolf, OSB, who worked<br />
there for over 60 years; a “memory<br />
jar” full of notes that confreres had<br />
written of their memories of the recipient;<br />
several murder mysteries and a<br />
CD of favorite music.<br />
<strong>St</strong>. Raphael Hall residents meet their<br />
“Secret Santas.”<br />
■ Your roving editor walked through<br />
the monastery and counted 65 poinsettia<br />
plants that brightened the church<br />
and cloister with their brilliant red.<br />
Italians call this colorful plant stella di<br />
Natale, “star of Christmas.”<br />
A shelf of poinsettias in the monastic<br />
refectory<br />
■ Almost 15 inches of snow fell<br />
before, during and after Christmas Day<br />
to force the cancellation of the Saint<br />
John’s Boys’ Choir’s appearance at<br />
Midnight Mass. Enough intrepid<br />
travelers<br />
plowed over<br />
snow-covered<br />
roads to<br />
nearly fill the<br />
main floor<br />
of the abbey<br />
church.<br />
In his Christmas homily,<br />
Abbot John considered the<br />
mystery of the incarnation: “When I<br />
reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ, I<br />
can’t help but begin with the God who<br />
is not contained in this vast universe<br />
of 100 billion galaxies. When God first<br />
thought of the incarnation, God must<br />
have burst out laughing. It is so exactly<br />
what we would NOT have done<br />
as human beings if it had been<br />
up to us. We tend to go toward<br />
muscle, control, perfection. God<br />
goes toward frailty, weakness,<br />
vulnerability and the messiness of<br />
human decisions. And so a child<br />
is born, a Son is given to us. . .”<br />
■ The 2009 Christmas Midnight<br />
Mass from Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong> is<br />
archived and available by following<br />
this link: http://saintjohnsabbey.org/schola/christmas.html<br />
■ The abbey<br />
received a gift of<br />
hand-carved wooden<br />
statues of Mary,<br />
Seat of Wisdom,<br />
holding the Christ<br />
Child, and Joseph,<br />
holding a miniature<br />
church as Protector<br />
of the Church, both<br />
created by Gerald<br />
Bonnette, a 1953<br />
art and philosophy<br />
graduate of Saint<br />
John’s who died in<br />
1988. The statues<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
Hand-carved wooden<br />
statutes of the Holy Family<br />
by Gerald Bonnette, the<br />
gift of Fr. James Notebaart<br />
THE <strong>ABBEY</strong> CHRONICLE<br />
were given by Father James Notebaart<br />
of the Saint Paul/Minneapolis<br />
Archdiocese, in memory of the late<br />
Aelred Tegels, OSB, editor of Worship<br />
magazine and liturgy professor in the<br />
School of Theology•Seminary.<br />
■ The Saint John’s Fire Department<br />
purchased a 1991 Grumman 102-foot<br />
ladder truck with a platform/bucket<br />
that allows a number of people to be<br />
evacuated from a location.Without it<br />
the department would have to wait for<br />
help from a nearby fire hall that could<br />
mean a 20-minute delay in the rescue<br />
effort. Bought in Alabama, the truck<br />
has a service-life of 25 years.<br />
The Saint John’s Grumman ladder truck<br />
with platform/bucket.<br />
As it begins its 61st year of service<br />
to the campus, the Saint John’s Fire<br />
Department includes <strong>St</strong>eve Berhow,<br />
fire chief, assistant chiefs Bradley<br />
Jenniges, OSB, and John Brudney,<br />
OSB, drivers Dennis Beach, OSB,<br />
and Neal Laloo, OSB, 15<br />
certified SJU students and<br />
three laymen.<br />
Aelred Senna, OSB<br />
■ Nathanael Hauser, OSB,<br />
was featured in the December<br />
issue of Minnesota Monthly<br />
magazine. Entitled “Puppet<br />
Master,” the article describes<br />
Nathanael’s practice of the<br />
Neopolitan art of crèche-dollmaking.<br />
His Christmas scene<br />
of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, a<br />
kneeling shepherd and three<br />
winged angels graced the<br />
cover of the winter 2008 issue<br />
of <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner and was<br />
displayed in the Great Hall.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 23
THE <strong>ABBEY</strong> CHRONICLE<br />
The figure pictured above is at the<br />
entrance to the <strong>Abbey</strong> Gift Shop.<br />
January 2010<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
One of the Epiphany magi<br />
by Nathanael Hauser, OSB<br />
■ The annual community workshop,<br />
held January 4 and 5, concentrated on<br />
converting the abbey’s Vision <strong>St</strong>atement<br />
into goals and action steps. For a<br />
concise description of the agenda see<br />
Abbot John’s column on page 3 of this<br />
issue.<br />
■ To conclude the annual Week of<br />
Prayer for Christian Unity on Sunday,<br />
January 24, the Rev. Katherine<br />
Wallace was the homilist at the<br />
community Eucharist. Katherine,<br />
a priest of the Diocese of Ottawa in<br />
the Anglican<br />
Church of Canada,<br />
has been<br />
pastor of rural<br />
and city parishes<br />
for 21 years.<br />
An Oblate of<br />
Saint John’s,<br />
she represented<br />
Oblates last<br />
October at the<br />
International<br />
Rev. Katherine Wallace<br />
Benedictine<br />
Oblate Congress<br />
in Rome.<br />
page 24 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
Jerome Tupa, OSB<br />
February 2010<br />
■ A busload of monks thoroughly<br />
enjoyed the annual celebration of the<br />
feast of Saint Scholastica with the<br />
Benedictine women of the Monastery<br />
of Saint Benedict on Sunday, February<br />
14. The editor’s “A Triple Treat”<br />
column on page three describes the<br />
highlight of the occasion.<br />
Benedictines pray in the oratory of Saint<br />
Benedict’s Monastery.<br />
■ In his homily during the abbey/<br />
university Ash Wednesday Mass,<br />
Abbot John focused on the theme of<br />
ashes: “We are a walking, talking,<br />
thinking, doing package of dust and<br />
ashes. So why do we bother signing<br />
ashes on each other’s foreheads?<br />
Because God has given us a way out<br />
of this continuous loop of ‘Ashes to<br />
ashes and dust to dust.’ It is the way<br />
of the Cross. . . We renew ourselves<br />
in that sign of the cross, to re-commit<br />
ourselves to God and the way that<br />
God’s Son has shown us.”<br />
■ The devastating earthquake in<br />
Chile on February 27 turned our<br />
prayers and concerns to our two Benedictine<br />
Volunteers, David Allen and<br />
James Albrecht, stationed in Santiago.<br />
In his e-mail of March 2, David wrote,<br />
“James and I were awakened by large<br />
tremors. James yelled, ‘Dave, get up!<br />
This is an earthquake.’ Our entire<br />
house shook for about a minute as<br />
things around the house were crashing.<br />
My bed literally moved across<br />
the room. The earthquake could not<br />
have occurred at a worse time for the<br />
children of Chile because their school<br />
year is starting this week. Please keep<br />
us all in your prayers and thoughts,<br />
especially the people of Concepcion,<br />
Constitution and Talca that have<br />
particularly been damaged.”<br />
March 2010<br />
■ The Lenten theme of ashes took<br />
a different twist on March 2 and 3 as<br />
a crew from the Chemical Agency<br />
Deployment Accounts of Ham Lake,<br />
Minnesota, cleaned out a deposit<br />
of ashes 40-feet deep and 12feet<br />
in diameter from the base<br />
of the powerhouse chimney. A<br />
high powered vacuum cleaner<br />
appropriately named “Super<br />
Sucker” piped the ashes into a<br />
large container that was taken to<br />
a landfill at Big Lake, Minnesota. This<br />
chimney sweep is done every three to<br />
five years.<br />
The crew and the “Super Sucker” remove<br />
ashes from the powerhouse chimney.<br />
■ March showers may bring early<br />
flowers and certainly the start of<br />
another maple syrup season. The<br />
Community Tapping Day commenced<br />
the morning of March 13 when 150<br />
student volunteers put out 800 sap-taps<br />
in two hours. The absence of belowfreezing<br />
nighttime temperatures got<br />
the sap dripping off to a slow start. +<br />
The sap-to-syrup season begins with<br />
tree tapping.<br />
Saint John’s Arboretum<br />
Daniel Durken, OSB
Mathias Arnold Spier,<br />
OSB<br />
1931 – 2010<br />
The fourth of the six children<br />
of John and Genieve<br />
(Schmeing) Spier of nearby<br />
Freeport, Arnold came to Saint<br />
John’s Preparatory School in 1945 to<br />
determine if he had a vocation to the<br />
priesthood. Indeed he did as proved<br />
by the forty-five years Father Mathias<br />
(the name given him as a novice)<br />
served God’s people in Minnesota<br />
parishes.<br />
Ordained in 1958, Mathias was the<br />
associate pastor and pastor of parishes<br />
in Albany, <strong>St</strong>. Paul, Medina, Richmond,<br />
Northeast Minneapolis, <strong>St</strong>.<br />
Joseph and Jacobs Prairie and chaplain<br />
of nursing homes in New Hope<br />
and Cold Spring.<br />
On the occasion of his silver anniversary<br />
of ordination, Mathias<br />
reflected on his assignment as pastor<br />
of Holy Name Parish in Medina: “The<br />
day before I arrived the old altars and<br />
carpets in the church were removed,<br />
and for the first month I offered Mass<br />
in a makeshift surrounding. Finishing<br />
the remodeling of Holy Name<br />
Church was one accomplishment that<br />
brought me the greatest satisfaction.”<br />
He added his gratitude for the help of<br />
three Benedictine sisters from Saint<br />
Scholastica Monastery in Duluth.<br />
Mathias left his mark on other<br />
parishes. He renovated the rectory of<br />
Saint Boniface Parish in Minneapolis<br />
so confreres studying in the Twin Cities<br />
or needing an overnight stay close<br />
to the airport could have free lodging<br />
and a well-prepared meal. In Medina<br />
he worked with local officials to bring<br />
sewer and water to the church and<br />
area. In <strong>St</strong>. Joseph he developed the<br />
community food shelf, began Meals<br />
on Wheels and cajoled the fire depart-<br />
OBITUARIES<br />
ment to put Christmas lights on the<br />
big fir tree in front of the rectory and<br />
set up a fine crib set. When the Minnesota<br />
Gophers’ football team held<br />
their pre-season camp at Collegeville,<br />
Mathias invited a coach to the monks’<br />
retirement center to distribute maroon<br />
and gold caps and sweat shirts.<br />
In his homily at Mathias’ funeral,<br />
Abbot John identified him as a “warm,<br />
outgoing, friendly man with a dry,<br />
lively sense of humor.” Mathias’ obesity<br />
complicated other health problems<br />
and a month before he died he was<br />
told he had inoperable cancer. Abbot<br />
John remarked, “As a faith-filled<br />
pastor who helped many other people<br />
face similar situations, Mathias gave<br />
it all to Christ. When he died, he was<br />
truly at peace.”<br />
Mathias’ funeral was celebrated on<br />
January 22. May he rest in peace. +<br />
Fr. Mathias was the Grand Marshall of the 1989 4th of July parade and celebration of<br />
<strong>St</strong>. Joseph, Minnesota.<br />
<strong>St</strong>. Joseph Lion’s Club<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 25
OBITUARIES<br />
Florian Elmer Muggli,<br />
OSB<br />
1925 – 2010<br />
The Benedictine roots of Father<br />
Florian were deep and widespread.<br />
Elmer Joseph was the<br />
son of John and Eleanor<br />
(Pallansch) Muggli of<br />
Richardton, North Dakota,<br />
the location of the<br />
Benedictine Assumption<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong>. His older brother<br />
Julius became a member<br />
of Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong><br />
several years before<br />
Florian followed suit.<br />
His three half-sisters,<br />
two aunts and three<br />
male cousins were<br />
Benedictines.<br />
Benedictine Sisters of<br />
Yankton, South Dakota,<br />
were his grade school<br />
teachers. The abbot of<br />
Assumption <strong>Abbey</strong> was<br />
instrumental in Elmer’s<br />
recovery from scarlet<br />
fever as a sixth-grader<br />
page 26 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
through a relic and intercession of<br />
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. He<br />
attended Assumption <strong>Abbey</strong> High<br />
School. Upon entering the novitiate<br />
of Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong> he received the<br />
name of Florian in honor of his monkfriend,<br />
Father Florian Fairbanks of<br />
Assumption <strong>Abbey</strong>. There was no way<br />
Florian could have become a Jesuit.<br />
Ordained to the priesthood in 1951,<br />
Florian taught mathematics and served<br />
as a faculty resident of the university<br />
until his appointment as procurator/<br />
treasurer of the abbey and university<br />
in 1955. For the next sixteen years he<br />
supervised the surge of new construction<br />
on the Collegeville campus<br />
including the monastery wing, abbey<br />
church, expansion of Liturgical Press,<br />
new Preparatory School complex,<br />
Alcuin Library, Peter Engel Science<br />
Center, and four university student<br />
residences. His tireless service to the<br />
community was a faithful fulfillment<br />
of Saint Benedict’s description of the<br />
monastery cellarer in chapter 31 of<br />
the Rule.<br />
Florian moved into pastoral ministry<br />
in 1971 as pastor in <strong>St</strong>illwater,<br />
Hastings, <strong>St</strong>. Joseph and Jacobs<br />
Prairie. His major accomplishment<br />
was the merging of the two parishes<br />
in Hastings, one staffed by diocesan<br />
priests, the other by Benedictines.<br />
With patience and persistence, Florian<br />
overcame the opposition of some<br />
of the parishioners and oversaw the<br />
building of a new church and parish<br />
offices that united the Catholic<br />
community in a splendid setting.<br />
His retirement to the abbey was<br />
marked by the progression of<br />
Alzheimer’s disease to which he<br />
succumbed on January 26. The Mass<br />
of Christian Burial was celebrated<br />
for Florian on January 30. May he<br />
rest in peace. +<br />
Front row, l. to r.: Noreen, mother Elinor, father John, Norbert. Back row l. to r.: Fr. Julius,<br />
Sr. Nillon, Sr. Alexia, Sr. Joanne, Fr. Florian, all OSBs.<br />
Osborn <strong>St</strong>udio, Dickinson, N.D.
<strong>Abbey</strong> Archives<br />
Paul Benno Marx, OSB<br />
1920 – 2010<br />
Benno was the fifteenth child of<br />
George and Elizabeth (Rauw)<br />
Marx of <strong>St</strong>. Michael, Minnesota,<br />
and grew up on the dairy farm<br />
that was in the family for five generations.<br />
He attended parochial grade<br />
school, often walking the 3½ miles in<br />
all kinds of weather, and then Saint<br />
John’s Preparatory School where he<br />
excelled in his studies and extracurricular<br />
activities including football and<br />
track. He followed his older brother<br />
Michael into the abbey, received the<br />
name of Paul, made his first profession<br />
of vows in 1942, completed his<br />
Father Paul meets Pope John Paul II.<br />
seminary studies and was ordained in<br />
1947.<br />
After teaching history, religion and<br />
English in the Preparatory School,<br />
Paul studied at The Catholic University<br />
of America where he received the<br />
doctorate in sociology and had his<br />
doctoral dissertation, Virgil Michel<br />
and the Liturgical Movement, published<br />
by The Liturgical Press. He<br />
founded the sociology department of<br />
Saint John’s University and became<br />
firmly focused on the family and<br />
responsible family planning.<br />
Paul put his intense convictions into<br />
practice by founding the Human Life<br />
Center at Saint John’s in 1972 and in<br />
1981 establishing Human Life International<br />
in Washington, D.C. Driven<br />
by his belief that life begins at the moment<br />
of conception and that the family<br />
is the most important unit of society,<br />
Paul personified the zeal and energy<br />
of his biblical namesake, the Apostle<br />
Paul. He was known as “The Apostle<br />
of Life” in the pro-life movement and<br />
labeled by Planned Parenthood as<br />
“Public Enemy #1.” Pope John Paul II<br />
said to Paul during a 1979 papal audience,<br />
“You are doing the most important<br />
work on earth.”<br />
Well deserved accolades for Paul’s<br />
uncompromising dedication to life accumulated<br />
over the years.<br />
Of him it was said, “What<br />
Shakespeare is to poetry,<br />
what Mozart is to music,<br />
what Babe Ruth is to baseball,<br />
Father Paul Marx is<br />
to the pro-life movement.”<br />
He was named “Catholic<br />
of the Year” by Catholic<br />
Twin Circle and received<br />
the Cardinal John J.<br />
O’Connor Unambiguously<br />
Pro-Life Award and the<br />
Family Life International<br />
Lifetime Achievement<br />
Award.<br />
OBITUARIES<br />
Father Paul and his favorite people<br />
Remember our deceased<br />
loved ones:<br />
Barbara Jean (Theisen) Betts<br />
Alfred Bill Braun<br />
Archbishop Lawrence Burke, S.J.<br />
Anthony Del Greco<br />
Aloysius Fischer<br />
George Franta<br />
Dr. Ronald Gearman<br />
Katherine Vonnie Ibes<br />
Richard Jochman<br />
Joseph Moorse<br />
Angie Olberding<br />
Hilda Petermeier<br />
Leo Rahm<br />
Doris Rowe<br />
Joan Swenson<br />
Kiriji Takahashi<br />
Florian Winczewski<br />
James Worline<br />
May they rest in peace.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Archives<br />
It is fitting that Paul died March 20,<br />
the first day of spring when the earth<br />
begins its new journey of life. The<br />
Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated<br />
for him on March 26, 2010.<br />
May he rest in peace. +<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 27
<strong>BANNER</strong> BITS<br />
Drawings of Saints Benedict and Scholastica<br />
as twin, young adults<br />
by David Paul Lange, OSB<br />
It is fascinating to imagine Saints<br />
Benedict and Scholastica as twins.<br />
Western Christian monasticism<br />
owes more than we think of the intimate<br />
relationship between them.<br />
Surely they were influenced from the<br />
beginning by a heightened sense of<br />
connectedness, equality and balance.<br />
I portray the two as young adults,<br />
not already advanced in years, wisdom<br />
and monastic experience as<br />
they are so often depicted. They are<br />
somewhat conflicted and uncertain as<br />
to whether they are capable of what<br />
they are being called to, the way many<br />
of us experience monastic life at the<br />
outset.<br />
I wanted them to look like Italians—<br />
not as northern Europeans—with dark<br />
page 28 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Young Saint Benedict Young Saint Scholastica<br />
eyes and wild, unruly hair. So that<br />
one gender would not be privileged<br />
over the other, they are both the same<br />
height, their habits are similarly<br />
designed, both heads are uncovered,<br />
and both regard us with a steady gaze.<br />
There are obvious differences between<br />
the settings, and the two drawings<br />
deliberately depend on each<br />
other. Between the two portraits there<br />
is only one cross, one Rule, one<br />
library (indicative of a powerful<br />
intellect), one empty and undefined<br />
cell, one protective raven and one<br />
anachronistic symbol of the light of<br />
Christ. Neither drawing tells a<br />
complete story without the other.<br />
As for the 20th century light bulb in<br />
a 5th century setting, the best explana-<br />
David Paul Lange, OSB<br />
tion I can give is this: Christ did not<br />
belong only to their time, nor does<br />
he belong only to ours. God moves<br />
both in-and-outside our dimensions<br />
of time and space, and I needed a<br />
startling element to suggest this.<br />
Perhaps there should be more<br />
surrealism in religious art.<br />
Each print is a high quality, high<br />
resolution limited edition reproduction<br />
of an original 36” x 54” drawing.<br />
The prints come in four sizes,<br />
matted or matted and framed, and<br />
priced from $60 to $500. Prints are<br />
available from the <strong>Abbey</strong> Gift Shop<br />
or by emailing the artist directly at<br />
dplange@csbsju.edu. +<br />
Brother David Paul Lange, OSB, is<br />
assistant professor of art at Saint John’s<br />
University.
Monica Bokinskie<br />
Without going to the Vancouver<br />
Winter Olympics,<br />
Liturgical Press won two<br />
gold awards in the 2010 ADDY<br />
award competition for the Central<br />
Minnesota Advertising Federation.<br />
In the category of Interactive Media,<br />
the Press won a gold award for its The<br />
Saint John’s Bible website. The same<br />
website received one of three Judges<br />
Choice (gold) awards.<br />
Prior to the preparation of this<br />
website, there were three Collegeville<br />
websites promoting The Saint John’s<br />
Bible, namely, Liturgical Press for<br />
the marketing of the project, the Hill<br />
Museum & Manuscript Library for<br />
the background history of the project,<br />
and the Heritage edition for this elite<br />
product of the project. There was an<br />
obvious need to combine these three<br />
websites into one for a clearer, cleaner<br />
focus.<br />
Liturgical Press employees Kris<br />
Isaacson, web manager, and Connie<br />
Carlson, The Saint John’s Bible<br />
program manager, led the diverse team<br />
that included HMML, the Heritage<br />
edition, copywriter Susan Sink, and<br />
two design firms. Their goal was to<br />
enable the visitor to this one website<br />
to actually experience the text and the<br />
illuminations of the Bible. They were<br />
delighted that the judges expressed<br />
this result of their use<br />
of the website.<br />
Monica Bokinskie<br />
<strong>BANNER</strong> BITS<br />
Kris Isaacson, web manager (l.) and Connie Carlson,<br />
The Saint John’s Bible program manager, with their<br />
ADDY Awards<br />
Liturgical Press goes<br />
for the gold<br />
Readers are welcome to visit the<br />
website to experience The Saint<br />
John’s Bible at: www.saintjohnsbible.<br />
org. +<br />
Screenshots from<br />
The Saint John’s<br />
Bible website<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 29
Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
<strong>BANNER</strong> BITS<br />
Front row, l. to r.: Lewis Grobe, Michael-Leonard<br />
Hahn. Back row, l. to r. : Nickolas Kleespie,<br />
<strong>St</strong>ephen Warzecha<br />
Benedict wrote his Rule “for<br />
the strong kind of monks, the<br />
cenobites, who belong to a<br />
monastery where they serve under a<br />
rule and an abbot” (Rule, chapter 1).<br />
Yet he began his own monastic life<br />
as a hermit, living alone in a cave at<br />
Subiaco, Italy, for three years before<br />
he became the superior of a nearby<br />
monastery and began his commitment<br />
to community life.<br />
When he described the four kinds of<br />
monks in the first chapter of his Rule,<br />
Benedict revealed the high regard he<br />
had for hermits. Of them he wrote:<br />
“Hermits have come through the<br />
test of living in a monastery for<br />
a long time, and have passed<br />
beyond the first fervor of monastic<br />
life. Thanks to the help and<br />
guidance of many, . . . they have<br />
built up their strength and go from<br />
the battle line in the ranks of their<br />
brothers to the single combat of<br />
the desert. Self-reliant now,<br />
without the support of another,<br />
they are ready with God’s help to<br />
grapple single-handed with the<br />
vices of body and mind.”<br />
page 30 <strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010<br />
Novices explore the<br />
hermit’s life<br />
by Daniel Durken, OSB<br />
For five days in early March,<br />
the four Saint John’s <strong>Abbey</strong> novices<br />
experienced the hermit’s life at two<br />
nearby hermitage sites sponsored by<br />
the Franciscan Sisters of <strong>St</strong>. Francis<br />
Convent at Little Falls, Minnesota,<br />
and the lay Franciscans of the Pacem<br />
in Terris Hermitages near <strong>St</strong>. Francis,<br />
Minnesota.<br />
During a debriefing session the<br />
novices agreed that these few days<br />
of solitude and simplicity (no radio,<br />
TV or indoor toilet, one daily com-<br />
One of the Pacem in Terris hermitages<br />
“Benedict stole away secretly and<br />
fled to a lonely wilderness.”<br />
(Life and Miracles of <strong>St</strong>. Benedict, 1)<br />
mon meal, a minimum of furniture)<br />
were spiritually profitable. The daily<br />
schedule was not established by others<br />
but rather upon the individual novice’s<br />
initiative and fidelity to specific times<br />
for reflective reading, exercise, meals<br />
and rest. The setting quickly brings to<br />
the foreground issues that might otherwise<br />
take months to surface.<br />
The high point of each day was the<br />
evening meal taken with the hermitage<br />
staff and retreatants. Conversing<br />
with others helped these young men<br />
appreciate the community<br />
aspect of monastic life.<br />
Not feeling attracted to<br />
the life of the hermit as<br />
such, they nevertheless<br />
recognized the need to<br />
make space and time for<br />
the silent solitude of the<br />
hermit. A monthly “desert<br />
day” is a needed antidote<br />
for the rush-rush-rush<br />
syndrome of our time. +
Placid <strong>St</strong>uckenschneider, OSB<br />
Placid <strong>St</strong>uckenschneider, OSB<br />
Live out loud! Alleluia!<br />
by Robert Pierson, OSB<br />
Imagine this:<br />
I get a phone call from Regis—<br />
he says, “Do you want to be a millionaire?”<br />
They put me on a show and I win<br />
with two lifelines to spare.<br />
SPIRITUAL LIFE<br />
Now picture this:<br />
I act like nothing ever happened<br />
and bury all the money in a coffee can.<br />
Well, I’ve been given more than Regis ever gave away.<br />
I was a dead man who was called to come out of my grave.<br />
I think it’s time for makin’ some noise.<br />
CHORUS<br />
Wake the neighbors.<br />
Get the word out.<br />
Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout.<br />
This is life we’ve been given, made to be lived out.<br />
So, la, la, la, la, live out loud!<br />
These words from the <strong>St</strong>even Curtis Chapman and Geoffrey Paul Moore<br />
song, “Live Out Loud” challenge us to live what we believe about the Good<br />
News of Easter: “If we have been united with Christ through likeness to his<br />
death, so shall we be through a like resurrection . . . If we have died with Christ,<br />
we believe that we are also to live with him” (Romans 6:5, 8).<br />
What does it mean for us to live the Good News of the resurrection? Are our<br />
lives any different because we believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that<br />
we, too, will rise with him “on the last day”? One way we live out loud is by<br />
giving up our need to worry and fret about the details of day to day life. If God<br />
can raise us from the dead, God can take care of us in the meantime. We don’t<br />
need to be afraid. God is with us to provide what we need when we need it.<br />
If such is true for us individually, it is also true for us as the human family.<br />
We are in God’s care, and no matter how much we may foul things up, God’s<br />
Holy Spirit continues to work good out of evil, resurrection out of death.<br />
That doesn’t mean we have nothing to do. We still need to do our part,<br />
whatever that may be. But we do not need to worry about the outcome. As<br />
Julian of Norwich puts it, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all<br />
manner of things shall be well.” Our belief in the resurrection assures us that<br />
“the strife is o’er, the battle done.” Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! +<br />
Robert Pierson, OSB, is the director of the abbey’s spiritual life program and<br />
guest master.<br />
<strong>Abbey</strong> Banner Spring 2010 page 31
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