This is the account of my visit to St. Bernard's Abbey, in Cullman, Alabama.
To give you some background:
- St. Bernard's is of the Order of St. Benedict, which means they're Benedictine monks.
- An abbey is a monastery ruled by an abbot.
- I drove, M.J.G. and M.P.H. rode with me.
- Aaron and Garret took Garret's truck, Aaron is actually the only Catholic in our group.
Entry 1: Friday, March 20, 2009 - 10:17 PM
We arrived today around 4:30. We took our things to our rooms (properly called cells, which is what the monks here live in) and got oriented, which meant meeting Brother Benedict Dyar, our weekend's event coordinator. After being briefly showed around, we headed to the Abbey Church for the Vespers office and Friday Mass, which began at five.
After Mass and Vespers, we headed to supper. We ate fish, of course, and in silence. At the monastery, they always maintain an attitude of silence, eating supper in silence, and having complete silence from ten at night until after breakfast - except for during Matins and Lauds, the predawn and sunrise prayers (at 6 every morning). (Dinner was really good.)
From there we returned to the Abbey Church. Compline is the final prayer of the day, after which are a couple of hours of free-time before the "grand silence," at ten. During the free-time we had our first conference.
I found this conference extremely enlightening! The monks here ave a very good handle - better than most protestants - on filling and forming, redeeming the world, through work.Not only do they get the theology right: they nail the practicality! They say it should be based on an individual's giftings and calling - something I believe very strongly.
They not only have the proper theology of work, and the biblical practicality of work: They believe prayer to be preeminent to this process. Prayers - both talking and listening is paramount and central to Benedictine work and life. They practice it all - prayer, and work. And without being work-a-holics.
Each monk brings his own skills and giftings to the monastery, and they are incorporated into the life of the body - and into the work.
So far, the only things I've disagreed with are (a) prayer to Mary, which got old, though was far less than I had anticipated; (b) the prayer to St. Benedict and the other saints - but it is the anniversary and celebration of St. Benedict's death - and again, it was less than expected; and (c) the slight escapist nature of monastic life, though from the sound of things, that isn't really the case. Oh, and (d) the celibacy is a bit ridiculous.
I'm tired and it's nearly eleven - but I'll write about Benedictine poverty later.
Entry 1.b: Saturday, March 21, 2009 - 5:17 AM
On Monastic Poverty: Monks here own nothing; nothing in their own name, that is. They aren't impoverished, in the sense of lifestyle - they have nice clothes and eat good foot - but to the government they're homeless, and broke.
They live well, but communally, with most of their resources dedicated to mission and service - and all of their resources dedicated to the work of the Lord.
Entry 2: Saturday, March 21, 2009 - 7:10 AM
A prayer from the Hail Mary sheet in the Choir:
"Let us pray. Pour forth, we beseech You, O Lord, Your grace into our hearts, that as we have known the incarnation of Christ, Your Son, by the message of an angel, so by His passion and cross we may be brought to the glory of His resurrection.
Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen."
[A Note: The next two entries, numbers 3 and 4, are both just my notes from their respective conferences, not my thoughts on things. The goal of these is to let you experience things as I did, and the fifth and final entry is my commentary on the entire experience, rather than thoughts on these two. This is just how I decided to do this part.]
Entry 3: Saturday, March 21, 2009 - 8:15 AMThrough the same Christ our Lord. Amen."
[A Note: The next two entries, numbers 3 and 4, are both just my notes from their respective conferences, not my thoughts on things. The goal of these is to let you experience things as I did, and the fifth and final entry is my commentary on the entire experience, rather than thoughts on these two. This is just how I decided to do this part.]
Monastic Liturgy Conference:
"choir" means the place in the church, and means prayer since that's where they pray.
Liturgy is designed to frame your day around prayer.
monastic daily life follows the natural life of the Sunrise and Sunset - the hinge hours of the birth and death of the day.
The Principal Hours of the day:
- Sunrise - Lauds, meaning praise.
- Sunset - Vespers, meaning evening.
- Midday - Sext, meaning sixth (the sixth hour of the Roman day is noon).
- Night - Compline, meaning completion.
- Pre-dawn - Matins, the vigil, meaning vigilant anticipation of the Lord's coming.
Ora et Labora = Pray and Work. they see them as together, not opposed, but both as all of life.
"Use the tools with which you work as the sacred vessels of the alter." - St. Benedict
Ut In Omnibus Glorificetur Deus = That in all things, God be glorified. (U.I.O.G.D.)
Pax - The peace of a life of Ora et Labora and U.I.O.G.D.
Mass can be held in any of the hours, though the tradition required it to be held in the morning. Here at St. Bernard's they usually have Mass just before Vespers.
Prayer in Catholicism: Brother Monahan once said that Catholics prefer an athletic spirituality! "We pray, not only with our minds, but with our bodies."
"We face each other because we received salvation through a man, we live in community (plus it's practical)."
The orientation to the alter is to refocus and remind. [They occasionally face the alter for a line or two of liturgy, rather than across the choir as usual. The alter is where the sacred elements are kept.]
Singing is more physical and requires more sacrifice; it also shows devotion and belovedness, because singing shows love. i.e. Happy Birthday, National Anthem.
"Qui bene cantat, bi orat." - St. Augustine
"He who sings well, prays double."
To sing well, meaning from the heart, not a matter of expertise.
"Cantare amantis est." - St. Augustine
"To sing is for lovers."
Entry 4: Saturday, March 21, 2009, 1 PM - Brother Jacob O.S.B., who took his final and solemn vows that morning, not two hours before this conference.
Benedictine Rule Conference:
- Part One: Prologue; summing up. The rest is a fleshing out of the prologue.
LISTEN carefully, my child, to your master's precepts, and incline the ear of your heart (Prov. 4:20). Receive willingly and carry out effectively your loving father's advice, that by the labor of obedience you may return to Him from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.Idea of "rule," comes from the Greek "κυναν" ("kunan") meaning measure or law. Rule was written in the sixth century.
"To you, therefore, my words are now addressed, whoever you may be, who are renouncing your own will to do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King, and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.
"And first of all, whatever good work you begin to do, beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it, that He who has now deigned to count us among His children may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds. For we must always so serve Him with the good things He has given us, that He will never as an angry Father disinherit His children, nor ever as a dread Lord, provoked by our evil actions, deliver us to everlasting punishment as wicked servants who would not follow Him to glory."]
The Rule may be contextualized on small issues, but the essence of the Rule is relationship with God.
Synabite - monks that live together in community.
"Holiness comes from God - God makes us holy. Being a monk doesn't make us any holier, but it gives us an opportunity to become holy." - Brother Jacob [who gave this conference, and took his solemn vows that morning].
In the world, life is about identifying and resolving inner conflict. Monastic life is about balancing that conflict.
The Rule is not like the rule of law; It's not that legalistic. the flexibility allows the Rule to be personalized.
Vatican II called monks to return to the spirit of the Rule of their fathers.
The Rule is a guide.
The Abbot is subject to the Rule, and the Rule admonishes the Abbot.
The Benedictine Rule advocates and propagates a life of interdependence.
Entry 5: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Summary and Conclusion:
Having had a few days to think about my experience at St. Bernard's, down in Cullman, Alabama, I wanted to write a summary of my experience of Catholic doctrine while I was there [referring to the above notes], and also why I'm not Catholic, even though I enjoyed it.
We ended up leaving the retreat early, because being really tired and uber serious, plus having to be quiet [a lot of the time, but nowhere near all of it], meant we were on the verge of cracking up a good bit of Saturday, plus M.J.G. began to feel rather ill.
I really enjoyed the trip overall, I would recommend it to anyone curious and able, and I'll probably go back.
But as for why I'd never join the monastery, or any other, and why I'd never be Catholic, let's take a look:
- Celibacy; I don't see it as a biblical requirement for clergy, and I couldn't do it. Plus, I think Paul's words encouraging celibacy were spoken to a time when that was more effective in ministry, which is no longer the case - indeed, one might argue the opposite is true.
- Perpetual virginity of Mary; There's just no biblical support for that, and why should it matter?
- Praying to saints. Okay, I know they only ask the saints and Mary to pray for them, but talking to dead people is weird, and to my knowledge, is without biblical support.
- Episcopal form of Government. As a Presbyterian, I believe groups of elders or overseers should rule, at every level, rather than one Abbot, one Priest, one Bishop, one Archbishop, and one Pope.
- Though this only applies to the monastic life, Withdrawal from Culture and the World. The first year [Novitiate], a monk cannot leave the monastery, their second through fourth years [Juniorate] they can leave for a total of one week per year, and after their solemn vows, four years in, they can only leave for two weeks per year.
Fini.
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