Well, we're now at the third step towards a vibrant Benedictine spirituality and prayer. There'll be one conference on prayer, and this afternoon I'll combine the last two, Work and Leisure. There's, you could say quite a bit, I guess, from both of those last two, but the theology is much richer in the first three steps, and it's easier to talk on the first three steps in some ways because of that. really what's happening here and i think this is important i mean it's very logical uh... if you want to go into logic part but it if you and i have a this deep desire to seek god in a intimacy with and have a deep intimacy with jesus in an i thou relationship uh... we know we need support in that that we can do it alone so we gather we go to a community that can support us, or we become part of a community that is a group of men who are I-thowers, or who are God-seekers, as St.

[01:02]

Benedict would say, if that community is going to continue on that course of seeking God and supporting one another in that seeking of God as a whole community, there's no other way to do that. except through prayer. There's just no other activity. It's impossible to sustain a community of God-seekers without prayer. It will not last. So, in order to sustain the God-centeredness of our life in community and our desire to seek God or to prefer nothing to Christ, we simply have to pray. And the two important elements of our daily prayer are the divine office and the Eucharist. And I think together, here's where a little bit of heresy probably comes in into my theology, but I think together both the divine office and the Eucharist form what I would call a Benedictine sacrament. Granted, the divine office is more of a sacramental, I suppose, and of course the Eucharist is the pinnacle of all the sacraments.

[02:11]

As Vatican II says in the Constitution of the Liturgy, it's the source and summit both the source we draw from it and the summit of our whole spiritual existence, our whole sacramental life. So the Eucharist is really the flagship, should be the flagship of our life. And that's where it's different than if you open up the Rule of Benedict, you won't find that there. And I think the reason for that, of course, is that there was an early development of theology going on at the time of Benedict, and right now we're in the 21st century, so there's quite a few centuries of theological development, or the development of doctrine, as Cardinal Newman would say. And so, the Eucharist has really become, or should be, for us as Benedictines, the center of our sacramental life. And then, the Divine Office, then, is like the spokes that come off of that.

[03:15]

And the reason why I say it's like the spokes is because when we talk about... get a piece of paper here... When we talk about the Eucharist, we're really talking, I'll just use this section here, it really should be the center of our life. But the divine office then is like this circle around the Eucharist and the moments of our prayer and the divine offers are like the spokes that come off of the Eucharist. In other words, the divine offers draws from the Eucharist and should go back to the Eucharist. The Eucharist should be the source of our spiritual life and it should be the summit to which we go to. So, the Eucharist or the Mass, I'll just say the Mass here because it's easier to write.

[04:19]

It's timeless. That's why you can celebrate the Eucharist at any time of the day. And it'll always be relevant because the Eucharist does not have a time frame around it at all. You know, we talk about the Last Supper, you know, whether it's been in the evening, but we all have early Masses, we have midnight Mass. Mass at noon. So one can celebrate the mass at any time because it's timeless. But one cannot celebrate the divine office at any time. You have to celebrate morning prayer in the morning. Or you should. I think Luther was the one who decided that he couldn't get it all in or he missed a couple of days and all of a sudden he'd spend two or three days reciting the office and trying to get it all in. So he had his own problems in many ways. But in the morning, we pray in the morning. In the vigils, we pray in the early morning hours. At noon, we pray noon prayer. No, so far, at three in the afternoon. Vespers is in the evening.

[05:22]

Compliment at night. You can't change that. Oh, you can, but it's wrong. So those moments of our divine office, really break into our day, and they should. And they should break into our day with the fruits of the Eucharist. So the two go together, and they're extremely important. And really, Jesus outlined that for us in his own life. He exemplified it in his own life. And as I mentioned to you, the old Baltimore Catechism definition of a sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace. that fits perfectly for us as Benedictines for the divine office in the Eucharist that these are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace and definitely we know the Eucharist was instituted by Christ but we should also know that prayer was instituted by Christ in a way that he showed us how to pray he taught us how to pray by his example because he prayed alone we know that he prayed with his apostles we know that he prayed in the synagogue

[06:35]

with the people, as we saw in today's reading, and he broke bread for us in the Eucharist. So Jesus set the example for us as Benedictines. And really, you talk about the charism of the Benedictines, I guess I would say that those five steps would mark the charism of the Benedictine. You'd have to put all those five steps into any definition of trying to tell people what's the charism of the Benedictine. But really, the whole reason why the Benedictines were founded was not a particular apostolic work or a particular need in the church, it was simply to live more deeply the life of the Christian, to live it more intensely. And so, rightly, our life should be centered around prayer. We eat, sleep, and drink prayer. So what has made the priority of prayer come alive for me, individually?

[07:39]

I'm just speaking about myself personally. And I really have to say it was those individual monks and nuns. whom I was observed during my life, who showed by their good zeal and their eagerness for the work of God, that the work of God was their number one was the number one priority for them. I guess that's a little bit redundant, was the priority for them. And despite their age, or the work they were involved in, or their physical handicaps, these people always made it to the work of God. Brother Vito, he was a rather old brother when I got to Blue Cloud. He came from Germany. He was a World War I prisoner of war. He was in World War I. He was a prisoner of war in Russia. An excellent cabinet maker. He used hand tools. He didn't have all this, these modern machinery that we have, that I have right now in my carpenter shop. But he just used plain old simple hand tool and could make beautiful, beautiful woodwork.

[08:42]

But that wasn't really the thing that impressed me the most in him. What impressed me the most in him was his his love for the divine office. He was extremely crippled up with arthritis, and I mean extremely so. He had to use a walker and walk really slow, just take baby steps with this walker. And he was the closest to the chapel because because the infirmary rooms were the closest to the chapel. But we gave him the closest of the infirmary rooms so he could get to the chapel. But it took him literally 10 to 15 minutes to get from his room to the chapel for prayer. And yet he was always the first one there. And I thought, now that is amazing. I hope I am able to do that if I'm in his condition when I'm old. But to take a person that long and that much pain, I'm sure he had a lot of pain. Because when he even got to the chapel, he could not sit down in the choir stalls. He had to sit kind of on a stool because his knees would not bend that much.

[09:45]

But he was always there and he was always first. talking about hastening to the work of God. He did it very slowly. He was the slowest of all of us, but he was hastening faster than all of us to get to the work of God. And that, to me, was just a mind-boggling example for me of this old brother who had been faithful to the divine office all those years, still trudging to the chapel to be there. and to support us by his presence. Another brother who was, he was a good example by his presence in the divine office because he was always there, but this was Brother Lawrence who since passed away, God rest his soul, but he really thought He really thought he was the Don Juan of the monastery, that all the women who come to the monastery were swooning over him. And he played right into that too, of course, and we all knew it.

[10:51]

But our chapel, is, I'm going to probably hang myself if I demonstrate this, but our chapel was set up, it's in a cross shape, but at the one end of the head of the cross sort of is the president's chair or the abbot's chair and you can come in behind that, we monks do, and come in for procession into the church for prayer. Well, Brother Lawrence was in a wheelchair and If there were no women in the church, he would just scoot through the sacristy and sit there on the side in the narthex and pray. But if there were women in the church, he would come in after all of us, after all we were in, and settle. He would come walking in with his wheelchair, right in front of all of them. and just parade up the middle of the aisle and go to his place, and all of us would quietly smile about that. But the funniest, it wasn't had to do with chapel, it had to do with our dining room, and we'd have the guests eat with us in the dining room, and if there was women in the dining room, of course, he would just,

[12:02]

wheelchair would just really tear out of there and head right in front of the tables where the women were sitting. And so we just expected that. But one of the little things he pulled and it scandalized, I guess it scandalized some of the visitors because they didn't know what was going on, but we all did. that every time he would come into the dining room for prayer, of course we all stood around for prayer, and there were women there, he would get these fainting spells. And he was sharp enough not to fall right over because he'd probably kill himself. He'd lean up against the wall. He'd start going like this. And then he would lean up against the wall. And then he would slide down the hall all the way to the floor. and sit there. And all of us monks would step over him and go to the meal. And all these people were scandalized. But he wanted to remember to come and help him get back up. So we figured, well, we let him do it. But they couldn't get over the fact, those monks are so cruel to this poor guy that they just kind of walk around him and go get their food.

[13:11]

But we pretty well knew what was happening. And that was pretty much like clockwork too. But anyway, he was, he persevered to the end despite the fact that he thought he was the Don Juan in the monastery. But he persevered and he was always faithful to prayer. But it's these kind of characters, I think, that make up the monastery, that make it an interesting place to live. But also it can be a very inspiring place to live. Sister Eulalia at Yankton, I was a chaplain at Yankton for four years for the sisters as well as the students in the college. Sister Eulalia, when she was just walking through the convent corridors during the day, she used two canes. She too was pretty well crippled. She'd use two canes and just walk really slow and laboriously through the corridors. But one time I was late for prayer over at the infirmary where she would go for prayer too in the morning.

[14:15]

And I just saw her whiz past me. I mean, her veil was flying. But those canes were just clicking away on the floor. And she was, because she was late for office. And I thought, boy, talking about hastening to the work of God. She really, that really impressed me. I mean, I'm sure she was in some pain, but again, sort of like Brother Vito, she could move a little faster, but she was just hastening to the work of God, and I was running right behind her trying to get there, because I was late myself. But just that example of the sisters, this particular sister, and Sister Frida, whom I talked to you about before, coming to confession, just talking to Jesus, right? face-to-face. She was always, of course, very present in the Eucharist, very much in front and center, and very much into the Eucharist, but at least you thought she was. And then there was one time during the summer and I was saying mass for the sisters, and there was a fly, a very pesky fly on the altar.

[15:24]

Well, she just kind of was quietly just walked up to the altar with her hands under the scapular and then whipped out this newspaper and went, bam! I just jumped because it made such a noise. I wasn't expecting it from her anyway, but she just whipped this, she had rolled up newspaper and just, she was going to get that fly and she did. She almost got me, but I died of a heart attack on the spot. And then she went back and sat down just very quietly and just went back to her meditation and prayer. My brother Felix, I mentioned him before in one of my previous conferences. He had a hard time with Vatican II and the liturgical changes there. He was very German and very set in his ways, but he was always present. again, always present at the divine office. He was a little apart from us, he sat away from us, and he recited his office in Latin.

[16:30]

I think, I guess he knew Latin, I imagine. And he would, and when it came time for the creed and the mass, he would always say the creed in Latin as well. So he was, doing his own pre-Vatican II liturgy with us. But he really didn't disturb us too much, except one time when we had a guitar mass and one of the brothers was playing the guitar and he couldn't stand it, so he went up and started grabbing it out of his hand. So he had this tug of war. right there in the liturgy. He didn't want that played, and he didn't know it was going to be played. You know, that was the first time it was kind of sprung on him, so that really, that did him in. He wanted the organ played, and so we had this tug-of-war going. Finally, whenever the guitar was being played, he just wouldn't show up. He would attend Mass privately with one of the priests, or go. He wouldn't make it to Mass, though. But I guess the point is that he was there. He wanted to be there.

[17:32]

He wanted to pray. He wanted to be with us. The funniest comment he had was when our Father Timothy was very Irish and could really lay it on thick with a lot of balorny. But he could also wax poetically, too, if he wanted to. And so he was the principal celebrant at our arts festival mass. So he thought he should get really kind of artsy and poetical for the opening of the mass. So he was standing there at the opening of the mass and he said something like, you know, the sun is breaking over the horizon to the east. The dew is on the grass and the birds are singing in the air. He was going on and on about the beauty of nature and just building up. And Brother Felix said, oh, bullshit, I go now. So he got up and left. But that's part of liturgy. That's part of prayer.

[18:35]

I mean, it is. It's just, that's who we are. We have to live with all of that. And Father Dan, who I mentioned once before too, he was in his 90s, but he was certainly hastened to the work of God. He was pretty much crippled up to could walk very, he walked laboriously because at 92, I mean, what do you expect? But he was faithfully there at prayer every day for all the office, no matter what. And when he was missing, I knew something was wrong and he had died. He just went back to his room. But the importance of prayer, the importance of people at prayer, I should say, why is it important that we be there? St. Basil talks about it in his, I don't know if he talks about it in his rule, but in some of his writings, but he talks about the body of Christ.

[19:43]

and that we're the body of Christ. You're the body of Christ here in this place. You're visibly, you represent visibly the body of Christ here in this monastery. And so when a member is missing from the body of Christ, well that weakens the body. It's not that you can't You know, I mean, there's any number of reasons why a person cannot be there, and that's why we should, that's the last thing we should do when a person is missing, is start judging. Why is that person here? They should be here, or whatever. It should just kind of make us a little bit sad that they're not here, and so we should pray for them, and that's why we do. You know, we pray for our absent brothers. But all the more reason why we should try to make it, if we can, to the divine office and to Eucharist, because then that strengthens the body of Christ visibly. And when we're absent, that somewhat weakens it. The place is missing there. So we should not give ourselves too many excuses to be away from it.

[20:46]

But granted, above all, charity. When we're away from the community, charity or important work that we just can't put off from So there are legitimate excuses for being absent, but when we're here, we should try to the best of our ability to make it to the office so that the whole body of Christ is present. And even in the rule, I mean, we know quite well in the rule how important the Opus Dei is for St. Benedict. I mean, in the rule itself. You have the prologue, which we talked about already, but then right away you have the types of monks and you have the chapter on the abbot and then the chapter on the council, calling the brethren to council. But right after those first three chapters, he goes into the four chapters on Benedictine spirituality, which is, of course, as we know,

[21:51]

on the instruments of good works, on silence, on obedience, and on humility, which set the stage for the rest of the rule. But the very first thing he goes into, as far as the work of the community goes, is 13 chapters on the divine office, and in great detail, as one of the books we're reading at the table says. He went into it with great detail because That was important to him and he wanted it to be important to all of his monks and to all who followed the rule. So 8 through 20 all deal with the divine office. And not only that, then he's got five other chapters that touch on the divine office outside of those 13 chapters. Chapter 43, on those who come late to the work of God. Chapter 45, those who make mistakes in the oratory. Chapter 47, the signal for the work of God.

[22:52]

It's so important that the abbot should do it, but if he can't, then he should entrust it to a responsible brother. Then chapter 50, stopping work in the fields to pray. And chapter 52, on the oratory. So you could see right that from the rule, just opening the rule and looking at it in a cursory way, that the divine office and prayer is the number one activity for the monk, the work of the monk. He should be a prayer. He should not necessarily be a carpenter or a cook, even though we're all of those things, or some of those things. But basically, when they see a monk, they should look at that person and say, there is a prayer. There is a man of God who prays. And when they come to us, they should be able to be reinforced. And they are. People come here, you know they're reinforced by your prayer. They might not tell you, but I think they do at times.

[23:52]

But that's probably the most important thing for them, the visitors that come here. It is for our visitors. That's what they talk about. They don't talk about the glorious conference that was given to them, although that can be good at times. or this particular monk or that particular monk, because those are all little personality cults that go on. But they really talk about praying with the monks and making them feel at home. And you do that well here by making sure that they have the books that they need, that they know where they are in the books and so forth. It's so important. St. Benjamin talks about that too. When you meet the guest, you're to bring them in to pray with you. He says that right off the bat. In fact, when you meet the guest, you pray with them right away as well, or bless them, or thank them. The other little small thing, I mentioned this once before in passing in one of the other conferences, but I personally think it's very important.

[24:55]

is in the Latin, is the word that Benedict uses is praeponere, which is made up of two words, prae, which is before, I guess, and to put, to place, place before. And that's a powerful word. I mean, think about it. And he only uses it twice. So you have to ask yourself, in what context? Well, you know, to place before, to put before, to set before, you have to do that intentionally. I mean, this one is, this thing is, this whatever it is you're dealing with is here. I'm going to put it here because I'm going to put it before everything else. And that's basically what that word means, to put it before anything else, to prefer or to place before. And he uses it twice, chapter 72 and chapter 43.

[26:00]

In 72, of course, is the good zeal where he says, to prefer nothing to the love of Christ, to preponderate, to put nothing before the love of Christ. And it simply means that, nothing. That's why those phrases are so powerful because of the words that are in it. To prefer nothing whatsoever, you can say it that way, to the love of Christ. And in chapter 43, it's to prefer nothing whatsoever to the work of God. So that's the only two times he uses it. He uses it in relationship to the love of Christ and to the work of God. And those two go together. If you really love Christ above all else, you're going to love His work above all else. You're going to love that particular work which puts you in direct contact with Christ. And prayer is the greatest means to put us in direct contact with Christ. So the first love commits us to the second love.

[27:04]

The love of Christ commits us to the second love, which is the love of the work of God. And in chapter 58, Benedict talks about the novice coming, and one of the criteria for the novice is to be eager for the work of God. eager for the work of God. And that's why that saying, once a novice, always a novice, that should make you feel good, novice Thomas. All these other guys here are novices with you. And we all are, it's true. I mean, we never outgrow the novitiate in many ways, or we shouldn't, that first fervor. But we should be always, always eager for the work of God. I know it's hard to do at times. Again, like that reading said, it's really hard in the morning when you're sleeping and want to go back to bed or have every good reason to stay in bed, you think. It's really hard then. And then we get to Vatican II and the changes in the liturgy.

[28:06]

It's interesting, the quote on the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy. At Vatican II, they lift a quote out of the Rule of Benedict when it comes to the divine office. Let them so assist at the divine office, or let us so assist at the divine office that our mind may be in harmony with our voice. So it's interesting that in Vatican II they tap into the Rule of Benedict, particularly in the area on the divine office. But it did, we know, Benedictine II caused quite a tidal wave, or I guess a spiritual tsunami, if you want to call it that, in the church and in the people's lives. And it's still going on, and we're getting a little backlash right now, hopefully not too much, but a sort of rigidity is setting in, I think, our rigor mortis into some of the approaches to the liturgy by some younger people. and some of the younger priests, I've noticed, at least in our diocese.

[29:12]

But it caused a tidal wave in the communities, too, like I mentioned to you. And a good example, as I mentioned, was Brother Felix and his attitude towards Vatican II, and some of the others who were very much in line with him, and others who were very much into Vatican II. But rightly so, it caused a lot of consternation or difficulties in the community because the liturgy is central to us as Benedictines. It's very sacred to us, and it should be. And so to touch on that and to change that, you're going to hit a lot of sensitive nerves, either for Vatican II or against it or whatever. And I got caught up in that myself, and I came back from Notre Dame, as I mentioned to you. These people don't appreciate Vatican II and the liturgical changes, and they don't appreciate all the knowledge that I have on liturgy.

[30:20]

But what happened in my own personal life is that I was becoming very critical of people who did not follow the new Vatican II rubrics, particularly for the Mass. And I could spend a good part of the Mass criticizing what these people were doing and the way they were celebrating the Eucharist, which was not right. I mean, I was not really present to that Eucharist. I was present to my own thinking, but not to the Eucharist. And really the goal of liturgy is union, that they all may be one. And if our liturgy If our monastic liturgy does not bring greater unity to our community, then we shouldn't be celebrating the liturgy because we're doing something terribly wrong. And that's where I said where the evil one can really work on us, where the liturgy becomes a source of division within our own hearts and within our own community.

[31:25]

because we've made the liturgy an end in itself, and the liturgy is not an end in itself. Union with God is the end in itself. That's why all prayer, all worship are means to that end. Or we can work to make the celebration a real celebration of unity in Christ. Put rubrics in a secondary place. They're important. Rubrics are important. I'm not saying they're not. As Father Hugh Taj from Conception would say, where two or three are gathered, there are rubrics. There's some truth in that. You have to have some kind of structure where two or three are gathered. But when I say put rubrics in a secondary place, what I mean by that is not sloppiness. You know, just do what you want to do. And not rigidity, where you just follow everything to the T.

[32:28]

It's somewhere in between, where there's kind of spontaneity there, but there's also good ardor. But above all, there should be reverence. There should be sacredness there. There should be awe there. When people come into our liturgies, whether it's the Divine Office or the Eucharist, they should be inspired. And not because we want to put on a show, but because our hearts are set on God. And when they come into the church, they should be lifted up to God. But also, I think there's where sometimes holiness and humor go together. As I mentioned to you about the guy who was the server who tried to cheer me up. I mean, he wanted to put a little humor into the liturgy because I had made it much too serious. And he's probably right. He's probably right. It happens in other instances, too, where I'm hearing confession. I'm sure a lot of the priests that are here have a lot of funny stories on confession, because it can be so serious for people.

[33:36]

They can get so nervous and scared and mixed up. Anyway, this little girl came into confession, and she started out Oh my God, I'm heartily sorry for having offended you. And so she got off into the act of contrition. I thought, oh boy, she's really going to get messed up because she's starting to tail end. And so I stopped her halfway through the act of contrition. Wrong thing to do. But I stopped her anyway. I stopped her and I said, that comes at the end. The beginning is, bless me, Father, I have sinned. And I heard this, oh darn it, now you got me all messed up. So I kind of just sat there and thought, well, okay, I better not go any further than that. And this is the true story, too. It happened before Vatican II, but it kind of shows you the humor that was going on even in the liturgy there. And I don't mean by putting this humor in that I want to make the sacred something just plain humorous, but sometimes the things that go on become more humorous because it is so sacred, or we're trying to keep it so sacred.

[34:43]

This one priest had a rather saccharine devotion to Christ in the tabernacle, where he would, when the kids would come for morning devotion in the church from the school, and he'd have exposition. He would have them all say, good morning, Jesus, you know, just like that. Or goodbye, Jesus, when he'd put them away. And so he had benediction one time in the evening. And in the old churches, how they had, when they alter, the tabernacle was the main tabernacle where it's facing the priest and he was, had his back to the people. But on the other side of the altar, there was always that smaller door that a priest could open who would take communion to the sick in case the mass was going on and you needed sick. So you could walk around the back of the altar and I'm sure some of you have seen those old altars where that tabernacle was right, there was a door right behind the main door. So he was putting the, the Blessed Sacrament away in the evening after benediction.

[35:44]

And just at that time, the assistant was on the other side taking out a host to take to the sick. And so the pastor put the host in and said, good night, Jesus. And the assistant said, good night, George. And he about jumped. Because you couldn't see him. There's curtains in there between him. But the importance of letting the holy break into the secular is important too. Because in our own monastic day, there's holy things that we do, you know, like the office and the Eucharist. And then there's more or less sacred things, not that they're really sacred, but, you know, the work that we do. It's not directly related to the liturgy, and it's not, we're not doing liturgy when we're when we're out throwing hay to the rams, or whether we're plowing up a field, or working the carpenter's shop, or cooking a meal.

[36:49]

But it should be tied into that in some way. But the neat thing about the daily office breaking into our day, and like when we get into a work and we're really into it, and all of a sudden the bell rings for noon. Oh, you've got to put this aside and go pray. Yes, you do. You have to put it aside and go pray. That's exactly what it's all about. The reason for that is that no matter how hard we try, we're all victimized by original sin. And there's always going to be some little pride or some, you know, little thing that's going to creep in that's somewhat sinful or selfish or self-centered into our work. We can't help that. We get involved in our work and it becomes our work. We get involved in what we're doing and it becomes our activity and our talents and our successes or our failures, whatever.

[37:54]

But we put ourselves into the work. It's just impossible not to. But what prayer does then is it says, stop, come to prayer. and go back to your source and come back to God. And so prayer is like, it distills all the selfishness and the sinfulness and the self-servingness of our work Our daily prayers distill that and make it pure and make it something beautiful. So we can say, oh my gosh, I'm getting too extended there. I'm getting too overextended there. I need to back off. But also, during the daily prayer hours, we bring our hurts and our sins, our brokenness, our successes, our joys to the Lord. And we should. So when we come to pray, we should come to pray. And we should lay our work at the feet of Jesus at the cross and leave Him there and not keep thinking about it.

[38:56]

Because that's the importance of statio. of having some kind of statio, at least in your own mind, before you come to prayer, of settling down, whether it's in your room or someplace else, but somehow make a transition from your work to your prayer by having some time just to recollect yourself. And that's why it's good when the bell rings for five minutes before. When the bell rings, as St. Benedict says, you should drop everything. Well, not a 200-pound I-beam. She'd probably lay that down quietly or softly. But he says, drop everything and run to the work of God. But again, to break off your work and come to prayer, we need that little stazio time, that little standing time, which is what it means, to remove ourselves from from what the work has pulled us into, and to bring us into the presence of Jesus and our brothers in prayer.

[40:01]

Because our mind, Our mind can be like a tree full of monkeys, really, buzzing with all the activity. And so we just need to come down to the bottom of that tree and sit there and let the monkeys keep playing in the tree, but ignoring them. Or like Saint Teresa says, la loca in mi casa, the crazy woman in my house, or in the kitchen, I think she did. But she says sometimes there's a crazy woman in my house, which means something is really bothering her or bothering us. Well, that's kind of like a crazy woman in the kitchen. So she says, she just takes her by the hand and leads her out the door and then shuts the door and comes back into the house. And that's what we should do with things that are really bothering us or preoccupying us. Take the crazy woman out of the house and shut the door and come back in to pray in quiet. I always thought it would be, you know, sort of like, okay, everybody out of the pool, clear the pool, clear our minds.

[41:06]

That's what we should do. So that our voices are in harmony with our mind. So, no, so that our minds are in harmony with our voices. because our voices are praying the Psalms. Our mind should be praying the Psalms too. I always thought it'd be a neat experiment if you could do it, but you can't. And I'd hate to do it all myself, because I'd probably be the most embarrassed of all. But to hook up a TV monitor to our brain, or to our imagination, and so everybody can see what's going on inside. It's above each of our heads, this monitor, and we know exactly what's going on. That would really shape us up quick, wouldn't it? We would really try our best to put our mind in harmony with our voices then. But we do know the power of prayer because other people tell us that. Kathleen Norris, shortly after I was made abbot, was visiting in my office. And my office is right outside the door of the chapel.

[42:08]

So she was talking and she says, People in the world, they think what you guys do over there is not real. It's you're escaping from the real world when you go into that chapel. She said, but the opposite is true. That is reality. The rest of the world is not real. And she's right. But here was a lay woman telling me that, that the real world is there in the chapel. Even though to the eyes of a worldly person it looks like escapism. Oh, you guys are running off to that chapel to pray. And all these problems in the world, all the poor and the sick and the famines and disaster. All the more reason why we should run off to the chapel to pray. So we can get our focus and get the energy that we do need to maybe address those issues. So the mark of a Benedictine community. It's a community of God-seekers, and those steps up to the vibrant Benedictine, a community of God-seekers who come together to pray at regular times.

[43:15]

The Benedictine community is made up of men who prefer nothing to the love of Christ, who prefer nothing to the work of God. Amen. That's the end of my talk. Just exactly the same way you do it. Those same words. I know. Well, I just got it from one of our oblates, too, that she was mad because we didn't put sisters in there, too. That she's an oblate and she has a right to be mentioned as well. It was with a list of all other stuff. But I didn't even bother to respond to it.

[44:18]

But our thinking for that is that, well, you know, this is a community basically of brothers. I mean, the sisters aren't there. I mean, the Benedict sisters are down the road. We're basically a community of brothers. And when our brothers are missing, we pray for our missing brothers. The Oblates are part of the community, but they're not the community. So, we don't put in sisters either. I think the sisters would want us to, but I'm not too sure they put brothers in either. I don't think the sisters at Erie do. I think they put in sisters and leave it go at that, and I think that's the way it should be. I don't have a problem with that. I mean, there's men communities, then there's women communities. And when the men are missing from the men's community, you should pray for the missing men. And when the sisters are missing from the sisters' community, you should pray for the missing sisters. And I hardly pray for the missing sisters when I'm there praying with them.

[45:20]

And I don't have a problem with that. Oh, you left me out. Well, there's something there, but I don't think that we're taking it off the wrong way. When we're there at prayer, everybody in church is, we're all saying one prayer, the guests and ourselves. It's just one community at prayer. And if there's any of it, they're probably at home, but they would like that as a community. There's some logic to it, I guess. I suppose. I would say more so in the Eucharist, particularly Sunday Eucharist, would be more so. But with our own particular divine office, and we gather as a community, that's really our prayer. And we are inviting them to join with us.

[46:22]

And we can pray for them, but in a sense, they're not missing. They're not supposed to be there in the first place. I mean, we're glad that they're there. I mean, I'm happy that they're there and I'm happy they're praying with us. But I mean, if all comes down to it, they should be home with their family if that's where they should be. I mean, I'm not saying that I mean, they're married people. They have family. They should be praying with their family. And when they pray as a family, they should pray for their missing, you know, children or their missing brothers. Climb towards a vibrant benediction spirituality. The second to last step is work. And I'm sure most of you have heard that story of John XXIII when he was showing a reporter around the Vatican. The reporter asked John XXIII, how many people work here? And he said, about half. A new employee came to work three times late, three times in a row.

[47:32]

On the fourth time, the boss read him the Riot Act. Look here, don't you know what time we start work around here? The worker replied, no sir, they're already working when I get here. Actually, one of them, One of the monks that newly come to the monastery, he was a convert, but he said, gee, I always thought that these words were a Spanish mystic, Manuel Labor. So we're going to talk a little bit about Labor. not necessarily Manuel, but work in general in the monastery in our Benedictine life. A lack of balance in Benedictine life can cause problems in the community. What we do or don't do in this area of work has ramifications that affect the community in a positive or negative way.

[48:37]

Well, for instance, our Father Francis, when he was at St. Mindren, they were setting up chairs for christmas and he was the head novice he was the head of the novices he was a senior novice and one of the novices happened and they were all frantically setting up chairs in the church there to get ready for the christmas midnight mass and there was one of the novices piously praying in front of the blessed sacrament so novice francis went over and He twisted his ear and he says, it's time to work. And he says, yes, but I'm praying. He says, pray some other time. We're working right now. And basically that's it. When it's time to work, we work. When it's time to pray, we pray. And as I get to the last step, when it's time to practice holy leisure and recreation, we do that as well. One of the brothers who was in charge of the farm uh... when i was elected abbott he ran the farm completely he uh... he uh... and i was in charge but he was the only one who really worked on the farm we some of us helped out every now and then but uh... he was very much of a workaholic basically uh...

[49:51]

but he did a good job working on the farm. He took care of the cattle. We had close to a thousand head of cattle, beef cattle, so that was quite a job to take care of that. But he was seldom at prayer, seldom at meals, and he really seemed only really happy when he could put on his overalls and head out to the farm and be with the cattle instead of the monks, I guess. I could understand that. But he really had no balance in his monastic life. And so as soon as I was elected abbot, he came in shortly after that and said he'd like to leave. And he said, it hasn't got anything to do with you. He said, I've been thinking about this for years. And I looked at him and I said, I think you should go. Because you're really not a happy monk here. You're not a happy person. And God doesn't want us to be miserable in life.

[50:53]

Life is too short. So I actually encouraged him to go, to leave. And he did. He was a good worker, a good farmer, and he made a good amount of money for the abbey, but basically the sad part about it is he missed the whole point of the monastic life, that work is just one piece of the puzzle, and it's not even that important a piece for us as monks. It is important, though. That's what I'm saying, because if you would pull out any of those steps, I think they're all important. If you pull out any of those steps, you're going to get tripped up at some point in your life. And actually, at Blue Cloud, we spent 18 years building our own monastery. All the monks pitched in. That was part of the thing that really attracted me, that here are these monks, all these brothers and priests, there was no distinction there. And they all pitched in and were working to build the monastery, and that went on for 18 years.

[51:56]

Part of the problem there was the fallout with some of the monks, like it happened to the brother who was head of the farm, was that some of the monks who were really engaged in the work of building the monastery, like the the overall construction manager, and the one who laid all the stone in the whole building, which was a lot of work. I mean, sometimes they put in long hours of work. But what happened with all that is that once the building was finished, they were finished. Their life had no more meaning than that, and so they left. They had foreman of the construction crew left, and the one who was the head mason, they both left after the building was over with. Because their life was so wrapped up in work. Another, this is just a reflection on what a Benedictine oble says about work and the Benedictine balance.

[53:08]

This is from Esther Duval in Seeking God. Yet Saint Benedict insisted that since body, mind, and spirit together make up the whole person, the daily pattern of life in the monastery should involve time for prayer, time for study, and time for manual labor. All three should command respect, and all three should equally become a way to God. The framework of the day was constituted by the Opus Dei, the saying of the offices, the worship of God. which was at the center of the monastic life. But since the intellect must be fed, and fed by learning and by study, there is room for Lectio Divina, that prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture and the Fathers. And since the work of the hands also has its place, there is manual labor in domestic tasks and in the running of the estate. This was to be the school of the Lord's service, a balanced life based on a recognition that each of these three elements demands attention if the totality of the human person is to be fully acknowledged.

[54:19]

Thus the idea of order and balance runs through the organization of the monastery so that everything may be done at the proper time. Holiness is not to become an excuse for model nor devotion and escape from work." So work is a very real part, as we all know, of life in a Benedictine monastery. It's a very real part of seeking God and of attaining that vibrant Benedictine spirituality. So for Benedict, body and soul form one entity. It's like the two sides of Jacob's ladder in chapter 7 on humility. The one side is the soul, the other side is the body, but they're both needed to climb to heaven. The two sides run parallel. Celtic spirituality expresses this unity of body and soul, earth and heaven connection very well. They often talk about, in Celtic spirituality, the thin places, and that's where the world of life here on this earth touches very close to life in heaven.

[55:33]

And those are called thin places, wherever a person experiences this closeness between their own earthly life and the heavenly life. And so for them, work was very much tied into this journey to heaven as well. And one of the Celtic prayers goes like this. Bless to me, O God, my soul and my body. Bless to me, O God, my belief and my condition. Bless to me, O God, my heart and my speech. And bless to me, O God, the handling of my hand. And another famous theologian and paleontologist and everything else, he was all combined in one, is Teilhard de Chardin. And this is a quote from one of his writings. God is not far away from us, altogether apart from the world we see, touch, hear, smell, and taste.

[56:36]

He is at the tip of my pen, my brush, my needle, of my heart, and of my thoughts. So just reflecting on a brief theology of the Rule of Benedict, what do we find there in the Rule of Benedict on work? Well, one is don't be idle. It's the enemy of the soul. Work at set times, but all is to be done in moderation. Keep the schedule and the schedule will keep you. And part of that is, even though we should keep the schedule, and the schedule will keep us, it's important that we don't get in a rut. People said, gave a definition of a rut. When you're caught in a rut, a rut is a grave with both ends kicked out. Another part of the theology of work in the rule is don't let your work or your talents go to your head. Drop all work at the sound of the bell for prayer.

[57:40]

And if you sell your work, don't let greed creep in. Sell it somewhat less than the world. And finally, if a person won't read or meditate on Sunday, let some work be given him so that he be not idle." Benedict was very insistent on that, that we be not idle. So, what I've written up here is just kind of a, well, relatively long examination of conscience on work for all of us just to think about. And so I'll just go through these points for examination for ourselves. What is my own attitude toward work in my monastery? Does my work take me further away from my community or draw me closer? Is my work contributing to the overall goals and vision of this community? Would I be willing to sacrifice my own preferences and take on any type of work for the sake of my community?

[58:45]

Do I see some work as beneath my dignity or talents? What would I do or what should I do if a job or work is too much for me? Here, chapter 68 of the rule is a good guide where if things are just too much for you, then you're to go humbly to the superior and talk about it. But then after you've humbly submitted everything and he still tells you to go ahead with it, then Benedict says, well, then trust in the grace of God and go ahead with it. Do I find myself getting jealous of others and their work and their talents? How well do I take criticism of my work Can I take any criticism at all of my work? Do I work too much at the expense of my physical and our spiritual health? Am I not working enough? Am I slacking off or just plain lazy? And what if I can no longer work or bring in a salary for the community?

[59:52]

Do I then feel worthless, useless, unproductive? So here we need to remind ourselves that we can still pray no matter how weak or tired or sick or old we may be. And for us as Benedictines, prayer is our primary and most important work. So there's nothing that can keep us from that primary work. We can always say a prayer no matter what condition we might be in. How do I handle and respect the tools of the monastery? one of the monks, and referring to another monk who didn't take very good care of the sacred vessels. He was kind of sloppy with chancel bowls and stuff, and he says he treats the sacred vessels of the monastery like the tools of the monastery. He turned it upside down. But it's important that we do treat the tools of the monastery like the sacred vessels.

[60:57]

And finally, do I try to keep a balance between the intellectual and manual work? And this is important. Some personalities are more inclined to intellectual work and to study. And other personalities are more inclined to manual labor. And that's good in a community. But if we're on either end of that, if we're inclined more to the intellectual or more inclined to the manual, either way, we should always work to try to bring some balance back into our personality. That if I'm too inclined intellectually, I need to try to get more involved in manual work. Or if I'm too involved in manual work, I need to do more intellectual work like reading or study and things like that. So work can be a mixture of a number of things. It can be rewarding, mesmerizing, frustrating, and all of that.

[62:04]

So it's all the more important for us to come back to our true center in our daily work. And that true center is prayer and meditation. I like to close with just a short quote from one of the Psalms. If the Lord does not build the house in vain is your early arising, you're going later to rest. You, Lord, give success to the work of our hands. You give success to the work of our hands. So that's the The fourth step on work in the Benedictine Monastery. Now I'll go to the final step on what I would call holy leisure, our time for recreation, for socializing with one another and so forth. I'd like to open up with a little quote from an article written by Sister Dawn Annette Mills from Spirit and Life, published by Klein.

[63:11]

She says this, the title of her article is Holy Play. Often the sin of adults is that we can't just enjoy something. We want to possess it, to have it, to grasp it. How much trouble has the human race gotten into trying to turn creation into something we can consume? We want to know what everything is good for, what it is worth. Play is meant to remind us that not everything has to have a purpose. Sometimes and some things are simply about play, about enjoyment and appreciation. God made some things just for the fun of it. and this is a story told about anthony well we just had to celebrate anthony the hermit well i don't know if this is anthony the hermit or not could have been another anthony anyway abba anthony uh... this is a story about abba anthony and the hunter uh... abba anthony and his brethren so this might have been a different anthony uh... were uh... enjoying themselves uh... one day they were probably playing uh...

[64:29]

volleyball down by the Nile or something like that, having great fun there. And this hunter came along and was deeply shocked that Anthony and his monks were having such a good time. And Anthony told the hunter, put an arrow in your bow. So he did. And he said, shoot it. And he did. And he says, well, now shoot another one. And he did. He said, well, shoot another one. And he did. And he kept saying that. And finally, the hunter said, if I bend my bow too much, it will break. And Anthony said, well, that's the same way with the monks. If they pray too much or work too much, they're going to break. So he tried to get across that element that there's time for relaxation, which is telling him to relax your bow so it don't break. So the monks need to relax as well. So if all we do is pray and work, we will break.

[65:33]

There has to be time for leisure, for relaxation, And that has to be an essential gradient, I think, in the steps towards a vibrant Benedictine spirituality. And monks are noted for hospitality. And part of hospitality is that you have a good time with the guest. That doesn't mean you have to party all the time, but that you're able to relax with, first of all, with your own monks, primarily, but you're able to relax with the guest as well and enjoy their company. And that's a good thing. It's a good thing. But proper leisure and festivity or recreation can only come out of a life well lived, a meaningful and purposeful life. And that has to be a life balanced by prayer, quiet and work.

[66:36]

As Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything under the sun. There is an appointed time for everything and a time for every affair under the heavens. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. And so, the Benedictine balance, there is a time to work and there is a time to play. There is a time to fast and there is a time to feast. A person who does not know how to relax, How to enjoy free time alone and with others is not a well-balanced person. If we always have to be doing something and we just can't sit there and enjoy quiet with ourselves or walking around or enjoy recreation with others, then we're not balanced. Teresa Avila, as you all know, was a very well-balanced person, had a lot of common sense.

[67:42]

And she said this, when it is time to fast, I fast. When it is time to enjoy pheasant, I enjoy pheasant. And she'd oftentimes, during recreation with the sisters, when they would get a little bit down or get a little bit moody, she'd pick up some castanets and entertain them with castanets. And St. Philip Neary, He was playing chess with one of his boys there in the school or the house that he ran. He was asked by another boy, he says, well, what would happen if you knew that within an hour you would die? He said, I'd just keep playing chess. There's a nice little book. It's an old book now and probably is out of print. It's written by Joseph Pieper. He's a philosopher and a theologian. It's called In Tune with the World, A Theory of Festivity.

[68:43]

And in the inside cover of this little book, it's a beautiful little book, well written, is this quote from St. John Chrysostom. Ubi caritas gaudet, ibi est festivitas. Where charity is enjoyed, or where charity rejoices, there is festivity. So where you have charity, there you should have festivity. This is a quote from that book. He says, Consider the distinction between the festive and the workaday. We do not mean only that a working day and a feast day are mutually exclusive. We also mean that work is an everyday occurrence. while a feast is something special, unusual, an interruption in the ordinary passage of time. A holiday every day, or even every other day, is an idea that cannot be realized in practice.

[69:51]

An idle rich class of do-nothings are hard put to even amuse themselves, let alone celebrate a festival. Actually, we're getting pretty close to that in the United States, if we're not there already. People work so hard to get the weekend off that they really can't even enjoy themselves on the weekend, because they even work at that. And then sometimes the ones that retire have so much money that they're kind of like the idle rich, and they really can't enjoy themselves that much. Joseph Pieper said, La dolce vita is a very unfestive affair. And the Baroque period, the courtly festivals sprang not from the joy of living, but from fear, from horror vacui, from fear of the vacuum, horror of the vacuum.

[71:00]

They sprang from boredom to The true prerequisite for festivity was lacking. They had no everyday life and no work, nothing but time on their hands and boredom. So Benedictine life, if it's lived correctly, If we keep the first four steps in order and in balance, then the fifth step simply has to flow naturally from those first four steps. Because it sort of is like the icing on the cake, so to speak. We need that time. We need time to relax. We need holy leisure. And festivity should be part and parcel of the Benedictine schedule. And it should be dictated by the liturgical year, I think. Because, like we try to do it at Blue Clown, we don't do it near as well as you do.

[72:05]

Your life is is, I think, more edifying than ours. Not that ours is this edifying, but you keep a fairly strict schedule for yourself, and yet, at the same time, you seem to be able to fit everything together quite well, with your fasting and festivities and so forth. But for us at Blue Cloud, at least for Advent, we fast somewhat as a community during the Advent season. We don't fast as much as we do during Lent, but we have given Advent some penitential character because it does have some penitential character just from the point of view of the colors of purple and the dropping of the Gloria. I tell people during Advent we wear penitential colors and we drop the Gloria so that should tell us we should we should enter into some penance for Advent but not totally like Advent because we still keep the Alleluia and so we don't

[73:19]

did the strict Lenten fast in Advent. But also then on Wednesdays and Fridays from Pentecost to Advent, as St. Benedict says, we try to make those a fast day for the whole community. not anything grandiose, but at least something, that Wednesdays and Fridays are monastic fast days, from Pentecost to Advent, or to Lent, really, except for the Christmas season, which is, of course, festive. But when it's time for a feast day, then we feast, Sundays and Solemnities, as well as feast days. But actually, during the ordinary time, on Thursday, we have a break, and that's We have a special liturgy on Thursday at five o'clock in the afternoon, which I have. And then after the liturgy, we have kind of just a get together with wine and beer and cheese and sit around and visit with each other.

[74:20]

And we don't have vigils that night. And so it's kind of a free evening and hopefully don't get vigils in some other time. But it's a special mass. And then we have a special meal with a happy hour right before that, just to sit around and visit with each other. And that's every Thursday except during Advent and Lent, of course. And that's worked out very well. People look forward to that. I think I would be run out of town if I said, we're going to cancel this, period. No more. No more Thursday get-togethers. They would not be happy with that. So Benedictines are able to celebrate festivals and festivities because they live a meaningful life of work and prayer. A life lived in Christian love and self-sacrificing love. I tell the monks to keep the schedule and the schedule will keep you.

[75:24]

And I think that's true. And by way of conclusion, I'd like to quote from an author by the name of Robert Goulley. It's entitled, To the Listener of God. And he's got some interesting quotes about leisure. Leisure is a form of wealth. All people need it, as all people need material goods. Those who are active need to come to a stop. The tension in which we live demands relaxation. But leisure can become a hard master, just like money. Concern for what is superfluous is often more obsessive than that for what is really necessary.

[76:30]

And then he gives an example. A desire for a cigarette can be more obsessive than food or drink. To make good use of wealth requires the soul of a poor man. I like that quote. To make good use of wealth requires the soul of a poor man. To make good use of leisure demands a heart without egoism. What ruins us physically and spiritually is to think of ourselves. The self is the most harassing of companions. Let us begin by eliminating our rancors, our antipathies, our regrets. Let us decide to love what is imposed on us. Already there will be such rest. Let us dare to look our childishness and our caprices in the face.

[77:34]

Let us dare call by their true name the needs which poison us more than the necessary work. Let us see how to put more charity in our lives. It is the secret of true peace and of liberty. Ubi caritas gaudet, ibi es festivitas. What did you spell his name? That last author? It must be French. G-U-E-L-L-U-Y. G-U-E-L-L-U-Y. Gouly? Goulet? I don't know. He wouldn't know how to pronounce it. How would you pronounce that last name? Huh? Is it? V-U-E is gay? Gayly? V-U-E-L-L-U-Y. V-U-E. I didn't even come close.

[78:39]

To the listener of God. It was an article that I picked up someplace. It was either an article or a book, but I found it was very good, some of the quotes that he was talking about. In the evenings we had recreation after vigils. Yeah. No, not every day. Sorry. On Fridays we don't. Friday's a quiet night. And then during Lent, Wednesdays and Fridays are quiet. And then also during Lent, I have forced recreation to get the people to all to come. I tell them that during Lent, your penance is to... Some of them skip out and either watch television or go to their room and... That's a contradiction, forced recreation. I said, I know it is, but you guys aren't going to come any other way.

[79:52]

So this is part of our Lenten penance that we come together. We come together on Thursday. and recreate together. And they seem to enjoy it. They come together and I said at least for a half hour to come together and recreate. Then they can go to their rooms and read or whatever. But at least come together on Thursdays during Advent for recreation. They're free sometimes. They can come together in a chat or do something. Right. Or they can go to the rooms that they want to. Some of them watch sports or something on television. Although, thank God that's getting less and less. It's good to see that. There's a couple of diehards that are going to watch sports every night no matter what. I mean, basketball or baseball or football. But the other television set for the other programs is not watched too often.

[80:52]

And they usually watch either the History Channel or PBS, which often times has some very good stuff on it. If you ever watch the commercials for sitcoms, it's enough to make you gag. At least makes me gag. It's terrible. I think there's a real a real desert. Now, TV land is a desert land as far as I'm concerned, for the most part, except for a few areas, programs that are good. PBS in particular has very good programs on it. Plus, there's not stupid commercials on it. You're welcome. So it's party time now then? Are you leaving early tomorrow to get back for happy hour?

[81:57]

Well, actually I will get back for happy hour. I'm not purposely leaving tomorrow so I get back for that, but I will get back in time for that. At two o'clock. It's called planning. What's that? It's called planning. It's called planning. What time is your five in the morning? At six o'clock. Yeah. Don't we just come in? We do this each and every hour. We do this one hour. At least one hour. You pray and you watch the prayer. We watch the prayer and we learn prayer more. You guys come four times a week? Four times a day. You have a vigil in the evening? At 7.30. We have a 1 week office and a 2 week office. We have a 4 week office. We split it in half. We split it in 12 times 6.

[82:58]

Otherwise, we have a single office. So you have basically like a two-week off, is that it? It's almost like a box of salt. You just can't get through the salt. But short, it's rare. It's the same thing with the robot. It's short. But it's a lot of energy. See, one thing that we don't always take into account is that Benedict didn't have daily Eucharist. And that's a big chunk, really. And it's an important chunk. And as I was saying, for the development of doctrine, I think that's what we grew into. We realized over the centuries how important the Eucharist was. And so it went from Sunday celebrations to daily ones for that reason, because it was so important.

[84:01]

You know, he developed a whole lectionary around the Daily Masses for the whole year. Pretty much so, yeah, pretty much so. That usually happens with priories that are founded in other countries. They'll come back to the Mother House and pick up the customs that are there, if it works, and it seems to work there. But they pretty much follow that. They have a heavier schedule though of pastor or work there in Guatemala. Like they've got a couple of parishes and they're right in the city. That makes a big difference too. Yeah, Coban. They have two big parishes and then they take care of the hospital and they take care of the Carmelite sisters. And then they have 70 aldeas, which is a lot to cover.

[85:11]

Aldeas, villages, mission stations. So some of those people don't get mass, but if they're lucky, once a year, maybe, or so, or twice. But sometimes those aldeas, those villages will come together, and you'll have a central mass, and then four or five villages, they'll walk. People walk for hours to get to the Eucharist, which is really something. And down there we have 15. Three gringos and the rest are natives. And how many remain? Five. Third? Yeah, it's always... I always wonder about this, a lot of monasteries and cities. I always wonder, it's kind of so different. Not as much land to wander around on.

[86:15]

Oh, yeah. They don't have much land. Well, right where they are, they don't. But they have a farm outside the city. It's about, I think it's 40 hectares. Whatever a hectare is. You know what a hectare is? Yeah. 100 acres, I think. That could be. It could be. Yeah. So that would be... No. Fort... Oh, yeah, that wouldn't be. That's not... Forty hectares. Isn't that about a hundred acres? You mean for the total? Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. Yeah, that's about... That could well be about a hundred acres, I would think. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They worked on themselves? Yeah, what we're doing now, we're planting, and we finally are going to try to make it productive. It wasn't doing too well, but they planted, they call it Pine Four, which means Pine Forest, and it's sponsored by the government, but to plant these pine trees, they grow really fast, and like within 10 years, you can start cutting them down for wood, for lumber,

[87:32]

And so they've planted, I don't know how many, thousands of those trees. And that's all given to them by the government, or they subsidize by the government. So it's really, that'll work out pretty well, I think. No, we are, well, we have a few, but one of our monks is in charge of that. of charge of that, and their garden. Then they have a big garden in the city. In the city, where the monastery is, it's almost a square block. And so a good part of it is in garden. And then we got a, what we call Centro San Benito, which is a center, a St. Benedict center, which is a huge A-frame building, about four stories high. But they bring in the people from the villages and train them in sanitation, in crop growing, agriculture, and in catechesis, they have catechism lessons as well, and health care, just basic health care.

[88:37]

So they're trained in all those areas at this center. And then these leaders go back out into the villages and and put that into practice and so it seemed to work really good. There are also delegates of the Word that come in. They're the ones that preach on Sunday. They'll come into the Qoban and get communion, consecrated hosts, take them back to the villages and then on Sunday have the liturgy of the Word for Sunday. And these delegates of the Word will then preach, or give some catechesis there, and then they'll have a communion service. So at least it's something that they get. They're not left bereft on Sundays, which is kind of nice. No, we don't. We lease out the land now. It's leased out. The only thing we really do is have a big garden. Investments in retreats, yeah.

[89:43]

And then we have an Indian center there that we run. It's an Indian cultural center. One of the priests runs that. But he's since had a minor stroke, so I don't know what we're going to do with that. But that was kind of like a museum and a research center where Indian people could come and study their own heritages and stuff. Because we're still connected to the Native Americans in that way. And we have quite a few artifacts, Indian artifacts, right there at the Abbey. And so we're making a museum right now, converting one of the areas of the monastery into a museum. You're close to Elizabeth East Park? We're close to one, yeah, but we didn't work on that one. It's Sisseton Reservation. But the reservations we worked on were, there were two in North Dakota and there were two in South Dakota, but the closest one was about 150 miles away, or 200 miles away. We purposely located centrally to all four, but not on any one of them, because that would have not worked.

[90:45]

And so monks could travel back and forth into the monastery easily, more easily. I heard a story about Devil's Lake. These nuns, the curse ones, came from Montreal. The Grey Nuns. The Grey Nuns. So anyway, they came out, and they landed in this one town. And nobody would take the stagecoach to where they were going because it was so dangerous. So the Grey Nuns had to go back to Montreal, but they came back a few years later. Determined. Yeah, they were a blessing for us there in Devil's Lake or Fort Totten Reservation. Oh yeah? Too poor to lease? Mm-hmm. Yes, he was saying to you, your land is pretty... Yeah.

[91:52]

Right, yeah. Yeah, our land is not the best. Some of it, some of it's okay. But a lot of it's just rock. We're at the end of a glacier that dumped all this rock on our land. I spent my Navishad, like you were saying, chopping rocks. Felt like I was at Alcatraz. Not really. It wasn't that bad. But picking rocks, it was hard work. They keep picking them every spring because they keep coming up. You think, golly, when is it going to stop? You didn't see how the indigenous coming in from the airport and along. We're on top of these. It looks like cliffs, like they're sliced. They're wooded. But when I was a kid, I remember driving in New York City or something. I thought, isn't that a wonderful place that I ended up here? They're pretty steep, pretty drop-off, yeah. I saw the place where they take off for gliding. Oh yeah, yeah, kind of a shale. Yeah, that's pretty.

[92:54]

India is called Sing Sing. Sing Sing? Because they're like this. There's a creek that comes right up. It's a creek that runs into the river. That's where the cliffs are. And they name the creek Sing Sing because it's one of those Anabata Page words. Because it made a sound? Sing Sing. Huh. Interesting. Like we're going to rip your garage top off. Okay, let's stop talking. We can talk while we're recording. Yeah, I can't. Why don't we say grace? Grace? Oh, okay. Bless us, O Lord. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I believe in Christ, our Lord. Amen. Have a chance, my son.

[94:01]

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