blue cloud abbey

Vol. 20 No. 2                                                   -- Marvin SD 57251--                                                              SUMMER 2009

              THE ABBOT’S RECEPTION DAY

    February 18, 2009 was a pleasant day in the midst of a winter that was exceptionally severe. The public reception of our newly elected Abbot Denis Quinkert was celebrated with priests of the diocese, sisters from the various orders with whom our community has worked, parishioners from the places where Abbot Denis was stationed, and friends and associates of one kind or another. They were all able to arrive here and leave after lunch without any worry about road conditions or another impending blizzard. The Lord blessed the day. Bishop Paul Swain of Sioux Falls, shown here holding the paten, preached on the occasion. He and Abbot Denis are what were at one time called “delayed vocations to the priesthood.” Bishop Swain had been a lawyer and Abbot Denis a brother for many years. They both attended Pope John XXIII Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts.

   We chose to call the event a reception because Abbot Denis had already been the recipient of the blessing for an abbot in 1986 when he became our third abbot. Now he is our fifth abbot. Recently his portrait has been hung alongside those of our previous abbots. His older portrait is still present and it is noticeable that he has aged since then. Abbots will probably agree that the aging process becomes more pronounced after a monk has been elected to that office. St. Benedict had words regarding an abbot’s role in the community. “He must know what a difficult and demanding burden he has undertaken: directing souls and serving a variety of temperaments, coaxing, reproving and encouraging them as appropriate.”

    Sister Joann Quinkert, a member of the Sisters of Providence at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, was able to attend her brother’s reception. Ginny Cheek, an oblate of our community from Sioux Falls by way of Honolulu, honored Abbot Denis with a lei made by herself.

Another break in the wicked winter on February 10, allowed us to accept the invitation from the Benedictine Sisters of Watertown to sing Second Vespers of St. Scholastica with them and to stay for dinner. When Benedict last dined with his sister, Scholastica prayed up a rainfall so heavy that he had to grudgingly stay the night rather than return to his own monastery.  We were able to return to ours right on time. One year, however, on the way to the annual celebration we found ourselves in a snow storm and turned back. St. Scholastica got us safely home.

Two blizzards occurred here in April. Other parts of the state had a third. Although we found it rather disheartening to still be removing snow in April, we

can be grateful for not having the kind of flooding that occurred in other areas of Dakota. A good part of our snow had disappeared by the time of the Easter vigil and it was warm enough to go outdoors for the blessing of the fire.

   The annual church musicians’ retreat was held in January. This was the seventh year it has been held at the abbey. The musicians representing various denominations arrive on a Thursday and begin a series of rehearsals, discussion sessions, and workshops. They also join us in praying the Divine Office. By Sunday afternoon, the musicians are ready to perform a program of sacred music, vocal and instrumental. Those attending are encouraged to sing along at certain parts. So, it is more than a concert. It is an ecumenical worship service. This year the theme was “Come to the Water.”  Next year it will be “How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place.”

   The two musicians who make it all happen are: Kenneth DeJong, Music Director and Principal Organist at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Bellevue, Washington and Paul Klemme, Organist Choir Master at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Salem, Oregon.

   Another musical event occurred a month later when the Singing Boys of Sioux Falls stopped here on their way to a concert elsewhere. They rehearsed a couple numbers in our church and for our benefit.

FATHER BERNARDINE’S GOLDEN JUBILE OF PROFESSION

   Father Bernardine Ness celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his monastic profession in April. He was home from Resurrection Priory in Guatemala to renew his vows in the presence of Abbot Denis and the community.

   Four other clerical novices were invested with him on August 14, 1958 along with two brother novices. This was the first time that both clerical and non-clerical novices were together in one novitiate with a single novice master. There were three of us who were brother candidates and another person was sharing quarters with us on the top floor where we were kept separated from the rest of the community. He was somewhat of an anomaly. Having professed vows as a cleric (priesthood student), he now wanted to transfer to the brothers and was required to make another novitiate. This was also the first time that separation was enforced for newcomers to the monastery. We were allowed to recreate with the professed monks only on Sundays, holy days, and national holidays (those that were observed by the monastery). We prayed the Divine Office with the rest of the community every day but separately—the brothers in English in our own oratory and the priests and clerics in Latin in the main church. We all came together for daily Mass in Latin.

   Of the eleven of us who were a little community of our own in those days, only four of us are still in the community. One is in Central America and another is at a nursing home in Milbank. And two of us are here.

    In the late 1960s there were so few novices and candidates that they were no longer kept separate from the rest of the community during initial training. And when two of them refused to stop smoking cigarettes, the ban on the use of tobacco by candidates and novices was lifted. Nowadays there are even fewer candidates and novices and hardly anyone in the monastery smokes.

    Readers of this bulletin know that besides being engaged in pastoral work, Father Bernardine has been involved in various projects to improve the quality of life among the people of Guatemala. Currently, with financial assistance from Rotary Clubs and other benefactors from north of the border, he is providing water tanks and filters for families in the mountainous villages and is seeing to the construction of schools where the children are provided nutritious meal once a day. 

FATHER BOB IS HERE

   Father Robert Conroy, M.C. is spending a sabbatical with us. He belongs to the Missionaries of Charity, the male branch of the congregation founded by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. He had recently finished his term as superior and came to us from Tijuana at the beginning of Advent. He was once stationed in Guatemala where he got to know our community at Resurrection Priory.

   Father Bob has been helping with household chores, and assisting in local parishes as well as offering the Spanish Mass here twice a month.

THE GOTHS ARE AT THE DOOR

      Zalla, an agent of Totila, the King of the Goths, was out collecting revenue for his ruler. Totila was mean to everyone, but he had the reputation for being being especially nasty to the clergy and monks whose lives he claimed along with their properties. Zalla was no better than his master when it came to cruelty. On this particular day he was harassing a farmer for money on behalf of Totila. In order to get Zalla off his back, which was being beaten to pulp, the farmer lied that he had given all of his money to Abbot Benedict. Zalla tied the farmer’s hands and made him lead the way to Monte Cassino.

   They arrived there and found Benedict at the entrance reading. To quote from his Rule for monks:

“The brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading.” People telephone us or come here in the middle of the day and find us reading too. Perhaps some of them are annoyed by this, but not as much as Zalla was. He shouted at Benedict to get up and go after the money. Benedict looked at the farmer’s bound hands and the rope fell from them.

   Zalla caved in. He collapsed at Benedict’s feet, begging forgiveness. Benedict invited him and the farmer to come inside the monastery for some lunch and then he urged Zalla to change his ways. The farmer went back to his farm with his assets intact.

   St. Benedict is the Patron of All Europe because of the part his followers performed in the Christianization of the Continent. He is the patron of spelunkers, cave explorers, because he lived in a cave himself for three years. He is the saint who is invoked against poisoning, having been spared from it himself twice. He might also be the intercessor for farmers facing foreclosure. At least Benedict’s biographer gives us this one example of the saint having saved a man’s farm.

   St. Benedict was a forthright man. There was nothing deceptive about him nor could he be easily deceived. Totila was rampaging in the neighborhood of Monte Cassino and decided to call on the monastery’s abbot. He hatched a plan for playing a trick on Benedict.

   A messenger was sent ahead to announce the approach of Totila. Riggo, the king’s sword bearer, was disguised as the king and with three men from Totila’s bodyguard, he rode into Monte Cassino.

   When Benedict recognized Riggo as an imposter, he told him to take off the king’s clothes and put back on his own. The sword bearer and his companions hurried back to Totila and told him that

Benedict hadn’t fallen for the ruse.

   In the Rule, St. Benedict warns his monks about “the delusions of the devil” in the reception of guests. Not everyone who comes to the monastery is a pious pilgrim. Beware of frauds, pretenders. Although all guests are welcome at the monastery and are to be received as Christ himself, “especially “poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received,” not everyone who comes to a monastery has an honest purpose. We were recently made aware of our having been victims of a fraud perpetrated by a supposedly down and out couple from Africa.

   King Totila wanted to play a trick on the Abbot of Monte Cassino, but St. Benedict would have none of his foolishness. Kings should be kings and sword bearers should be sword bearers. Neither should have tried deceiving a man like Benedict. “Rid your

hearts of all deceit,” he instructs his monks in the Rule.

   King Totila arrived at the monastery mortified. He

prostrated before Benedict who rebuked him for the misery he had been causing. Then the Abbot of Monte Cassino blessed the King of the Goths and told him to go in peace.

Brother Benet Tvedten, OSB