As most friends of Blue Cloud probably know, Benedictine monks take a vow of stability when they join an Abbey. This means that a monk joins a particular Abbey, which is independent of all other Abbeys. Of all the many religious orders in the Church, only the monastic orders such as Benedictines or Cistercians add this vow to the traditional vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity. As such, stability is a unique charism of monks, and therefore part of the witness they give to the world.

It may seem unusual for me in particular to be writing about stability, because during this last year I switched my membership from another Abbey to Blue Cloud! Was this a violation of the vow of stability? On the contrary, the process of switching from one monastery to another provided an excellent chance to experience what this vow is really about, and why it is all the more important in a society like late 20^th century America.

Think of a monk transferring his stability as something like transplanting a tree: we all know that a growing tree is a most stable thing, but there may be situations where even a large tree may be transplanted to a new place. Someone would go to the trouble and expense of moving a tree only for a serious reason. In the same way, Church laws allow a monk to change monasteries for various reasons, if they are important enough. Just as a tree would be dug up, moved and re-planted, a monk formally changes his membership from one Abbey to another, and switches his obedience from one Abbot to another. There is no question that the monk must belong to a particular Abbey, just as a tree must be planted in soil. There are no free-roving monks! And just as transplanting a tree is a rare thing, a monk changing Abbeys is also very much an exceptional thing.

Once it became clear to me that God was calling me to a different style of community, I started the process of switching abbeys. Among other things, this process required a trial period of one year spent at Blue Cloud, before I could formally switch membership.

To continue the analogy with nature, I found myself transplanted into Blue Cloud Abbey as into the midst of a well-established garden or grove of trees. As many of you know, Blue Cloud has seen plenty of changes over the years, both in the community itself and in the work it does. I have heard many interesting stories about the years when they ran Indian mission schools, and this legacy lives on in the present work of the American Indian Culture Research Center. The AICRC is probably the biggest visual attraction for the tour groups that come through. It’s not unusual to see groups of boy or girl scouts filling up the whole AICRC room, listening to stories Fr. Stan tells. I’ve come to see that the monks of Blue Cloud value their history highly, as monks should.

It is a custom in most Abbeys to read a brief life history of a departed fellow monk, usually as they gather for dinner on the anniversary of the monk’s death. In this past year I have heard much about departed monks I will never get to meet (at least not on earth!), monks who built this community with their labor and their faith. I feel grateful toward them as I see the various blessings they have brought to Blue Cloud through their work in the past. You can see in this how monastic stability builds an Abbey into a sort of spiritual family, a community of brothers in Christ. This suggests a special contribution that monks can make to the modern world.

America today is in the midst of constant, almost chaotic change. Something like one family in five relocates each year. Suburbs grow and sprawl outward while inner cities are abandoned. Even in South Dakota, the larger towns are growing while smaller towns and the countryside lose people. Some people remember growing up in neighborhoods or small towns where everyone knew their neighbors, and perhaps they feel something missing in the constant human flux of today.

Maybe what we miss today is a sense of community, that feeling of belonging to a larger group. People in true communities know their neighbors, and care about them. How different this is from the alienation so many feel today, living among strangers or near-strangers! In such a society, Benedictine stability serves as a reminder of just how important communities are. Even more, Benedictine communities can serve as models of how people can live together, with Christian principles as their basic rules of life. A society that forgets these basic rules may find it much harder to build and sustain any kind of community.

Monastic communities can also serve as a focal point, to involve both laity and monks in an extended community. And this is where you, our readers, are directly involved. We like to think of you all as members, in some sense, of a broader Blue Cloud community. Hopefully, you also feel a bond with us! As I move into my new work as Director of Blue Cloud Ministries, I hope to strengthen the bond between us even more. I hope that those of you who travel will someday be able to visit the Abbey, if you haven’t already. Some things about monastic life are best understood by seeing them firsthand, because some parts of our life are hard to capture in words.

The American Indian Culture Research Center is an extension of Blue Cloud Abbey's service to Plains Indian people. Benedictine ministry on reservations began in 1876, when Abbot Martin Marty came to the Standing Rock Reservation in the turbulent days after the battle of the Little Big Horn, Custer's defeat.

Benedictine monks everywhere have, from the very beginning of their missionary service, always accented education. Sitting Bull visited our school at Fort Yates, Standing Rock. He spoke to the "takojapi" the children, "MITAUKUYEPI, you are my relatives, because your fathers and mothers are Lakota, and I am Lakota. I welcome the Black Robes and the Holy Women who are teaching you. I have been far to the East. I have seen many white faces. They will be coming here. White men have a very strong and peculiar spirit. They put their spirit onto paper, and to whoever sees the paper their spirit always says the same thing. My children, listen to your teachers. We older people need you. You will learn all about the white man's spirit and tell us how to handle it.

From the elementary and secondary classrooms in our five schools the thousands of boys and girls followed us to even higher education. Now they are the administrators of all the schools on the reservations and in the colleges and college programs which they have formed. The Research Center was founded to be partners with them in education, preparing yet another generation for leadership.

The Center began its ministry by publishing eleven textbooks of catechesis written by one of our Benedictine Sisters. The books are in use on the reservations all over the United States. Following this the Center produced "cinema verite" films, giving voice to the Elders on the reservation: Lucy Swan, the grandmother; Charles Kills Enemy, the Prayer Leader; Steve Charging Eagle, the Traditional Dancer.

Before many Indian authors had a forum, and before they could find a publisher, Brother Benet designed a magazine for Indian poets and short story writers. The result was the Blue Cloud Quarterly and various chapbooks. Some Indian poets were first published by Brother Benet; now the poets and writers have their respected places in the long list of contemporary writers.

Since 1973 the Center has been on radio in three states broadcasting the Benedictine message of respect for all peoples and of reconciliation between all spirits. In Latin the message is called PAX BENEDICTINA. Finally, with new technology, the message of the Center goes world-wide on Internet.

Our page is www.bluecloud.org. Ask the youth of your family to open up the spirit of Internet for you.

For over a hundred years the Indian people have trusted their monks to preserve the beauty of their art and the memory of their holy places and ceremonies. At the death of each Elder there is a give-a-way. The family gives away to the priests and to other friends the precious possessions of the one who has died, the grandfather or the grandmother. At the Center we have the collection of personal items entrusted to us for preservation.

We are often surprised by city friends who write, wondering whether the items they have collected might be preserved, also, at the Blue Cloud Indian Research Center. We welcome your sharing with us, and with the world, whatever has been in the family for a long time. We are particularly interested in old books, diaries from Reservation days and personal native American items.

The first goal of the Center was "to give power to the elected Indian leaders as they strove to rebuild their fractured communities." The first goal was easily reached through continuing education.

The second goal of the Center has not yet been reached. Maybe in spite of our best efforts it will never by reach -- "to create respect for each other and peace --PAX -- between all races, children of One Father."