blue cloud abbey

VOL. 21  NO. 2                                                  MARVIN SD 57251                                                             SUMMER 2010   

JUBILEES GALORE

Blue Cloud Abbey was founded by St. Meinrad’s Archabbey on June 24, 1950. In this sixtieth year of the monastic community’s existence in South Dakota, several of the monks are celebrating jubilees.

   Abbot Alan Berndt was professed at our mother abbey in Indiana on August 6, 1940. He has spent most of his seventy years as a monk here in the Dakotas. Assigned to the Crow Creek reservation in South Dakota shortly after ordination, he was later named the superior of St. Michael’s Mission in North Dakota and was there for over a decade. Then he was called to be abbey to serve as prior. In 1970, the community chose him to be its abbot. Abbot Alan was in office for sixteen years. After his resignation, he served as chaplain at St. Mary’s Hospital and Maryhouse in Pierre.

   Here at Blue Cloud Abbey once again, he is our groundskeeper and takes good care of the orchard. He chops wood for our winter fires in the community

room. Not only does he haul the logs into the building, he also lights the fires and cleans the fireplace.

Father Odilo Burkhardt & Abbot Alan Berndt

   Father Odilo, like Abbot Alan, came to Blue Cloud from St. Meinrad’s Archabbey. He was ordained there sixty years ago. Three of his classmates werealso assigned to the new foundation in South Dakota.

Father Odilo is the only one still living. He was assigned to teach theology in our seminary here at Blue Cloud. When it closed, Father Odilo went to Paris to study more theology at Institut Catholique. Upon his return, he was placed in charge of our ecumenical programs.

   In succeeding years he was assigned to the parish we once staffed in Devils Lake, North Dakota and from there he went to Resurrection Priory in Guatemala.

    Whenever he was stationed at the abbey, he was always our photographer. He still pursues this interest in retirement. He was our first librarian and in these later years he served as archivist.

   Abbot Alan, Father Odilo, and another jubilarian, Brother Francis Kopel, are in their nineties as is Father Cletus Miller. These three priest monks are the only surviving founding members of Blue Cloud Abbey.

Father Christopher Uehlein

   Father Christopher was one of the first members of our community to profess vows here rather than at St. Meinrad. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination.

   He has studied music at DePaul University and the University of Illinois. He was our organist and choirmaster for many of his years in the monastery. And he composed hymns which we sing at the Divine Office. In more recent years he has composed

pieces for orchestral settings. One work was commissioned by a small symphony orchestra in Huron, South Dakota. Although Father Christopher had been to a couple practice sessions, a blizzard prevented him from attending the actual performance. Members of the orchestra came to the abbey during the summer and played the concert pieces for him and us.

Brother Benet Tvedten

   Brother Benet has been our community’s oblate director for many years—longer than any other North American oblate director. He wrote a book about Oblates of St. Benedict, How to Be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job. He is also the editor of this newsletter and has been in and out of the development office. At present he’s back there. During much of Abbot Alan’s administration, Brother Benet, was the prior. He holds that office once again—just as Abbot Denis is again the superior of the community. An elderly member of our community, Austrian by birth, once defined the prior’s duty as “helping the abbot eat sauerkraut.”

Brother Sebastian Goldade

   Brother Benet and Brother Sebastian are observing their fiftieth anniversary of monastic profession. Brother Sebastian learned tailoring here and soon after profession of vows, he got to work helping Brother Simeon make our habits. Some years later, he began designing and producing vestments and continues to provide vesture, altar cloths, paraments, and banners for parishes in the area and even abroad now and then. He has studied art at St. John’s University in Minnesota and at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. Several of his free form alabaster sculptures adorn one of the corridors here. At one time he was also a silversmith.

   Brother Sebastian has been our guest master for several years. Most monks in the Blue Cloud community have more than one job. Even the Abbot collects trash and takes it to the dumpster.

Brother Francis Kopel

   Brother Francis entered the monastery along with Brothers Benet and Brother Sebastian. He was almost forty. Sebastian was sixteen and Benet was twenty-one. They thought of Francis as an old man. Now Brother Francis is one of our four monks in his

nineties. Unlike his two classmates, Brother Francis did not profess vows fifty years ago. He became a claustral oblate, living the monastic life but not under vows. He did profess vows, however, later in life when he was almost seventy.

   For several years, Brother Frances worked in the laundry with Brother Alex. Then he went to the mission at Stephan, South Dakota where he worked in that laundry. Upon returning to the abbey, Brother Francis was our sacristan. A couple years ago, he fell and broke an elbow. This necessitated his receiving care in a local nursing home. He was told that once the cast was off, he could come back to the abbey. The cast came off, and Brother Francis stayed at the

nursing home. He likes it there and the care he receives from the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence and staff.  Community members visit him and he comes home to the abbey often.

Father Thomas Hillenbrand

   Father Thomas professed vows fifty years ago, six months after his brother jubilarians. In those days people were starting and ending novitiate at different times, but sooner or later they all ended up in the common novitiate.

   Father Thomas, having studied at Sant’ Anselmo in

Rome and at Notre Dame in Indiana, was our liturgist upon his return to the abbey. He was also the novice master and for a time he was assigned to St. Michael’s Mission in North Dakota. In 1992, while serving as prior in Guatemala, he was chosen to lead the whole community as abbot. Abbot Thomas was in office for sixteen years. Following his resignation, he spent close to a year’s sabbatical in Australia. He is now back at Blue Cloud and is the director of our retreat program and camp as well as taking care of the hermitages. He is also our carpenter, a position he held as abbot. Besides all of this, he is once again the liturgist. Father Thomas’s brother was a member of our community. Father Xavier died in Guatemala in 1978. Their sister, Sister Mary Lee, is also a Benedictine golden jubilarian this year. She belongs to Immaculate Conception Monastery in Ferdinand, Indiana.

   In 1960, there were more than twenty young men in the community and none of them had yet made final vows. This was during the construction era at Blue Cloud Abbey and all these young fellows were learning the building trades.

Father Cletus Miller recently returned to Blue Cloud Abbey from Guatemala. He was assigned there in 1981 at the age of sixty-two. Father Cletus is shown here in the refectory at Resurrection Priory in Coban. In the background is then Abbot Thomas who was making an annual visitation of our foundation. Now there are only two North Americans

left in the community.

After a winter even more severe than last year’s, spring arrived earlier than anticipated. Here we are

mowing the lawn in March.

         The martins arrived back at Blue Cloud

         right on time.

How novitiate classes have changed at Blue Cloud Abbey. Only one Blue Cloud novice (Jose) and only two Mother of God Monastery novices (Nancy and Terri). Across the table is Brother Benet, monastic history teacher, and Sister Eileen, Novice Formation Director for the Watertown community. After the final class, the women Benedictines took the two men Benedictines to lunch at a fine dining establishment called The Bird Feeder.

Repairing the gazebo. The screens were blown

out by winter winds.

FROM A RENEWAL OF MONASTIC VOWS:

 Almighty God, I pray that my life may be filled with good zeal. Help me to be the first to show respect to my neighbor and to bear with one another’s weaknesses of body or mind. May I   prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may Christ bring us all to everlasting life.

                                          Brother Benet Tvedten, OSB