Oblate
News
Autumn, 2007
Praying and Growing Together
As with many of you, I did my share of
traveling over the summer, both for business and pleasure. A
particularly enriching experience took place at the end of July as over
a hundred Benedictine Oblates and Oblate Directors converged on St.
Martin’s Abbey in Lacy, Washington (that’s Washington State!). It
was the biennial conference of the North American Association of
Benedictine Oblate Directors. The association, “NAABOD”, counts
among its members about 70 Benedictine Priories and Abbeys in the
United States, Canada and Mexico. I attended with one of our
oblates, Ron Leinweber, who had expressed an interest in the trip
several months before.
The five-day event featured as presenters Abbot Peter Eberle of Mount
Angel Abbey, Oregon and Sr. Jacquelyn Ernster of Sacred Heart Monastery
in Yankton, SD. They spoke to “The Charism of Benedictine
Leadership”, reflecting on material from the Rule of St. Benedict, the
gospels and contemporary leadership theory. Ron and I took
advantage of the many occasions for discussion, making new friends and
sharing resources and ideas. What a blessed opportunity this
turned out to be! It really affirmed me in my ministry with our
Oblate group and I will share some of the perspectives I brought from
it in coming months.
The new season of Oblate gatherings was off to a great start with our
first “Day of Recollection” on Saturday, September 8. We hosted
about twenty Oblates, novices and discerners at our Subiaco Retreat
House. The theme of the day was “Making Christ Present for One
Another”. It was particularly effective to have the gentle and
down-to-earth Fr. Peter Kutch O.F.M. Cap. both preaching and modeling
the message of allowing Christ to come alive in each of us, wherever we
may be. There were a number of comments from retreatants about
how they were awakened to the desire to get to know Jesus better in his
rich and multi-faceted personality.
Making History
Noticeably absent from our
monastic community for about three weeks in September was our Prior,
Fr. Daniel Homan. He, along with Sub-Prior Michael Green, were at
our Motherhouse in Italy for a “General Chapter” which takes place
every six years and involves Sylvestrine- Benedictine monks from around
the world. Chapters are not always the most exciting events in
Church affairs but they are actually very important. They are a
vehicle for sharing ideas and visions and setting policy and objectives
for the coming years. In any event, what our monks did at this
Chapter was probably enough to make even our thirteenth century Italian
founder, St. Sylvester Guzzolini, sit up and take notice . . .
You may have noticed that since the 1970’s we’ve stopped having Italian
popes; now we have Polish popes and German popes. No offense to
the goodness of our well loved Italian confreres, but maybe the Church
has come to better appreciate the spiritual wealth and giftedness in
other parts of the world. In fact, the monks of our Congregation
seem to have followed this trend toward inclusivity by electing as
leader the first non-Italian in our Congregation’s 700 year
history. Our new Abbot-General, Fr. Michael Kelly, hails from St.
Benedict Monastery in Arcadia, New South Wales (that’s
Australia!). He’s a man of considerable learning and experience,
having done advanced studies in monastic spirituality and served as his
community’s Prior for a number of years. And undoubtedly his
outlook from “Down Under” will add a new breadth of perspective to our
part of the Benedictine family.
Peace,
Fr. John Martin
Shimkus, O.S.B.
Post Script: New Email Address for
Oblates
The Oblates of St. Benedict Monastery now have their own email
address! It is oblates_saintben@yahoo.com. Please direct
inquiries, assignments and any other communications regarding the
Oblate Program to this new address. This will make our efforts at
remaining connected more fruitful and effective.