Benedictine monks embrace 1500 year tradition

Both the past and present occupy the lives of the Benedictine monks in
St. Meinrad.

Observing the nearly 1500-year-old Rule of St. Benedict, the monks pray five times a day on the grounds of the archabbey, a place steeped in religious history. But those in the archabbey also look toward the future.

“We are not a collection of holy people. We are a collection of people striving for holiness,” Brother John Mark Falkenhain, the vocation director for St. Meinrad, said.
One of only two archabbeys in the United States, St. Meinrad has been situated in southern Indiana for over 150 years.

Founded in 1854 by monks from Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland, St. Meinrad is home to 95 monks, a seminary, a printing press, a casket building enterprise and a retreat center, all while being a home for over 200 Catholic families.

The perception that the Benedictine tradition must be outdated and never renewed strikes in contrast to the real meaning that the faith carries, Father Harry Hagan, director of cultural formation at St. Meinrad, said.

“Some people will come to St. Meinrad looking for a museum, looking for, ‘Well, let’s go back to the 12th century,’” Hagan said. “To carry a tradition is to carry a living
tradition.

“Tradition is handing over life, and being a part of that is certainly important to me.”
The hills surrounding St. Meinrad create a feeling of isolation or serenity from the worldliness and consumer-driven culture the monks have rejected.

Yet, in the monks’ chapter room, where important decisions and concerns are
addressed amongst the brothers are painted the words, “Idleness is the enemy of
the soul.” 

Accordingly, the five daily prayers the monks observe form the foundation for the spiritual life of the monks, Father Simeon Daly said.

“I’ve lived my whole life here,” 89-year-old Daly said, who entered St. Meinrad when he was 14. “I was able to follow the daily schedule so that the prayer life is like a backbone around which everything else revolved.”

Early in his time at St. Meinrad, Daly was appointed to be a librarian at the archabbey. Originally, he found the job disparaging.

“Seeing my classmates come and sit and study by the hour and I’m shuffling cards, or filing cards, and putting away books, and I’m feeling a touch of jealousy,” he said.
As he grew older, Daly began to accept his duties as a librarian and began to gain a better understanding of how an obedient monk must act.

“My obedience is to being a librarian and to making the resources available for them so they can study, and I embraced that,” Daly said. “My classmate’s way to salvation was to study about God, to teach about God. My way was to provide him with the tools to do that.”

After embracing that call to obedience, Daly said he eventually learned to love the job he would occupy for nearly fifty years. 

Daly said after being a monk for most of his life, he still cannot precisely define the nature of God. 

“I don’t know how to describe God, I can’t define God,” Daly said. “But I believe in God as a person who has revealed himself.

“And I’ve heard. And I’ve listened. And I believed, ‘Yea, unto these aged years.’”