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A Humble Vocation
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I was born in 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland. I attended a Catholic grammar school, public high school, and a state college for two years.
I entered Portsmouth Priory (as it then was) in 1956 and in 1958 went to live at St. Louis Priory and to study for the Bachelor’s degree at St. Louis University. In 1960, I graduated with a degree in Latin as a major and in Greek as a minor.
Having returned to Portsmouth, I taught Latin in the school, studied theology and did various jobs. I also in the summer worked for a master’s degree.
In 1963 I was ordained priest and in 1967 was elected Prior, that is the Superior of the monastery. In 1969 Portsmouth was raised to the status of an Abbey, and I received the abbatial blessing.
My main work there was as Superior of the monastery, but I continued to work in the school and after 1970 was mainly engaged in teaching Christian Doctrine to the Freshmen.
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In 1990 I had a bad heart attack and a year later was allowed to resign from the office of Abbot because of various problems of health.
For a year and a few months more I lived at St. Anselm’s Abbey in New Hampshire. Then I returned to Portsmouth where I have held various jobs.
It is hard to remember how the vocation to the priesthood began and developed. I investigated the diocesan priesthood and various orders including the Benedictines. In answer to an inquiry from me, Dom Aelred Graham, then Prior of Portsmouth, sent a letter telling me to meet with Dom Julian Stead in Baltimore when he was visiting his father there. Dom Julian invited me to Portsmouth for Easter and when there I was deeply impressed by the celebration of the Mass and the Divine Office. Subsequent visits confirmed that impression and the monks were very friendly and welcoming. In 1956 I was allowed to join.
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Saint Benedict says our monastic life is a seeking of God. It is a life in which we praise God in the Liturgy of the Hours and try to live in charity with our Brethren and others. Hence the life is a means of fulfilling the two great commandments: to love God with your whole heart, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor. I have found that the life in this monastery is a help to carrying out Gospel Life.
When I taught Latin I felt that there was a strong religious component to the work. When I taught Christian Doctrine I felt privileged to do this work that was both priestly and of an evangelical character.
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The Mass is the adorable sacrifice in which God himself is at the same time Victim, Priest and the divine Majesty to whom the sacrifice is offered, not merely the symbol of the sacrifice of the Cross but the sacrifice itself, mysteriously renewed and re-enacted for ever, without the shedding of blood. It is an infinite sacrifice, the efficacy of which is restricted only by our own lack of fervor and devotion. All Light in this world streams from the sacrifice of the Mass. It is impossible to find or imagine a closer bond between Man and God.
(St. Pope John XXIII)
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There has been time to develop a life of personal prayer in addition to the prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, what St. Benedict calls the Work of God.
There is also opportunity to grow in seeking God by holy reading. A hero of mine is Saint Pope John XXIII. In his spiritual diary he wrote, “I renew the consecration of my life to your worship, your love, your altar.” I see the life here as a help for me to make such a consecration to Jesus of my life to his love, the love of God and neighbor, to his worship, the prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, and to this altar in the offering of the holy sacrifice of the mass every day. For this gift, unmerited and undeserved, I am grateful.
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