Dedication of the Abbey Church 2013
I Kings 8:22-30
I Peter 2:1-5,9-10
Matthew 21:12-16
When I was a novice, I drove the prior to a meeting at Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas. At that time, the price of flying into the small airport close to that monastery was so expensive, it made sense to drive. Subiaco is one of the few monasteries I have ever visited, and yet each time I go to another monastery, I learn something. One thing I learn at every monastery is how lucky and blessed I am to be at St. Gregory’s. One of the particular things I learned at Subiaco came from their Br. Paul. His job was to take care of the pigs, and as I was taking a tour of the pig shed, he told me something that their Abbot Jerome had said to the community when Br. Paul was a novice. The monks here know Abbot Jerome from the great retreat he led here last December, so we are not surprised that he said something wise. Subiaco Abbey had been through a difficult period that lasted for a long time, and many of the monks left during those bad times. Shortly after his election toward the end of the difficulties, their new Abbot Jerome made this comment to his community: “It doesn’t matter if there are half as many monks here now as when you entered the monastery. What matters is that you are as much a man of prayer now as when you entered the monastery.”
That comment has stuck with me for these past eighteen years since I heard it. Subiaco has had more ups and downs (in fact, they have no more pigs and no more Br. Paul). We here at St. Gregory’s have had our ups and downs since I have been here, but nothing as dramatic as the upheavals that happen at many monasteries. People have come and gone, buildings have been torn down and new ones built, new psalters and Bibles and liturgical acts have been introduced. But the most important thing that has happened in those years is the fact that we have prayed. We have prayed when we wanted to and when we didn’t want to. We have prayed when we felt like it and when we haven’t felt like it. We have prayed whether or not we have gotten any thing out of it (because the reason we are praying has nothing to do with our own selves.) We have prayed privately and corporately. No matter what else is going on, the bell has rung several times a day, and we have gathered in this building to pray, acknowledging our utter and complete dependence and God and God alone. What a privilege!
As I said, one of the things I learn every time I visit another monastery, or talk with a monk or nun from another monastery, is how lucky and blessed I am to be here at St. Gregory’s. That statement is not meant to say anything bad about any other monastery – it is only meant to say something good about ours. We have a group of prayerful, self-motivating and self- policing monks, and some of the most thoughtful and careful leadership of any monastery around. Many guests mention that our guest facilities are some of the best anywhere, that the grounds are beautiful and that our monastery is very clean compared to many others. We get letters from people who have been guests or were in the vocation program letting us know decades later what a profound experience their time here was and how grateful they are for us being here. Our newsletter and calendar are high class and reach a wide and diverse group of people around the world. But all of that means nothing if we do not pray.
Taking our cue from Abbot Jerome, it doesn’t matter if there are half as many or twice as many monks here now as there were when we entered the monastery. It doesn’t matter if anyone knows of our existence or if we live in a palace or in a shack. What matters is that we are prayerful – that we are more prayerful now than when we entered the monastery. The only way to become a prayerful person is to pray. The only way to become a prayerful monastery is for the monks to pray together and privately. No matter what else happens now or in the future, the only thing we need to do is to keep ringing that bell several times a day in order to gather us together in this church to pray. We must come to Jesus, the “living stone…and like living stones let ourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices…as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”
We are here to pray because everything is nothing without prayer, because everything is nothing without God. This building is the center of our lives because God is the center of our lives. The monks in the past who sacrificed to have this church built knew that, and we are grateful for their actions and prayers that made this church a reality. Of course, they knew that only God makes things reality. That’s why they realized the importance of a space especially built for prayer. We become more real as we pray, and the world around us becomes more real as we pray with and for it. May we never forget that no matter what we do, all of it means nothing if we do not pray. AMEN