2023 Vocations Awareness Supplement
Benedictine monks live a ‘eucharistic life’ that is ‘immersed in God’
Benedictine Archabbot Kurt Stasiak prays the eucharistic prayer during a Jan. 25 Mass at the Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln in St. Meinrad. The monks of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad live a life of giving thanks to God, especially in the Eucharist. (Photo courtesy of Saint Meinrad Archabbey)
By Br. Zachary Wilberding, O.S.B. (Special to The Criterion)
All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat. Come, buy grain without money, wine and milk without cost! (Is 55:1).
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me (Jn 6:55-57).
The above Scripture quotations remind us that God’s love is expressed in a desire to feed his people. God feeds us through his word in Scripture and through his body and blood in the holy Eucharist.
Catholics in the U.S. have been taking part in the National Eucharistic Revival since Corpus Christi Sunday of 2022. Sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the renewal will culminate in the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024.
The revival addresses, affirms and celebrates a critical truth: the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith because it is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the living Word of God and the root of our faith. The bishops have given us an opportunity to reflect on this gift and proclaim it to others.
The Eucharist is all about presence. When we gather together for the Eucharist, we are present to Jesus as the assembled people of God. And because he said that he is present when two or three are gathered in his name, Jesus is present in the assembly.
During the liturgy of the word, Jesus is present in the Scriptures proclaimed. And in the liturgy of the Eucharist, he becomes present to us under the forms of bread and wine.
In receiving holy Communion we receive Jesus—body and blood, soul and divinity. To reflect on this is to realize that when we participate in the Mass, it is like standing in the midst of a tsunami of God’s grace. The communion of Eucharist then is communion with one another, with the word of God and with the body and blood of Jesus.
The English word Eucharist is based on the Greek word eucharistia, which means thanksgiving. Since the body and blood of Christ presented in the sacrament of the Eucharist is the greatest possible gift, thanksgiving is the foremost response.
At Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad in southern Indiana, there is a direct path between the Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln and the monastery dining room, which the monks call their refectory.
This feature is intentional and is meant to remind us that, in both places, we gather in an assembly for nourishment. Neither at the table of the Eucharist nor at the dining table do we eat in isolation. We eat as a community. We are in communion.
For Benedictine monks, the meal of physical nourishment will always be a reminder of the meal of spiritual nourishment.
Several times a day, we listen to God’s word in Scripture in the Liturgy of the Hours, as well as privately. And so, we are in communion with Christ, present in the words of Scripture. Through reflection and meditation, we deepen our relationship with him.
Like the eucharistic liturgy, the life of a monk is very much about presence and communion. Our daily lives are punctuated by times for gathering for prayer, meals, work and recreation. We are present to one another in all of these activities, and Christ is present in our brothers.
Living in community means that we serve one another. In serving one another, we serve Christ who taught us to wash each other’s feet. Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister once remarked that you can’t wash someone else’s feet if you live in isolation. Life lived in community is a life of communion.
Fed by the body and blood of Christ received at Mass, we meet and serve Christ in our brothers in the community.
In his Rule for Monasteries,
St. Benedict counsels monks and nuns to always be ready to welcome guests as Christ. Hospitality offered to guests is another way of being present to Christ, of meeting Christ and serving him. It is a form of communion.
The core value of Benedictine monastic life is to seek God. This desire to seek God is already a gift of God’s grace. We seek God because God is seeking us and putting the desire for himself in our hearts. We desire to grow in relationship with God, to enter into communion with him.
Therefore, we make ourselves present to God by being present to his word through reading and reflection, by publicly praying with the psalms and other Scriptures in church, by celebrating together the Eucharist at Mass.
Furthermore, we are present to Christ in one another in the community. We serve him in our relationships with one another.
This is a life immersed in God. It is a life of joy and gratitude, but it is also a life of trials and crosses. But they do not overwhelm us. Jesus said that his followers would have to experience them. They lead us to resurrection and fullness of life in God’s kingdom.
At the end of several of our times of prayer, we say “Thanks be to God.” Thanks for this eucharistic way of life.
(Benedictine Brother Zachary Wilberding is vocations director of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad. For more information on the monastic community there, visit saintmeinrad.org.) †
