Remembering our deceased monks of 2011

Fr. Wilfred: Fr. Wilfred, who died on 23 September 2011, was unselfishly committed to his students at Saint Vincent Prep and then for several decades at the Benedictine Military School in Savannah. Although a Pennsylvanian, he easily became an exemplary embodiment of generous Southern hospitality.

Br. Fred: Br. Fred died on 17 April 2011. He was a gentle soul with a quiet humor marked by a sly twinkle in his eye and a soft chuckle. After helping in our priory in Brazil, he worked behind the scenes for many years as purchasing agent in the Facilities Management Office on campus and was always ready to assist monks with computer questions.

Fr. Omer: Fr. Omer died on 17 January 2011. He was Professor of Homiletics in the Seminary for decades as well as subprior and archivist in the monastery for over a quarter century. He was an historian and storyteller by nature who relished recounting the humorous dimension of common human foibles.

We pray today for our brothers who have passed from death to life in company with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace.

Amen.

Alumni Day at St. Vincent Seminary

Cardinal Wuerl speaks about St. Vincent Seminary and the unchanging nature of the priesthood.

Alumni Day

Cardinal Wuerl speaks about St. Vincent Seminary and the unchanging nature of the priesthood.

Peace of Soul

The following selection comes from “Peace of Soul” by Fulton Sheen. This was the reading chosen by our own Br. Bruno as the second reading of our Morning Prayer Office on Monday, Oct. 3. It is a wonderful insight about why young men and women choose to serve God in a radical way through monastic lives and how their prayers and penance affects the world on an extremely profound level.

Why are there monasteries and convents? Why do so many young souls leave the lights and glamour of the world for the shades and shadows of the Cross where saints are made? The modern world so little understands their mission that, as soon as a newspaperman hears of a handsome young woman entering a cloister, he telephones the parents to ask, "Was she disappointed in love?" The answer, of course, is, "Yes, with the love of the world. She has fallen in love with God." These hidden dynamos of prayer, the cloistered men and women, are doing more for our country than all its politicians, its labor leaders, its army and navy put together; they are atoning for sins of us all. They are averting the just wrath of God, repairing the broken fences of those who sin and pray not, rebel and atone not. As ten just men would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah, so ten just saints can save a nation now. But so long as a citizenry is more impressed by what its cabinet does than by its chosen souls who are doing penance, the rebirth of the nation has not yet begun. The cloistered are the purest of patriots. They have not become less interested in the world since leaving it; indeed they have become more interested in the world than ever before. But they are not concerned with whether it will buy and sell more; they care-and desperately care-whether it will be more virtuous and love God more.

Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul (New York: McGraw - Hill Book Co., 1949)