Double click on the video to go to our youtube page in order to watch this clip in HD. This clip comes from our award winning DVD ("I Only Show you the Cross") which you can have a copy of (FREE) by contacting the vocation office.
April 25, 2009
April 20, 2009
"Jock Monks "
Br. Maximilian, OSB giving encouragement to with our college football team
Monks at St. Vincent have a long history of being involved in athletics (especially with the teams here at our college.) Since our earliest days, monks have served as coaches, chaplains, mentors, and sometimes even players on our various sports teams.
Br. Gabriel Myriam, OSB watching and cheering on our Bearcat basketball team
The monks taking in a game
"Br. Max" is seen above ministering to both the men and women Bearcat basketball teams.
Today the tradition of monks being involved in athletics continues in order that we may evangelize, promote good sportsmanship, and teach our students leadership skills rooted in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"Br. Max" praying for an injury free and Christ centered game
This past year, our wonderful campus minister Father Vincent Zidek, OSB and our beloved Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, OSB created a new campus ministry position (a full-time athletic chaplain) and they appointed our Br. Maximilian Maxwell, OSB to the position. "Br. Max" as the student’s affectionately call him has excelled in the position and has opened our student’s hearts and minds to new ways of following Jesus by allowing them to use their love and talents of athletics to affectively minister to God's people. Many of our student athletes have taken "Br. Max" up on his invitations to pray with the monks, to work at homeless shelters, and soup kitchens and to assist in the various campus ministry programs. It is safe to say that both students and monks have been touched in a powerful way by the work of the Holy Spirit in regards to our campus ministry program and its athletic chaplaincy program.
The monks playing a little volleyball
I will close this post on a less serious note. With all this talk of sports I must point out that many of the monks of St. Vincent enjoy following our local sports teams - the Pirates, Penguins, and especially the Pittsburgh Steelers who train at St. Vincent during the summer. “Br. Max” is, as you would expect (being the fact that he is the athletic department chaplain) is also an avid sports fan. The problem is that he is a Philadelphia sports fan and a HUGE Flyers hockey fan (Note: Br. Maximilian is a native of the city of "Brotherly Love"). This past Friday he decided to show his team spirit by wearing his Philly Flyers jersey over his habit which prompted our college students to have some good-spirited fun with him as they rooted on their beloved Pittsburgh Penguins. Today, some of our great St. Vincent employees (when hearing I was doing an article on Br. Max and the athletic chaplaincy program) asked me to post a survey to vote for what look you like better on Br. Maximilian ("Br. Max the Flyer" or "Br. Max the Penguin"). You can vote on the side bar for the remainder of the playoff series.
"Br. Max the Penguin fan"
"Br. Max the Flyer fan"
Our Lady of Victory…pray for us!!!
April 19, 2009
Queen of Peace Parish
This article was sent to me by the parishioners of Queen of Peace Parish in Patton, PA.
April 17, 2009
April 16, 2009
Wimmer Obituary
I found this great piece of St. Vincent History on the Catholic Answers website, of course we have the original here at the Abbey but it is great to see others sharing the life and mission of our founder Archabbot Boniface Wimmer, OSB:
Archabbot, b. at Thalmassing, Bavaria, January 14, 1809; d. at St. Vincent Archabbey, Beatty, Pennsylvania, Dec. 8, 1887
Wimmer, BONIFACE, archabbot, b. at Thalmassing, Bavaria, January 14, 1809; d. at St. Vincent Archabbey, Beatty, Pennsylvania, December 8, 1887. He made his Classical studies at Ratisbon and entered the University of Munich, to study law. When some scholarship fell vacant in the Gregorianum he took the competitive examination with a view to studying for the priesthood, and, having won a scholarship, he finished his theological course there and was ordained on August 1, 1831. After serving one year as curate at Altotting, a well-known place of pilgrimage, he entered the Abbey of Metten, where Benedictine life had just been restored through royal favor, and made his solemn vows on December 27, 1833. For several years he lived the common life of obedience, and during that time he became interested in the matter of foreign missions. Reading much about the neglected condition of the German immigrants in North America he finally made plans and took steps to transplant Benedictine activity into the United States. Several young men offered themselves to him as candidates; in a characteristic letter he explained to them the difficulties and the sacrifices incidental to the undertaking and asked them to withdraw their application unless they were willing to carry with him the cross of absolute self-sacrifice and to make the will and the glory of God their sole motive in the undertaking.
With five students and fifteen brother candidates Boniface Wimmer arrived in New York (September 16, 1846), where several well-meaning priests did their best to persuade him to abandon his plans, but their prophecies of certain failure did not discourage him. He went to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and accepted some land which Father H. Lemke, for years associated with the Rev. Prince Gallitzin, had offered him. Conditions here in Carrolltown, proving unfavorable for the undertaking, he moved to a place forty miles east of Pittsburgh and accepted from Bishop O'Connor the location where St. Vincent Archabbey, College, and Seminary stand today. Under innumerable difficulties the new foundation slowly grew and prospered. The Louis mission society and several friends and benefactors helped the cause with pecuniary means. The school and the seminary were visibly blessed in their efforts, and the monastic community did much good by looking after the religious interests of the scattered settlers, and organizing them into parishes. Calls for German-speaking priests came from all sides and many bishops offered to the growing Benedictine community German parishes for which they could not provide suitable priests of their own. In 1855 Father Wimmer became the first abbot of the monastery.
Wimmer, BONIFACE, archabbot, b. at Thalmassing, Bavaria, January 14, 1809; d. at St. Vincent Archabbey, Beatty, Pennsylvania, December 8, 1887. He made his Classical studies at Ratisbon and entered the University of Munich, to study law. When some scholarship fell vacant in the Gregorianum he took the competitive examination with a view to studying for the priesthood, and, having won a scholarship, he finished his theological course there and was ordained on August 1, 1831. After serving one year as curate at Altotting, a well-known place of pilgrimage, he entered the Abbey of Metten, where Benedictine life had just been restored through royal favor, and made his solemn vows on December 27, 1833. For several years he lived the common life of obedience, and during that time he became interested in the matter of foreign missions. Reading much about the neglected condition of the German immigrants in North America he finally made plans and took steps to transplant Benedictine activity into the United States. Several young men offered themselves to him as candidates; in a characteristic letter he explained to them the difficulties and the sacrifices incidental to the undertaking and asked them to withdraw their application unless they were willing to carry with him the cross of absolute self-sacrifice and to make the will and the glory of God their sole motive in the undertaking.
With five students and fifteen brother candidates Boniface Wimmer arrived in New York (September 16, 1846), where several well-meaning priests did their best to persuade him to abandon his plans, but their prophecies of certain failure did not discourage him. He went to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and accepted some land which Father H. Lemke, for years associated with the Rev. Prince Gallitzin, had offered him. Conditions here in Carrolltown, proving unfavorable for the undertaking, he moved to a place forty miles east of Pittsburgh and accepted from Bishop O'Connor the location where St. Vincent Archabbey, College, and Seminary stand today. Under innumerable difficulties the new foundation slowly grew and prospered. The Louis mission society and several friends and benefactors helped the cause with pecuniary means. The school and the seminary were visibly blessed in their efforts, and the monastic community did much good by looking after the religious interests of the scattered settlers, and organizing them into parishes. Calls for German-speaking priests came from all sides and many bishops offered to the growing Benedictine community German parishes for which they could not provide suitable priests of their own. In 1855 Father Wimmer became the first abbot of the monastery.
Although he was always willing to help any religious cause to the extent of his means, Father Wimmer repeatedly, in his correspondence with applicants for admission into the order, emphasized the point that the primary object of Benedictine life is not any particular external activity, but the perfect Christian life according to the Rule of Saint Benedict. Often generous to a fault, he never counted the cost where good was to be done, but held fast to this supreme Benedictine law. All his undertakings prospered; he often accepted work that nobody else would undertake because it seemed hopeless, and at the same time, having so spent his available men and means, he turned over the most promising and honorable work to others. At his death five abbeys had grown out of his work and others were in course of formation. Hundreds of priests had been already educated in the schools which he founded, and many a good cause had received a mighty impulse through the Benedictine life which he had spent himself to establish in America.
WALTER STEHLE
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