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2005 Review |
End of the Year Report from Dom Clemens
Dear Friends,
It has been more than three and a half years since the first Americans came to enter Stift Klosterneuburg. At this juncture I want to take time to reflect on a few things and also to give a sort of “annual report” to keep our friends abreast of developments. This was planned for December, but computer problems prevented it from happening at that time, so it seems wisest to include it the next “What’s New” page.
To look back over the last three and a half years of American presence here at Stift Klosterneuburg is to see tremendous joys and tremendous challenges, but most of all, tremendous growth, both spiritual and physical. Flexibility and generosity have been the watchwords here among the Americans, especially as they have needed to adapt to the pastoral and cultural needs of Austria, and in the cases of Doms Clemens and Elias, Norway as well. Americans have been ready and willing to undertake whatever pastoral challenges our superiors have put before us, be it work in the house, in one of our local parishes or in Bergen. This has stretched us as men and as priests. We have risen to the challenges out of a sense that our superiors spoke in the person of Christ and out of love for and duty to the family He has given us. To this end Doms Clemens, Bruno and Daniel labor in their respective parishes in and around Vienna. Bruno and Daniel face exceptional situations and difficulties, because their parishes are without pastors and are in a state of flux. To deal with flux in a foreign language and land is even more disconcerting than in one’s own! Dom Elias continues to study and work in the parish in Bergen. His Bible study class has quite a following in the parish there. Recently he has been asked to take on the job of “School Priest” for the parish school which is a tremendous challenge. Dom Lukas has joined the Elias and Alois up there and is also learning Norwegian. The pastoral challenges of these countries are very different and have required much discernment, flexibility, generosity and a real sense of humor on the part of our men. Thank Heaven the people are both patient and generous with us and they have a heck of a lot more to laugh about than we do!
Europe is indeed secularized and this poses real, everyday challenges to priests and religious here. In the face of a secularist ideology which is clearly impotent to confront it, the challenge of radical Islam looms large, especially here around Vienna, the gateway to the East. Secularist governments are trying desperately to paper over the reality of this challenge and its consequences and to find “economic solutions”. Of course this fools no one and reveals secularism as bankrupt in facing the basic reality that man is deeply religious. It is also shameful that they would try to “buy off” men and women who are deeply committed to their beliefs. Western beliefs about “tolerance” are of no interest to most of those who pose this challenge. The challenge is a religious one and can only be answered religiously. Only a coherent, Christian response will be effective in addressing the challenge, not just from radical Islam, but also from the destructive elements present within every overly-secularized society. This coherent response is, of course, evangelization, the preaching of the truth of who God really is. It is to this monumental task that each priest and religious, indeed each layperson, must put his or her shoulder.
Doms Josef and Maximilian (along with Dom Alipius) face the challenges of studies for the priesthood in Rome. It is wonderful to live in Rome, they say, but the studies pose their own challenges, especially since all our men there are in their mid-thirties and have been away from academic study for some time. They are now residing at the Scots College outside of Rome. In this too they have had to show flexibility, as this is their second residence in three years.
Dom Theobald chose London as his place of study. There he resides at Ealing Abbey, a Benedictine community. He studies at Heathrop College in London and is apparently thriving in the cosmopolitan atmosphere.
The last year has been one of real upheavals and equally real grace. The renovations of the abbey church were finally finished (more or less); our provost, Dom Bernhard, was reelected for another ten years; our novice master, Dom Markus, was taken from us and made Bishop of Oslo; Dom Anton was made the new novice master. We also suffered loss in the deaths of three members of the chapter: Doms Hermann, Raimund and Laurenz. But we were blessed with two excellent novices in Doms Albert and Meinrad. There is no shortage of excitement in our lives, that is for certain.
January in the US saw the annual Right to Life March in Washington, and it was impossible even here in the Stift not to notice that wonderful event and the grand, Pro-Life Movement which is so strong in the Church in the US. It has always been a source of strength to priests and religious to see how many families are truly “pro-life” families. Stift Klosterneuburg is also a pro-life family. Pro-life means more than just opposing abortion, it means welcoming and fostering life in our midst. It means rejecting the “contraceptive mentality” of our age which chooses egotism over the gift of life. For those in religious communities and the priesthood this means encouraging and welcoming new vocations. We do this out of a love for what we have and a gratitude for all we have been given in this family. Not to try to bring more “children” into our family would be a tragedy. For that matter, tragic are the priests who never encourage vocations to follow in their footsteps! What can that possibly say about their own love for what they do? The contraceptive mentality is not reserved to lay couples alone! One of the great graces here is the gratitude we experience for our vocation: for our monastic family and our form of life. We are eager for good, solid, energetic vocations to follow in our footsteps, because we know they will not be disappointed in what they find. In the words of our former novice master, Dom Markus: “Where there is life, more life will come”. Stift Klosterneuburg is a very lively place, thanks be to God!
Our love for our life here continues to spur us on in our hope for a possible, eventual American foundation. This dream is not forgotten nor ignored. It is our “horizon of hope”, providing us with a backdrop for our activities and a motive to greater holiness founded on self-sacrifice and self-giving. We continue to pray that Christ who has called us here will constantly conform us to Himself through our life in our family. We do this by living this life in obedience to the Rule and to our daily regimen in community. And we rely on your prayers. No such project can take place without a massive investment in prayer and sacrifice by both religious and laity. As it says in the Psalms, “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it”. Thank you for your prayers and support. As we say in German, vergelt’s Gott: “may God repay you.”
Dom Clemens
Upcoming Events
April - Lukas' ordination to the priesthood
May - Chapter vote on the Solemn Profession of Clemens, Elias, Josef
Please keep us all in your prayers!
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