Back to Ordinary Time...2008

Dom Benedict, Dom Sebastian and Dom Quirinus

Dom Josef, Dom Clemens and Dom Simon

Dom Aegidius and Dom Konstantin

Between Dom Bruno and Dom Elias is Dom Peter of Stift Herzogenburg

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Dom Josef preaching
(the text of the homily is below)
 

The novices and juniors, including Dom Aegidius on the left and Dom Anselm, Dom Albert and Dom Daniel on the right, await the arrival of the Provost in the sacristy.

The Festpredigt of Dom Josef Norys, Can.Reg.

You all certainly know the story of St Leopold much better than I. As patron saint, monastery founder and church builder, he is already well known here in Austria. I can certainly not add anything new to the story that you don’t already know. You already know that St Leopold was a Margrave, that he founded the monasteries of Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz, that his wife was named Agnes, and that they had many children.

Sometimes, though, we can talk so much about the past that we forget about the present. St Leopold is not just a part of Austrian history, a part of the past, but he’s also a part of the present, a part of the future. St Leopold lives!

In Austria, there are two monasteries that have new life, that every year bring in four, five, or six novices: Stift Klosterneuburg and Stift Heiligenkreuz; the two monasteries that St Leopold founded. From heaven above, he is looking down on us, protecting us. He is at work here and now! It is very clear to me that St Leopold is still active, that he has a plan for his monasteries, even in the third millennium, and that he is showering us with grace in order to prepare us for something truly wonderful.

In 2002, when I first arrived at Klosterneuburg, there were only four juniors and one novice here. In the next five years, I watched as twenty-four new men entered our monastery. Priests, seminarians, and laymen from around the world have been called here; from Austria, Norway, Germany, Great Britain, France, America, Poland, and even from China. Some of these men are now solemnly professed members of the chapter, some have left, but now we have fourteen men in the juniorate, a three-fold increase in just five years!

With this growth comes a challenge. Growth is always painful. The sudden appearance of lots of new members can be difficult for a community. But when so many of these new members are foreigners, who speak an unfamiliar language, who have different life experiences and grew up in another culture, it can be even more challenging. It is not always easy for the newcomers. They have to learn a new language. They have to integrate themselves into a new culture. It requires patience – from everyone.

We newcomers have to trust that we are actually making progress, especially when we have the feeling that we aren’t integrating fast enough. On the other hand, the community has to also trust that the new members want to and are trying to integrate, especially when it doesn’t look like they are.

This growth requires much patience, but also a lot of grace. And without the intercessions of St Leopold and the grace of God, our house would never have survived it.

I can remember that when Fr Clemens, Fr Elias, and I first came to Austria, some people didn’t trust our motives. “Why are you here?” they would ask, “what do you want from us?” I would always smile, point up to heaven, and say: “Because of Him. He has called me here.”

Maybe they believed me, maybe they didn’t. But, after five years, it should be absolutely clear that these twenty-five men have not come to Stift Klosterneuburg to take something from the monastery, but rather to bring something to it. As St Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans: “We all have different gifts, but we are all members of the one body.”

Before I came here to Klosterneuburg, I was studying at a diocesan seminary in Philadelphia, and I was perfectly happy there. In my two years at the seminary, I had no real interest in religious life, and I had never even heard of Stift Klosterneuburg or St Leopold. I was pretty convinced that I would someday be a diocesan priest in Virginia. After my second year at the seminary, I was talking with Fr Elias one day (he was the parochial vicar at my parish at the time), and he told me that there were some priests from Virginia and Washington who wanted to go to Austria and enter a monastery in Klosterneuburg, in order to be able to live a communal priestly life.

After this conversation, I prayed about it, and God made it absolutely clear to me that He wanted me to go to Austria. I had never visited Vienna. I couldn’t speak a word of German. I had never even heard of Stift Klosterneuburg. But, in any case, I knew with absolute certainty that God was calling me to Klosterneuburg. I had absolutely no doubt. So, a week later I got on a plane and flew to Vienna, visited the abbey, filled out my application, and the chapter council accepted me as a novice. Within three weeks from my first conversation with Fr Elias, I found myself living in Stift Klosterneuburg.

I left behind my home, my friends, my family, my native language, and I’ve flown seven thousand kilometers not to take something from Klosterneuburg, but rather because the Holy Spirit has called me here in order to bring something to this community: myself. Everything I had, I have given up. Everything I was, I am no longer. And now I am happier than I could ever have possibly imagined.

There can be no doubt that God has poured out His grace on Stift Klosterneuburg in the last couple of years. He has given us so much love. But love needs to grow. Love always wants to spread. That’s one of the main characteristics of Love. When love is restricted, when it is bottled up and not allowed to grow, it dies.

None of us know in which directions Stift Klosterneuburg will grow in the future, but it should be totally clear to us that St Leopold lives on. It should be clear to us that He, with the Holy Spirit, are doing something very special, right here, right now. Maybe we don’t yet know exactly what that is, but I am absolutely certain that it will be something truly wonderful, truly splendid, truly amazing, and absolutely unexpected.

Thank you, St Leopold!

Dom Gabriel

Fr. Brian Gannon

Dom Alois and Dom Albert singing Christmas carols in Bergen

Christmas Dinner in Bergen

Msgr. Francis Kelly

Dom Maximilian

Dom Alipius

Dom Bruno

 Joseph and John

Fathers Gannon, Oxley and Betschart

Goodbye to Christmas

To the Canon:

Grey skies and cold wind low

      across the hills of Austria and bring

Young men and old who long to know

       the Word that gives life meaning.

Near shores, far shores to all

      that from the long centuries gazing

From His stores He spreads His feast, a call

      to great, to least that Love amazing

Rests here for a time; a day; a year;

            a lifetime for some perhaps as seen

By ancient bones now resting here

            serene.  The testing time has been

surpassed by lowlier men than you,

            dear Canon.  Seek not to know aught

but that which saves the soul and do

            not forget the price at which your soul was bought.

He hangs there, leafed in gold

            but gruesome still, the splendor

of the Abbey Church, so grand and old

            cannot hide his pain.  So tender

Is His love for you, yes you! And so

            shall it always be.  Love so underserved

So unexpected, comes that you might know

            and love Him in return with heart not conserved

But freely given, graciously without care.

            As you are loved, dear Canon, now love too!

And in this time, this day, this year, this lifetime dare

            to risk all for Love and do

not doubt that Love has brought you here; 

            the reason known to Him alone

and to you now, He names you as His own. 

Very Rev. Leo A. Walsh, S.T.D. (Cand.)

Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska

                                                                      January 7, 2008