Spirituality: Developing the Faith

Benedictine spirituality is the core and essence of Mount Michael. Spirituality has been the catalyst of everything that comes forth from Mount Michael. It is the center of everything Mount Michael stands for and will continue to stand for. The Benedictines came to the land that Mount Michael sits on in the 1950s for two reasons; to educate young Catholic men and to grow their faith. Ever since then, all men who come through the doors of Mount Michael will be transformed in a new light of Christ. In this blog, I will outline the Benedictine history of Mount Michael, the Oblate program, and my own personal experience with Benedictine spirituality.

Less than 10 Benedictines monks made the journey from Conception Abbey in Missouri to this spot on the bluffs of the Elkhorn River Valley. They stumbled upon the land here at Mount Michael which was previously known as the farm of Journeys End. The landowner, Rex, was a single bachelor who was looking to move to downtown Omaha. He donated the over 400 acres of land to the monks and they immediately transformed a simple farmhouse to be their chapel and priory. That farmhouse still stands today and has been converted as a guest house operated by Brother Jerome. The monks were tasked with the challenge of opening a seminary and founding a monastery for the young men of the Archdiocese of Omaha and the surrounding area. Construction started and the vision of a fully operational seminary was on the horizon for this small band of Benedictine monks. Before Mount Michael, this seminary was known as St. John Vianney Seminary. The seminary officially opened in the 1960s and grew tremendously as many young men were following Christs calling for them.

Many of the seminarians who were taught at St. Johns eventually ended up becoming monks and staying here permanently. It was not until the end of the 1960s to early 1970s that St. Johns transitioned to what Mount Michael is today. In this time, Mount Michael was a mandatory residential school with no option of being a day student. Many of the teachers were the monks that attended the seminary and in turn, many of the students later joined the Benedictine order as monks. The school was operated solely by the monastery and required mandatory boarding up until the late 1990s to early 2000s. Ever since then, Mount Michael has been what you see today. A blend of residential and day students who are still being taught by members of the religious. The monastery still operates all aspects of Mount Michael under the leadership of Abbot Michael. Since those few Benedictines came up here to where Mount Michael stands today, they have been passing on the tradition of Benedictine education and faith for over 70 years. Today, the monks continue to provide their students with a unique opportunity of growing their faith which is the oblate program.

The oblate program for students has been a relatively new addition to the development of faith for Mount Michael men. However, let us define what a Benedictine oblate is first. Oblates are Christian men and women who choose to associate themselves with a religious community of Benedictine monks in order to strengthen their baptismal commitment and enrich their Christian way of life. Essentially, they make a promise to live their life according to the Rule of Saint Benedict and to aligned their lives with the values that monks carry today. The monk in charge of the oblate program is Brother Jerome and he has done a spectacular job of encouraging students to become oblates and to further seek Christ.

The oblate program and the Benedictine order in general all stems from the Rule of Saint Benedict, and your son will come to learn what that Rule is throughout his time at Mount Michael. Essentially, the Rule of Saint Benedict is a rule book and guideline showcasing how monks and religious are to live their lives. It is a book of obedience that all Benedictines vow to live their life by. However, the Rule is not just for those that live in monastic life but for all Christians that try and seek Christ. It is important for all Mount Michael men to know what that Rule means for him and even more important that oblates become comfortable living by it.

Becoming an oblate is an easy process but one that comes with prayer, reflection, and seeking. A person seeking to become an oblate will need to learn about the life of Saint Benedict to understand where it all started. He will learn how Benedict lived his life in the caves of Italy and then started his monasteries throughout the mountain tops. He will learn about the miracles Benedict performed through his faith in Christ and about the life Benedictines vow to live. A person in the oblate program is encouraged to join the monastic community in daily mass and prayer to seek Christ in community. Every Thursday night, Brother Jerome leads a group of students in the monastery in Lectio Divina, sacred reading. Lectio Divina is one of the most important parts about learning to be an oblate and about Benedictines in general. All students are encouraged to become oblates because it deepens your relationship with God, classmates, and the greater community of Mount Michael.

A couple times a week, Brother Jerome will make his way over to the school building and bring different kinds of Benedictine literature for the students during their study hall periods. Many of the students enjoy this time with Brother Jerome because it gives them a break from their school work and a chance to embrace their faith in a comfortable dialogue. Brother Jerome always brings some snacks with him from the monastery to give the students that sit down and learn about Benedict and his life. The numbers of student oblates have grown tremendously in the past couple of years which has been an amazing sight. Now, for my own experience with Benedictine spirituality.

Before my time at Mount Michael, I did not know what it meant to be Benedictine or who they even were. When I was a boy, I knew there were monks at Mount Michael but I had no clue what a monk was or what they looked like. It was not until I became a student at Mount Michael that I was introduced to this whole new side of Catholicism.

I first saw the monks when we had our traditional Monday morning chapel meetings before the school day had began. The monks were all sitting together in their robes because our chapel meetings followed their daily mass and prayers. They all seemed so reverent, quiet, and full of knowledge. I knew immediately that I wanted to get to know them more personally. I acquired a copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict but never was able to bring myself to morning prayer and mass or afternoon prayer and dinner. I always had a special interest in the monks and my faith, but never acted on it during my freshman year. It was not until my sophomore year when I became more involved in the life of the monks at Mount Michael. I started going to Vespers, afternoon prayer at 5:15, with the monks and that peaked my interest with the Liturgy of the Hours. I loved the way the Psalms were chanted and how beautifully the prayers were. This became part of my daily habit as those prayers helped elevate my faith. My faith burned inside me and I was looking forward to this part of the day and wanted to learn as much as I could about the Benedictine order. I remember I first started discerning monastic life during my sophomore year because I had such a special interest in that way of life. Also during my sophomore year, I joined the monks for dinner on the weekdays back in the monastery after Vespers. This was an amazing opportunity for me to get to know the monks more because I was sharing a meal with them in their own home. Often times, the meals at the monastery were better than the ones they were serving at school! I just enjoyed being part of their community in a more personal way than the rest of the students. Brother Jerome would often give me Benedictine literature that would help me learn about Saint Benedict and the life he lived. My faith continued to grow during my junior and senior year thanks to the monks guiding me and showing me the way.

Junior year was a special year for me and my faith because I took the step to become an Oblate. I had continued to go to Vespers and dinner with the monks and my relationship with them flourished. I became more serious about wanting to become an Oblate because I knew that it would only help me discern my vocation to monastic life and to overall grow my faith. One day during my junior year, I approached Brother Jerome and asked him what it would take for me to become an Oblate, and he simply said “Think of a name and come prepared for Vespers on Sunday”. The name that he was referring to was the name of your oblation. Many popular names that are chosen are names from Benedictine history like Benedict, Romanus, or Gregory. However, the name that I chose, was from an important leader in my life that I played basketball with during my freshman season. His name was Jacob Idra and he was someone you could look up to in all aspects of life. For those reasons, the name I chose for my oblation was Idra. I remember Father John being overtly joyous that I had chosen this name and it made me feel like I was choosing the right path for myself. So, on a Sunday night in January, I made my way to Mount Michael for Vespers and that was the ceremony where I would promise to live my life according to the Rule of Saint Benedict and to define my stability to Mount Michael. After the ceremony at Vespers, we all made our way to the monastery where we had a feast to celebrate our oblations. I was by far the youngest one there, but it was a great opportunity to hear the stories of those who came before me. For the rest of my junior year, I continued with my usual pattern of evening prayer and dinner with the monks. Sometimes my classmates would join me and other times I would be all by myself.

For some odd reason, I do not seem to remember my senior year all that well. I know I prayed with the monks like usual and continued to grow in my faith, but something was different. Perhaps it was the fact that I was dealing with college admissions and did not know how I would continue to pursue my Benedictine spirituality if I was all alone at school. I wanted to attend schools like Benedictine in Kansas or St. Johns up in Minnesota. However, part of me was constantly wanting to get away as far as I possibly could. I later applied to the University of Montana and made the courageous decision to uproot my life and go to school there. As I was explaining this decision to Brother Jerome, he assured me that God had a plan for me and a reason as to why I was moving so far away. He told me to treat this time of my life like I was Benedict living in the cave. He wanted me to know that I will be constantly be transforming myself by living away from everything I know and that I will come home an entirely knew person. And Brother Jerome was right.