Echoes from the Bell Tower

"Any abbot who asks to have a priest or deacon ordained should choose from his monks one who is worthy to exercise the priesthood.”

Rule of Saint Benedict 62.1

Saint Benedict’s Rule says very little directly about the Holy Eucharist or its celebration within the monastic community. He seems simply to assume its central place. Yet he clearly understands the need for priests to offer the sacred mysteries, and so he instructs the abbot to choose worthy men from among the monks for this ministry (RB 62).

Benedict knows, as the Church has always known, that at the heart of Christian life beats the Eucharist—what many Catholics lovingly call “the holy sacrifice of the Mass,” or simply “the Mass.” Here at St. Meinrad, we gather for this sacred celebration each weekday at 7:30 a.m. in the Archabbey Church, and on Sundays and Holy Days at 9:30 a.m. In our monastic infirmary, the Eucharist is offered at 11:00 a.m., allowing our brothers who are sick or infirm to share more easily in what truly is the “high point” of our daily observance.

I call the Mass the “high point” of our day, even though it comes early, because the Church teaches that “the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church.” The Council goes on to describe the Church as both human and divine, visible yet invisibly graced, active yet contemplative, present in this world yet not fully at home in it (Sacrosanctum Concilium 2).

This brief teaching captures, I believe, the mission entrusted to a monastic community: to live the Eucharist in the concrete circumstances of our lives—here, now, and as the particular men God has gathered in this place. Like every Christian household, our monastery is a “domestic church,” a small but real expression of the Universal Church. And like the whole Church, we draw our life, our identity, and our strength from the Eucharist.

The Church’s doctrine calls the Eucharistic sacrifice “the font and apex of the whole Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11). It is no surprise, then, that monastic life naturally centers each day on this sacred mystery. In the Eucharist, Christ feeds us with his word, nourishes us with his body and blood, and reconciles us to the Father. Through this sacrament, God continues his work of drawing the world back to himself— quietly, faithfully, and with a love that never grows weary.