Vol. 4, Issue 1, Winter 2019

A newsletter published by Marmion Abbey in Aurora, Illinois highlighting Marmion Abbey, Abbey Farms and the Priory of San José, Guatemala.

A New Direction for Marmion’s Guatemala Mission By: John Brahill, OSB Since 1966, Marmion’s Guatemala mission has educated young men for the priesthood and other professions in its minor seminary, Colegio Seminario San José. Over the years some 140 young men have been ordained as priests to serve the Church of Guatemala, most of whom are actively serving in various dioceses throughout the country. Many others of our graduates have gone on to further studies and professional careers.

Due to ongoing financial constraints, the very difficult decision has been made by the Marmion Abbey Chapter of , to close the Guatemala seminary as of the end of the academic year of 2019. The academic year ends in November. The decision to close the seminary brings to an end 54 years of educating thousands of young men. This decision was made only after much prayer, study and discussion. But the decision came down to the fact that, due to the ongoing poverty of Guatemala and a rather high inflation rate in Guatemala over the past 50 years, it is simply no longer financially possible to continue to operate the seminary. As is well known, operating a private, Catholic school is very expensive. With sharply rising prices over the past 50 years, it is not financially feasible to any longer continue the school. According to the website, WorldData. info, in Guatemala, “during the period from 1979 to 2018, the average inflation rate was 9.9% per year. Overall, the price increase was 3,481.00 %.”1

Over the years our many good friends and benefactors have very generously supported our school and priory in Guatemala. On behalf of Marmion Abbey and of our Guatemala mission, I wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you. Your support has been indispensable to our school’s success. Without your help the past 54 years, the education of many young men in our seminary would not have been possible.

Nevertheless, the Guatemala mission Benedictine priory will remain open. There are six Guatemalan Benedictine monks in the priory. After much discussion among themselves and with Abbot John, they have been given permission to operate a Benedictine retreat center using the seminary buildings. The retreat center, named the Saint Benedict Retreat Center (Centro de Retiros San Benito), actually opened its doors in early 2019, anticipating the closing of the seminary. The retreat center will especially focus on retreats for young people, but will also serve as a place for both small and large retreats for adults. In this way the educational and spiritual apostolic work of the mission will continue to serve the needs of the in Guatemala, albeit in a different manner. In addition to our mission’s self-sustaining Spanish school that opened eight years ago, the retreat center will also be a financially self-sustaining apostolic work.

Although our goal is for the retreat center to be self-sustaining, the Benedictine monks at San José Priory will still rely on the generosity of our friends in order to minister to the people of Guatemala. As we begin this new chapter and a new ministry at our Guatemala mission, I ask for your continued prayers and support for its success. Thank you and may God bless you.

1 www.worlddata.info/america/guatemala/inflation-rates Who are the Oblates and Why Should I care? By: Fr. Joel Rippinger, OSB

My best guess is that any member of the Marmion family asked to define what an oblate is would have a tough time providing an accurate and substantive response. Even if they know oblates by name, they find it hard to describe their role or define their mission.

So, it may be helpful to say something of Benedictine oblates in general and Marmion Abbey oblates in particular so that we have a better understanding of who they are and what they do.

Oblates of St. Benedict are men and women who associate themselves with a particular Benedictine community. They strive to maintain a balance between life in the world and a spirituality that mirrors the balance and moderation of the Rule of St. Benedict and the practices of the community to a student oblate community into the early 1970s. Abbot which they are attached. John and Father Michael are among the members of those student oblate groups (Fr. Michael is pictured above, 3rd from To become an oblate of Marmion Abbey, a person needs to left, leading the procession of the Earth Day outdoor in contact the Oblate Director (Fr. Joel at jrippinger@marmion. 1970). In the late 1950s the Abbey began to foster an adult org) and arrange to go through a process of formation that oblate group. Oblate Directors over the years have included includes regular oblate meetings (usually the third Sunday Fr. Mark Hogan, Fr. Victor Dux, Fr. Bede Stocker, Fr. of each month), exposure to the Rule of St. Benedict, and Edmund Ziegler, Abbot John Brahill, Fr. Terrence Stanton, becoming involved in the prayer life of the Marmion Br. Jude Such, Fr. George Glover and Fr. Nathanael Roberts. community. After a determined period of time, the person Projects initiated by the oblates include the outdoor Way will have the opportunity to make profession as an oblate of the Cross south of the Abbey Cemetery and the outdoor in the presence of the monastic community. One does not Christmas crib on prominent display during the Christmas have to be a Catholic in order to become an oblate. season. Membership in the oblates today includes married and single persons, diocesan priests and non-Catholic The responsibilities of an oblate include a commitment ministers, permanent deacons and working mothers. to fostering the values and culture of Marmion Abbey, a willingness to keep the spirit of St. Benedict alive by One of the marked trends in communities of monks and following the directives of the Rule as one’s state in life religious in recent years has been an increasing number permits. Oblates serve as representatives of Marmion of who desire to share more deeply in the charism Abbey wherever they are. The monastic community prays and life of a religious community, even as the numbers regularly for the oblates and the oblates in turn pray for the of vowed religious decline in number. Marmion Abbey is monks. definitely a better place because of its affiliation of oblates over the last seven decades. Oblates have come to know the Marmion has had a rich history of oblates. In the 1950s, monks better and the many gifts and generous service of the Father Wulstan began a group of student oblates on the Abbey’s oblates have enhanced the spiritual and material Lake Street campus of the Academy and continued to have life of the abbey in countless ways.

Abbot Gerald reads a passage to Bill Wood at the celebration of Bill’s Abbot Vincent blesses the 4th Station of the Cross. (l-r) Oblates Anne Golden Jubilee of becoming an Abbey Oblate (September 2004). Schaeffer, Ginger Salis, and Laura Warzecha (April 2009) Continuing our journey into the life of Blessed Marmion, mid twentieth century to make way for progress, the ideals of Columba Marmion persist. we turn to the Emerald Island... The family lived in that same neighborhood for years. But their in the second half of the nineteenth century was in life was not one caught up in the glamor of the “big city.” Their full expansion. By the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, the Catholic faith was a central part, an integral part of their daily Catholic Church has been restored in Britain and Ireland. As in experience. Holy Mass every morning, the Rosary, prayers, other places around the world, the Industrial Revolution had devotions constituted the main elements of their spiritual begun to yield its fruit. The years of the potato famine (1845-52) exercise. Their austerity was one of piety, not poverty. were past and Irish hearts, always full of joy, were once again hopeful of the future. The city of was abuzz with the The children played in the streets, construction of new churches, with commerce and the arts. followed the same short path to St. Paul’s Church each morning: The Church herself, under the timid down the street and around the but forward-looking papacy of Pope corner to the recently constructed Pius IX (pictured left), affectionately neo-classical church. known as Pio Nono, was open to new horizons. The Ressourcement One might marvel at the grandeur was underway, the discovery and of the newly constructed St. study of ancient manuscripts; new Paul’s Church (pictured right), on fervor, new missions and apostolates Arran Quay, described as “that were right around the corner. graceful little classical building with its tall tower surmounted This is the world into which Joseph Aloysius Marmion was born by a green copper cupola,” and on April 1, 1858. (In his jovial disposition, Dom Marmion was the magnificent reproduction of Rubens’ enormous canvas, happy to announce that he was a “genuine April Fool”.) As the the Conversion of Saint Paul. A daily dose of this kindled the seventh child in a family of nine, the childhood deaths of his imagination of young Joseph Marmion and paved the way for older brothers made him the son in a world of older future appreciation of the Apostle to the Gentiles. Even the sisters. The devout parents had sought the intercession of Saint inscription over the sanctuary lent itself to inspiration of the Joseph and honored him appropriately at his baptism. family and of young Joseph in particular: Adoremus in AEternum. Let us adore for all eternity. The Marmions were a typical middle-class Victorian family. William Marmion had made the wise decisions in the 1840s to leave the family farm in County Kildare. The gentleman farmer “Marmion: The Heritage, The of Kildare was to become a businessman in Dublin. Legacy” is an article series written by Fr. Eusebius Martis, OSB ‘81 In the city William Marmion associated with two of the most that will be featured in issues of the prestigious grain houses in Ireland; making a salary that was Marmion Abbey News. impressive for the times, Marmion’s financial situation was to be admired.

Dublin was the place to be. This is where Herminie Cordier and William Marmion met, it is where they married and raised their children.

Two homes had been occupied by the Marmion family, first Young Marmion, pictured on on Queen’s Street (pictured right) then around the corner on the eve of his ordination Blackhall Place. Though the entire city block was raised in the (Rome, 1881).

The Marmion Abbey News is a free subscription newsletter published twice a year in the Winter and Summer. Send address changes to the attention of theMarmion Abbey News Marmion Editor at: Abbey News MARMION ACADEMY: 1000 Butterfield Road, Aurora, IL 60502 PHONE: (630) 897-6936, Ext. 312 The News Magazine of Marmion Abbey E-MAIL: [email protected] Volume 4, Issue 1, Winter 2019 WEBSITE: marmion.org 850 Butterfield Road, Aurora, IL 60502

“I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (Jn 6:38)