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The cloistered life: Students try one week as a monk
by Jeff Horwich, Minnesota Public Radio
January 23, 2003

St. John's senior Erich Hoffer, left, and freshman Jeremy Ploof put in some hours straightening up and making repairs around the theater workshop. Hoffer says the monks "are not the quiet, restained type that you always picture a monk to be. They're actually really talkative, lively people." (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

The monastic life took a hit this past year. At St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, old cases of abuse came to light and put the quiet Benedictine order in the news for months. Despite the difficult attention the reverent, active lifestyle of the monks continues. Each January, the Abbey invites interested St. John's students to spend a week living in the monastery. This month, four students gave up part of their winter break to experience the patterns and peculiarities of monastic life.

Collegeville, Minn. — For St. John's sophomore Joe Aronson, nothing humanized the monks like walking in on a group watching the evening news.

	Mathiowetz, left, and Aronson in the workshop

"It was like if you took your grandpa and just lined him up 10 times," Aronson says. "They're all hemming and hawing at the same parts. It's just kind of surprising ... I think a lot of people just see monks as always praying, but they're pretty normal people."

Getting beyond the stereotype of the serious monk was also why freshman Brandon Mathiowetz signed up. "They are stoic at points," Mathiowetz says, "but they have a lot of vim and vigor in them, and they have their own attitudes. They're not just clones."

For five days these young men, typical college students, live in the cloisters, eating, sleeping, working and praying with the monks. It's a regimented schedule, early to rise and early to bed. The monastery repeats the program after the spring semester, and also has a longer program for non-students over the summer.

It's a chance to live for a while in a world usually kept private.

Br. Zachary Wilberding OSB, who runs the program, says it can be a shock to go from a college dorm to the cloister halls. Breakfast is always silent and at night, as he puts it, you can hear the atoms hit your eardrums.

	Brother Zachary Wilberding

"It is very quiet, and I think that is something that surprises some of the students," Wilberding says. "But I think we spend a fair amount of time over the lunchhour sharing conversation ... There's a lot of laughter during that time."

St. John's students are already familiar with monks, who teach many classes and serve as resident advisors at the university. But living with them 24 hours a day gives a more thorough understanding of the life.

"Sometimes that's people's idea of monastic life: It's either pacing through a garden listening to organ music, or sitting on a meditation cushion," says Wilberding. "Most monasteries are pretty busy places, with a lot of work to do, and so in order to really understand what our life is like, it's important to participate in the work portion."

Each morning and afternoon they students are given chores to do. It could be cleaning around the abbey, or clearing brush in the arboretum. On this day, they're repairing props and organizing the workshop for the St. John's Preparatory School theater.

After five days, freshman Jeremy Ploof says there a constancy to the life that sinks in. "There's a rhythm to the day that makes it go," he says. "Pray, work, pray, eat. It provides a schedule that keeps you moving."

The students aren't given robes, but they join in every prayer service. An assigned monk host helps guide them through the intricacies of Benedictine prayer: when to bow, when to sit, when to stand. Freshman Brandon Mathiowetz has a new appreciation for their religious dedication.

	Joe Aronson gets to work

"I was watching the monks receive communion, and as they would take the host and put it in their mouth, they would make sure they had every crumb off their hand," he recalls. "And I think that's one thing that a lot of Catholics forget is that the Eucharist is really Jesus Christ, and there's a lot of reverence there.

"You have to make sure," he adds, "that you don't mistreat Jesus. You know, drop him on the floor or anything."

Two of the four men say they might consider a monastic life, but that's not the main reason they're here. Joe Aronson says it's well worth gaining a better understanding of the monks at St. John's, especially after the past year.

"You go home and your friends, the only view that they have is from reading the newspapers or the connotations that this is a bad place," Aronson says. "So this gives me a better reference point to go home and talk about my experience with these monks, and (convey) that that's not representative of the entire monastic community."

In this world where routine means everything, it does seem a more routine year is on the way.

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