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People Make Up The Monastery
Wimmer Wednesday. It is not the building but the people who make up the monastery, who live the monastic life together.—Boniface Wimmer, Letters of An American Abbot, March 30, 1861.
Wimmer Wednesday. It is not the building but the people who make up the monastery, who live the monastic life together.—Boniface Wimmer, Letters of An American Abbot, March 30, 1861.
Wimmer Wednesday. The government in Washington very recently permitted us to have our own post office on our monastery grounds so that now our address is simply “St. Vincent, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.” The large Pennsylvania Railroad Company likewise has lately given us, on our monastery property, a freight station on Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. I greatly fear that we are moving toward very evil times, which the Christian must consider not just as an accident or as the result of political forces, but rather as a judgment for the evil and a purifying trial for the good. Human wisdom cannot avert it, Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. The very latest news is that we finally have a brewery. On Christmas, we shall for the first time drink our own beer. Only after great difficulties did I complete the building. I had to get barrels and other necessities partially on credit. Construction of the two convents Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. Everywhere there is a need for priests, both in the East and especially in the Far West. Often I must turn down an opportune offer for the simple reason that I do not have the people or do not want to divide the work of my priests. Churches Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. It is hardly necessary to report that before the election I told all present that they were under no obligation to choose me, but rather that they were bound by oath to elect the person whom they considered most worthy, because not only the future of the monastery Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. Pray therefore for us that among so many labors and dangers we may not lose the spirit of our Order, the spirit of prayer, of meditation, of internal recollection, of mortification, of humility, and of obedience. Pray that where erudition is lacking, experience, vigilance, and knowledge of the Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. These then are a few of the things that we have accomplished. There are many more things, of course, that we must do. An abbey has been created with a congregation and with the privilege of exemption. We have grown in the spirit and in our own self-assurance. Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. You now see, Most Reverend Confreres, that as far as possible we are working hard to be, or certainly to become, true Benedictines. In our monastery, in the missions, in the care of souls, in literary studies, in promoting the liberal arts, in the splendor of the public Read more…
Wimmer Wednesday. Of course, there is danger that our missionary fathers, while they are preaching to others, may themselves neglect the Rule. To avoid this, I always send them in pairs to their mission stations, and in another year, I hope to send a third priest to each station. One Read more…