Daily Schedule
In a letter, Boniface Wimmer writes of the schedule his budding monastery established:
Although our community is not yet fully organized, we are keeping the following order as well as we can. We rise at 3:45 o’clock to meet in the parish church where at 4:00 o’clock, I say Matins and Lauds with the four students in the choir loft while the brothers recite one-third of the Rosary and other prayers in the sanctuary in front of the high altar. At 5:00 o’clock, when the sign is given, meditation begins and lasts an hour. After that, I say conventual Mass. This is followed by a frugal breakfast for the brothers while we [Wimmer and the clerical students] recite Prime, during which the Martyrology and a chapter from the Holy Rule are read. The rest of the morning, the brothers work and the students attend classes or study, with a short interruption at 9:00 o’clock, when we recite the Minor Hours.
At 10:45 o’clock, all are called again to the church for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and particular examination of conscience. At 11:00 o’clock, we take dinner, after which the students have a short recreation and the brothers receive instruction in the religious life. At 1:00 o’clock, the brothers recite the second part of the Rosary and then work until 5:00 o’clock. During that time, the students have classes or lectures, which are interrupted by the recitation of Vespers at 3:00 pm. All attend spiritual reading or the explanation of the Holy Rule from 5:00 to 6:00 o’clock, when the brothers recite the third part of the Rosary and we say Compline. Finally, common night prayers and general examination of conscience conclude the day. At 9:00 o’clock all retire… [letter incomplete]10
At 9:00 o’clock everyone goes to bed; i.e. on the straw sack—for the feathers still have to be grown. Thus our days pass, one after the other, alternating beautifully between work and prayer, and although the days are longer here in winter than in Bavaria, they are still too short for us, because we have work in abundance. Primarily most of the work is preparatory, especially construction of workshops so that the carpenters, smiths, and locksmiths can begin their activities. In the spring we will then have to proceed with building to make room for a number of brothers, whom I expect to come from Bavaria, and for pupils. Some of the existing farm buildings also need to be renovated or new ones built.
—From Boniface Wimmer, Abbot of Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania, translated by Dr. Maria Von Mickwitz and Father Warren Murrman, O.S.B., editor.
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