Standing Still

“The way the situation is here, it is not possible to stand still and to limit oneself to a certain area or place or number: we go forward, we must take hold of every opportunity and expand, even if we have not yet had time to complete a previous task. A house would not be all that difficult to manage, especially when everything is moving in a well ordered routine. However, on the one hand, our monastery is yearly growing so much in membership that I always have to look for new means of providing for everyone and keeping them occupied. On the other hand, there are religious as well as secular individuals here and there who pressure us to help where no one else is available or willing to offer help. So I have to buy or start something new every year, because every beginning is difficult and adds new worries and new work to the already existing ones.”

—Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.

—From Boniface Wimmer, Abbot of Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania, translated by Dr. Maria Von Mickwitz and Father Warren Murrman, O.S.B., editor.