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St. Benedict Monastery: Seeking God in the high country
By Roxanne King
This story continues the Denver Catholic Register’s series on monasteries.
SNOWMASS, Colo.—High in the Rocky Mountains, in the ranching community of Snowmass, some 15 monks order their day around prayer as they carve out a way to support their monastery, St. Benedict’s.
The monks, who follow the 1,500-year-old Rule of St. Benedict, belong to the Cistercians of the Strict Observance order and are commonly called Trappists.
The Cistercian order originated in 1098 at the French monastery Citeaux, located near Dijon. The Trappists trace their roots to a reform of the Cistercian order that took place in the 17th century at the monastery of La Trappe near Paris.
“That’s what gave us the nickname ‘Trappist,’” Father Joseph Boyle, O.C.S.O., abbot of St. Benedict’s for 25 years, told the Register at the monastery Aug. 7.
The Snowmass monastery, located between Basalt and Aspen, was established in 1956 by monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass. At the time, monastic vocations were flourishing, due in part to the writings of Trappist monk Thomas Merton. St. Benedict’s was one of five monasteries the community founded between 1947 and 1960.
“This place was a combination of four ranches,” Abbot Boyle said of the stunning 3,600-acre site in the Roaring Fork River valley with views of twin-peaked Mount Sopris and the apt-named Monk’s Peak.
Originally housed in a now century-old farmhouse, the monastery today is a handsome brick facility tucked against a hillside and includes a chapel, enclosure, infirmary, library, kitchen, refectory, bakery and bookstore. Retreat facilities consist of two contemporary-style stone and wood retreat houses and eight hermitages.
“Our self-support comes from the retreat houses, the bookstore and the ranch, which is twofold,” Abbot Boyle said. “We put up hay and sell it, and we pasture horses and cattle in the summer.”
The monks do arts and crafts—photography, woodworking and designing greeting cards—which they sell in the bookstore. Several of them, including Father Thomas Keating and Father William Meninger, co-founders of the centering prayer movement, have authored books. The monks also bake and sell delicious Snowmass Monastery butter cookies in a variety of flavors.
“Most of our monasteries originally had an agricultural base,” Abbot Boyle explained. “But many have given that up. Here we do more agricultural work than most.”
Prayer, however, is the Trappist monk’s main apostolate.
“Our work is built around our prayer,” the abbot said, “rather than prayer fitting around our work.”
The Divine Office the monks chant six times throughout the day starts before dawn with vigils at 4:30 a.m. At vigils, Father Meninger notes in his book “St. Benedict’s Monastery,” the monks “keep watch for the Lord on behalf of all humanity.”
“That’s the hour normally used for keeping watch,” Abbot Boyle explained. “It goes with the word ‘vigil’—we keep vigil.”
Between the hours of the Divine Office and daily Mass are times for community meditation, personal prayer, work or study, rest and lectio divina (Scriptural reading and reflection).
Contemplative prayer—prayer with an attentive, listening attitude—and silence are key aspects of the Cistercian tradition. The monks observe the “great silence,” which is complete quiet, from 7:30 p.m. until Mass the next morning. A “lesser silence,” in which conversation is kept to a minimum, is observed during the day. Guests enter into this silence while on retreat.
“We live a contemplative life with the belief that a life of prayer is a benefit to the whole Church,” Abbot Boyle said. “And, hopefully, a reminder to the Church of the call to prayer and silence that is a piece of us all.”
Unlike monks from earlier centuries and in some areas of the world even today, the men don’t replace speaking with sign language. And while they keep travel to a minimum—it’s limited to doctor visits, shopping and annual family visits if necessary—the sixth-century Rule of St. Benedict has been adapted to ways relevant to the 21st century. They wear jeans and work clothes suitable for the labor they’re engaged in. For Mass and the Divine Office they wear hooded white choir robes and black scapulars.
Monasticism found its origin in the desert fathers of the third century in Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Since then, men and women have drawn apart from the world to encounter God.
“Part of all monasticism involves a separation from the world,” Abbot Boyle said. “How that gets lived out is interpreted differently by different orders.
“We are cenobitic—community—monks, not eremitic—hermit—monks,” he explained, adding, “Trappists always have guest or retreat houses.”
All Trappist monks are rightly called “brothers,” the abbot explained, but some also get ordained to the priesthood and use the title “father” as well.
“What we came here for was to be monks and brothers,” he said. “The sacramental ministry is in addition to what we are as monks and gets integrated into that.”
The common denominator all monks share, he added, is that they are seeking God in a profound way.
“The monastery is a celebration of the presence of God,” Abbot Boyle said. “That was very strong in my motivation for coming—it was a desire to live in the presence of God. Then there’s a dimension to live it in a way to share it with other people.
“Sometimes I feel the purpose of the monastery is to be a reminder to people at large of the monk archetype that’s in everyone: an attraction toward prayer, toward living in the presence of God, toward being reflective in their lives, toward being simple in their lives, toward living in a loving community. The monastery gives witness to that.”
While the monastery atmosphere created by St. Benedict’s Rule aims to foster holiness, people outside the monastery can be just as holy, he said, noting that God’s presence fills the entire universe.
“The monastery is like a lighthouse,” he summarized, “to point people to reflection and prayer.”
ST. BENEDICT MONASTERY
What: Monks of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance order (Trappists)
Address: 1012 Monastery Road, Snowmass
Monastery: 970-920-5990
Retreats: 970-927-1162
Web: www.snowmass.org
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