Jan 21 Meinrad d. 861

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you

January 21st. Off to a new start with a new president and one day in a row of my working in a high up cubicle with a great view all the way to the western horizon.


January 21
Meinrad d. 861

We don’t get much on line about St Meinrad. I picked up this saint for today because of the retreat I took at St Meinrad abbey in southern Indiana. My St Henry’s cursillo group took a weekend retreat there.

Cursillo is one piety I recommend to you.

I first met cursillo at St. Mary’s parish in Bridgeport, 1967. I spent a month there as part of my Jesuit training. A Puerto Rican parish, in an impoverished black/PR slice of Bridgeport, CT. The pastor, very much through the cursillistas [sp?] of the parish, was the social-political leader of the community. The cursillo meetings were 99% in Spanish - after a month, I even learned a few Spanish words as I accompanied the pastor and his curate [a Boston Irish Catholic who was on sabbatical from missionary work in the Andes; he was also fluent in Spanish and several dialects from the mountains]. I learned from the nuns who not only ran the school but also were the pack mules for the various social services in the community - the finances of the public funds going through the parish’s control was an eye-popping lesson, too. Several fundamental pieces of my religious and social conscience development came from that month. Lots of stories….

But I digress. The weekend at St. Meinrad Abbey leads me to the suggestion that you too find places for your annual or more frequent retreats. I recommend going with a known group, like a cursillo group. But showing up as a lone participant works too - by staying alone or by assimilating into the larger group. A good way to enhance your spiritual life. A fine way to add Catholics to your spiritual friendships.

Meinrad is venerated as the founder of the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland - still in operation. Take some time to get to know Benedict and some of his spiritual writings - or, e.g., take a retreat with Benedictines - to get a flavor of another way to find a discipline [and discipleship] to become closer to God and Church….

Meinrad was a hermit and, later, as disciples followed him, an abbot. He was educated at the Abbey School of Reichenau under relatives, Abbot Hatto and Erlebald. He became a monk and was ordained there. He took up the eremitical life on Lake Zurich. [eremetical refers specifically to desert in the original. not much desert in Switzerland.] The Abbess Hildegard gave him a wonder-working statue of Mary; which drew pilgrims and their gifts to the abbey Meinrad began.

Meinrad is also a martyr - killed by a couple of guys to whom he gave hospitality but who murdered him to steal valuables from the abbey.

In the 1850’s Einsiendeln sent two monks to see if a foundation could be started in southern Indiana. Go figure! That has got to be an interesting story as to how that decision got made. The came to plant the Benedictine heritage in America - that seed became the St Meinrad Archabbey on March 21, 1854. They came to meet the pastoral needs of the Catholics settling in that area - maybe some familial connections back to Einsiendeln. They also started a school to prepare local men for the priesthood.

Today, there are a hundred monks at the archabbey; a college; and a seminary.

See, you have a personal connection to St Meinrad…. Not unlike seven steps to Kevin Bacon.

I love you.

dad

[catholic online, catholic encyclopedia]