Blue Cloud Abbey (sd Benedictine Monks) Closing

[Luigi]

Effective August 5, 2012.

[url="http://www.bluecloud.org/FromTheAbbot.html"]http://www.bluecloud.org/FromTheAbbot.html[/url]

[TheresaThoma]

So sad, prayers for them as the make this difficult transition.

[emmaberry]

The message was difficult to read, I can't imagine how hard this is on those monks. God willing they find accepting and loving new homes (I feel like I'm talking about puppies .)

[PhuturePriest]

This is so sad. I think I looked into them once. It is very unfortunate and I am sure they had a hard time coming to this decision, but at least they are open to God's Will. I will pray they each find suitable Monasteries/Hermitages. I recommend others do the same.

[OnlySunshine]

What a very tough decision. I can't imagine living with a group of brother monks for 62 years as a community and then suddenly having to split up.

I read "Come & Follow Me" recently about vocations and Fr. Manelli mentioned that the reason some good orders have to close is because some people who are receiving the call to religious life are ignoring it. Some are too afraid. Some are selfishly denying it. This is what comes of it. A sad reality indeed...

Edited June 16, 2012 by MaterMisericordiae

[Blessed&Grateful]

Such a beautiful abbey. Thier situation is very difficult. Prayers.

[EmilyAnn]

My heart truly breaks for these monks. It is so sad to see them losing their home and their community.

[chasmi]

Sad, yes. But we must remember that all everything happens for a reason and all is according to His will.

[Lumiere]

Tell me, do these monks wear habits?

[Indwelling Trinity]

My prayers for them.

[cmaD2006]

[quote name='Lumiere' timestamp='1340071602' post='2446094']
Tell me, do these monks wear habits?
[/quote]
If you actually look at the picture on the letter from the abbot it sure looks that way. He is in a habit.

[Lumiere]

Well, people in other threads have stated that communities that wear the habit are thriving while those that have given up the habit are dying. What has happened here?

[Lisa]

It's not as cut-and-dry as habit or no habit. There are habited communities that are not receiving vocations, and there are some non-habited communities that have a steady stream of new vocations.

This is part of a greater issue, the decline of religious in the U.S. Both male and female numbers have dropped dramatically (particularly in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s), but there were never as many men religious as women.

In 1965, there were over 12,000 religious brothers, which includes most monks and many friars, and in 2011, there were only 4,606. Even the religious priests number, which includes most Dominican friars, Jesuits, Fathers of Mercy, etc., dropped from 22,000 to 12,000. (Source: CARA report here: [url="http://cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServices/requestedchurchstats.html"]http://cara.georgeto...hurchstats.html[/url])

Some abbeys, which might have had smaller numbers of brothers to begin with, might not be able to stay afloat. On phatmass, we often talk about the New Springtime, renewed interest in vocations, etc. But it was a very long winter for these communities who maybe didn't receive a new brother or sister for 20 years. In the letter, the abbot says that even if they received a wave of new applicants now, they wouldn't be professed for several more years, by which time, it would be too late.

This is a truly heartbreaking situation. May they be blessed with strength during this difficult transition.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Lisa

[Gemma]

Also has to do with publicity. If vocations don't know a monastery is in their backyard (exaggeration, but you know what I mean), that monastery will end up closing due to lack of vocations.

Blessings,
Gemma

[EJames2]

its not surprising /...

[Maximilianus]

[quote name='Gemma' timestamp='1340122992' post='2446317']
Also has to do with publicity. If vocations don't know a monastery is in their backyard (exaggeration, but you know what I mean), that monastery will end up closing due to lack of vocations.

Blessings,
Gemma
[/quote]

Yup, hard to get vocations if no one knows you exist.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Maximilianus

[AnneLine]

Part of this is being in South Dakota. That isn't intended as an insult at all -- it is pure reality. Two years ago my husband and I drove from the West Coast to Minneapolis... and while I knew that SD was not well populated, I truly had no idea what that meant until we drove through that state. If it is hard for most monasteries to have attracted vocations over the last years, isolation would have made it even more difficult.

As far as the habits in the picture, most benedictine communities of men have worn lay clothes doing manual work for a long time... and they seem to wear their habits in many/most of the pictures. They seem to have had good ministries and a good prayer life... all they were lacking was new vocations.

Additionally, I think Lisa, Gemma and Max raise a good point. It really isn't about a habit in this context, it is about timing and about people knowing you exist. The Summit Dominicans and Marbury Dominicans went for something like 20 years without a profession... and the Poor Clares in Barhamsville had a LONG period without novices (until recently those in white veils also show up on their photos in black veils!). If God wants the community to survive, the people will come; but after a certain point, there just aren't enough religious who are able to form new candidates properly... and that is when a difficult decision like this one has to be made.

They have my love and respect, and my prayers. I can't imagine how hard it must be for a man who has vowed stability to his abbot and community to have to radically obey in this way. In once sense, it is the ultimate act of openness to God's will to let go of all those externals and to seek where God would have them go next. I am praying for them....

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

Like AnneLine said, probably a big reason that they weren't getting vocations is due to their area. Blue Cloud was founded to serve as a mission to the Native Americans living in that area. Unfortunately, they never received any Native American vocations, so I'm sure that had a large impact in addition to the sparse population.

As to the habit/no habit thing, as was also pointed out above, Benedictine monks will wear a habit at prayer and other communal activities, but not while doing physical labor: it would get a tad bit difficult tilling the garden which grows the vegetables you eat at lunch and dinner wearing a habit and having a scapular fly about in the wind

Edited June 21, 2012 by NazFarmer