Saint Meinrad monks author book on the history of prayer

Monks of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad pray Evening Prayer, also known as vespers, in the monastery’s church on Oct. 3. Their recently published book, The Tradition of Catholic Prayer, is a collection of 15 essays written by members of the community that trace the history of Catholic prayer.

By Sean Gallagher

ST. MEINRAD—For more than 150 years, the Benedictine monks of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, nestled on a hill in southern Indiana, have gathered for prayer several times a day.

Day in and day out, as people near to and far from the monastery hustle to and fro, the monks are always there, punctuating their mornings, days and nights with prayer.

Throughout their history, the monks of Saint Meinrad have also delved deeply into study and teaching.

The Tradition of Catholic Prayer, a book recently written by several monks of Saint Meinrad, is a fruit of that faithful prayer and love for learning.

The 298-page book, published by Liturgical Press, contains 15 essays that cover the 2,000-year history of Catholic prayer as well as special topics, such as the Liturgy of the Hours, the liturgical year, the Eucharist, and prayer and conversion.

Archabbot Justin DuVall wrote the book’s introduction. Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, a monk of Saint Meinrad until his papal appointment as bishop of Memphis in 1987, exhorts the book’s readers to prayer in its afterword.

Although the book is rooted in the centuries-old Benedictine traditions of prayer and study, it actually began with the musings of Father Harry Hagan, Saint Meinrad’s novice and junior master.

“I had had it in my head for a while to ask 15 monks to write 15 chapters on prayer and to publish it as a book,” he said. “It seemed like a good idea to me.”

Father Harry later talked about the idea with Brother Christian Raab when he was a novice and newcomer to the community.

After Brother Christian professed temporary vows in the community in 2005, he and Father Harry invited several monks to write chapters for the book.

Brother Christian ended up doing much of the editing of the book and is, along with Father Harry, one of its co-editors.

Working closely with many of his fellow monks on the project helped Brother Christian get a deeper experience of the life of his community.

“We engage in a common work as we engage in a common prayer,” he said. “One of the things that I experienced in this was just the blessing of working in a common project with my fellow monks.”

Working on the chapters on the Liturgy of the Hours and the liturgical year—two topics deeply woven into Benedictine life—helped expand Brother Christian’s spiritual horizons.

“It was something that I didn’t appreciate enough when I came into the community,” he said. “Probably like a lot of people today, my spirituality was more individual. And so I kind of learned about the importance of the prayer of the Church as opposed to just praying on your own.”

This lived experience of faithfulness to the prayer of the Church is, for Father Harry, an important part of the book.

“We carry on a living tradition,” he said. “And so it’s out of that [tradition] that this book comes.”

The Liturgy of the Hours, the Eucharist and other ancient prayer traditions of the Church make up the heart of the spiritual life of the monks of Saint Meinrad.

Father Denis Robinson, who contributed an essay on prayer in the Counter-Reformation, said the book “is much more a family album than a theoretical tome on prayer.

“It comes out of our experience of … desire to maintain the worthy traditions of the past, but in a modern way,” said Father Denis, who teaches at Saint Meinrad School of Theology and is third in leadership in the monastery as subprior.

“We Benedictines have always been evangelists, telling the Good News of the Church’s tradition to succeeding generations. In that way, the book is a wonderful tool for helping us do that.”

Brother Christian ultimately hopes that The Tradition of Catholic Prayer will help readers make prayer and learning a greater part of their lives.

“This is not a how-to book, nor is it a book of meditations,” he said. “It is a history of prayer, essentially, that will help people connect with the great tradition of prayer in the Catholic Church.

“They can go back and can learn what was the theology and practice of prayer through the centuries.”

(For more information about The Tradition of Catholic Prayer or to purchase a copy, contact local Catholic bookstores, call Saint Meinrad’s Scholar Shop at 812-357-6571 or log on to www.saintmeinrad.edu/shop.) †