Snow fence on the Holy Lawn (1974)

Dom Matthew Stark added the following article to “The Portsmouth Bulletin”, the monastery newsletter, of December 1974. Our oblate community will be interested to note that its former Director. Dom Damian Kearney, is mentioned as the new Prior of the monastery, a position currently held by Brother Joseph Byron. Following mention of the included news items, along with several others, Abbot Matthew then offers a theological reflection.

Excerpts from “The Portsmouth Bulletin” (December 1974). Many of you will be pleased to hear of the appointment of Dom Damian Kearney as Prior of the monastery, as of last June. Dom Alban Baer has served in the capacity for many years, first as Subprior, and then as Prior when in 1969 Portsmouth was raised to the dignity of an Abbey. Last spring he was granted a leave of absence for a period of time after more than 30 years of outstanding work in the school’s English Department, of which he was the head for about fifteen fruitful years. During the time that Father Alban was chairman many changes and new courses were undertaken in the Department.

Dom Damian Kearney (image: Portsmouth

Bulletin, December 1974)

Father Damian was housemaster of Saint Benet’s from 1960 until this past year. He has taught English and Christian Doctrine in the school since 1954 and has filled many other offices with great care and selfless devotion. It was thus with confidence in his abilities and respect for his high standards in the fulfillment of his duties as a monk and priest that I asked him to undertake the important position of Prior. As Prior he holds the place after the Abbot and, when it is necessary, acts in the place of the Abbot. In this monastery, as in most, the Prior overseas many of the day-to-day arrangements in the life of the community, as well as acting as an advisor to the Abbot. In addition, Father Damian has taken on the chairmanship of the English Department and is Junior Master and so responsible for the training of those monks who have passed from the novitiate and have yet to take solemn or final vowels in the monastic life.

On the Community as the Mystical Body of Christ. Saint Paul says in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit, the utterance of wisdom; and to another the utterance of knowledge, according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” The Apostle, of course, is speaking here of the Church taken as a whole or in its parts. Now a monastery is the Church writ small, and the monastery, like the Church, depends upon the gifts of the Spirit to fulfill its function. The whole monastic community is enriched by the talents and gifts of one another, and the deficiencies of one are made up by another. The weaknesses of one monk are supplied by the strengths of his brethren. The weaknesses of the whole community are overcome finally by Christ who dwells in our midst. This is the most clearly seen both in the monastic community and in the Church as a whole in the celebration of the liturgy, and in particular in the Holy Eucharist. Our worship, even at its best, is a poor thing. This must be because of our human weakness. But that insufficient poverty is taken up by Christ and made his own and so transformed into worthy and fitting praise of His Father. So every aspect of the work of the monastery, if the grace of God is at its root, is transformed by Christ.

In the same Epistle Saint Paul goes on to say: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews, Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say: ‘because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it less a part of the body. And if the ear should say: ‘because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? If one member suffers all suffered together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” The Church is the body of Christ; each of us is intimately joined to Christ as the parts of the body are joined together. We know this of the Church by faith, but since it is by faith, it is often hard for us to have a vivid sense of this truth. In a monastery, however, we are daily made aware of this interrelationship with one another; and what is said of the monastery is true also of the school.

Abbot Matthew Stark (image: Portsmouth

Bulletin, December 1974)

We are members of one another, and both in a material way and in spiritual way we serve one another. If one member of our community suffers, in some sense we all suffer, and if one member is honored, we may all rejoice. Perhaps in our day it is a function of a monastic community to manifest the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ for the whole Church of God. In the monastery, we can more easily perceive that we are part of one another, and that we share our gifts with one another. Most especially we share the life of Christ in our midst. We not only adore and worship him in our liturgy, but we serve him first in our brethren and then, with our brethren and our fellow workers from the laity, we serve those whom we teach. So it was stated at the Second Vatican Council that Christ “continually distributes in his body, that is, in the Church, gifts of ministries through which, by His own power, we serve each other unto salvation so that, carrying out the truth in love, we may through all things grow up into Him who is our head.”

Rt. Rev. Dom Matthew Stark, O.S.B., Abbot