The annual retreat for the Portsmouth monastic community was held on December 10-15, 2021, led by Abbot Gregory Mohrman of Saint Louis Abbey. He had originally been invited to serve as retreat master in 2020, but plans were necessarily curtailed due to pandemic protocols and closures. Left without our scheduled retreat master, the 2020 gathering nevertheless took place with an unusual format. Each resident monk was asked to present one conference on a spiritual topic of his own choosing, which proved to be very fulfilling in its own way. Many communities maintain separate retreat houses not too distant from their own monasteries to which monks are literally able to retreat, away from the usual work and demands of their day-to-day ministry. At the moment, Portsmouth does not have such a place of rural respite, so the retreat takes place within the monastery. St. Louis Abbey, while blessed with a large retreat house called Apple Hill, situated on 150 acres and a 75-minute drive north of the city, for various reasons the large log house is not used for community retreats and the St. Louis monks also retreat within their own monastery. This year we were pleased to be joined by Fr. Andrew Senay, also of St. Louis, who is currently in residence at Portsmouth. 

Abbot Gregory with Brother Benedict Maria (see final note below)

Abbot Gregory’s retreat schedule began Friday evening and comprised nine conferences, or talks, throughout the six days, coming to a close with the monks’ conventual Mass on Wednesday morning - followed by a drive to the airport. Despite his revelation that this was only the third retreat he had ever led in his life, the abbot’s modus operandi was firmly in place and well-received. Each session began with the Hail Mary, followed by the invocation of the intercession of St. Gregory the Great. Not only is the he the patron of the Portsmouth Abbey church, he is the namesake of the visiting abbot, who laid out four reasons for his affinity with the great pope and saint: he is known as the biographer of Our Holy Father St. Benedict; he famously sent monks from Rome to Canterbury to begin the evangelization of England; he is the source of much of the church’s liturgical music, as in Gregorian chant; and he “had to do a lot of other things even though he only wanted to be a monk.”  In short, Abbot Gregory said, “He’s been a great patron for me!” 

Explaining that throughout the Bible, “God reveals himself as a God of particular persons,” the abbot highlighted several stories, some mentioning these persons by name. These included the call of God to Moses from the burning bush, the encounter of Mary Magdalene’s with the risen Lord, whom He also calls by name, and the meeting after the resurrection of Jesus and the two disciples (one named Cleopas). Citing the latter story as “my most favorite passage in the entire New Testament” due to its lesson on lectio divina, Abbot Gregory pointed out that in taking the road to Emmaus, the disciples were actually going the wrong way, off-course and headed in the direction away from Jerusalem. The abbot also brought into play various references to the Rule of St. Benedict, offering reflections on the Prologue, on “What Are the Instruments of Good Works” (chapter 4), on “What Kind of Man the Abbot Ought to Be” (chapter 2), on “Constituting an Abbot” (chapter 64), and on “The Good Zeal Which Monks Ought to Have” (chapter 72). Bringing the weeklong retreat to a conclusion, Abbot Gregory drew a thread through all of these thoughts, reminding participants that the two hinge points of our lives boil down to how we live and how we worship and pray. And just as God calls certain Biblical personages by name, like Mary Magdalene and the height-challenged Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, he often deigns to call each one of us by name. 

It is fairly common knowledge that the formal dinner for the monks takes place in silence, save for the voice of the reader-of-the-week reading from a book, and this time-honored and time-tested tradition continued throughout the retreat. The current reading, the New York Times Bestseller Mayflower by author Nathaniel Philbrick, was put on hold for the retreat. While Mayflower is about the pilgrim ship, its subtitle - Voyage, Community, War - could easily have served as the subtitle for the retreat, omitting the third word. Our retreat reading came from A Monastic Vision for the 21^st Century: Where Do We Go From Here?, a collection of essays by religious and lay writers. Number 8 in the Monastic Wisdom Series, it is highly recommended reading, especially for oblates (Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, MI). The three essays chosen for this retreat were by Michael Casey, O.C.S.O.; Terrence Kardong, O.S.B.; and John Eudes Bamberger, O.C.S.O. 

Suitably refreshed and reinvigorated after a week shared with a very engaging retreat master, the Portsmouth monks will continue to safely hunker down quietly within our walls, rejoicing in our own particular way at the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the babe in the manger. 

A final note: My thought in having Abbot Gregory and Brother Benedict pose next to the mosaic of Portsmouth Abbey’s shield is that the image represents a sort of “passing on the torch,” as I think JFK said or wrote. The shield, designed mid-20^th century by Dom Wilfrid Bayne, was re-imagined early 21^st century in mosaic by Br. Benedict, while in residence in St. Louis for his novitiate, and unveiled for the occasion of his Solemn Profession on All Saints Day this November. The image depicts the ongoing and vibrant link between St. Louis and Portsmouth. In my mind, Abbot Gregory serves here as a kind of place-holder, a stand-in for Brother Symeon Gilette, O.S.B. and his Medieval Arts Guild in Saint Louis, who inspired Brother to execute the project. And if I may add another sincere and heartfelt note in closing - Merry Christmas, everyone.