Conception Abbey
Conception, Missouri
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Conception Abbey Conception, Missouri |
Tower Topics ~ Fall 2003 |
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A rose is a rose: A novice by another name is a monkby Dan Madden * * * Deeply rooted in Scripture, the centuries-old tradition of taking a new name is one of several symbols of a new monk’s commitment.“We choose to surrender an old life and take on a new one,” Abbot Gregory Polan explains. “There is power in names. They give us identity, and they often give insight into a person’s mission, calling, or state of life. Throughout Scripture, individuals have their names changed to indicate a shift in calling or the acceptance of a special task for God or the community of faith. There is a transformation that takes place.” Thus in the Old Testament the name Adam is fittingly translated as “clay.” Abram (“exalted father”) becomes Abraham (“father, host of nations”), and after wrestling with the angel, Jacob becomes Israel. In the New Testament God gives Jesus his name, which means “to save,” and in turn Jesus, upon calling his disciples, promptly renames them. First among them, Simon, becomes Peter (“the rock upon which I will build my Church”). * * *  Novice Timothy Letter, who along with Novice Ronald Valenzuela, made his
simple profession Aug. 15, was given the name Guerric, after a blessed
abbot and contemporary of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Brother Guerric put
the name at the top of the list in part to pay tribute to his
novicemaster, Brother Bernard Montgomery. In the 12th century Brother
Bernard’s patron talked his young disciple Guerric out of leaving
monastic life for the academic world. 900 years later, it was Brother
Bernard who persuaded a bewildered Novice Timothy to stick it out.
(Brother Guerric’s other two choices were Methodius and Luke.)
* * * Perhaps one of the more intriguing name changes in Conception’s history was that of Novice Ronald, who decided to forgo the tradition of submitting three names, choosing instead to let the abbot pick one for him. Drawing a parallel between his birth and the “rebirth” of profession,
Novice Ronald said he played no part in his naming the first time
around, so why should he this time? “The abbot is my new spiritual
father,” he said. “He should name me.”“What a divine burden is mine to name this man,” Abbot Gregory said days before the profession. The name of a new monk is kept secret until the moment in the Mass when the abbot announces it, but Novice Ronald’s unorthodox decision added spice to the customary suspense, which Abbot Gregory did nothing to discourage. After hinting in the weeks before that the name was a first for Conception Abbey and that it had three syllables, he savored his enjoyment until the last sentence of the “Conferral of Names.” Reflecting on the main characters of the day’s Gospel, the abbot hinted strongly at Jesus (Hay-zoos) Valenzuela, a name that rolled off the tongue like Mexican poetry. He then moved on to John the Baptist, a man who “prefigured St. Benedict’s model of obedience.” And finally there was Zachariah, a figure “faithful in waiting, struggling to believe.” “Abbot Gregory wasn’t giving anything away,” said a woman in attendance. “Every time he said a name, we thought that’s the one. They were all perfect.” “What name shall we give you, Novice Ronald?” the abbot asked with dramatic flair. (Spectators resisted the urge to call out “Drum roll, please!”) “I place you under the patronage of the great Forerunner of the Lord, and you will be known among us as Brother John Baptist.” * * * Brother Jude always liked the Beatles.That’s the not-so-straight answer he gives when asked the story behind his name.  Actually, as a teenager, young John Person chose Jude, the patron of
lost causes, as his confirmation name, because “I always thought of
myself as a lost cause.” But as a novice and a man of words, he was
drawn back to the Apostle and writer of the epistle. He also noted that
the name is tied to the Tribe of Judah, from which Jesus came, and is
forever linked with Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of the Lord.“And,” he says, only half joking, “I’ve always recognized a bit of the betrayer in myself.” * * * Novice Joseph Reed’s profession was the first presided over by Abbot Gregory, and he knew that three years later his solemn profession would be the first in the renewed Basilica. These firsts turned his attention to Conception Abbey’s founder, Abbot
Frowin Conrad and his patron, Blessed Frowin of Engelberg, who, while
not the first abbot of Conception’s motherhouse, is “first in honor” for
his renewal efforts that saved it.“Frowin is clearly a Conception name,” Brother Frowin says. “And I knew it had served Abbot Frowin well.” Has it served the newest Frowin well? “Yes,” he says, “except when people who meet me call me Frodo and think it is the most original joke ever.” * * * Few monks found as many reasons for their name of choice as Novice Vernon Probstfield when he chose the patron John Francis Regis, a French parish priest.His catch-all choice simultaneously honored the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese in which he would live the rest of his life (the Church of John Francis Regis was Kansas City’s first parish), his maternal grandparents (John and Frances) and the pastor of his childhood parish (John Francis Regis was known for his tremendous pastoral spirit). The novice also hoped that the name Regis (“King”) would gain him Christ the King as his feast day.  But things didn’t go as planned. Abbot Stephen Schappler refused his
feast day request (only if he received the names Emanuel or Salvatore,
neither of which fit a boy from the Ozarks), and frowned on the idea of
giving a monk a moniker with multiple names.Father Regis is sure his grandparents would understand. “I’m happy,” he says of his name 51 years later. * * * Not every monk gets his first choice. It has taken 52 years for Father Hugh Tasch to get over the feeling that he’d been “stuck” with a third-choice name that he never even liked. “I never dreamed that I wouldn’t get one of my first choices,” Father
Hugh says. “So I flipped through The Lives of the Saints and picked St.
Hugh of Cluny. He was Benedictine, that was good enough.”Father Hugh’s casual choice came back to haunt him. Five minutes before he entered the abbot’s office to present the three names, another novice had been given his first choice, Gregory, and the abbot didn’t like his second choice, Ephrem. For decades, Father Hugh, who once lived for an entire year as a hermit, stewed over the fact that his name derived from the 12th century monastery of Cluny, where monastic life had swollen with the excess and liturgical flamboyance that he finds repugnant. But after “50 years of hating my name, I realized God might have been at work when that guy in front of me took Gregory and the abbot didn’t like the sound of Ephrem.” In the past year, Father Hugh has found parallels between himself and St. Hugh, who helped reform European Catholicism. Conception Abbey, like Cluny, is different than the monasteries of Gregory’s and Ephrem’s time, when monastic life was more secluded. While the monks of Conception are not out in the world like the Cluny monks, influencing politics and living the high life, they face the challenges of an intruding modern world. “We have switchboards and e-mail and computers,” Father Hugh says. “We have all kinds of stuff I didn’t want as a novice.” “Like Hugh of Cluny, I live in a different time,” he says. “It’s not that I want to be a rabble-rouser, but I feel called to ask questions about the complexity of our lives.” * * * Father Samuel Russell also ended up “settling” for his third choice, and although it didn’t take him near as long as Father Hugh, the name had to grow on him.When two men named John entered the novitiate together, they were asked to change their names to eliminate confusion. “I could’ve chosen my middle name, Robin,” Father Samuel recalls, “That was my grandfather’s name, but I never liked it.”  He then considered Benedict, the patron of the parish in which he was
baptized. “I really would’ve liked that,” he said, “but I thought it was
a bit much for a Benedictine novice to take that name.” (He would cringe
three years later when his friend Thomas Neenan had the gall to take the
name Benedict. “How dare he!” Father Samuel remembers thinking, perhaps
wishing he’d had the gall first.)He deemed the name Ailbe, the obscure Irish patron of the parish where he grew up, “too weird.” And Lawrence, the patron of his father’s childhood parish, was already taken. “There was no great piety in my decision,” he admits. “I was just thinking of patrons who had connections with my family.” Novice John Robin, touching on his Eastern European ancestry, finally decided on Nicholas, patron of the parish in which his mother grew up. He liked the name so much that he submitted it and two others at the end of his novitiate to Abbot Jerome Hanus along with a thorough and energetic essay on why he wanted to keep Nicholas. “I didn’t give much reason for the other two,” he says. Like a demanding teacher, the abbot gave the sheet back and said he wanted more on the other names. “You’re kidding!” the novice replied. “No,” the abbot said. He acknowledges the name has become a comforting reminder that he needs to find time to be still and like his patron listen to God’s voice. When the newly professed Samuel called his great uncle in Chicago, the old man’s only comment: “There are a lot of people up in Skokie with that name.” * * * Twenty years after Father Hugh missed it by five minutes, Novice John Polan got it.Abbot Gregory says he is deeply connected with his name and the saint who wore it in greatness. Believing that a patron should be a guide and mentor, he says he reads something from St. Gregory the Great every year on his feast day. “In his writings I feel I have come to know him," the abbot says, explaining that the saint personified all that drew him to monastic life. "First of all, he was a monk," Abbot Gregory says, "a very significant monk; he tells us everything we know about St. Benedict." Second, St. Gregory was a reformer of the liturgy. "Liturgy has been a central part of my calling to Benedictine monastic life," the abbot says.  "And third, Gregory was a great pastor," he says. "He wrote a book called
A Rule for Pastors, which gave positive direction to living one's life
as a priest with spiritual dimension and depth."A watershed moment in Abbot Gregory's life came during a Jubilee Year pilgrimage to Rome. On the Feast of St. Gregory the abbot knelt in prayer before his patron's tomb. "Then I went to the monastery on the Coelian Hill where he was abbot," he recalls, a look of wonder on his face. "It was a deep and intimate spiritual experience to walk in Gregory's footsteps and sit in his abbatial chair." There is power in names. |
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Fifteen years later, he’s still wrestling. But now he has a patron who’s
done some wrestling himself.