European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 21, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Monastic seclusion in Nebraska the Freedom of Solitude t. Father Clifford Stevens a former air Force chaplain it the founder of intern monastery in Oakdale neb. Page 14 the stars and stripes by Hugh a. Mulligan associated press t he Road to monastic seclusion Row. Anything but straight and pave Iway with ruts mud holes and jagged bending boulders. If you can t make it up to the to Stop off Al my farm and borrow the sit Dick Childs. In All Nebraska seriousness at station in town. The car bogged Down but father Clifford s the founder and so far the Only Monk at the me of intern. Came to the Rescue in a Muddy Iron drive vehicle. The county promised to improve this Road not sure we want better accessibility Stevens Over the engine knocks As the barn like me came into sight around the last tortuous is to keep the world at a distance not because but because Solitude to a Monk is Freedom the i to pursue god with the intensity of a Lover be rendezvous with his beloved " the silence of the deep surrounding Woods 1 Ken Only by n great Blue Heron lifting Oil Over for shaped Pond with powerful Happing wings. Americans. Stevens regretted have always Down on the contemplative Lile As a waste of resources but he summoned Albert Camus the existentialist As a witness Lor the defense of Solil there Are no Mote deserts. There Are no t lands yet one still feels the need of them. To Slind this world one must sometimes turn away to serve run bettor urn must hold the Matadial Stevens a former air Force chaplain who in at Iwick the Spoff us sound in an f-104 a applied Lor astronaut train Bruj they never e sacred Rny letter spoke enthusiastically of of living a life of suit no As he showed off the tin 1?-1oot rough pun1 cubist s where the Monk sleep on Slat Board Beds and Straw Mattres would stir the inmates of Attica to bang their me against the bars ii Hugh Helner can Lound a Playboy Empire help recover a tradition that has been lost years he says in defense of his dream of f America s first monastic order Tho monks of and the first new order anywhere since these the 13th Century. Our Community will be built on the four p Solitude study the chanting of the psalms and bration of the eucharist he continues leading up a spiral staircase to the Library and sky ugh Chapel. The monks will engage in no business or Cor there will be none of what Thomas Merlon Calk Jesus. Buy our cheeses the contemplative Mary. When you have a business it becomes 88 and the monks become employees. The problem with Many monasteries Loda economic Side has become Tho dominant Side wines jellies vestments and even shaving i""0" european nuns work in breweries and Chocolas Ries and there s an american monastery Tun 15.000 loaves of Broad a the 59-year-old priest sees modern tint again from the rums of 12th Century Tinter Rii a Wales As a theological think tank. But Leslea ing Over an illuminated manuscript in tha nth sacral Sanc tranum the Reading room i Ern Monk of Tutein would be Bent Over a View feeding input into a computerized theological specializing in the works of Thomas a a mation stored would be made available to around Tho world who could code into oui a Stevens envisions a Community of Schotia. Poets potters and above All theolog1 Cois he has been compiling his order Sec outlines a 10-year training for the monks in uie ology research methods and a thorough it saturday. A
