European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 21, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Inside the Chapel. The monks of intern Are America s first monastic order. Is Nar j All the Oil pan a Mastery guested the Gas elevens Mastery a wheel bul i m shouted Mastery our aim it s evil Reedom eking a As Bro e Dove looked human French Ude Nore is under from it is Down id once Ven an the Joys a 8-by would is that is trays a i can lot 700 bunding tin Lern riles in pillars of he Cele Shaway a tooled Merce. Id holy 6 is Pri Mondary / is the Selling i some Lacto ing out a born Abbey Ini hover. Wog lae. � mod i screen Mabank --., a Elzlor scholars ,?lork." Ulp tors for 25 " won. It Sophy finding in latin. Greek and hebrew the biblical languages. Even alter taking final vows and his ordination As a priest the Monk of intern will pursue advanced Theo logical studies with video tapes lectures and a tutorial system similar to St. Johns at i be had 300 inquiries enthuses Stevens. Young people Are weary of the materialism of the world and turning to god. It s not an escape they re fleeing toward at thai moment the phone rang. A priest from Atlanta a specialist in Canon Law was interested in joining the Community. Within 10 years Stevens was telling him. There will be monasteries like this in every state. We Are witnessing a vast explosion of the ascetic Over Collee the founder Monk awaiting his first nov ices admitted that realistically Only one in 20 will stay. It s like medical school but requiring greater commit ment. The monks will spend the rest of their lives Here i have a love in graveyard picked out in a Grove of Cotton Woods near an old Pawnee burial in protestant Northeast Nebraska where within the memory of the older Farmers Kun flux klansmen burned crosses and catholics defended their Fields and churches with shotguns. Stevens donned the White hooded Robe with leather Belt and wine coloured scapular or shoulder covering that he had designed for the monks of intern. It s a Wash and Wear fabric not unbleached Muslin like the monks Robes in the Middle Ages. I m not an antiquarian and i m not into nostalgia. This monastery has a washing machine showers a microwave oven and a Xerox instead of paintbrushes and Parchment for copying before retiring he displayed a Lincoln. Neb., architect s rendering of a $3.2 million monastery inspired by the ruins of intern Abbey thai he Hopes will replace the barn Structure within the decade. Work is scheduled to begin on one Wing next Spring. Dawn came with a Golden pinkish glow like stained Glass on the Frost aimed window of the guest cubicle the Rich Aroma of freshly brewed Collee and. Irom the Chapel overhead a Gregorian chant in a resonant Bari tone. Even before the first novices arrive Stevens in Deavors to follow the to barium or daily schedule pre scribed in his Constitution and patterned alter the 6th Century Rule of St. Benedict. He rises at 3 a m. To chant the psalms greeting a new Day time on the monastic clock is ticked Oil by the chanting of lauds terse Sext none vespers and com Pline which Divide the Day into periods of work study Sung prayer and simple meatless meals. Bedtime Lor the Monk of intern is 8 . Hit aim la to keep the life simple and uncluttered. By the Middle Ages some monasteries had so expanded on the Benedictine Rule that monks were told How to blow their noses so As to give the least of lense to the attend ing others administered vast estates vineyards and copying houses in an atmosphere of silence through an elaborate system of hissing and sign language. We will not use any sign language Here. Ii anything important has to be said say Stevens says Overa breakfast of Black Coffee Plain bread and Orange be served against a background of More Gregorian chant pouring irom a tape recorder. Gregorian chant will be our Only music. Ii s the Best around a precious treasure handed Down by centuries of monastic tradition he said changing cassettes. A lot of contemporary Church music is just bad music. We be ended up with a country and Western after his morning mass attended by several farm families who braved the Road in their sunday Best and were rewarded with the celebrant s line singing and no Sermon and no collection Stevens spoke briefly of his background. He was born in Brattleboro. I. The son of a chef who died when Clifford was 9. One Day the famous father Edward Flanagan Carne to lecture in town. Young Stevens followed him up to his hotel room and with his Mother s permission bogged to finish High school at Boyo town in Omaha. He graduated from boys town High in 1944 and after working for a ear in the wartime shipyards on the West coast entered new Mellory Abbey a Trappist monastery in Dubuque. Iowa Here he spent live deliriously Happy but left because he thought the emphasis was too much on the ascetic and not enough on the intellectual resuming his Seminary studies he was ordained a priest in the Doc so of Omaha in 1956. Celebrated his first mass at boys town and alter several years of Par ish work became an air Force chaplain his flock included the test pilots and astronauts at Edwards fab in California where he hitched rides on jets breaking the sound Barrier and wrote a Book on while on duty with the Alaska air command in Ancho folder Stevens relaxes in hit cell at the monastery. Rayo. He recalls with a Grin to work re Thoj Maclo of changing milk into holy water. Tho Guys out on the radar stations were dying for fresh milk i Moocher a half dozen 5-gallon cans from the mess Hall but the Load sergeant Down on the High line would t allow them on Board the cargo planes he was afraid they might go bad in flight. I asked if holy water was of he nodded. I blessed the cans and off they All the while this 5-foot-4 Dynamo of a Man who looks like James Cagney in his movie prime without the cocky Smirk and minus the worry lines kept refining the Constitution for his dream monastery. When the brass threatened a desk Job As his next assignment by then maj. Stevens resigned his com Mission became executive editor of the priest mag Azine for a Lime was publisher of his own Short lived Magazine Lor priests and directed an Institute Lor Theo logical studies in Santa be. . He then returned to pastoral duties in Nebraska s Corn and Beel country. Doubleday published his novel flame out of Dorset. Based on the life of St. Steven Harding the 12th Century cistercian Abbot who along with the English contemplatives St. Cuthbert and St. Hugh of Lincoln rank with Flanagan As his heroes. Obsessed by his dream the Small town pastor searched for Sites Lor his monastery in the Caribbean. Wyoming. Colorado and the Canadian Rockies and might still be Hunting had the adult education program in Neligh. Neb., offered something else besides bail room dancing and seeking something More intellectual. Charlotte Clemens in Taylor a methodist and a widow signed up Lor the course in hebrew that pastor Stevens was offering at the St. Francis Parish Hall to people of All faiths. Learning of his love for Solitude she offered the use of the 240-acre family farm out on Cedar Creek for private prayer and meditation immediately he recognized the Ideal site Lor his monastery. Taylor talked her Sis or and two Brothers into Selling the farm that had been in the Clemensen family for 70 years and a retired farm couple. Joe and Emma Velder of Petersburg. Neb., donated s 100.000 toward the Purchase. Other donations including $10,000 from a retired Railroad Engineer came in John Frey who had lost his farm Al nearby Tilden. Set to work building the barn monastery and All its Furni Ture with the help of his four sons. A coincidence settled on the name intern for the world s newest monastery. Alter returning irom a trip to Europe visiting various abbeys. Stevens came to hebrew class with a place mat he had bought As a Gilt for his Best student. Taylor in turn had brought along a faded snapshot she wanted identified it showed her late husband who went overseas with the Navy in world War i. Posing by some ancient ruins. Both views were of intern Abbey. Coincidence is god s Way of remaining Anonymous says Taylor who at 74 devotes much of her time to getting the monastery ready Lor the first nov ices. This devout methodist has quilted comforters for their Beds embroidered altar cloths and carved tin Tern s wooden Entrance sign which reads in hebrew in the there have been setbacks too. Deer ate the 1.000 Christmas Trees Stevens planted to make the Monas Tery self supporting. A professional fundraising drive to launch the permanent monastery failed when farms in the area began to ail. A dozen prospective novices have come and gone. One Young Man could t understand not talking. Another thought the life too intellectual. Others did t like Gregorian Lile at tin Lern West will be devoid of newspapers magazines radio and to. There will be no alcohol except for a festive Glass of wine on major feast Days and no recreation or sports except jogging but it will not be a life without unspoken humor. Already there is a sign at the Edge of the Dove shaped Pond no walking on wmber21, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 15
