Present Situation
Father Richard George Herbel, a pastor who was ordained in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, is now prior of the monastic community. There is one associate, David Blythe, in residence. Others interested in beginning the process of determining whether they should join the community are welcome. Surrounding the resident community are the concentric circles of friends and guests. St. Augustine's House has hosted thousands of people in conferences, retreats, and daily services over the years. Many of these become members of "The Fellowship of St. Augustine" and receive the newsletters of the community. Each summer near the 28th of August a day with prayers and a lecture is held for the members.
Fr. Richard
The community also has a smaller group of friends who take on special responsibility for the community as "associates." Because monastic community is still being established at St. Augustine's House, the associates play a big role in its life.Eventually a larger number of resident monks might be less obviously dependent on the associates, but the situation today provides a special opportunity for friends to have a significant role in the life of a monastic community.
Monasteries do not house only monks but also function as residences for periods from a few months to a few years for people who appreciate a time of monastic exercise in their lives. So St. Augustine's House has been a temporary home for many people, somewhat in the pattern of the Hindu ashram. Many options in degree and length of affiliation to the community are helpful, given the changeful nature of life in the modern world.
The closest friends of the community and the house are the group of people living in the neighborhood who worship weekly at the chapel. For them the monastery becomes a special kind of parish. They do not live in the buildings or come to all the prayers of each day but visit frequently. Those of us who live too far away to be with the community so often try to get there at least once a year for some days of retreat. During such times, we can participate in the regular life of the community and draw great benefit from even a few days' experience of it.
Ecumenical Friendships
Father Arthur's dedication to Lutheran unity and Christian ecumenism was another factor which has drawn people to Oxford and introduced them to a new kind of religious affiliation, crossing denominational lines. The circle of friends of the community has included people from many different Protestant denominations, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox.
Contacts with Roman Catholicism were strengthened when the Sylvestrian Benedictine order established a monastery within walking distance of St. Augustine's House, around 1960. There has also been an international element in the circle of associations. A specific international element was added in 1965 when word reached Father Arthur about a group of men in Sweden who were establishing a Lutheran Benedictine community. This community had been founded by a group of students in 1960 and had established its first monastery in 1965. Father Arthur soon became an overseas member of that community. It was agreed from the beginning that he would continue to live in the U.S. and that St. Augustine's House would be a "sister community" of the Swedish order. Some of the novices of the Congregation of the Servants of Christ have lived with the Swedish monks for periods of time, and the Swedish brothers have made numerous visits to Michigan. St. Augustine's House has remained in touch with the Swedish community, although the connection is not formally structured.
Daily Life
Seven separate liturgical offices plus the Eucharist are observed each day. The time spent in these activities in the chapel totals about three hours, not including the times set aside for personal reading and meditation each morning. The following schedule is typical of the daily usage for many years, although it is adjusted for special circumstances. The Office of Vigils begins at 5:10 a.m. and is followed by a time of personal meditation until Lauds at 6:00. Silence is still observed after Lauds when one may get some breakfast or read. Terce at 8:15 is followed by the Eucharist at 8:30. Sext, None, and Vespers are at noon, 2:30, and 6:00 respectively, with Compline at 8:30. Each office consists of psalms (read or chanted), scripture lessons and at least one hymn or canticle.
The liturgical practice of the monastery has an immediate familiarity to those who worship within the American Lutheran churches and is recognizable to anyone in the Western Church's liturgical tradition. That familiarity is important to the friends like me, who participate in the worship infrequently. They can join in easily and feel "at home." Monastic worship is not entirely like other kinds of worship, however. It has special characteristics which yield special benefits. The slower, deliberate pace and the sheer length of the time devoted to prayer can help to develop a disposition toward reflection and meditation.
Monastic Lifestyle
The observance of the offices and the Eucharist are the heart of St. Augustine's House. They are the primary activities for which people come to it and the center of the community life. All other activities are subordinated to prayer and to giving one's attention to God. Mundane matters such as sleeping, eating, and conversation are conducted in a different way in a monastery. All the changes from normal behavior are beneficial in signaling and accompanying the deeper reformation of life for which the monastery is a school. Just because it is different, not spontaneous but self-conscious, the monastic way of doing ordinary things helps one to reflect on their role and place in one's life.
Silence is one of the practices which seems strange to some people. The great period of silence starts with the end of Compline and lasts until the end of Terce or the Eucharist. Another period of silence is observed after the noon meal until a little before None. Sleep, reading, and meditation are private activities which certainly should be preserved from all but the most necessary interruptions. During the rest of the monastic day, however, silence should be preferred to talk, thus encouraging one to reflect on the need to speak. There are plenty of times for conversation, usually after the Eucharist, siesta, and supper. Of course people do talk at any time when it is clearly needed. There is no sense in being rigid about this or any other regulation.
Silence is a mechanism for turning the attention toward God and self. Social interaction is wonderful but demanding. One becomes even more aware of the claims people can make on time and attention when they are limited and distanced temporally. Silence stops the flow of self outward and makes people more aware of their selves.
After the essentials of food, sleep, and worship are taken care of, the monk or guest still has time left for work and leisure. The work periods for any resident may involve a task in service of the community (house maintenance, tending the garden, preparing a meal, putting labels on mail, shelving books in the library, mowing the lawn, cutting and hauling wood, snow removal, shopping and other errands). The work periods can include study and further reflection beyond the appointed time for meditation, but it is desirable that they involve some physical labor. There is religious value as well as health benefit in the activity of the body. This work should be fitted into the pattern of ritual activity and subordinated to it. One must avoid work which robs time from the offices of prayer or times for reading and meditation. It is so easy for us to be consumed by work when there is a sense of accomplishment and pride in it. The monastic custom helps us to put work in its place, again in a middle position, between the ease of the playboy and the disease of the workaholic.
It has been beneficial, if not exactly planned, therefore, that the community has never taken on a specific service or work. One does not come to the house in order to do anything other than the fundamental monastic activity of prayer. Even pressures to use the facilities as a conference center must be resisted. The community must be on its guard against attempts to assign it a program which could vitiate its essential purpose.
An Invitation
As you can read between the lines of this short description, my affection for this place and my debt to it are great. I wish everyone could have such a place to which to "retreat" periodically. Like all good friendship, the rewards are greater than the cost. Maybe the possibility of having such a large circle of friends can be an inspiration to some people to join with this monastic community and share in its life and mission.