August 23, 2005

Good evening and a very special welcome to all the new members of our faculty and staff and their spouses and guests. We are happy to have all of you as part of our Anselmian community. Would all those who have joined our community since last August please stand and be recognized.

It seems that every year we have some significant changes in the administration of the college. This year is no exception. Susan Gabert has assumed the directorship of Campus Ministry, Father Anselm has assumed the position of assistant director.

We have some new members of the administration as well, including,

• Dr. Alicia Finn - Dean of Students
• Janet Kolkebeck - Associate Vice President, College Advancement
• Bill Furlong - Assistant Vice President, Facilities and Auxiliary Services
• Kathleen Burton - Director, Human Resources.

I express the thanks of all of us to Father Mathias who is off to graduate school later this week in the more temperate climate of San Diego and to Father Cecil who will be leaving the campus ministry staff to assume some new responsibilities in the abbey.

In other monastic news, Brother Andrew has already left for a sabbatical that will take him to China for the coming semester and perhaps year; Brother Bernard (class of 1992) professed his solemn vows in July and will be ordained a deacon in September. And our community's newest member is Brother Benjamin Marc Lavallee, a 2001 graduate of our college.

This summer we received the retirement of one of the senior members of our faculty, Professor Joseph Scannell of the Fine Arts Department. As we thank him for his years of service, we certainly wish him all the best in the years ahead.

Our executive vice president, Dr. Marie George has now completed her second year with us. She daily has an enormously positive influence on our common work and I am certainly personally very deeply grateful to her for everything.

To all of you present, I express my heartfelt thanks for the wonderful work that you do in so many areas of the College. It all makes a profound difference.

As you know, among the goals of our successful campaign for Saint Anselm College was the establishment of our first endowed faculty chair. You may remember that in a surprise announcement at a reception at his home, Richard Bready pledged the funding for the first endowed chair in our history. As our discussions with him unfolded we agreed that from Wall Street to Main Street, from Capitol Hill to Town Hall, from research laboratories to health care systems, from the music industry to art galleries, from Catholicism to Islam, from peace in the world to a just local law enforcement, the questions of what is right and wrong, of what we should do to advance our lives together, have come to the fore in new and far more complex ways in the first years of the 21st century. And so, what is now known as the Richard L. Bready Chair in Ethics, Economics, and the Common Good will provide the opportunity to engage a faculty member for the serious study of how ethics and the disciplines function in a free market economy.

Mr. Bready further surprised me when he presented a check for $1 million to fully fund the chair at the President's Society Dinner last December, thus enabling us to initiate this undertaking sooner than expected. I am very happy to announce this evening that first Richard L. Bready Professor in Ethics, Economics, and the Common Good is our own Dr. Montague Brown of the Philosophy Department. We will have a more formal and public announcement and celebration during the coming year. Congratulations, Monte!

My Dear Colleagues:

One of the questions that everyone seems to be asking these days is "How was your Summer?" "Hot" is the first word that comes to my mind. And then we begin the list of things that were or were not accomplished during the last few months.

Students often think that we have spent our time at the pool or beach—perhaps as they have. But in reality, there is so much that happens here during the months between the academic years: we have financial audits and closing the annual fund; we have trustee meetings and alumni reunion; we have renovations of residence halls and civic leadership academies; we have grounds improvements and sports camps—all these things combine to make our campus better in so many ways: in the eyes of the public, in the eyes of our students, and hopefully too in the eyes of God.

One of the things that I did this Summer will have an on-going impact on Saint Anselm College. Along with Abbot Matthew, I participated in the meeting of the Association of Benedictine Colleges and Universities. This year we met at Collegeville Minnesota with the presidents of the eleven other Benedictine colleges and universities from around the country and the superiors of the Benedictine communities associated with them.

Last year the group met here and among the speakers on the topic of the Benedictine intellectual tradition was our own Dr. Gary Bouchard, who is currently working on a document about what it means to be Benedictine at Saint Anselm College. 

Our larger association (ABCU), following up on some of the ideas generated here, considered the draft of a document that a small group of Benedictine scholars composed on the hallmarks of Benedictine institutions, particularly those who are dedicated to the academic world. These scholars identified 10 principal characteristics of every Benedictine institution, built on the strong foundation of the Scriptures, the Rule of Saint Benedict, and the living ecclesial and monastic tradition.

During the course of this year in various forums and with different groups I hope to speak with you about all 10 characteristics. This evening I would like to talk about only the first one, namely, prayer.

If there is anything that should characterize our Benedictine college it is that we are people of prayer, that is, we are men and women who are able to pause from the demands of life and work to raise our minds and hearts to God. Certainly for us as an institution it is essential that we must provide places and times for prayer—such as the Abbey Church, and the times we stop for prayer together. But for this to truly be a Benedictine College we must be more than that. To be a person of prayer is to be someone who is mindful that God is present in every moment and every activity of our life; that God is concerned about the historical realities in which we live and is attentive to the concerns that we have. To be a person of prayer is to be empowered to raise ourselves out of the simply material world to the level where our spirit puts us in touch with the Creator.

For us as Christians, we profess that by God becoming human in Christ, all the world is transformed and can speak to us of the presence, the goodness, the beauty, and truth of God. This will not happen, however, without our prayer. I often say that we are fortunate to be at a college where God is not marginalized or ignored. But it is up to us to make his presence evident to those around us.

There are times when we pray together as an entire community: and I encourage you to participate in those campus celebrations of the Eucharist for the opening of the academic year, for the holy days, and for all other common celebrations. Your example more than your words speaks to our students—and to each other—about the significance of common prayer in a Benedictine College.

There are times when we pray as a smaller community: in meetings, in classrooms, in times of mourning or joy. I strongly encourage every faculty member to renew our very old tradition and begin every class with a prayer; in doing so you will help our students understand how to pray and why to pray. If you need suggestions for appropriate prayers, I will be happy to help; as I am sure the Dean and members of the Campus Ministry office would be as well. I strongly encourage administrators and staff to begin meetings with a prayer for God's guidance. It is, in the end, God that we serve in the work we do. We should not be afraid or embarrassed to ask his assistance when we work together.

And finally, there are times when we pray alone. Our Benedictine tradition of sacred reading is an approach to Scripture that opens the mind and heart to the presence of God in our lives. Careful reading and earnest reflection should characterize our approach to learning however that takes place: in the humanities seminar, in the laboratory, on the grounds or athletic fields: how do we "read" what is object of our work and discover God's truth there? How do we reflect on it to make it part of who we are and who we can become? This is our work… to become persons of prayer so that all who walk on this campus will know that this is a Benedictine place.

Becoming people of prayer will help us enormously to work together in the most productive way possible.  It will help us become a people that are mindful not only of God, but mindful of each other and the important role that each one of us plays in the life of the other and of this college.  It will help ensure our fidelity to our mission and advance the work that all of us do together. 

I hope that you will talk with me about the ways you will implement some of the practical suggestions I have made this evening and I hope to see you at the opening Mass next Monday morning.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B.
President, Saint Anselm College