August 27, 2005

In the name of the entire College community, I welcome you again as the newest members of our community, the Saint Anselm College Class of 2009.

You have spent the last few days here in the relatively privileged position of having just about every administrator and faculty member available focusing their full attention on you alone.  It is something we certainly consider an important undertaking because we want to be sure that you get off to the very best possible start that you can.  Good beginnings can be the foundation for your continued success.

You have been given lots of very good advice these days:  study hard; be honest; study hard; get involved; study hard; form good healthy relationships; study hard; pray; and study hard.  All of this advice is very sound…and if you take it to heart, you will succeed here.  If you choose to ignore it, this may be your last year here.  We want to you to succeed and we will continue to be with you on this journey, helping you to develop the wisdom that is very necessary to lead a good life in this world.

You are now members of a very special kind of community-one that has fifteen hundred years of tradition behind it.  This is a Benedictine college and though that may not have meant anything to you until the point of your arrival-it will make all the difference to your experience here if you take the time to notice.

This year you will learn about Saint Benedict-who he is, where he came from, the Rule he wrote for monasteries that communities around the world still follow a millennium and a half later.  You will learn about the monasteries of the old world that preserved and advanced our western culture and learning at a time when little else of real value was happening in the world.

And you will begin to learn about some of the essential elements of what it means to be part of a Benedictine college; you will hear words like "community," "stability," and "hospitality," to name just few.  When I welcomed the staff and faculty last Tuesday for the opening of this academic year, I spoke to them about the importance of prayer in our lives; both our own personal prayer and prayer together.  This is one of the most essential characteristics of a Benedictine place-that it is a place of prayer, where men and women together and alone raise their hearts and minds and voices in praise of the God who calls us to greatness and salvation.

But this evening I would like to talk with you about another very essential element of a Benedictine College-You have been doing some of this already, but there is much more to come.  The very first word of the Rule of Saint Benedict is "Listen" -and, as I said, you have been doing some of this already this week.  But for students at a Benedictine college, simple listening is not enough.  Those of you who have studied Latin know that the word obedience in English finds its roots in the Latin "audire" to hear.  Obedience is not a popular word today probably because it is so commonly misunderstood as servile submission.

But, for you as students at a Benedictine college and for those of us who are faculty and staff, obedience is an essential concept for us to be who we are, growing of the mutual respect and care that we should have for one another.  So what does obedience really mean?  Fundamentally it is an attentive listening-certainly to words spoken; but that's not all.  It means attention to how good people live, how their example can influence my behavior for the better; it means being interested in discovering the truth of things-whether in science or literature or art or politics…it means taking the discipline's methods of investigation to find out how they speak to us of the truth, of how they bring us closer to our God.  It means attention to what God may be asking of you for your life's work.

This attentive listening requires the engagement of your minds and hearts.  There is nothing passive about it.   Rather, for this kind of listening you require two things:  leisure and silence.

After everything you have heard these days, you may think that no one is interested in your leisure.  But nothing is further from the truth.  This college exists to provide you with precisely that leisure-the time to do what you may never again have the time to do in such abundance-to read, to study, to discuss, to question, to discover who you are and who you can become.

Sometimes people joke that college has become an expensive four-year vacation-but it has always been something of that, if by that you mean a time when you can leave behind the cares that might otherwise impinge on your life and develop the skills of mind and heart that will carry you through a lifetime.  Whether you realize it or not, these are the leisure years-your parents, your families, your own hard work and the generosity of so many benefactors have made this leisure possible.  It is for you to use it to listen attentively….

The other requirement for attentive listening is silence.  And this is something that, in today's world, is not so easily provided for you.  You need to insure it yourselves.  If you are to learn in a Benedictine way you need to provide yourselves with an environment that regularly shut off the noise - of the three hundred TV channels you have access to, of the cell phones, of your computer, and of the i-pod.  Only by getting in the habit of being quiet will discover the wonders of the world around you -in the written words of the texts you'll study, in the beauty of the natural world that our campus provides you, in the people whom you are just beginning to know and who will become increasingly important to you every day, in the quiet voice of God calling you to greatness.

Being a student at a Benedictine College means many things, as you will find out in the months and years ahead.  But remember always that at the start of this adventure, someone told you how important it was to listen attentively.

One of the things you will hear every day is the Church bells that ring on this campus. When you do, remember that there is a God greater than all of us with whom you might well spend some of your leisure and silence.  Every day in your classes you will learn about human achievement and human greatness that simply does not happen apart from God.  Pope John Paul II often said to young people: "Nothing human is hurt by the Gospel:  Every authentic value, in whatever culture it appears, is accepted and raised up by Christ.  Let the light of Christ shine in your lives!"

Take his words to heart. Know that we are with you every step of the way as you develop into men and women of true wisdom who can bring hope and light to our world.

We will come together as a college community on Monday, the first day of classes, at 10 a.m. in the Abbey Church when we will together invoke God's blessing on this new year. I'll see you then!

God love you all.

Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B.
President of the College