Homily at the
Mass for New Student Orientation
by
Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B.
President
Saint Anselm College
23 August 2007

What a wonderful way for our new students to begin life at Saint Anselm College – here in this Abbey Church, accompanied by the people who have loved them and nurtured them, and who have dreamed of the day that they would begin a new phase of their growth into adulthood.  And here we all are – Benedictine monks, college faculty and administrators, fellow students and classmates joining with you all for the very first time together to begin your life on this campus; together in prayer that God will be with you in every moment of every day that is to follow this one.  What a wonderful way to begin!

Signs and symbols often teach us something quite profound; and this gathering is one such sign.  All of you – for whatever reason -- and the reasons are many -- made the choice to enroll here and to begin today.  Some of you know more about Saint Anselm College than others because perhaps you had a parent or sibling or friend who preceded you here.  There are some things you all need to know about us, some of which will take time to learn and appreciate, but I would like to spend a few minutes today to talk about something that may not be at the top of your list…yet.

A few years ago our College did some research to see whether or not the fact that this is a Benedictine College made much difference to our applicants and their families.  We discovered that it did not.  Now you might think that that would have been disappointing or discouraging news – and it would have been if we had not also researched something else.  We asked our graduates if it had made much of a difference to them that this was a Benedictine college.  The answer was a resounding yes!  What we learned was a lesson like many things in education – it takes time to understand what things matter and what things don’t.  It takes time to understand the once unfamiliar and make it part of one’s life.

So to begin that process today, let me say that the word “Benedictine” is one of the strong identifiers of our College.  On this campus lives a community of monks who follow the rule of Saint Benedict that was written nearly 1500 years ago.  For the last millennium and a half men and women have devoted themselves to the search for God according to the way that Saint Benedict prescribed.  It means that they live together in community, that they pray together during the day, that they spend time in private prayer and reading, that they share the joys and sorrows, the struggles and successes of each others’ lives – and, they work.  Saint Benedict understood the human person very well and knew that no one would spend their whole time in prayer or in the round of community obligations productively if they did not also spend of their talents and energies in the service of one another or of the broader community.  And so for centuries the sons and daughters of Saint Benedict have been involved in the work of learning, in the work of caring for the environment in which they found themselves, and in the work of assisting others in their own search for God.

The Benedictines who came here to Manchester over a century ago did so at the invitation of the first Bishop of this diocese for a very specific purpose and work.  The bishop was anxious to have a catholic college in his diocese and wanted the Benedictines to found it and conduct it.  And so a small group of German monks came from Newark, New Jersey and founded this community and, in 1889, founded this college that was only the third catholic college in all of New England.  Since that time – even to this day – there has been a Benedictine community here as stewards of the vision of their founders and of the spirit of Saint Benedict. 

As time goes on, you will hopefully learn the great insights that Saint Benedict had about life, about other human persons, about the love of place and the love of God.  You will learn that hospitality and humility, prayer and work, love and stability, respect for the individual in community and discipline, are not just words, but realities that make up the Benedictine approach to life, a way of living out the Christian life in a monastery or outside of one.

Today I want to speak with you about only one of the many aspects of Benedictine spirituality that you will experience during your years at Saint Anselm College; and one that hopefully will guide all of our students, regardless of religious affiliation, especially during your first days and weeks and months here.

The first word of Saint Benedict’s Rule is “Listen.”  It is a word that you have undoubtedly heard many times and in many different tones of voice; parents are probably tired of using the word, and children tired of hearing it!  But it is an important word nonetheless; and a particularly important word at the beginning of a college career.

Saint Benedict uses this first word of the Rule to encourage us to pay attention to words that are important, to people around us, to the world around us, to the presence of God around us.  For Saint Benedict, and for us to listen is to be attentive to what is happening in our lives from all perspectives.

Whatever we may think about listening, there is something that is absolutely essential before we can do it:  we must prepare ourselves to listen. To be able to really listen from the core of our being means that we must remove what other “noise” there is around us – and that noise might be something like the distractions of an ipod, of a cellphone, of an MP3player of an Xbox or IM or e-mail – things that disturb our ability to pay attention to the moment and the circumstances in which we find ourselves.  While none of these things may be evil in themselves, they may very well prevent us from really listening to what we need to read, or hear, or see; they may frustrate the ability of another person or even of God to communicate here and now.

But some of those obvious distractions are not the only things that keep us from listening.  More often our own prejudices or presumptions can be a more subtle but even more powerful force to obstruct our listening.  If I have my mind made up before another even speaks, how can I truly listen?  If I have decided that another person is not worth my respect, how will I ever discover the presence of God in that person?  If I believe that my opinion is already better than anyone else’s in the history of humankind, how will I ever learn at all?

The noise that keeps us from truly listening comes from so many sources – and sometimes we have become so used to it that we are afraid of its absence.  And yet the truth is that without silence, without setting aside prejudice of any kind, we will never successfully manage the most important journey of our lives – the journey to the knowledge of the Truth that will ultimately make our lives joyful and fulfilling both here and hereafter.

So I ask one thing of our new students and one thing of their families.  Of the families I ask that your give your sons and daughters the time and space they need during the adventure they begin today.  You have prepared them well for this day, with your own faith and your own love.  Now they will begin that sometimes painful excursion into the world of higher education where they will begin to ask new questions, or the same questions in new ways; they will begin to assert independence in a new way.  And sometimes they will trip up; and sometimes even fail.  But all of that is part of the experience of life that will hopefully bring them at the end of their years here to a successful and joyful life, to a life where they have made their faith their own, where their knowledge has reached new heights; and their love becomes adult.  All the lessons you have taught them have prepared them for this day.  Let them now begin to take the responsibility for their own progress; encourage them to take time to listen quietly so that they will hear the lessons of their development and the sometimes quiet voice of God who loves them at every moment.

Of our new students I ask that you begin to develop that very fundamental Benedictine habit of listening.  You have an opportunity that you will never have again in your life – you have the time to study, to reflect, to question, to develop your minds and hearts from the starting point of attentive listening. You are going to be studying this year some of the greatest minds in human civilization.  Listen to what they have to say about the human person, about who you and I are, and about the reality of God in our world, revealed especially in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Take the time to truly listen and relearn and reshape for your new life the lessons that your parents and families have taught you.  Believe it or not, you will find a great a deal of wisdom there.  Don’t write it off.  Listen to what is helpful; and let go of the noise that is isn’t.  Take the time to be silent so that you can listen to the longings of your own heart:  the meaning of friendship, the gift of your professors and all who are here to help you; listen especially for the voice of God who may be speaking to you though the work you are undertaking and the people who are around you.  I promise you that will not regret developing the habit of listening.

There is a literary device, scholars tell us, called inclusio.  It means that something an author does at the beginning is connected directly to something at the end, and therefore sort of frames everything that is between the beginning and the end.  I bring this up because some scholars have suggested that our dear Saint Benedict used this device in writing his Rule.  He began with the word “Listen” and ended – 73 Chapters later – with the Latin word “pervenies” – “you will arrive” or “and you will succeed.” 

This is what we pray for today around this altar:  that all of us will listen more attentively and more deeply as you begin your journey at this Benedictine college.  This is my message for all you:  “Listen…and you will succeed!”