A Visit To Westminster Abbey

[Starets]

No, not THAT Westminster Abbey. There is another one near Vancouver Canada in the small city of Mission. It is part of the Swiss American confederation of Benedictine monasteries. As is typical of that congregation, it runs a seminary as its primary apostolate. They have a minor seminary of about 30 high school aged boys from grades 9-12. There are also about a dozen men in their major seminary. The monastery itself is on 200 acres and they do grow some of their own food. They are self sufficient in eggs, for example, and they do have a couple head of Charolais(sp?) cattle. They have a guest house with 40 rooms and a couple dining areas. The boys lived in dormitory style housing with their classes on a different floor. The men had a separate building where they had private rooms and a shared lavatory on one floor and their classes on another floor. Both the boys and the men have their own sets of "household chores" to keep the place running. this helps to keep tuition down, as you can well imagine. there are about 20 monks in their community including a couple Postulants. There is a wide range of ages in the community, from early 20s to early 90s.

 

Like so many institutional building built in the postwar years, there is an awful lot of brick, cinder block and concrete. The Abbey Church, completed in 1982 is a magnificent structure. 200 feet long, a good 60 feet wide and about as high with columns designed to evoke a Gothic-style church. But it is an awful lot of concrete! there are some bas-reliefs that one of the monks has added over the ensuing years but those too are made from concrete. The altar is made of solid granite from Minnesota. There is also a Eucharistic chapel. The monks sit in two large choir stalls that have a capacity of about 20 a side.

 

They follow a two week monastic horarium. They chant in English with their own prayer books.. Mass is with the priest facing the monks. the Graduale Romanum is used for Mass, along with a couple other books.

 

i spent three days there in silent retreat and two days travelling there and back. There is a LRT line that will take you from Vancouver airport to downtown and back and a commuter train that will take you to and from Mission. It was a great and restful time. too bad the guest house has a 7 day maximum stay policy! I wanted to make a two week trip.

[littlesister]

Starets - Westminster Abbey ? -  don't scare us like that !   Benedictine monasteries are great places for retreat.  We all wish we could stay longer too.