By Gretchen Keiser

The jubilees of four monks at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers were celebrated Sept. 14, the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, and a jubilee day for all, according to the abbot.

“A jubilee is not just for jubilarians, but for all of us,” said Abbot Bernard Johnson, noting that in the Old Testament jubilees were announced by the blowing of ram’s horn as a trumpet to announce loudly and to all the celebration.

When celebrating jubilee years for those who have been dedicated to Religious life, “we can be much encouraged by those who have persevered…carrying the cross over many years.”

The jubilarians are Father Francis Kavanaugh, marking the 60th anniversary of his entrance to the Trappist order, Father Charles Zell, marking 50 years as a Trappist, Father Lawrence, celebrating 65 years in the order, and Father Tom Tarcisius, marking his golden jubilee.

After the Mass, friends and family members had lunch in the guesthouse, where the four shared reminiscences of their lives in the monastic community. Master of ceremonies Father Edmund read from a 1984 Catholic Digest article describing the breathless pace of Father Francis darting form one room to another in the guesthouse when he had responsibility for that area. “Father Francis has no time to lose,” he observed. The priest is well known for his tours of the monastery, particularly those given to thousands of school children over the years.

Father Charles, who spent his novitiate “plowing behind two mules,” recalled the extended construction of the Conyers church as a profound experience of creativity that he “wouldn’t trade for anything.”

A Trappist since 1941, he was not ordained a priest until 1980 when he was 68 years old.

Father Lawrence, a former novice master who entered the order in July 1926 in Gethsemane, Kentucky, said he was raised in rural Texas when the Trappists were unheard of. “I think most people there didn’t know there was a Kentucky, let alone Gethsemane,” he said. He learned of the order at the age of 14 from an Indiana priest.

With pithy humor and wisdom, he told the guests that everyone always asks older people the secret to living a long life. “The sine qua non,’ he said, “is don’t die too soon.”

His observation is that in a long life “there’ll be peaks and valleys, bright, sunny days and dark, gloomy days. Temptations, they’re sure to come,” Father Lawrence said. One long retreat decades ago, “did me a lifetime of good,” he added. The retreat master said, “Saints, we need saints in the monastery,” the priest recalled. “That makes an impression when you hear it 60 times in five days.”

Despite what outsiders may naively think, “stepping into a monastery doesn’t make you a saint, anymore than stepping into a garage makes you an automobile.”

Father Tome Tarcisius was recalled in his youthful days by Father Edmund as “running up a ramp with a wheelbarrow of sand or concrete” to pour into the forms for the arched abbey. Now slowed down a bit, Father Tom reminded the gathering, “Our job is prayer and we’re behind you all the time.”