|
On the evening that we were supposed to leave…after Vespers, we had a
collation, that’s evening supper, and in Lent, it’s sort of limited.
You get two slices of bread, I believe, and then you don’t get any
dessert, that is another side dish, just your coffee. So it happened we
finished our dessert…or, our meal, and then we met in the Cloister.
Everyone talked, and that was the first time we broke the Rule of
Silence…(chuckles)…we actually spoke, everybody. We weren’t
given permission. It was unheard of! But we could because we were leaving for
good. The Superior didn’t mind at all. He was very strict on things, but
we spoke and said ‘good-bye’ we asked the priests for the blessings,
and oh, they were so sorry to see us go, and that took about an hour and a
half. At about 7:30 p.m. the cars, about seven or eight, came from Louisville.
Then we drove two miles to that little station at Gethsemani where we boarded
the train. We left about nine, I think. That two-mile drive was short.
But it goes to show you that I never left the monastery from the time I
entered until that time when I went to that station to leave for Georgia. Never
left the enclosure. That’s how strict we were. That’s how the monks
lived in those days. Of course, today, we live in a different age. Today
we’re more modern, more outgoing…that depends on what locality
you’re in…that is, the monastery. Some monasteries are still strict.
I mean, they try to be…but then, you have permission from the Superior if
you want to learn how to drive, and get your license. I was 54 when I got my
driver’s license…and that was only just a sweet 19 years ago…
--Father Luke Kot, OCSO
*****
The last evening when we came to the gate, we were saying
‘good-bye’ to everybody and I think the people that were left were
crying more than the guys that were leaving…I remember when I embraced
Bartholomew the last time, he had just gone up to the Infirmary. I was very
close to Bartholomew from his entrance, but in those days, you could never
manifest anything or speak about friendship or anything. I just know I had a
real good relationship with him, and that he felt it more than we did. In fact,
when we did come down here, I never missed Gethsemani because everything was so
new, that I had no time to think of the past.
…That (the day they made the trip to Rockdale to establish the new
foundation) stands out as one of the most prayerful days in my life. We said
Vespers, in church…We received the Blessing for a journey at that time,
and then said Compline on the train, and I did not sleep at all…I was just
so completely happy in going and…that day, to me, has always been one of
the most prayerful days in my life…When we arrived at 1 o’clock, it
took about two hours to get…the altars…set up, to find the books and
the wine and everything for Mass. Well I was just walking around in a daze. I
was no help at all.
…when we had our first procession on the feast of the Blessed Mother,
March 25, the Annunciation, we had the office of Terce as usual, and then we
were going to have the procession, and nobody gave any thought to where we were
going. Everybody just vested for it and came out. There was the thurifer, the
subdeacon, and the deacon with the cross, two acolytes and Dom James. So then
we began to sing the Responsory and then, to process and everybody’s
saying, ‘Where are we going?’ So, the thurifer and all ministers
walked around the organ … and you see this place was only 15 feet by 40,
and there are five altars, two in the back, two on the side and a big one in
front, on the East side, organ in the middle and then our choir stalls. So,
I’m sure that they realized if they went down that corridor, there was
nowhere to go…it was only about a four foot corridor, at best, there was
no way to turn around. So the ministers began to walk around the organ and
everybody started giggling. They went around the second time. Everybody was
still giggling and then finally they went into the Sacristy. So that was the
last procession we ever had.
--Father Joachim Tierney, OCSO
*****
When we stopped in the barn I was wondering, what in the world did they stop
here for…We had cells, and a little place for the chapel on top of the
barn. And they gave us a cell, then we found out “This is it.”
--Father Corentine Finnegan, OCSO
*****
We got a little bit of publicity when we first came here in the local
newspapers, as well as in the Atlanta papers. And the first Sunday that we were
here, they were all lined up on the road outside, looking in. You felt like a
monkey in a zoo.
…It (Gethsemani) still stands out quite vividly, because it was such a
very austere life. I used to come back from work, and we were saying our Rosary
on the way back from work and I’d look at the steeple in the monastery
there and I’d say to myself, ‘Gethsemani, my Gethsemani.’
In other words, it was quite a painful life there, and it was really one of the
happiest days of my life when I said ‘good-bye’ to the place.
…he (Dom Frederic) regretted having sent so many of his capable monks
off to Georgia to begin with…that he wished he had retained some of them
for the other foundations that he had to make.
--Father Cyprian Carew, OCSO
*****
Well, two days before we came down here, the names were called out, on the
feast of St. Joseph, and I did not care to come, but through obedience I
came…There was no volunteering at all…We came into the Chapter Room
on Sunday, the feast of St. Joseph, on the 19th of March, and the abbot said we
were making a new foundation. So he said, ‘Here are the names of those who
are going,’ any my name was called out. And so, I did not care to go, but
as I said, I came through obedience.
…When we first came there, we had to get all the manure out of the barn
where we slept. That was my job, to get that manure out of there…We got
them (the cows) out and put them in some other place, and the chickens were
close by, and the place where we ate was right across from where we stayed, and
it was a very cold place, too.
--Father Francis Xavier Kavanagh, OCSO
|
