I,1.4 Our alma mater’s Physical Nourishing
At Mt. Angel we were nourished in the heart’s love, the mind’s
wisdom, the soul’s moral virtue, and the body’s physical strength.
Building up good habits of physical exercise was part of
our seasonal and daily routine. In the fall we played football,
in the winter basketball and we trained for boxing, and in spring
we had track and field and we were each on a softball team.
We often heard about a strong mind in a healthy body and to that
was added a warm heart and a virtuous self-sacrificing soul.
The monks imitated Jesus in all of that and their very lives
of poverty, chastity, and obedience let each of us know their love.
Even as freshmen we were told about cardiovascular exercise
and at the football field we would run around the track until
we were perspiring profusely and lift weights and stretch.
We would practice passing and catching the football and blocking.
In High school we had about eight football teams with
members from each of the four classes and we would compete
to see who won at the end of the season as we also did in basketball.
For the first three years I did not really understand what was
demanded to be really competitive in track and field even though
I was very interested in running and jumping especially because
I had delighted in my father’s high school annuals, and he
was a star athlete in all sports, but especially in the half mile.
With him when I was six years old I had already started
learning to box when he taught boxing at Carey High School.
So already as a freshman I was eager not only to play
basketball during the winter but also to train for boxing.
Father Louie called it the manly art of self-defense and
we had great fun sparring with each other and learning
how to work the rapidfire punching bag and even skipping rope.
That was the main thing about sports for me—they were lots of fun.
Play is fun and we did play football, basketball, and baseball.
I,1.5 Father Bernard and the Spiritual
Father Bernard Sander was the rector of the minor seminary
and as the person in charge of everything he primarily
concentrated on making sure each of us got deeply involved
in each of the spiritual exercises we could practice each day.
He was an excellent speaker and each day for about ten minutes
he would explain to us the deeper meanings of the mass,
of the divine office, of confession, and during May of the rosary.
During their fifteen-hundred-year history the Benedictines
have been forerunners in developing a beautiful liturgy.
Father Bernard would talk to us about the church’s year of grace.
He explained to us how the daily sacrifice of the mass was
at the very center of our spiritual exercises and how it was
divided into the liturgy of the word and the liturgy of the Eucharist.
Each morning there would be a special reading from
the Hebrew Bible and from one of the New Testament Epistles
and from one of the Four Gospels. Father Bernard often
picked the connecting point between the three and spoke on that.
The Benedictine fathers would come together in the choir stalls
and chant back and forth the eight parts of the divine office.
Father Bernard explained to us how they sang the 150 psalms
of the Psalter each week and how many of the older fathers
had all the psalms memorized, which made them very dear.
As parish priests we too would eventually pray the Breviary
made up of Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terse, Vespers, and Compline.
Each day we would recite Lauds, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.
Thus already as freshmen we started learning the Old Testament
and began to see what Matthew meant when he claimed
that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.
Father Bernard began to help us see how love and justice were
so important throughout Hebrew history and how Jesus came
to take them further even with a love for all our enemies.
I,1.6 Father Ambrose and the Intellectual
Father Ambrose Zenner had gone to Rome to get his doctorate
in sacred theology and the word was that he was being groomed
to become the next abbot of the monastery and he did become
the rector of the major seminary when the new building
was built in 1956, and there were then two seminaries.
When I arrived in 1952, Father Ambrose was the vice rector
of the entire seminary under Father Bernard and every two months
he would talk with each of us as he gave us our report cards.
He was very encouraging and right away I liked him.
I would ask him why a priest had to study algebra and science
and he would tell me why a liberal arts education was important.
We students would talk with each other about such questions
and we would discuss with each other what he told each of us.
Already as freshmen we began to hear about the intellectual virtues
of science, art, practical wisdom, intuitive reason, and philosophical
wisdom and in the seminary there were those studying philosophy.
We called the students in the major seminary logicians,
philosophers, and theologians because that’s what they studied.
Philosophy especially began to have a mysterious appeal
and it was good to believe that mathematics and science
could teach us special methods that would help us love wisdom.
My algebra teacher’s name was Father Method and Father
Ambrose joked that Father Method was teaching us a method
of clear and correct reasoning that could help us in everything.
My grandmother Coates had a book on her shelf called
The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant and I loved
looking through it and certain quotations stayed in my mind
such