Catching up with Br. Stephen Johnson, OSB
A conversation with Br. Stephen Johnson, OSB, of Assumption Abbey, son of Mark and Loriann Johnson, on botany, the two towers you can see from the interstate, and the long apprenticeship of a Benedictine monk. Keep him in your prayers as he continues priestly studies at Sant’Anselmo, the Primatial Abbey of the Benedictine Order in Rome.
Fr. Luke: Today we welcome Brother Stephen, a native son of our parish, to share a little bit about his journey, his life as a Benedictine monk, and hear a little bit about his time here growing up in our parish community, hear about his formation, hear a little bit about his life now as a monk who’s also preparing to be a priest, a priest monk — but now fully professed as a Benedictine monk for three years now, right?
Br. Stephen: Yeah, it’s been three years since I made my final vows.
Growing Up in the Choir Loft
Fr. Luke: Three years since final vows. Well, Brother, tell us a little bit just about yourself and about growing up here at Sts. Anne and Joachim Parish. What do you remember about growing up here in our parish life?
Br. Stephen: Sure. I remember here at Sts. Anne and Joachim being involved with lots of parish ministries with my family. So I was in the church choir from high school. Even in college when I went to NDSU, I wasn’t an official member of the church choir anymore, but I’d still come back down, ’cause the Sts. Anne and Joachim choir is the best in town for parish choirs.
Br. Stephen: And I was, from a young age, involved as an altar server. And I did the youth formation here — Wednesday school, and then later the youth group.
Fr. Luke: Did you go on any of the youth trips, like Steubenville, World Youth Day, any of those?
Br. Stephen: I went with the Shanley students once to March for Life, in DC.
Fr. Luke: March for Life, yeah. But you went to Davies High School, right? Just down the road.
Br. Stephen: Yep. Public school.
Fr. Luke: Right. Yeah, I went to public school as well, Lisbon, North Dakota. And then my little brother went to Shanley. He probably needed it more. But he might even be watching. You never know.
Botany at NDSU, and an Anonymous Report
Fr. Luke: So from Davies High School to Assumption Abbey — that’d be a whole story, wouldn’t it?
Br. Stephen: Well, it wasn’t one to the next. I went to North Dakota State University first, where I studied botany.
Fr. Luke: Oh, fantastic. That’s very monastic. It sounds like Brother Cadfael.
Br. Stephen: Yes, exactly. Finding all the herbs, helping making connections.
Fr. Luke: Yes, the good things of creation and their order, and God’s timing, right? So much of biology is patience.
Br. Stephen: And it was during my time in university that Father Metzger, the vocation director, gave me a call — and of course, as a college student, I would never pick up a call from a phone number that’s not in my contacts, so he left a message and said, “I’ve received some reports that I should talk to you about diocesan priesthood.” And I still don’t know who. It’s the anonymous report.
Fr. Luke: The anonymous report.
Br. Stephen: And I assume well-meaning older ladies in the church, but I don’t know for sure. And so he invited me to the Melchizedek Project.
Fr. Luke: Oh, sure — which was like a group to go through that book, right?
Br. Stephen: Yeah, To Save a Thousand Souls.
Fr. Luke: Yes, by Father Brannen. It’s a great book. So you got involved in the Melchizedek Project?
Br. Stephen: Yep, during university — although I was pretty sure that I at least wanted to finish university, because I had started it already.
Fr. Luke: Were you living up on campus? Did you kinda drop by the Newman Center now and then?
Br. Stephen: Yeah, I was involved in the Newman Center too. I was in their choir.
Fr. Luke: So you’re doing double duty choir.
Br. Stephen: Exactly. Well, not every weekend — depended on the week.
Fr. Luke: Excellent, so just a lot of involvement here in Fargo in a lot of different ways. Aren’t your parents in the choir?
Br. Stephen: Yeah, one of my sisters and my mom are still in it.
Fr. Luke: I know your dad’s a cantor, right?
Br. Stephen: Yeah, he does the cantoring occasionally.
The Music That Formed Him
Fr. Luke: So a lot of music in the family. What music did you connect with most in high school and college, as you were singing in these choirs involved in sacred music? Was there certain music, maybe certain hymns, certain antiphons that kind of were like, “I connect with that. That brings me to the Lord”?
Br. Stephen: Well, technically not part of the ones you mentioned, but probably what connected to me most was more the instrumental music. I was also in my school’s band, and in FMAYS, Fargo-Moorhead Area Youth Symphony, which — I played the bassoon in band.
Br. Stephen: And being in the Youth Symphony let me play a lot more classic pieces — a lot more Mahler, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, Stravinsky — and seeing the beauty of those compositions, I think, attracted me a lot.
Br. Stephen: Still, all music attracted me. But I wouldn’t say at the time I was in the church choir that I — I just liked the music. I liked to sing. I liked to praise God in whatever words there were, whatever way there was.
“If I Don’t Go, I’m Going to Regret It”
Fr. Luke: Fantastic. So then Melchizedek Project comes along. When did you first start noticing an interest in the Benedictine life? What were some of the little streetlights along the way, or the moments of light along the way, that sorta pulled you in that direction?
Br. Stephen: During the Melchizedek Project — I wouldn’t have said, “Yes, I’ll go,” if there wasn’t some spark. And I think I had somewhere in the back of my mind that maybe I’d be open to priesthood or religious life, just as a general concept. And during the Melchizedek Project, I decided, “I’m not sure if diocesan priesthood is right for me, so I better look a little more carefully at religious life.”
Br. Stephen: I put it on the back burner for a while, because I thought, “Okay, I have to get my independence. I need to finish school. I need to start working,” which I did for a few months. But while I was working, here in Fargo still, I had the realization in my prayer and in my thinking about it that if I don’t actually go somewhere and experience some kind of religious life in person, I’m gonna regret it, because it keeps coming back to mind.
Two Towers off the Interstate
Br. Stephen: So really, I just looked up on the internet monasteries near me, and the only men’s communities around here are St. John’s in Minnesota and Assumption in North Dakota, which are both Benedictine. So those were the nearest. And then I also was looking at the Trappists in Iowa. But because it’s in the same state, I went over to Assumption first.
Fr. Luke: In Richardton. The famous two steeples.
Br. Stephen: Yes, the two towers. People always say, “I saw the two towers from the interstate, and I finally decided to come and visit.” Visitors and sort of tourists who see the place. But I went out there and liked it enough and was attracted enough that I didn’t visit anywhere else.
The First Visit
Fr. Luke: Tell me, what was your first visit like, as you look back on your first visit to the abbey? What was that like?
Br. Stephen: Well, I was trying to keep an open mind, and so I didn’t tell anybody where I was going on the first visit, ’cause I didn’t wanna be influenced by other people’s opinions about it. So I just took a weekend visit. I think maybe I told my roommate. But I went out and I saw that — I didn’t really know anything about monastic life other than they pray a lot, and they live in community. And so I saw that, yeah, it’s a community of real people who have real personalities, real different interests.
Br. Stephen: They were interested in me because I was interested in them, just like anybody when you meet them. They got me involved with prayer life right away, eating with the monks right away, which we do for all guests at Assumption. They didn’t have me do any work, ’cause they wanted me to do a lot of praying.
Fr. Luke: Yeah, give space for thinking about it — the oxygen of prayer to kind of inform the decision-making process.
Br. Stephen: Right. And I don’t remember very much about my first visit because it was over so fast, but I remember that it attracted me enough that I scheduled a second weekend visit a month later.
A Prayer at the Monks’ Cemetery
Br. Stephen: And it was during that one that I think I had my biggest sort of moment of attraction, which was I went down to the monks’ cemetery, just down the hill, because I had heard Brother Michael, the vocation director at the time, saying, “We all will be together in eternity, or at least down the hill.” ‘Cause we’re all going downhill. That’s where the cemetery is, in the end.
Br. Stephen: So I went there, and there’s a grotto with a bunch of petrified wood as the backdrop, and then a statue of the crucifixion, and Mary underneath. And so I said a prayer there, where I said, “Jesus, I see you’ve sacrificed so much for me. What do you want me to sacrifice for you?”
Br. Stephen: And it just sort of became obvious that in the asking of that prayer, that I was trying to find an excuse for him to tell me to become a monk. I wanted nothing more than to be told what to do, because I knew from my normal Catholic formation that everyone has a vocation that they’re called to by God, and you have to discern it. And I went, “Well, the discerning is pretty difficult, because it’s not a light from heaven. For most of us, it’s not a light from heaven. It’s not a voice from the cloud — and if it was, maybe we shouldn’t trust it.”
Because God Wants Us to Choose
Fr. Luke: Yes. No, ’cause God wants us to choose. ‘Cause our choice then makes it—
Br. Stephen: Makes it free.
Fr. Luke: Makes it free, and then it makes it a fruit of love. Right? If it’s just an order, then it’s — you know. But if it’s this, He’s inspiring and giving us grace.
Br. Stephen: Yeah, but I was 21, and I was looking for the easy answer. You’ve known enough young seminarians that they’re always looking for the exact right answer. The end sign.
Fr. Luke: But that was what almost put your heart at peace.
Br. Stephen: Yeah. It wasn’t totally easy, because I had other obligations at home. I had a roommate, with rent that I was contracted for for a few more months.
Fr. Luke: So what month was this?
Br. Stephen: My first visit was September of 2018.
Fr. Luke: Okay, so then October.
Br. Stephen: October of 2018 was my second visit.
Fr. Luke: And then so then you kinda knew.
Br. Stephen: I felt like I knew then.
“We’ll Worry About That When the Time Comes”
Br. Stephen: And before I could join, they wanted me to do a live-in week, where I would still live in the guest section of the monastery, but I could go up into the cloister, into the monks’ private area. I could go to recreation with them. I could go to the novitiate reading room — I was expected to go to the novitiate reading room each evening, where I got a copy of the Rule of Benedict.
Br. Stephen: And the vocation director then said, “Oh, you should take this home with you,” when I leave. And I said, “Wait, but what if I don’t decide to come back?” And he said, “Well, we’ll worry about that when the time comes.” And I said, “Well, that’s a manipulation.” But I knew at that point. And he knew that I knew.
Why Assumption
Fr. Luke: Well, as you were visiting in those first few visits, in September, October 2018 — what was it about the Benedictine life, and about the particular form of it at Assumption Abbey? Each monastery is a little different, even though there’s—
Br. Stephen: Yeah, and I don’t wanna sort of over-exaggerate the differences between different monasteries. But there’s a focus on living in community there that I really appreciate. Most other Benedictine monasteries in the US have schools, which take a lot of time and attention, and that’s all very well and good. But at a community that doesn’t have a school, there’s more opportunities for all the monks to live together, and be together more time than not.
A Living Room of Thirty
Fr. Luke: I was on retreat at the abbey in, I think, October 2020, maybe—
Br. Stephen: 2021.
Fr. Luke: Sometime in there. And I was able to come up to the second floor and join in some of the common nights, if you wanted to, and I did, I think one evening on retreat. And I noticed just the spirit of the community was very much alive and very fraternal and friendly and joyful. And everyone was trying to pick one movie to watch together, for like a group of 30, right? It was like a living room of 30. All the normal things in a living room. And there was the popcorn machine going off.
Br. Stephen: Yep. It must have been a Saturday.
Fr. Luke: Yeah, it was a Saturday night in October. Just kind of ordinary, ordinary time. The harvest was coming in, and the food was great.
Br. Stephen: Oh yeah, we’re lucky with that too. That doesn’t hurt. They say that, especially for candidates and novices, those who eat, stay. The ones who enjoy the food are more likely to stay.
Fr. Luke: It’s like that great line from the Psalms — “How good it is when brothers dwell in unity.” Or the Ecce quam bonum, right? Of the Psalms. How good it is. There is a goodness to that unity of — you know, we live in a world that’s so isolated. Even in cities; cities can be a lonely place. There’s this kinda isolation and distraction of modern life, and here’s this beacon of fraternity. And that’s really a fruit of the Rule, right? The Rule allows this ongoing conversion to take place. It provides this framework of conversion, and as there’s greater conversion to Christ, there’s greater human unity.
Closer to God, Closer to Each Other
Br. Stephen: Yes. One of my favorite figures, who I read when I was in the monastery in formation, was recommended to me by the novice master — Dorotheus of Gaza, the discourses. And he said there’s an image that he makes of, think of creation like a circle with God at the center, and all of the rays going out are the people. As we draw closer to God, we also draw closer to each other.
Fr. Luke: Closer to each other, yeah.
Living the First Week in Two Days
Fr. Luke: So what was your time of formation like when you decided to enter? You had these weekends fall 2018. When you entered, what was this time of apprenticeship — you know, we call it formation. This time of being under the tutelage of others, and your own personal growth and your relationship with God. What was that time like? What was that time of formation like?
Br. Stephen: At first, exhausting. So I sent my application in to join after that live-in in November, and I was visiting my sister in Maine. She no longer lives there, but she was there at the time. And then I got the call from the vocation director saying, “You’ve been accepted. You can come in January.” So it was January 10th of 2019 that I moved in as a candidate.
Br. Stephen: I moved right into the monastery corridor. I’m still in the same bedroom as when I joined. Same cell. Third floor, west side. And I just started the life right away, which I wasn’t used to the pace initially, because it’s 6:20 morning prayer, and then breakfast and then Lectio and then work until midday prayer, then lunch and then work until Mass at 5:00. And then supper, recreation, vespers at 7:00, more Lectio, compline at 8:10.
Br. Stephen: And I think I must have lived the first week in two days. It just flew by.
Fr. Luke: You just get thrown right in.
Br. Stephen: Yeah, you’re just thrown right in.
Fr. Luke: What a great schedule, though.
Br. Stephen: Yes. Until the weekend, you have no time for yourself — at least, it felt like that when I was starting. I find time now, because I know how the schedule works, and I know when I’m supposed to be able to finish work and get ready for Mass or get ready for prayer. And so I don’t have to work right up to the time.
Lectio with the Novice Master
Br. Stephen: But yeah, meeting with the novice master every week, for meetings of how to do Lectio Divina. We always started every meeting with doing Lectio in common — reading usually the Gospel passage for the day, and then meditating on it, reading it another time, meditating on it, reading it another time, giving our prayers to each other about that passage, and then going into how things are going, both from me and from him.
Br. Stephen: Where he would say, “Oh, this is going well, and this isn’t going so well. You should pay attention to this.” Which didn’t really come up until later on, because they know that when you first join, you’re just getting used to it. And first fervor does a lot of work as well — that you want to throw yourself in when you’re new. You want to adapt as much as possible.
Br. Stephen: And then I could say, “I’m struggling with this,” or, “I really like this.” And then there’s evaluation throughout, where you have to write self-evaluations, which then the novice master presents to the community, so they know how you’re doing, so you have no secrets anymore. Which is very reminiscent of, I think, diocesan priesthood training as well.
Living in the Light — and Lots of Cleaning
Fr. Luke: That’s all living in the light.
Br. Stephen: Yes, exactly. Whatever is in the shadows is brought to the light. And there’s very few secrets anyways in the monastery, because you live together. You spend all day together.
Fr. Luke: There’s something very purifying about community life. There’s no place to hide — which is good, right?
Br. Stephen: Although it’s exhausting.
Fr. Luke: That’s what happens in Genesis, in the Fall — Adam and Eve hide. And there’s something about living in the redeemed life of the new covenant, of leaving the hiding places and coming to live in the light. Seeking the advice of other brothers, sharing the struggles of life, mutual support — it’s just all there.
Br. Stephen: Yeah, it’s all there. It’s baked in to the way of life.
Fr. Luke: It’s baked right in.
Br. Stephen: Then also I was getting formation classes for more the intellectual elements. I think it was weekday mornings I’d have these classes, and weekday afternoons I’d have my work.
Fr. Luke: What was your work in those years?
Br. Stephen: It was lots of cleaning. Lots of fixing things. I worked for the maintenance department, where I learned a lot of skills. I learned how to be a non-licensed electrician. So I can’t be hired out, but I can do enough in the monastery to be a help.
The Road to Solemn Vows
Fr. Luke: Excellent. And then eventually you come to this decision, right? Do I make final vows or not? Which is kind of the big decision of a monk. It’s not necessarily ordination — that’s a discernment later. But really this life as a brother, this sort of final vow, which is a permanent giving over of your life in poverty, chastity, and obedience to God, to the community. How many years after you showed up is the final vow moment for your community?
Br. Stephen: It’s at least four and a half. The first six months is candidacy, where you just wear lay clothes. You live in the community, but you have no obligation to stay. There’s no level of time period or anything.
Br. Stephen: Then you can become a novice, where we just receive the tunic and the belt underneath the scapular. There’s different practices in the Benedictine world around that. One year of being a novice, and that period you make promises that are not vows, that go for that year. And it’s supposed to be quite intensive. I got a vacation at the end of my candidacy to visit family, but there’s no vacation during the novitiate.
Br. Stephen: And then at the end of that, there’s another evaluation process, and the community votes on you, whether you can take temporary vows, which are for a minimum of three years, but can be extended up to nine years after those three years. But I did mine just in those three years, so for me, it was four and a half.
Was There a Moment?
Fr. Luke: And then in your own discernment, there is time of discernment still in these years, as you are — I mean, what you’re discerning is, “Do I make final vows or not,” right? Was there any key retreats, or key moments of prayer, or key times with the Lord where you were given the grace of that, or the fire to say yes, or the peace to say yes with confidence?
Br. Stephen: I think it’s not the same for everyone, but I would say most people had a similar experience to me, which is the moment they felt really committed was when they made their first vows, because that feels pretty momentous. You’re going from a novice to a member. You’re an official member. Your name is in the ordo.
Br. Stephen: You’re still not quite fully a full member, because one of the aspects of being a solemnly professed member is you can vote in the chapter, and help make major decisions for the community. But you are a monk when you make first vows.
Fr. Luke: Yeah, so you’re living the life. You’re committed to the prayer, the—
Br. Stephen: There was still a possibility of leaving after three, and there were moments that—
Giving Up the Rust Bucket
Fr. Luke: So you have to give up your car.
Br. Stephen: Before solemn vows. I had it when I made first vows.
Fr. Luke: Oh, before solemn vows. Sure.
Br. Stephen: You’re not allowed to have any property when you take solemn vows. But for me, my car was an old rust bucket Ford pickup that you could watch the road go by through, between your feet.
Fr. Luke: I had one of those at one time too.
Br. Stephen: Yeah. So for me, it wasn’t that hard of a decision.
Fr. Luke: Yeah, I had one of those in high school. It was great.
Br. Stephen: But yeah, I mean, I emptied my bank account before taking solemn vows, so that I was free completely.
When Confidence Faltered
Br. Stephen: But again, by that time, I felt I had already — it’s hard to say there was a moment, ’cause I had just sort of gradually built up confidence through living the life and being with the community.
Br. Stephen: There were times that I lost confidence. There were some times where I struggled with, you know, certain Brother X — I felt like, “Oh, he’s not being as good of a monk as he should be.” I had this judgment complex, ’cause I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted everything to be baked in, as we said, but with everyone forming me, and me being able to benefit from that.
Br. Stephen: But part of maturing in the monastic life is — and part of maturing as a Christian is — to take more responsibility for, first, your emotional reactions to that kind of judgment, and then for growing closer to God without needing everyone else to hold your hand.
Fr. Luke: Sure. No, that makes a lot of sense.
From Gardener to Student
Fr. Luke: So now after final vows, you were the gardener, right, too?
Br. Stephen: I was gardener before.
Fr. Luke: You were gardener before.
Br. Stephen: I was gardener after.
Fr. Luke: Putting that botany degree to work.
Br. Stephen: And because the policy at Assumption is, usually we don’t send monks away to study — in my case, for priesthood — until after solemn vows. But the period between: I took solemn vows in July, and the academic year would’ve started in August. I had to kinda start preparing ahead of time. Because until then, I had been told, “For now, you’re discerning to become a monk. If God is calling you to be a priest, that’s good for the community, but leave it on the back burner until you have finished discerning to make solemn vows.”
Br. Stephen: But just because of the timing, I had to bring it to the front burner before making solemn vows.
Fr. Luke: Because it was kinda coming together a little bit. ‘Cause you can’t just apply in July to go to college in the fall. Or — you already went to college, but to study undergraduate philosophy and—
Br. Stephen: Right. And because I already had an undergrad, I was able to do just a two-year pre-theology preparation.
Fr. Luke: So how many years you had between first vows and final vows?
Br. Stephen: Three years.
Fr. Luke: You had three years living the monastic life.
Br. Stephen: Yep, as a monk. Getting a little more freedom than a novice. As a novice, I had to ask for permission every time I made phone calls. But I was allowed to make phone calls when I wanted as a junior monk, and then my meetings decreased from every week to every other week with the formation director.
A Year at St. Meinrad
Fr. Luke: But your life as a fully professed monk has been spent a lot in the field of study and education.
Br. Stephen: Yes. Because of the timing, really.
Fr. Luke: So the last couple years, what have been some of the things that have filled your cup as a monk? What have been some of the things that you love, from ordinary life and ordinary studies of theology and philosophy to special visits, feast days? What’s filled your cup as a monk the last couple years?
Br. Stephen: One of the great blessings was I was sent to study at St. Meinrad, in Indiana. Which meant, as a monk, I could live in the monastic community. So while studying, I lived more or less as a monk there, even though my superiors were really still at home, and I knew that I was going back home.
Br. Stephen: They integrated me into their community life, which I really appreciated. I played cards with the monks, went for walks, ate with them, celebrated all their feast days. You know, had afternoons on a feast day where the brother and I, who had to clean up after lunch, would drink a bottle of wine, talk during the afternoon.
Br. Stephen: So yeah, just really blessed to get to know a new community and experience monastic life from another perspective. It’s pretty similar. It’s still Benedictine. But they have a school, which gives them a certain different level of attention. They have to keep that going, but they also have a larger community than we do, so they have a lot of monks who are permanently there in the monastery and doing other work. And they had lots of juniors, young guys who I could hang out with, which is always nice in a monastery, when you have people of your same age.
When the Bell Rings
Fr. Luke: Yeah, absolutely. Sounds like it’s just been a grand adventure. You know, following God’s grace, following His call one step at a time. What I love about the Benedictine life is that it’s like that stable march of just God’s timing, God’s order of things.
Br. Stephen: Yep. It can be frustrating sometimes, when you’re trying to do some job in the morning, and then the bell rings for prayer. And then, you know, Saint Benedict says, “And the monks are to drop everything and go to prayer.” But sometimes you think, “Ah, if I only had 20 more minutes, I could have gotten this done” — and because that’s how we think. That’s how Americans think. We have to get the work done. We’re achievement-focused.
Fr. Luke: Yes, but it can wait, right?
Br. Stephen: It can wait, yep. There’s another thing — I think it’s in the same passage. Saint Benedict says, “Nothing is to be preferred—”
Fr. Luke: To the love of Christ.
Br. Stephen: To the work of God. Well, yes, to the love of Christ overall — but in terms of time, to the work of God.
Fr. Luke: Which is the work of prayer.
Br. Stephen: Exactly.
The First Word Is “Listen”
Fr. Luke: You have any other just favorite quotes of St. Benedict that have sort of stuck with you? I’m sure there has to be many of them.
Br. Stephen: Yeah. Sometimes people ask me about, what is the charism of Benedictines? ‘Cause we’re pretty diverse. And I think it comes down to a few passages. So the first word in the Rule of Benedict is listen. And he’s referencing the wisdom literature in the Old Testament — in that same passage, he’s quoting it.
Br. Stephen: And then there’s other passages that say things that are more like pay attention. You need to have attention to praying the Divine Office, to preserving the goods of the monastery. And to me, I think that that’s Benedict pointing toward see God in everything. Pay attention to where God is working in everything.
Br. Stephen: So in prayer, above all; in reading of the scriptures, also a very good place to learn about finding God; but also in your everyday life and work, and in your brothers.
Bowing to Christ in Each Other
Br. Stephen: I’ve been told at some point that when we have — it’s called statio, when we process into the church two by two, the monks; we do it on weekends mainly — we bow to Christ present on the altar first, and then we bow to Christ present in each other, before going to our stalls to begin prayer. So that kind of bringing God into everything is, to me, the uniting theme of the Rule of Benedict.
Fr. Luke: Fantastic. And it sounds like you’re doing it well.
Br. Stephen: I try.
Rome, and How to Pray for Him
Fr. Luke: I know you’re home on a home visit right now, back to your parents here in Fargo, and we see you every year during this time of year. So I’m grateful you came in. But you’ll be going back to Richardton, North Dakota here for a few weeks, and then back to Rome in October?
Br. Stephen: Yes, October. Their semesters are quite a bit later than ours.
Fr. Luke: Yep. So then you’ll be resuming your theological studies at Sant’Anselmo, the pontifical college — or one of the many pontifical colleges in Rome, but a common one for Benedictines to study at. Our own Father Matt Cramer, a priest of our diocese, studied there recently as well.
Br. Stephen: Ah, is it the liturgy program?
Fr. Luke: In the liturgy program. Yep. Now he’s pastor in Devils Lake, so we’ve had different priests study in Rome. But we’ll pray for you — count on our prayers here at our parish for your continued studies and preparations for priestly ordination.
Br. Stephen: Oh, thank you very much.
Fr. Luke: Any particular prayer requests you have for us, for me, for our parishioners?
Br. Stephen: Well, I continue to need prayers in my discernment toward priesthood. That’s the idea behind studying theology at Sant’Anselmo. So far so good, but you never know what can be thrown in your path when things come up.
Fr. Luke: As you come to know the charism of priestly life more, and you come to know the broader theology of the Church, it’s all part of the discernment.
Br. Stephen: And then for my monks back at home, I’d say especially pray for those in formation, and those discerning monastic life, because it takes a lot of courage.
A Blessing Before He Goes
Fr. Luke: Yes, definitely. Well, Brother Stephen, thanks for taking some time just to share a little bit with us during your home visit this year, and be assured of our prayers, and how glad we are just to know of your early years with us in our parish, most of all — but more so even in your own family — and count on our continued prayers. Peace be with you.
Br. Stephen: Thank you, Father, and also with you.
Fr. Luke: Excellent. Thanks for tuning in, everyone, and we’ll see you here soon again.
Br. Stephen Johnson, OSB, is a monk of Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota, a Benedictine community founded in 1893. He professed solemn vows in 2023 and is studying theology at Sant’Anselmo in Rome as he prepares for priestly ordination.
