God’s sense of humor
Many years ago, a monk in my community said that God has a sense of humor. I’m proof of that. Around 1979, I talked with a priest about a vocation. I told him I wanted to make my life count, and I thought that life as a religious or priest would be a good way to do that. This priest said he thought I’d be a good Benedictine — probably because he didn’t want me in his Georgia diocese. He further said that I should go to a monastery that didn’t have a school because that would interfere with a proper monastic life.
Many years ago, a monk in my community said that God has a sense of humor. I’m proof of that. Around 1979, I talked with a priest about a vocation. I told him I wanted to make my life count, and I thought that life as a religious or priest would be a good way to do that. This priest said he thought I’d be a good Benedictine — probably because he didn’t want me in his Georgia diocese. He further said that I should go to a monastery that didn’t have a school because that would interfere with a proper monastic life.
So, I found the closest Benedictine monastery; it was St. Bernard Abbey. I wrote to the vocation director, and a letter came back, describing the abbey and saying apologetically that the monastery had recently closed its school. Remembering the Georgia priest’s recommendation, my thought was, “Perfect; God closed the school, so I can join.” After a few years, I applied, was accepted, then “chickened out.” A year later, I reapplied, was accepted again, then took the plunge and entered St. Bernard. The very year I entered, God surprised me; the monastery re-opened the school. God’s joke — on me!
After monastic formation, seminary, and ordination, I was assigned to that school and have given myself to its good work for about 35 years as teacher, headmaster, and president. Had there been a school at St. Bernard, I’d never have visited. Yet, here I am, and I would never change a thing. Years ago, a St. Bernard monk heard my story and said, “Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit” (“Man proposes, but God disposes”).
Yes, God had to trick me into doing what I should do when I didn’t have the wisdom to do it. Praise God.
