12/01/2000

Monastery Memories

In response to the article about Gethsemane, several readers wrote to me about time spent in monastic seclusion deciding whether to choose a religious or secular vocation. My brother did the same thing. He remained at Gethsemane for about a year before deciding to leave and pursue further education. He graduated from Notre Dame, became an architect, married and has five children. He remains a devout Catholic and volunteers hundreds of hours every year as a volunteer to Habitat for Humanity; he designs low income housing and restoration projects, assembles college student crews to build them and works on each site himself, seeing the projects through to completion.

Reader comments follow:

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I am not surprised that an intelligent man would choose to shut himself away from the "everyday" life we all seem to live.

My son-in-laws great uncle, John Cyril Hawes was a talented architect. He designed and built many churches in Australia and still he felt a calling to God. First he became an Anglican priest, then a Monsignor. Later he converted to the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Franciscan order. Finally, he became "The Hermit of Cat Island" in the Bahamas.

He followed the example of St Francis and became a simple monk on a lonely point of land in his search for a blessed communion with his Maker. I have been fortunate to obtain a copy of the book "The Hermit of Cat Island" and found his life to be fascinating. A faith as deep as these devoted monks experience is truly a gift.

There are three books about John Cyril Hawes -- the first two are out print but I was fortunate to obtain "The Hermit of Cat Island" written by Peter F. Anson and published in 1957 by P.J. Kennedy & Sons, New York. I found this copy through a book search and it came from Alexander Books, 2001 W. Congress Street, Lafayette, LA 70506.

A new book about him will be out soon, entitled "Between Devotion and Design," by John Taylor. It is published by University of Western Australia Press, which can be reached at the following email address: uwap@cyllene.uwa.edu.au.

I have the following quote from the flyleaf cover: "Born the son of a London barrister, John Hawes' upbringing was pure Victorian, his inclinations aesthetic and spiritual. A brilliant career in architecture lay open before him when suddenly he turned aside from it to become an Anglican minister. Nevertheless, influenced by Franciscan literature and an attraction to the externals of Roman ritual, he drew closer and closer to Roman Catholicism. Eventually he was received into the Catholic Church at Graymoor, N.Y.

"Uncertain as to his future, Hawes set out for Canada where he worked in a railroad construction camp as a "mule skinner" and tramped across the Northwest before he made his decision to become a priest. Once ordained at Rome, he enthusiastically accepted an offer to go as a missionary to the gold fields of Western Australia. Here at Yalgoo he rode on horseback from camp to camp, visiting desolate outposts . and making friends with the miners."

He later became a hermit and moved to Cat Island, where his body is now entombed.

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It was just joyous to read your account of your trip with Bill to Gethsemane. When I was eighteen, I spent a year and a half in a monastery in Ireland; your story brought me back immediately to my own monastic experience. I couldn't quite express my thoughts to my family at the time of my entering as Bill did to you some time after he entered. But now, 50 years later, a wife, seven children and twelve grandchildren later, it is indeed true, as one of my daughters told me recently, when I worried about one of her siblings --"Dad, we all have to search out our salvation in our own way as best we can. It's an individual thing. We talk to and use our families and friends as sounding boards to help give us assurance--sometimes.

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I have enjoyed and learned from many of your articles ever since I began using SNET Internet over two years ago. My wife has been a school psychologist and is now working in a high school, and I have shared many of your stories with her. At one time in my life, I struggled to discern if I might have a vocation. I always thought that God was calling me, not to the priesthood but to be a brother. I never progressed as far as exploring the Trappists, but I did visit Weston Priory in Vermont. However, once I accepted that God might not be calling me to either married life or religious life, but to be a single lay person, my wife and I were introduced and, as they say, the rest is history. I agree with Bill that, "The different paths we take contribute equally to the universe." For most of us, that is the real message of your story. I know a family that spends one month each summer at a Trappist monastery in upstate New York. The time away from the world has helped them - including four children - cope with many challenges, including the stress of high-pressure jobs, busy family life, and serious health concerns.

Doesn't this quiet and peaceful life in prayer sometimes sound appealing in today's hectic lifestyle?

LINKS:

Abbey at Gethsemane

Habitat for Humanity

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.