24th Anniversary of the Death of Fr. Aelred Wall, OSB, our founder, 13 November 2008
Charles Barney Wall was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 20, 1917. He attended Portsmouth Priory School, then Princeton University. After graduating from St. Louis University in 1940 he returned to Portsmouth as a teacher.
In the spring of 1941, he joined the Benedictine community of Portsmouth Priory. He made his First Profession of Vows on January 25, 1943, and was given the name "Aelred". On June 15, 1946, he was ordained a priest.
Father Aelred served as headmaster of Portsmouth Priory School from 1951 to 1957. He was much loved and respected in that post. In 1960, he went on to another Benedictine monastery, Mount Saviour, near Elmira, New York.
In 1964, he and two other monks from Mount Saviour founded the Monastery of Christ in the Desert. Fathers Placid and Basil, the other two founders, eventually returned to Mount Saviour and were replaced by others. He arrived in New Mexico on the Feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, so chose that saint as the patron of the monastery.
Fr. Aelred was looking for a more contemplative life, away from all the administrative duties of his post as Headmaster. He wanted a simpler, more primitive life, like that of St. Benedict in his cave at Subiaco. The new foundation would not just be for religious but would also be for people of all faiths and even of no faith.
Having a vision for a monastic foundation is one thing; Having the necessary skill sets between yourself and your brother monks to achieve that vision is quite another! That fact, plus personality clashes between himself and other monks, almost became our monastery's undoing.
Visionaries need practical people to nail their feet to concrete reality; practical people need visionaries inspire them to see the bigger picture beyond practical necessity. For example, Fr. Aelred did not have the property surveyed when he bought it, and was quite surprised when it turned out to be 80 acres smaller than he thought it was. Even though the difficulties of the community's early years were exacerbated by inexperience and acting without foresight and planning, Fr. Aelred still persevered.
Even when you have both a visionary and a practical person together, they have to work together and get along together as well. Aelred did have that practical person in Fr. Gregory Borgstadt, who joined him from Mount Saviour. They knew each other from Portsmouth, however. They did not, however, get along together very well. Part of the problem may have been that their roles were reversed. At Portsmouth, with Fr. Gregory was Prior; at Christ in the Desert, Fr. Aelred was Prior. The situation deteriorated to the point that they would only communicate by passing notes to each other through the third monk in the community at the time. This does not augure well for community growth in any sense.
Something had to give way. Between the physical and logistical challenges of managing the community and the communications impasse with one of the other two monks, the stress took a great toll on Fr. Aelred.
He resigned as Prior in 1972 and eventually moved near San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Fr. Aelred became a hermit and died November 13, 1975. Monks of Christ in the Desert would found Nuestra Seniora de la Soledad (Our Lady of Solitude) there in 1984. Fr. Aelred and Fr. Gregory did eventually reconcile a week before Fr. Gregory's death in 1974. Fr. Aelred is buried on the grounds of Nuestra Seniora de le Soledad.
Here is the homily preached by Fr. Francisco, OSB, on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of Fr. Aelred's death, November 13, 2008:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
We have come together today in order to celebrate the Eucharist for the repose of the soul of our founder Prior Dom Aelred Wall on the 24th anniversary of his passing from this world to the House of the Heavenly Father. With this celebration, we wish above all, to renew our act of thanksgiving to God for having given us our founder. Our community will always have a debt of gratitude to him because thanks to him our community began, and thanks to him for having chosen this very special and suitable place for living the Benedictine monastic life, as he himself expressed it when he wrote to his brothers at Mount Saviour:
Then came the cathedrals in stone, some of them Romanesque, some of them Gothic... a wide river valley with great sentinels of high, multicoloured cliffs... to guard and protect it, to make it a place of God's dwelling among men. No words seem adequate to express the joy of that moment.
It is here that we continue his ideal of living in the spirit of patron St. John the Baptist of following Christ in the Desert, as the very name of our monastery indicates.
Today's readings throw light on this event in our life as community. To celebrate the Passover of our founder is an opportunity to renew our monastic ideal because the Gospel of St. John says: "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies bears much fruit". Why must it die in order to bear fruit? We ask ourselves and a first reply could be: because it is the mystery of Christian life, to follow Christ, to live for him is a continual dying to sin and vices, dying to the world with all its passions, egoism, counter-culture, etc. A second aspect one sees clearly with the death of our founder, he had to die, to be planted as seed in the ground, thus going true life entirely with Christ. At the same time all of us have come after him and we can say that we are the fruit which is being given by his grain of wheat planted in the earth after his death.
In the first reading, St. Paul says to us: "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ". It is the fundamental teaching of our Benedictine monastic life, to live entirely for Christ. He is our foundation, He is the center of our life as monks, he is the reason why we have left all and have come to the monastery, that most of us have left family, country, culture, language on coming to this desert of New Mexico. He is the only reason for our life here in the desert. He is the inspiration of our love and joy in our daily life as monks, He is our entire life. In the same way as St. Paul, our Holy Father St. Benedict in Chapter 72 of his Rule reminds us "prefer nothing to love of Christ".
Let us continue, dear brothers, our monastic life without fear, without doubts, without reservations, nothing can separate us from Christ, let us not allow anyone or anything to separate us from his love, to divert us from him who is our only way, our only truth, our only life.
Yes, let us have courage, dear brothers; may our heart be full of hope. With this invitation in the heart let us continue the celebration of the Eucharist making clearer the light o the Resurrection of Christ.
May this celebration encourage us to follow the path of the commitment of ourselves to Christ by the intercession of Mary, who will gain this for us, the most holy virgin, to whose maternal hands we commend this father, brother, friend that he may rest in God and enjoy eternal peace. Amen
Rev. Prior Dom Francisco Alanis, OSB
Monastery of Christ in the Desert
13 November 2008
Charles Barney Wall was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 20, 1917. He attended Portsmouth Priory School, then Princeton University. After graduating from St. Louis University in 1940 he returned to Portsmouth as a teacher.
In the spring of 1941, he joined the Benedictine community of Portsmouth Priory. He made his First Profession of Vows on January 25, 1943, and was given the name "Aelred". On June 15, 1946, he was ordained a priest.
Father Aelred served as headmaster of Portsmouth Priory School from 1951 to 1957. He was much loved and respected in that post. In 1960, he went on to another Benedictine monastery, Mount Saviour, near Elmira, New York.
In 1964, he and two other monks from Mount Saviour founded the Monastery of Christ in the Desert. Fathers Placid and Basil, the other two founders, eventually returned to Mount Saviour and were replaced by others. He arrived in New Mexico on the Feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, so chose that saint as the patron of the monastery.
Fr. Aelred was looking for a more contemplative life, away from all the administrative duties of his post as Headmaster. He wanted a simpler, more primitive life, like that of St. Benedict in his cave at Subiaco. The new foundation would not just be for religious but would also be for people of all faiths and even of no faith.
Having a vision for a monastic foundation is one thing; Having the necessary skill sets between yourself and your brother monks to achieve that vision is quite another! That fact, plus personality clashes between himself and other monks, almost became our monastery's undoing.
Visionaries need practical people to nail their feet to concrete reality; practical people need visionaries inspire them to see the bigger picture beyond practical necessity. For example, Fr. Aelred did not have the property surveyed when he bought it, and was quite surprised when it turned out to be 80 acres smaller than he thought it was. Even though the difficulties of the community's early years were exacerbated by inexperience and acting without foresight and planning, Fr. Aelred still persevered.
Even when you have both a visionary and a practical person together, they have to work together and get along together as well. Aelred did have that practical person in Fr. Gregory Borgstadt, who joined him from Mount Saviour. They knew each other from Portsmouth, however. They did not, however, get along together very well. Part of the problem may have been that their roles were reversed. At Portsmouth, with Fr. Gregory was Prior; at Christ in the Desert, Fr. Aelred was Prior. The situation deteriorated to the point that they would only communicate by passing notes to each other through the third monk in the community at the time. This does not augure well for community growth in any sense.
Something had to give way. Between the physical and logistical challenges of managing the community and the communications impasse with one of the other two monks, the stress took a great toll on Fr. Aelred.
He resigned as Prior in 1972 and eventually moved near San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Fr. Aelred became a hermit and died November 13, 1975. Monks of Christ in the Desert would found Nuestra Seniora de la Soledad (Our Lady of Solitude) there in 1984. Fr. Aelred and Fr. Gregory did eventually reconcile a week before Fr. Gregory's death in 1974. Fr. Aelred is buried on the grounds of Nuestra Seniora de le Soledad.
Here is the homily preached by Fr. Francisco, OSB, on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of Fr. Aelred's death, November 13, 2008:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
We have come together today in order to celebrate the Eucharist for the repose of the soul of our founder Prior Dom Aelred Wall on the 24th anniversary of his passing from this world to the House of the Heavenly Father. With this celebration, we wish above all, to renew our act of thanksgiving to God for having given us our founder. Our community will always have a debt of gratitude to him because thanks to him our community began, and thanks to him for having chosen this very special and suitable place for living the Benedictine monastic life, as he himself expressed it when he wrote to his brothers at Mount Saviour:
Then came the cathedrals in stone, some of them Romanesque, some of them Gothic... a wide river valley with great sentinels of high, multicoloured cliffs... to guard and protect it, to make it a place of God's dwelling among men. No words seem adequate to express the joy of that moment.
It is here that we continue his ideal of living in the spirit of patron St. John the Baptist of following Christ in the Desert, as the very name of our monastery indicates.
Today's readings throw light on this event in our life as community. To celebrate the Passover of our founder is an opportunity to renew our monastic ideal because the Gospel of St. John says: "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies bears much fruit". Why must it die in order to bear fruit? We ask ourselves and a first reply could be: because it is the mystery of Christian life, to follow Christ, to live for him is a continual dying to sin and vices, dying to the world with all its passions, egoism, counter-culture, etc. A second aspect one sees clearly with the death of our founder, he had to die, to be planted as seed in the ground, thus going true life entirely with Christ. At the same time all of us have come after him and we can say that we are the fruit which is being given by his grain of wheat planted in the earth after his death.
In the first reading, St. Paul says to us: "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ". It is the fundamental teaching of our Benedictine monastic life, to live entirely for Christ. He is our foundation, He is the center of our life as monks, he is the reason why we have left all and have come to the monastery, that most of us have left family, country, culture, language on coming to this desert of New Mexico. He is the only reason for our life here in the desert. He is the inspiration of our love and joy in our daily life as monks, He is our entire life. In the same way as St. Paul, our Holy Father St. Benedict in Chapter 72 of his Rule reminds us "prefer nothing to love of Christ".
Let us continue, dear brothers, our monastic life without fear, without doubts, without reservations, nothing can separate us from Christ, let us not allow anyone or anything to separate us from his love, to divert us from him who is our only way, our only truth, our only life.
Yes, let us have courage, dear brothers; may our heart be full of hope. With this invitation in the heart let us continue the celebration of the Eucharist making clearer the light o the Resurrection of Christ.
May this celebration encourage us to follow the path of the commitment of ourselves to Christ by the intercession of Mary, who will gain this for us, the most holy virgin, to whose maternal hands we commend this father, brother, friend that he may rest in God and enjoy eternal peace. Amen
Rev. Prior Dom Francisco Alanis, OSB
Monastery of Christ in the Desert
13 November 2008