Why Do We Keep Coming?

Dome under the moonlight. Photo by Elise Ugarte

Why do we keep coming?

Somehow you felt a nudge. Something inexplicable. Augustine said it is as if God has placed a salt within us that draws us Godward: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” So many of us are drawn to Saint Benedict’s Monastery. Folks travel hundreds and even thousands of miles to visit, to stay a while, to move closer, or to become oblates. Why? Because we find something here we need and something we have not found elsewhere, something that resonates deep inside of each one of us; something we may have difficulty articulating because it lies so deep within us, so deep that we won’t be able to say what it is until we find it. I think it is God within each of us. God calls each of us and draws us to this place with this community. It is not as if God does not exist everywhere and within everyone of us. But here is a place and a people who listen to God’s call, and heed that call very special and very specific ways. Jesus teaches us “Seek and you shall find.” We have been seekers. I think we keep coming because we have found a kind of home. We keep coming because here we are fed: by the community, the spirituality, the liturgy, spiritual direction, retreats and classes. Maybe we have made a connection with someone else who has also found Saint Benedict’s Monastery. Here, we are fed that we might serve others. So we keep coming.

Charles Preble, OblSB