offering.
This can be understood as having to do
with the entire family of humankind.
Kierkegaard has shown us the logic
of this reconciliation and with Nietzsche
we can understand its physiology, but
with Levinas and Derrida we can
better understand how glorifying God
can help bring about this reconciliation.
Jesus gives his followers the task
of going out to all persons and teaching
them of this reconciling agape that
aims at bringing us all to love each other.
All nine points that make up agape
as Matthew spells them out aim at
this reconciliation of all of God’s people.
As Matthew shows us Jesus explained
agape in terms of hesed and of ahava
and the notions of glory for the Jews
were connected with this and can be
fulfilled if all Christians become good Jews
in really loving God and all as our neighbor.
Part One
At Mt. Angel
I,1 Mt. Angel’s Spiritual, Intellectual, Vital, Physical Values
I,1.1 Our alma mater’s Spiritual Nourishing
On that Labor Day Weekend of 1952, at the time of mother’s birthday
on September 6, Father Heeren came to our house for dinner.
After dinner he would begin the 500-mile drive to take me
to Mt. Angel, near Portland Oregon, where I would enter
the Minor Seminary with the Benedictine Monks where for
the next six years I would begin my studies to be a priest.
As we sat there for dinner in our humble little kitchen
daddy knew that mother and Father Heeren greatly loved each other
in an agape that sublimated affection, friendship, and eros.
And he knew that mother could think of nothing better for me
than that I become a priest like the priests she had come to know.
He could see how I had identified with my mother’s values
and how I had received a vocation to become a priest and
to serve God and others by greatly admiring Father Heeren.
So we drove a third of the way, stayed at a motel, and
arrived at Mt. Angel in the middle of the day on Monday.
Fr. Heeren who had grown up in Ireland had gone to
the Minor Seminary there and then he came to Mt. Angel
when he decided to be a priest for the Diocese of Boise, Idaho.
He knew Mt. Angel and the monks very well and he and
Father Bernard, who was rector of the seminary, had been classmates.
As we drove, Father Heeren told me about the Benedictine Monks.
He said that their motto was “Ora et Labora” and with them
I would learn “to work and to pray” and most of all I noticed
the spiritual atmosphere of the monastery and the seminary,
which at one time had been sacred to the Indians as Topalamaho.
I was familiar with the world of the spirit since my father
lost his father to that world when he was five and my mother’s
mother and father both learned of it when they lost a parent when young.
I,1.2 Our alma mater’s Intellectual Nourishing
As we drove up the hill a flood of feelings came over Father Heeren.
He pointed out to me the Stations of the Cross there among the trees.
Father Heeren was coming home to his nourishing mother whom
he loved so much and he was happy and proud to be bringing me.
We parked in front of the seminary, went in and found Father Bernard
who was so glad to see Father Heeren and so welcoming to me.
We were taken to the first- and second-year dormitory with my bags.
Father Heeren said goodbye to me, went with Father Bernard, and I
would not see him again until I went home for Christmas vacation.
From day one we got into the routine of seminary life arising
as 5:30 a.m. each morning and going to bed each night at 9:30 p.m.
We had the great silence from 7:10 each evening until
breakfast the next morning and we did not even look at each other.
There were many spiritual exercises beginning with daily Mass
each morning in the crypt where we would receive holy communion.
Then there was the sung Mass after breakfast with the monks.
During the day we recited Lauds, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.
We had spiritual reading each day before lunch and Father Bernard
gave us a spiritual talk five days a week in the evening.
But the intellectual life was just as important as the spiritual life
in terms of the time we spent in classes and in the study hall.
In our freshman year we had seven courses: Religion I, English I,
Latin I, General Science, World Civilization, Algebra I, and Chant I.
From
