Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Robert Leo Sevensky, OHC
We venerate your cross, O Christ, and praise and glorify your holy resurrection for by virtue of that cross, joy has come into the world. Amen.
Although some of my brothers find it difficult to believe, when I was an adolescent in the early 1960s, I was a member of the Boy Scouts of America, faithfully attending weekly meetings, working on my merit badges, and going on various outings and camping trips. And though I've forgotten a lot of details, I've never forgotten either the Scout Oath or the Scout Law. In case you're not familiar with the Scout Law, let me recite it:
“A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”
I was reminded of this when, back in 2025, our chapter spent some days generating a list of qualities or attributes that we were looking for in a Superior. It had a lot of resonances with the Scout Law. I won't burden you with the whole of it, but here are some of the attributes we named:
Clear, consistent, calm, trustworthy, Gospel-grounded, person of prayer and of service, seeker of the Face of God, able to disagree and remain in relationship, focused, integrated, intentional, inclusive, open to the Spirit
Some of these qualities or attributes come directly from the Rule of St. Benedict, others from the Rule of the Order of the Holy Cross. Still others reflect current appraisals of what seems necessary for the right functioning and mission of our community in this season of our corporate life.
Many of these same qualities and competencies appear in lists that parishes and churches produce when they are looking for a new pastor or rector or minister. And they always make me laugh. They seem to want Jesus…though even he himself might not tick off all the boxes. It all seems a bit crazy and unrealistic. But is it?
The Rule of Benedict is not shy about claiming that the abbot is a leader who takes the place of Christ. Right at the beginning of the Rule, Benedict states boldly: “He [the abbot] is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery….” (RB 2:2) And Rule of our Founder is only slightly more circumspect, echoing Benedict when he says that the Superior: “… must be the representative of Jesus Christ, whose likeness in each of its members it is the purpose of the community to create.” (Rule of OHC, Chapter XXXI).
The Superior of the Order of the Holy Cross needs to be an able administrator. But that’s only a part of the job, perhaps especially at this point in our institutional and wider cultural history. Yes, we always need good administration. But we need something more as well…something spiritual, if you will, in addition to what has been traditionally termed ‘temporalities.
This dialog or conversation surrounding leadership is not new for us in the Order of the Holy Cross. Back in 2015 we held a series of discussions around what leadership might look like and work well, at least in this monastery. Br. Scott shared with us a conversation he had with Abbot Notker Wolf, Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, while in Rome. I quote:
“One of the things that struck me in talking with Abbot Notker… was his concern that we make too little distinction between administrative leadership and spiritual leadership within Holy Cross. The clarity he sees in the Rule is that the Abbot is a spiritual leader, a chief pastor if you will. The prior is an administrator, more or less a chief operating officer… And the cellarer—a title we don't use but the bursar can reasonably be construed in this position—is primarily concerned with the worldly assets of the monastery, more or less the chief financial officer. Abbot Notker was very energetic around the differentiation between administrative and spiritual leadership. He was pretty adamant that one person could not be in both positions.”
Perhaps Abbott Notker was being a bit rigid here, but the truth is that this Order has come to a place where we not only need but also want and desire a spiritual leader, which is to say, a teacher, a preacher, a pastor, a model/example, a brother…and perhaps most of all, a man of prayer.
We chose Br. Ephrem to serve as our Superior because we recognize in him one who has already exhibited many of these attributes. We recognize too that we are a community that needs to be invited, persuaded, nudged—and perhaps on rare occasions even dragged—into newer or deeper expressions of Christian witness rooted in sixteen centuries of monastic living.
The Order of the Holy Cross has changed in the past almost 150 years, and that change has been life giving for us. I think of the move from New York City to rural Maryland in 1892 and then the move to the banks of the Hudson and the establishment of schools and missions and ministries and works. And I think of the turbulent 1960’s and 1970’s—ferment and change were everywhere, including in the church and monasteries and other examples of vowed or consecrated life.
We are now, I believe, far enough away from those years to see where we have come from and perhaps where we are going. The pivotal point for us remains the 1984 decision to adopt the Rule of St. Benedict as one of our two foundational documents. But truthfully, we were only partly prepared to begin our growth into a more nuanced communal identity rooted in this ancient spiritual lineage.
Over forty years have passed since then. And we—the Order of the Holy Cross—are not who we were back in those days of great experimentation and chaotic change. Then we were a society of ten or so quasi-independent monasteries and priories. Today we are two, along with a handful of brothers living independently. And I believe it is precisely this contraction which allows us to see what it might mean to be vowed Benedictine men living into the 21st century. A vison is emerging of who we are…smaller to be sure, but also perhaps more flexible and more solidly grounded in an OHC/Benedictine ethos.
In a brilliant article titled “The Abbot as Leader” Benedictine scholar Terence Kardong, OSB, writes about two controlling images that shape the role of an abbot. The first has to do with The Journey. Kardong stresses that Benedict in his Rule insists that monastic life is a dynamic process. It may be stable, but it is never static. We are going somewhere and, hopefully we are going there together. In some sense, the abbot is a Pilgrimage Leader: “The art of Benedictine leadership is to help all to stay with the company and eventually arrive as the destination.” (p. 61)
The second image that shapes the abbot’s work is The Dream, that is the vison of a common or shared goal which is internalized by a community, and which moves us toward our common destination, our telos, our end. Kardong insists that monks and monasteries must have a dream, a goal, or they are jeopardy. And the abbot’s task or role is to serve as the steward or custodian of that dream/vision/goal. He draws it out of us and articulates it and reminds us repeatedly of why we are in this monastery through his teaching, preaching, counseling, and example.
Ephrem, we believe that you are now the one to lead us along this journey with this vision firmly held before us…the vision of the RB as well as that of our Father Founder who admonishes us to hold the Cross firmly before the eyes of others even as we ourselves embrace it in our monastic profession.
You may be our last Superior, Ephrem, but you may also be our first Abbot…even if the title never changes. May you be an able administrator. But by all means—all means—be as well our spiritual leader, pastor, guide, teacher, friend.
Reflect regularly on that list of characteristics or attributes generated by us in 2025…our version of the Scout Law…trustworthy, loyal, helpful… And when the going gets rough…as it inevitably will…and when this list seems too daunting, too impossible, then take time to step back and remember an even simpler motto, that of the Cub Scouts of America, a program designed for children aged 5 - 10. Their motto says simply: “Do your best”. The Lord asks nothing more of you or indeed of any of us. Do your best. And trust that the Lord, who has begun a good thing in you and in us will bring it to perfection in God’s time and in God’s way.
"And now, to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forevermore. Amen."
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