It has been a fairly dry Spring here, as in other places in the west. We need to pray for a little rain as our reservoirs are all quite low. But it is springtime, generally a happy time for most people. Every year about this time the Seminary has what is called the “Appreciation Dinner.” It is a dinner for the students and faculty, as well as for the many other people who help do the work of training men for the priesthood, and one at which they give recognition to especially appreciated people. That dinner will be tonight. And it reminds me of the importance of appreciating one another wherever we are. Showing signs of appreciation of others and affirming them does much more in aiding them to keep improving themselves than does criticizing or nagging them. Although a little healthy criticism isn’t bad, if it is justified, it is just not always the best way for helping others.

Last weekend I was down in San Diego at several of the naval bases there. Our Fr. Karl Nielson, O.S.B. is a reserve Navy chaplain, and the Navy chaplaincy program offers orientation days for the superiors of chaplains, so I was down being shown submarines and ships that chaplains might serve on. I always wanted to be in the Navy, but wound up in the Army instead. So I found all this very interesting.

We have an American Benedictine Abbot’s meeting every February at some monastery in the country. This year it was at Prince of Peace in Oceanside, California. We had an interesting program. The presenter was a young man named Tom Beaudoin. Tom is in his early thirties, a Catholic and a national expert on the Generation X people. Generation X is that of the early thirty-year olds. To understand the 30-year olds, Tom said, you have to understand post-modern culture. The characteristics of post modern culture are: 1) pluralism; 2) ambiguity; 3) a lack of consensus on truth; 4) the triumph of consumer capitalism; and 5) the divorce culture. Generally speaking, in the matter or religion these things have influenced young adults to move either toward fundamentalism (a search for certainty) or toward relativism (“who am I to judge?" and the general behavior of dropping out of formal religious practice). About 76% are on the relativistic side. Forty-five percent of Generation X are children of divorce and have grown up out of the day-care experience. This often leads to an early and untutored adulthood. And many young adults are living an extended adolescence. Young adults feel political action doesn’t change anything much, and so they often volunteer in areas of social responsibility. Such areas as building houses for the poor and the like are more attractive to them. Forty percent of all college kids have volunteered at least l0 times. It seems that Generation X young adults extend somewhat into the international world (Canada and Chile in particular).

Beaudoin says that young adults tend to be interested in spirituality, but not in formal religion. For them spirituality is experiential, interior, private and trustworthy. Religion for them is often too doctrinal, external, institutional and is often guilty of great social sins like racism, sexism, or hypocrisy. Beaudoin said one way to unite religion with spirituality in young adults is to introduce them to monastic spirituality and tradition. Young adults often like to visit monasteries. They feel a spirituality there.

I found all of this to be very interesting information. We know that a lot of young people don’t go to church today. And, of course, the young people who come to join a monastery these days are generally from the Generation X. Our formation people need to know what kind of persons they may be dealing with when new recruits come to the monastery.

We can all continue to pray for our young adults, that they find a way to really serve and love God and their neighbor. And we need to pray that all of us, monks and churched lay people as well, do that too. Real, felt, witness is more attractive than anything. And a really effective way to show love is to, as I said in the beginning, show appreciation for one another and to affirm one another for the good that is in us. In July we will celebrate the feast of St. Benedict. Reverence for persons is one of the strong points in his Rule, and something that we need in our own time as much as it was needed in St. Benedict's age. May St. Benedict intercede for all of you and may his Rule help us to live the true way of the Gospel.

Love and prayers,