St. Joseph Abbey: A tour

By Tanya Connor
 The Catholic Free Press

SPENCER – Nestled in the countryside in the midst of the Worcester Diocese is St. Joseph Abbey, beloved by visitors and home to Trappist monks. You may have stopped there to worship, walk the grounds, make a retreat, or buy the monks’ wares.
But there’s more to the abbey than most people ever see. So come along for an inside look at this place dedicated to Jesus’ foster father, as we close the year in honor of St. Joseph.
As cloistered monks, Trappists live apart from the world, though charity, or necessity – such as doctors’ appointments – sometimes requires them to go out, explains our 84-year-old guide, Brother Terence McGrath.
Theirs is a life of contemplation, and self-denial that, lived faithfully, leads to this deep prayer, he says; to deny yourself gratifications is “to awaken in the soul a … hunger for Jesus.”
Trappist is the common name for members of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. The order was founded in France in 1098 as a reform, stressing simplicity of life and fidelity to the Rule of St. Benedict, says the website www.spencerabbey.org.
All Cistercian monasteries are under the patronage of the Blessed Mother, so the abbey in Spencer is officially called Our Lady of St. Joseph Abbey, Brother Terence says.
“Next to Our Lady in prominence and holiness is St. Joseph,” he says.
Our tour starts in the main church, where the monks, and retreatants and other guests, worship. The public can use two chapels facing the sides of the high altar, open from 4:30 a.m.- 8 p.m. for private prayer, Mass and Liturgy of the Hours, according to Father Dominic Whedbee, prior. The public must wear masks and practice social distancing in the chapel, at this time. Retreats are not currently offered, as the retreat house is being renovated.
Entering the church, we see the St. Joseph Altar, where the first icon made by Brother Terence, the abbey’s principal iconographer, is permanently displayed, in honor of the monastery’s patron. Below the icon of St. Joseph is a prayer of Pope Francis for the Year of St. Joseph.
We move toward the eight-ton high altar, which Brother Terance says was lowered into place before the church roof was added. He says that an abbot general visiting in the 1950s considered a highly polished altar extravagant for monks, so it was sanded to a dull finish.
There are holes in the steps leading to the altar.
“I did one of them,” Brother Terence confesses. As a novice, he was a bit careless when buffing them and left his mark.
At the time of the accident he worried: “Oh no, they’re going to throw me out!”
That was more than three decades ago, and the monk still exhibits wonder - and humor - as he shows a visitor his home.
He marvels at how the sun shines through the stained-glass window behind the altar.
He says there were once curtained iron grates between the side chapels and the main church, prohibiting visitors from seeing the monks.
In the apse are choir stalls, where the priests and brothers chant the Liturgy of the Hours (seven periods of prayer a day), and celebrate or participate in Mass. There are special stalls for the abbot, prior and sub-prior.
“We have three superiors – we’re such an unruly crowd,” quips Brother Terence.
To one side is the jube, a balcony where the Gospel is proclaimed on solemnities. On such special feasts, all the bells are rung by pulling ropes at the side of the chapel, Brother Terence says.
The sacristy has 80 drawers for vestments and altar linens.
“Originally we had 160 monks,” he remarks. “It was very, very tight.”
Now this Cistercian abbey has 50 members, according to Father Whedbee. Among the 46 currently living there are four novices and two simply professed (who haven’t taken final vows). Absent are two on leave and two chaplains to Cistercian nuns, or Trappistines, in Wrentham and Japan.
Brother Terence says the stained-glass windows in St. Joseph Abbey’s sacristy came from Our Lady of the Valley Abbey, their community’s previous home, in the Blackstone Valley in Cumberland Township, Rhode Island. After a fire there in 1950, the monks moved to Spencer.
It was not the first fire the community had suffered, their history shows. Prior to Rhode Island, they lived in Nova Scotia where, in 1892, a fire destroyed the abbey church and monastic buildings and possessions. No one was injured. They were in the process of rebuilding when, in 1896, another fire hit, wiping out temporary quarters and barns.
“So, we have a very good relationship with the fire department in Spencer,” Brother Terence says. And he hopes that they will never need them.
Having talked about the history of the stained-glass windows in the sacristy, Brother Terence returns to the hallway, and points out what he calls the “regulator” - an old grandfather clock with a working clock attached.
“One of the monks is the real regulator,” who rings the bells to call the community to prayer, Brother Terence says. “The clock is regulating the real regulator,” telling him the time!
The unheated West Cloister – one of four hallways surrounding a garden – is dubbed “The Cold Cloister,” our guide says. One thing the monks use this area for is to keep sandwiches cold for their Christmas party on Dec. 26, after focusing on the Christmas solemnity on Dec. 25, Brother Terence says. Despite the festive occasion, their food reveals one of their mortifications – abstinence from meat – as the sandwiches are tuna and egg salad. (They make an exception on the Fourth of July, when they can have hamburgers!)
But they do special things for Christmas too.
“We get together in the library” for the Christmas party, Brother Terence says. “There’s conversation” (unlike most meals, when a monk does a spiritual reading to the group). “And then you have popcorn, maybe a sing-a-long.”
Outside we see the cemetery where the monks are buried in their cowls, in wooden boxes they make. They also make the wooden crosses that mark the graves, Brother Terence says.
In the imposing Chapter Room, part of the Rule of St. Benedict used to be read to the monks daily, according to Brother Terence. Now these readings are done at meals, but the abbot gives a chapter talk in the room on Sundays.
Their focus on Jesus and drawing closer to him in prayer, instead of seeking pleasure for themselves, still offers an inspiration to the world, as evidenced by how the public is attracted to the abbey.

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