Circular No 1052

 

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 1 April 2022. No. 1052

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Dear Friends,

This is not an April´s fool issue, it is a real journalistic issue.

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Fr John Pereira

Sat Dec 20 2014

By: Nasser Khan

In this festive and holy Christmas season, the Sunday Guardian sought out the quiet-spoken and reflective Fr John Pereira, abbot of Mount St Benedict Monastery in St Augustine, for the last in this 'Getting Personal' series for 2014.

Abbot Pereira's path is an interesting one which he shares with us as he gives his Christmas reflections from the Mount:

He entered the monastery at Mount St Benedict in September 1985.

He made his first profession on December 12, 1987, his solemn profession on November 25, 1990, and was ordained a priest June 27, 1993.

Ten years after his priestly ordination, on November 15, 2003, Fr Pereira was elected by his peers as abbot of the monastery of Our Lady of Exile. Some readers may reflect on their Abbey boarding school days at the Mount which once boasted of being one of the finer schools in T&T.

Q: Tell us about your early years and your family.

A: I was born on July 12, 1955.

I grew up in St Ann's, Port-of-Spain, within a stone's throw of the Rosary Monastery, a group of contemplative Dominican nuns.

My parents had six children and I am the fourth.

My eldest brother, Msgr Christian Pereira, is a Roman Catholic priest, currently the regional episcopal vicar for the Southern Vicariate.

There are three girls and three boys.

My father was one of the founders of the Catholic Evidence Guild, an organisation which promoted the teachings of the Catholic faith through literature and public debate.

My mother was also quite active in the church.

I was an altar server at the Rosary Monastery from the age of eight, until I was 18.

Q: What schools did you attend, starting with the primary level?

A: I attended St Bernadette's Prep School in St Ann's, for my primary education.

This school was founded and managed by Holy Faith Sisters.

My secondary schooling was at St Mary's College, Port-of-Spain, run by the Spiritan (Holy Ghost) Fathers.

Q: Tell us about your 'journey' to embrace your vocation/join the priesthood.

When did you have your calling?

A: On leaving CIC (College of the Immaculate Conception), I worked in the accounting field, first at Trinidad Match Factory and then for several years at Carib Brewery.

During this time, I did several computer and accounting courses to enhance my working skills.

After many years of soul searching, I left Carib Brewery in August 1985, and joined the monastery of Mount St Benedict in September 1985, at the age of 30.

In addition to my monastic formation at the monastery, I attended the Seminary of St John Vianney and the Martyrs of Uganda, where I studied philosophy and theology.

I was awarded a BA degree in Theology from UWI.

I did courses in monastic studies and patristic theology at St John's University in Minnesota, USA, and I participated in programmes on monastic formation and leadership in Rome.

Q: At this Christmas time what message would you like to give to T&T?

A: I offer a message of hope. If God has become human, then we humans have been touched in a special way by the Divine.

This has implications for the manner in which we relate with each other.

The possibilities for good are legion.

We cannot be defined solely by the manner in which we relate with each other today.

Because we each have a spark of the divine in us, then good is our destiny and good is our course.

The present appearance of evil in our land with the rampant escalation of senseless crime cannot be our destiny.

There is a good that is waiting to be tapped.

This is the good which follows as a consequence of the incarnation.

Good will only triumph over evil, however, if we would wake up to the reality of the fact that God has indeed taken flesh and has come among us.

Q: What advice would you give to a young person who is contemplating a vocation such as yours?

A: I would ask the young person to consider whether he/she is willing to forgo self and live for the other.

Life as a monk is one of service to God and to the other.

One has to abandon a life centred on self and live a life centred on God and the other.

If he/she is not willing to do so, then I would discourage him/her from embarking on this way of life.

A monastic way of life is one of dedication and service, and one cannot live such a life unless one is truly seeking God.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face in your "job"?

A: A major challenge is that of juggling limited personnel resources in meeting the pastoral demands laid upon us.

Mount St Benedict is a centre of pilgrimage for people of all religions.

To be faithful to this centre we need to be faithful witnesses of dedicated commitment to Jesus.

Another major challenge is that of preserving the monastic element of our witness.

Before being a centre of pilgrimage, Mount St Benedict is essentially a monastic community.

The monastic values of prayer, silence and contemplation can be eroded if we are not faithful to our daily round of prayer and reflection.

In other words, the balance associated with a life pleasing to God must be maintained if we are to preserve our identity as a monastery on the mountain top.

Q: Who were the people who have influenced you the most?

A: My parents and my siblings...my family.

It was in my family that I learnt the values which prepared me for life's journey.

Q: Most people will not know what life as a priest is like, what would you say to them? What is your typical day like?

A: The life of the priest is one which reflects the life of Jesus.

It is one of total service to God and the other.

It can be described as a life of selfless giving.

A typical day in the life of a priest consists of prayer, work and reflection.

My day is punctuated with intervals of prayer (both private and communal).

Our community meets five times a day to pray.

In addition to this, I have quiet times when I commune with God in private.

Without these times of prayer, then our life of service becomes hollow and we can no longer offer to others what is uplifting and prayerful.

At the Mount, a portion of my day is also spent meeting with pilgrims who are in need of some sort of spiritual guidance and counsel.

As abbot of the monastery, I make time to meet with the monks, both at a personal and communal level.

Reaching out to people in need of God's mercy as in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is also a primary function.

Each day, I put aside time to read the scriptures and other sacred writings so as to find resonance with God and also to be able to offer some spiritual food to those in need.

To study the works of the spiritual writers help to ground my own spirituality and to be of greater service to others.

My work also includes some administrative tasks that necessarily go along with any leadership role.

Q: Can you give me an example of one such administrative task?

A: Sure. One which many people may be able to identify with has to do with our popular Pax Yogurt.

It is sold in most of the recognised supermarkets in T&T.

It is also in great demand in our own shop at the Mount: The Pax Abbey Shop.

This latter is another one of my administrative tasks as the monastery owns the shop and is ultimately responsible for what is sold there.

With regard to Pax Yogurt, it is the brainchild of our most senior priest at the abbey, Fr Cuthbert van der Sande, who grew up on a farm in the Netherlands and at the abbey was always experimenting with improving the diet of the monks using milk products.

He is now 90 years of age and still reports for duty at the yogurt factory each day.

He started making goat cheese for the monks.

Eventually, he introduced the production of yogurt as a small cottage industry, primarily for the monks.

We started sharing it with our employees and with some of the embassies in Port-of-Spain.

Little by little, the word was spreading that the monks were making yogurt.

The demand increased daily and so on March 14, 2003, the Pax Yogurt Company Ltd was established at the Mount.

The manager, Mr Maxime De Comarmond, is a former student of the abbey school.

In addition to the yogurt, the company also produces a yogurt spread and a yogurt drink, both of which are now very popular.

Q: What goals and aspirations do you still have?

A: I aspire to continue witnessing to the monastic charism and to allow the contemplative face of the Caribbean church to shine out in the midst of our Caribbean people.

It means as well recognising the thousands of anonymous monks who make up the membership of an invisible monastery.

Q: What do you consider your most significant accomplishment?

A: My most significant accomplishment is remaining faithful to the monastic journey in spite of my own failings.

Q: If you had an opportunity to meet anyone in the world today, who would it be and why?

A: Pope Francis. I am inspired by the manner in which he lives out the joy of the gospel.

Q: What advice would you give to the leaders of our country, separate and apart from our earlier question about advice to the nation?

A: I would advise the leaders of our country to rise above party politics in the national interest and always to seek the way of collaboration.

Q: Describe yourself in two words, one beginning with J, the other with P, your initials.

A: I describe myself as jagged and patchy, yet seeking joy and peace.

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Mount St Benedict marks 100 years

By Vernon Khelawan

Sat Sep 29 2012

For many, many decades the peace and tranquillity of Mount St Benedict have provided great solace to thousands of pilgrims who have journeyed to the Mount seeking counsel from members of the religious community, as well as to offer prayers.

Next Saturday, October 6, the Mount marks its centenary with a High Mass at which Archbishop Joseph Harris would preside and deliver the homily and the monks are asking that Roman Catholics and people of other religious persuasions, join them as they mark 100 years of mission in Trinidad and Tobago.

The monastery, often referred to simply as "The Mount," existed as a Simple Priory for three years after it was established (1912 to 1915).

That changed in March 1915 when it was granted the status of a Conventual Priory, dedicated to Our Lady of Exile.

It was founded by some Benedictine monks who came from Bahia in Brazil led by Belgium-born Monk Dom Mayeul de Caigny, who was at the time the Abbot of San Sebastian in Bahia, and who eventually became the first Conventual Prior of Mount St Benedict.

But the next change of status did not happen until 1947 when Mount St Benedict was raised to the status of an Abbey and Dutch-born Dom Adelbert van Duin was elected its first Abbot, who led the community for 25 years.

Since that time Mount St Benedict has seen four more Abbots, with the current Abbot being John Pereira, now in his second six-year term.

The people, who lived in the small village of St John at the foot of the mount have seen the monastery grow from a small tapia hut, higher up the hill than its present location, to a modern Abbey, which has served the spiritual needs of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who make the journey up the hill to the sacred ground.

In its early years Mount St Benedict was the economic driver of the village population, since many were employed in various ways on the hill.

The men worked mainly in assisting in building the first road to the Mount as well as on the first buildings on the present site together with maintenance and other environmental chores, while the women did the domestic chores like cooking, washing and ironing for the Monks.

In a book titled The Abbey-Mount St Benedict, published in 2005, author Mark Tierney OSB (Order of St Benedict) wrote, "Today, Mount St Benedict is well known and loved by thousands of Trinidadians.

It has over the years, become a significant tourist attraction, though its main appeal has been to those -whether Christian or non-Christian-who are seeking spiritual guidance, or who wish simply to spend some time in prayer."

The foreword of the book records Abbot John Pereira as describing the Monastery.

He wrote, "The Monastery at Mount St Benedict...has become part of the spiritual landscape of the Caribbean.

It is the centre of spirituality and peace for people of all faiths and for those who profess no faith at all.

It is recognised as a sacred place on many counts.

It has an inherent sacrality, based on the natural beauty of its geography.

"Secondly," he continued, "it has become sacred on account of the experiences of healing and wholeness that many people encounter here.

"Finally, the continual round of prayer and worship which takes place on 'The Mount' renders it a sacred place, a place set aside-a place of peace," stated Abbot Pereira.

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to subscribe for a whole year and be in the circular’s mailing list or if you would like to mention any old boy that you would like to include, write to me.

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Photo:

20LK9999FBLMEWFE, Luciano Mellone and wife

22LK3406FBEDIPOOL, The refurbished pool 2022

11LK3564FBFPEGRP, UNKNOWN, Bro. Rupert and Fr. Abbot Pereira

60LK0145EDIMSB, Front of monastery, photo developed at the dark room down by the sportsfield.