Interview with Fr. Richard G. Herbel, Lutheran monk

We asked a few ques­tions of Fr. Richard G. Her­bel of St. Augustine’s House in Oxford, Michigan.

Lutheran monks aren’t an every­day sight! How do you under­stand the place of monas­tic life within the Lutheran church?

Mar­tin Luther and the Ref­or­ma­tion did not seek to destroy monas­tic life but to reform it along with the rest of the Church in the late mid­dle ages. In fact, some com­mu­ni­ties adopted the Ref­or­ma­tion and con­tin­ued for decades after­ward. It was only later that cer­tain exag­ger­a­tions in Ref­or­ma­tion the­ol­ogy cut off the air, as it were, to monas­tic voca­tions and caused a grad­ual decline and finally the dis­ap­pear­ance of monas­tic life among Luther­ans. Fresh inter­est in monas­ti­cism among Luther­ans emerged at the begin­ning of the last century.

Today I believe it is gen­er­ally accepted that monas­tic life is as authen­tic an expres­sion of Chris­t­ian spir­i­tu­al­ity as any other form. Being a monk is first of all being a Chris­t­ian. Monas­tic life is qual­i­ta­tively no dif­fer­ent from that of any other Chris­t­ian; it is only in its emphases and dis­ci­pline that it seems to dif­fer. Like all Chris­tians, monks have to eat and sleep, work to pay the bills, fol­low the Ten Com­mand­ments, cook and wash dishes, make their beds, clean house, go to church and pray. It is, how­ever, espe­cially in this last occu­pa­tion, prayer and wor­ship, that our life seems most dis­tinc­tive. Not that our prayer is dif­fer­ent from oth­ers’, but only in the amount of time devoted to it and the delib­er­ate­ness with which it is undertaken.

While your com­mu­nity is called St. Augustine’s House, you’re not Augus­tin­ian fri­ars like Luther but monks fol­low­ing the Rule of St. Bene­dict. How does the Bene­dic­tine rule relate to the Lutheran heritage?

These two forms of reli­gious life are not unre­lated. I believe this “monas­tic” style of life had a great influ­ence on Luther and the Ref­or­ma­tion. It has been said that Luther “monas­ti­cized” the laity of the Church in as much as he ele­vated ordi­nary occu­pa­tions and mar­ried life to the sacred sta­tus monas­ti­cism was thought to hold.

Should young Luther­ans con­sider the pos­si­bil­ity of a monas­tic voca­tion in today’s Lutheran church? How might they dis­cern such a vocation?

Young Luther­ans should be open and obe­di­ent to what­ever path the Lord calls them to fol­low, as this is made know to them through prayer and through the signs that life places in our way. It is impor­tant to remem­ber that even in the so-called “monas­tic ages,” those called to monas­tic life were a tiny per­cent­age of Chris­tians. For most Chris­tians the life of dis­ci­ple­ship will be in the covenant of mar­riage. This can and should be under­taken as a sacred bond which by its life­long nature is a liv­ing icon of God’s love. There is a great need for this now in the Church and for open­ness to chil­dren. A large Chris­t­ian fam­ily as a sign of life and hope, a promise for the future. Cer­tainly one should not go in the monas­tic way if one has not con­sid­ered this more usual voca­tion first. If one is called to the monas­tic life, then it should be under­taken with the same faith­ful­ness, seri­ous­ness, and sac­ri­fi­cial love that is demanded in mar­ried and fam­ily life.

What in par­tic­u­lar do you think Luther­ans and Catholics today have to offer one another?

As Luther­ans we must remem­ber that we can­not be Lutheran unless we are first Catholic, and that the reformed Church was never intended to be less than the Catholic Church. The pur­suit of reunion with the Roman Catholic Church is a nec­es­sary ele­ment of authen­tic Lutheranism. For­get­ting this dynamic has been dis­as­trous for the Lutheran movement.