(2 of 3)
The two hours after morning vigil are for personal prayer and an informal breakfast, the one meal the brothers do not take in common. Eating almond granola, fresh fruit and a delicious home-baked whole wheat bread, they can look through the refectory's east window and see a tracery of pink clouds on the horizon and wisps of mist flitting across the priory pond. Six times each day the brothers come together to read the Gospel, meditate, pray and share insights into the Scriptures. Recurring themes such as God's infinite love for his creatures and people returning God's love by serving others are explored and re-explored, plumbed but never exhausted.
Six hours a day are given to priory work. Back in the 1950s, this usually meant looking after the cows on the priory farm. Today the brothers sustain Weston with more creative labors. One brother is a potter whose work is on permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian. Another, a bookbinder, specializes in restoring antique volumes. Several others are graphic artists. Environmental concerns have led some brothers to turn most of the priory's 300 acres into a tree farm.
But the priory is best known for the prolific talents of Brother Gregory, a self-taught musician who plays the guitar, the piano and the organ. He has composed some 200 songs to celebrate the faith, using scriptural themes and nature metaphors. His music echoes the Gregorian chant sung by Benedictines for more than 1,000 years. Since 1971 about 100 of Brother Gregory's songs have found their way, through the priory's songbooks and records, into Catholic congregational singing across the nation. Weston's music is one reason that crowds as large as 1,300 are drawn to weekend liturgies in the summer.
The monks prefer not to focus on themselves as individuals. They see their real work as creating a community, "striving," as Brother Elias puts it, "to become one heart, one mind, one spirit." Brother Mark says, "Our choice is one another. Not wood chopping, music writing, pottery throwing, but to live the Gospel."
Today the monastery has five workshops, a monks' dormitory, four guest houses, a visitors' center and a gallery shop. But even when it was only a converted 19th century farmhouse and hay barn, Weston welcomed outsiders. These visitors have led the brothers to worlds unexpectedly far from the priory's hill. In 1974 two papal volunteers, a native Vermonter and his Chilean-born wife, stopped at the priory en route to Mexico, where they established a farm cooperative. That acquaintance eventually took the entire Weston community to Mexico on two extended retreats. First the monks spent a week visiting poor urban centers or traveling by horse or burro along narrow footpaths to remote villages. Another week followed in seclusion while the brothers reflected on how much they had learned about faith and Christian living from these simple people. Other friendships have taken the brothers on similar retreats to Appalachia, the West Indies island of Dominica and one of the oldest religious communities in the U.S., the Shakers of Sabbathday Lake village in New Gloucester, Me.