Page 31 - Priorities #71

Though he grew up thinking he’d follow his father’s career as an auto mechanic or work for New York Bell Telephone, where he worked at 16, he learned tuition was affordable at St. John’s, and with that decision and a rejection reversed by a monk who read his appeal letter, Father Matthew’s road to becoming a Benedictine was firmly in place.
First Time In Portola Valley
He arrived in California during a tumultuous time for both the country and the church. It was a time of restlessness and Vatican II, but he decided his best path was to assimilate into Priory’s Hungarian world by studying the language, going to Rome, and from there, with a Italian Visa, into Hungary where he met and developed deep ties with his fellow Benedictines and Father Maurus’ family. Father Matthew fell in love with the people he met there and the Hungarian part of Priory. Over time, he felt he became a “Hungarian Benedictine located in California.”
During the nine years he spent at Priory, he also furthered his education, at St. Mary’s, Santa Clara, and St. Alberts Dominican College in Oakland. He earned his Masters in Divinity and then a PhD that combined spirituality, psychology, theology and philosophy. This degree “opened me up” he says, and brought him to St. Anselm where he taught, among other things, psychology. When he became the Abbot at St. Anselm, serving in that capacity for 26 years, he still visited Priory for
trustee meetings, to negotiate land sales, etc. His link, though infrequent, remained intact.
Now
In August, St. Anselm sent Father Matthew to live at Priory and participate in the life of the school once again. He finds it a blessed gift to be among the Priory students, faculty, and staff, and seeks to further cultivate the Benedictine culture that exists at the Priory. It has made these past six months a rich experience. In his first Mass of the school year, he shared that he has recently taken the journey of cancer, a sharing that opened others up to him in unexpected and lovely ways. It’s a “different kind of ministry,” he says, that has drawn him further into both spiritual counseling and research on nutrition for treatment and prevention.
In addition to his happiness at reconnecting so closely with the Priory community, Father Matthew is quick to comment on the environment. It’s clear, he says, “we’re all working for the same goal” and points to the Christmas faculty/staff lunch as an example. As he walked around the dining hall, he recalls how the “harmony, love, and respect everyone had for one another” was palpable. “It’s unusual,” he says, and that meal, though “a simple celebration,” was “an icon of how we operate here.” Father Matthew, it’s clear, operates exactly the same way.
The current monastic community at Priory consisting of Father Maurus, Father Martin and the newest (returning) member, Father Matthew.
In 1973 Father Matthew took his solemn vows in the original Priory chapel.
Father Matthew is surrounded by Senior students during their Spirit Day.
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WELCOME