Page 36 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

16 THE soLUTrolJ

enthusiastic over the project and completely won by
the Trappist monk.
In 1825, two years after his visit to Holland, Prior
Klausener was able to transfer his monks to Mont des
Olives near Reiningen in Alsace not far from Basle on
the Swiss border. Here he had acquired an old monas-
tery with an honored and ancient background.
Now to resume Mr. Ryken's account: "Once I had ar-
rived at Mont des Oiives, I hoped rather strongly that
they would not accept me, thinking that I had done my
part by presenting myself.
"They accepted me.
"I told the confessor, Father Felix, that my heart was
not in it. He said, 'What are you doing here?'8
"When I told him how I had been advised he said,
'Talk about it first with Reverend Father Peter.'a
"I asked for this, but it was not granted. Possibly
they thought that it was scruples. In that frame of mind
I received the habit.
"For two years that condition remained, and I could
not decide about making my profession. The wish to
become a religious Brother devoted to teaching children
remained, but I would not leave until they told me I
was doing right."
Theodore James Ryken became "Brother Nicholas"
on All Saints Day in 1828. He had sought advice of a
confessor and he felt obligated to comply. He had been
advised to become a Trappist lay-brother, and here he
was and he would not leave until so directed. Each day
while the white-robed choir-religious chanted the praises
of God begging His blessing on an indifierent world,
Brother Nicholas and the brown-habited lay-brothers
worked at their appointed tasks in silence, endeavoring
to be always aware of God's love and presence. For
subsistence they depended on a diet that excluded meat,