Michael Patrick OBrien - Monastery Mornings: My Unusual Boyhood Among the Saints and Monks

In July 1847, Mormon pioneers famously arrived in Utah. A century later in July 1947, some Catholic pioneers followed in their footsteps: Trappist monks bent on creating a contemplative monastery, Holy Trinity Abbey, in the unlikely soil of Mormon country. In this affectionate, winning memoir, Michael OBrien captures the expansive spirit of late twentieth-century Catholicism in America and the loving warmth of the monks who befriended him.

Jana Riess, author of Flunking Sainthood and The Next Mormons

The author of this charming volume combines his lifes story with that of the famous Utah Trappist monks. A consummate storyteller, OBrien shares his remarkable journey by weaving the tale of the Abbey of the Holy Trinity monks with his own search for a life of belonging and meaning. The final result is as entertaining as it is enlightening. An extraordinary contribution and achievement.

Br. Columban Weber, OCSO, Abbey of Gethsemani

Monastery Mornings is as much a memoir about a sensitive Irish American boys journey into manhood as it is an unabashed love letter to Huntsville, Utahs beloved Trappist monastery. OBriens detailed history of the monastery and endearing portraits of the monks who helped raise him provide a compelling backdrop to a compassionate, brave personal narrative that both amuses and inspires.

Jennifer Napier-Pearce, former executive editor, The Salt Lake Tribune

Michael Patrick OBrien writes, For me, one of the lights most recognizable garments is the simple black and white robe of a monk, and the lights ever soothing embrace is the sweet memory of my monastic mornings. In that sentence, he sums up his decades-long adventure with the spirited monks of Holy Trinity Abbey, a Catholic oasis in the middle of Utahs Mormon country. He was fortunate to come of age under the tutelage of Trappist monks, and to enjoy close relationships with men who choose the search for God over the more mundane lures of the world. OBrien began visiting Holy Trinity in 1972 at the age of 11 at his mothers urging following his parents divorce. The abbey remained a constant in his life until its closure in 2017. This beautiful memoir portrays his monastic friends as both exceptional and ordinary, holy and altogether human. In doing so, OBrien reminds those of us who have been hanging on by our fingertips to why we still love the Catholic Church and what it is called to be: a place of service and mercy. A place where, like Holy Trinity Abbey, the core message is love.

Judith Valente, co-author of How to Be: A Monk and a Journalist Reflect on Living and Dying, Purpose and Prayer, Forgiveness and Friendship

Since their 1947 arrival in Huntsville, the Trappist monks have had a profound impact on the Utah community. Their lives of prayer, simplicity, hard work, and hospitality brought their monastic traditions to the people of our state and made a great difference in so many lives. In this thoughtful memoir, Michael Patrick OBrien makes sure the legacy of the Trappists will remain, despite the closure of their monastery in 2017. His experience living with the monks as they prayed and sang the Divine Office, worked in the fields or their small gift shop had an impact that supported him emotionally and spiritually in difficult times. This is a tribute to Utahs Trappist monks and a reminder of their positive influence on Michael OBrien and numerous others during their presence here.

The Most Reverend Oscar A. Solis, DD, Bishop of Salt Lake City

My Unusual Boyhood Among the Saints and Monks

MICHAEL PATRICK OBRIEN

PARACLETE PRESS

Brewster, Massachusetts

With love to my mother, to my wife, Vicki, to my children, and to the rest of my family(immediate, extended, chosen, and monastic).

2021 First Printing

Monastery Mornings: My Unusual Boyhood Among the Saints and Monks

Copyright 2021 Michael Patrick OBrien

ISBN 978-1-64060-649-4

All Scripture quotations are taken from the The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are trademarks of Paraclete Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: OBrien, Michael Patrick, 1961- author.

Title: Monastery mornings : my unusual boyhood among the saints and monks / Michael Patrick OBrien.

Description: Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2021. | Summary: A memoir of a young boy from a broken home growing up with a colorful community of Trappist monks, where he learned to live life as a man of faith, hope, and love-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021012472 (print) | LCCN 2021012473 (ebook) | ISBN 9781640606494 | ISBN 9781640606500 (epub) | ISBN 9781640606517 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: OBrien, Michael Patrick, 1961- | Catholics--Utah--Biography. | Trappists--Spiritual life. | Cistercians--Spiritual life. | Monastic and religious life--Utah.

Classification: LCC BX4705.O213 A3 2021 (print) | LCC BX4705.O213 (ebook) | DDC 271/.12502 [B]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012472

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012473

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press

Brewster, Massachusetts

www.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America

T HE CHILD RAN UP THE AISLE, LAUNCHED HERSELF AT THE BURLY MAN in front of her, knocking him off-balance, and hugging him joyfully. I watched quietly from just a few yards away.

At another place at some other time and with different people, such a demonstration of affection would be charming, but not unusual. This time, however, the man was a Catholic priest, the place was Sunday morning mass at St. Thomas More Church in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, and the time was the first depressing tidal wave of child-abuse revelations that rocked the United States Catholic Church in the early years of the twenty-first century. All this made the event both extraordinary and profound, at least for me.

My mind rushed back to another morning, several decades earlier, when I was a child visiting a different church. I was at the chapel of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, a small and isolated Cistercian or Trappist monastery in rural Huntsville, Utah. The surrounding Ogden Valley (and indeed, my home state) was populated mostly by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, formerly called the Mormons and now commonly called the Saints, many of whom were good friends with the monks. This valley of monks and saints was a beautiful place, but one with very few Catholics.