It must be God’s way
I joined the Army when I was 18, during the Korean War. After about a year and a half later, I asked myself, “What am I going to be doing after the Army? I will be free and not committed to anything.” In the military chapels there were always magazines around. I started reading the Maryknoll magazine and said, “That’s what I want to do. I want to be a Maryknoll missionary.”
Even before I got out of the Army, I was accepted by Maryknoll. My parents thought I would be bringing home a wife from Germany. But, due to a clause that stated that anyone seeking to enter a religious congregation outside of the diocese needed the bishop’s permission, I was told “No,” by Bishop Sweeney. Hawaii needed religious. He called the diocesan vocation director who took me to visit St. Stephen’s Seminary on the Pali. It was nice out there. I even met a seminarian from Molokai, Pablo Mondoy. I passed the interview and went home to Molokai to prepare to enter the seminary.
Unbeknownst, the superior of the seminary was transferred and no one followed up on my application. As there were Sacred Hearts Fathers on Molokai who were also missionaries like the Maryknoll, I asked if I could join them. Father Bonaventure said, “Consider yourself accepted.”
In the Sacred Hearts Seminary in Hauula I learned the practice of perpetual adoration. I also read many books by Thomas Merton and others about the Trappists and how they sang in choir and observed monastic silence. I felt myself saying, “That’s the kind of life I really feel called to.” After a year, I asked to go to the Trappists. My spiritual director said, “No. You belong here. That is just a temptation because you are reading those books.” In those days, whatever the superior said was God’s will. But, I never stopped asking through every following stage of formation.
Four years out of the seminary, I was made provincial of the Sacred Hearts Fathers. Whenever I mentioned the Trappists, I was told, “It’s God’s way. Harold, give the Sacred Hearts 10 years.” When I was asked to take a third provincial term, I reminded them of the 10 years. I was with them for 18 years, 10 of which I served as a priest.
As Trappists, we have the three pillars of the Divine Office, manual labor and lectio divina that create the contemplative lifestyle that supports us. We do not claim to be contemplatives as it is God’s grace, or gift, to be in contemplation. When we are faithful to the lifestyle, we move in the right direction. God the Holy Spirit is working within us as he wants us to, in our witness to the world, in our prayer for the world.
I really like the quiet, quiet prayer, manual labor, singing in choir, and frequency of going to church here. Where else could I find all of these together? Even though, when I tend the orchard in manual labor I sometimes get too busy to remember God, our contemplative lifestyle gathers us several times a day to pray the Divine Office. It is this, along with other sacred breaks, that remind us why we are here making the whole day prayerful. It must be God’s way.
Father Harold Meyer is a monk at the Abby of New Clairvaux, in Vina, California. He is from Kalae, Molokai. The family ranch borders the settlement of Kalaupapa where his great grandfather was very helpful to St. Damien and St. Marianne. He has been a Trappist for 41 years.
