Michael KellyWe’ve become used to speaking of a ‘vocations crisis’ in Ireland. It’s a challenging era for many religious communities, but Silverstream Benedictine Priory in Co. Meath has a unique challenge: “We don’t have any room to accept the many new candidates we’re getting vocation inquiries from,” Dom Mark Daniel Kirby says.
There are currently five monks in the community, and to describe their living conditions as modest would be an understatement. “We have a huge amount of work to do to the monastery,” Dom Mark confides. “It’s a big job.”
Nestled in the heart of the Boyne Valley in Stamullen, Co. Meath, Silverstream Priory has been open for three years. At a time when many religious communities are consolidating and closing down houses, the Benedictines at Silverstream have an ambitious plan of work to build their monastic community as a powerhouse of prayer, hospitality and spirituality. There’s only one problem: “We are in dire straits, we don’t have any money,” Fr Kirby tells The Irish Catholic in a candid interview.
Humble love
The moment one arrives at Silverstream Priory, where the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament have made their home, the tranquillity is striking.
Dom Mark Daniel Kirby, 62, was born and raised in the United States, but he feels that the gentle hand of God has led him to Ireland. The story takes shape in 2007 during a lengthy layover in Dublin airport en route to Rome. Dom Mark wanted to celebrate Mass and so went to the airport church. While there, a prayer came to him: “Lord, let me do something for the Church in Ireland”.
At a conference in Rome in 2011, he met some people from Ireland, he shared with them the fact that Eucharistic Adoration and a special care for priests is at the heart of the charism of his community that was then based in Oklahoma in the US. The Irish people he met shared their hope that such a community could benefit the Church in Ireland.
“The invitation to consider Ireland touched me deeply, because for several years I had felt a growing desire to respond to the needs of the Church in Ireland with a humble love.”
Dom Mark returned to the US to find that the house of their embryonic community in Oklahoma had been flooded by heavy rains and, as a result, badly-damaged and uninhabitable. He searched in vain for an alternative location in the Tulsa Diocese. It was then that the idea of making Ireland a base started to crystallise. Luckily the local bishop in the US was a man of Irish descent, Dr Edward Slattery.
Ethnic backgrounds
He gave Dom Mark permission to seek a new home for his community in Ireland. He met with Bishop of Meath Michael Smith and received his permission to set up at Silverstream which had recently been vacated by the Visitation Sisters.
“Our goal is to implant traditional Benedictine life at Silverstream,” Dom Mark tells The Irish Catholic. “This means a close adhesion to the letter and spirit of the Rule [of St Benedict], and a commitment to the traditional forms of the sacred Liturgy in Latin and Gregorian chant”.
Mass at the priory is celebrated in the extraordinary form and the community has gathered a healthy congregation, particularly on Sundays.
“We have people coming from all over Ireland,” Dom Benedict says.
“Some people travel from Dublin, from Belfast and farther afield. We have young families and many people from different ethnic backgrounds”.
The traditional Latin Mass is celebrated every day in the temporary oratory that the monks have set up. They also celebrate the full Divine Office, reciting the entire 150 psalms over the course of a week.
Liturgy is central to the mission of Silverstream and “beauty is integral to our vision,” insists Dom Benedict.
Emphatic
Dom Mark is emphatic in his belief in the transformative power of beauty: “We want to enchant people, that’s part of the reason why we chant the Divine Office, why we put so much energy in to liturgy.”
The community is convinced that people can be attracted to an authentic encounter with Christ through beauty. “When people approach the Church,” Dom Mark insists, “we must offer them beauty. We must enchant people, you don’t attract people by moralism or by preaching a harsh message to them, and you attract them by pointing them towards something that is beautiful. When people are struggling, moralising at them discourages and disheartens them, show them something beautiful”.
And why Latin? “We don’t use Latin for any ideological reason,” Dom Mark says. “This is not about ideology, this is about seeing beauty in the Church’s liturgical tradition”.
Hospitality is also a key part of the mission of Silverstream. There are currently a number of guestrooms where people are invited to come and stay and enjoy the beauty of the monastic experience. There are ambitious plans for more guestrooms and a conference centre.
The church on the site is currently unused. Built in 1952 while the St John of God Order occupied the property, the chapel has been entirely gutted.
“We have big plans for it,” Dom Benedict says. “We want to have something really beautiful, something that will help people raise their hearts and minds to God”.
Grace
But it’s all dependant on fundraising. Dom Mark admits to “nervous evenings when I look in the bank account and realise we’re in trouble”.
And is he daunted by the challenges? “Yes, we have so much to do, but here in the Boyne Valley with its rich monastic tradition we are confident and we rely on God’s help”.
When one thinks of monastic life one often thinks of ancient settlements and long-established communities. Dom Mark sees Silverstream’s embryonic status as “a gift”.
“There is a vitality in a new foundation, there is a special grace that is given… religious life has to be re-founded in every generation. What we have here is not old water, it’s fire, and fire has to be passed on.”