9/19/2008
Three men become monks at Mount Angel
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ST. BENEDICT — On Sept. 8 in the Mount Angel Abbey church, Abbot Nathan Zodrow received monastic vows from three novice brothers. Each man then received a new name, a symbol of his new life at the Benedictine abbey.
Brother John Marshall, now called Brother Luke, was born and raised in Pendleton. He received religious education and participated in youth ministry during his junior high and high school years. At an early age, he sensed a call to priesthood. He credits his experience at St. Mary Parish in Pendleton as the foundation of his religious vocation.
Br. Luke attended public school in Pendleton, graduating from Pendleton High in 1996. After high school, he attended the University of Portland, majoring in philosophy. During his sophomore year, he participated in a year-long study program in Salzburg, Austria. He transferred to Mount Angel Seminary in 1998 as a seminarian for the Diocese of Baker to finish his undergraduate philosophy degree, graduating in 2000. He then joined the Discalced Carmelites in San Jose, Calif., and made his first profession of vows in February 2002. Within a few months, his father unexpectedly passed away.
This death led to a deepening of his faith and a strengthening of his religious vocation. Bother Luke returned to Pendleton to manage his father’s estate and console his family. Several months after his father’s death, he requested a dispensation from his vows, to spend more time with his family and reconsider his vocation. He moved to Portland and worked in banking for five years.
In 2005, he resumed the discernment of his religious vocation, but as a Benedictine. He was drawn to the monastic way of life, with spiritual reading, public prayer, manual labor and common life.
While he valued his time in Carmel, he also remembered his love for the abbey and the monastic community that he had experienced while a student at Mount Angel Seminary. After several visits and retreats at the abbey, Brother Luke became a postulant in March, 2007 and then a novice in September. As a monk, he will begin theology and will sing in the monastic choir.
Brother Christopher Wright, now known as Brother Jonah, was born and raised in New Orleans. He graduated from a LaSallian high school in 1986 and later earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans. After graduation, he spent six months studying Hinduism and Syrian Christianity at monasteries in southern India. Moving to Portland after his studies in India, he continued to find himself drawn to Christianity. This led him, in late 1997, to enter the Society of Mary (the Marists) which provided him with formation education in Berkeley, Calif., Cambridge, Mass., and Washington, D.C.
He chose not to enter perpetual vows with the Marists when his temporary vows expired. Instead, he spent 2004-2005 teaching religion at Archbishop Carroll High School and finishing a sacred theology bachelor’s at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
In October 2005, he enrolled in the History of Theology program at the international Benedictine college, Sant’ Anselmo, in Rome. He received a Sacred Theology License in 2007 and traveled extensively throughout Italy.
During his stay in Rome, his appreciation for the richness and history of Roman Catholicism led him to discern a call to monastic life, because of its structure and support in living the Gospel message. He visited with Mount Angel’s Father Jeremy Driscoll, who teaches at Sant’ Anselmo, about entering at Mount Angel.
Brother Jonah followed the usual pattern for those who have not studied at Mount Angel Seminary. Entering the abbey as a postulant in March 2007, he was a member of the novitiate class in September. He received his license to teach theology and this fall will teach two classes at Mount Angel Seminary: Christian classics and communion ecclesiology.
Brother Bradley Lawrence, now Brother Basil, was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the oldest of three brothers. His parents moved the family to Phoenix, Ariz., when he was one year old. In 1988, his family moved to Las Vegas, where they remain.
Brother Basil attended public schools for his secondary education and in 2002 graduated with honors from Centennial High School in Las Vegas. His employment in Las Vegas included framing construction, guest services at a casino and office assistant for the assistant district attorney.
Brother Basil began to sense a vocation to the priesthood in the eighth grade and was accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Las Vegas upon graduation from high school. He entered St. Francis Seminary in San Diego in fall of 2002 to begin undergraduate studies. That seminary closed and he was transferred to Mount Angel Seminary in fall of 2003. After a year at Mount Angel, he began to discern a call to the monastic life.
In the spring of 2006, he withdrew affiliation with the Diocese of Las Vegas and became an affiliate of Mount Angel Abbey.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in the spring of 2006, then completed one year of theology as an abbey affiliate. During his studies at the seminary, he worked for the registrar and the Writing Center.
As is customary for candidates who enter from the seminary, he entered the abbey as a postulant in July 2007 and was received into the novitiate in September. As a monk, he will study in theology part-time and will assist the abbot’s secretary.
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