Our Ministries

Ministry flows naturally out of a monastic life dedicated to worship and work because it is grounded in living and proclaiming the Gospel. One of the motivations for founding a Benedictine monastery in central Minnesota in 1856 was to attend to the spiritual and educational needs of the many German immigrants who were arriving here with their own American Dream. From the first days and weeks of the arrival of a founding group of monks from Saint Vincent's Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, monks visited these developing communities to receive support and offer sacramental ministry. In time, Benedictine monks would be instrumental in founding dozens of parishes throughout the State of Minnesota and beyond state boundaries. That involvement would extend into parochial schools, missions to Native Americans, and to medical and social agencies.

This ministry has proven mutually beneficial for Saint John's and the communities served by Benedictine monks. It was the seedbed of many vocations to the monastery, and for students to Saint John's Preparatory School and Saint John's University. It has enriched the community with a depth of human experience, ministerial care, and religious devotion of lay Catholics, relayed back by the monastery's pastors and chaplains. It is both grounding within the local Church and an opportunity to serve others in proclaiming the gospel.

Pastoral Ministry

From the beginning Saint John’s has been well connected with local communities through pastoral ministry.  The initial energy to establish a monastery in Central Minnesota in the 1850s was charged by the flow of German Immigrants who were settling in the area.  In those early decades that energy was poured out into the founding of dozens of parishes and schools in their service.  It flowed back to Saint John’s in the form of students for the Prep School, University, and Seminary, in abundant vocations, and in the expansive energy of the region.

Saint John’s monks continue to minister in about twenty communities as priests and chaplains.  We have served in several parishes surrounding the monastery for their entire 150+ year history, and we are taking initiative to sustain them through collaborative approaches to ministry as Area Catholic Communities, even as numbers of priests decline.  Saint John’s monks also minister in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and other religious communities by supplying chaplains and sacramental ministers.    

Additionally, Saint John’s is revitalizing the initial thrust of ministry to immigrants of the area by enlivening our outreach to Latino communities in Central Minnesota through the creation of the San Benito Center.  This outreach includes sacramental ministry, community action, and educational initiatives to form leaders.

Saint John’s Abbey, with its educational apostolates and the School of Theology, is a vital resource to the region and the Diocese of Saint Cloud.  We strive to respond the changing spiritual and social needs of the day by providing quality pastoral care colored by the monastic and community values of Benedictine life. 

“Casa San Benito”

In 1997 Saint Benedict’s Monastery and Saint John’s Abbey in cooperation with the Church of Saint Boniface in Cold Spring began ministering among the Latino population in rural central Minnesota.  Under the leadership of Sister Renee Domeier, OSB and Fr. Francisco Schulte, OSB, Casa Guadalupe grew from an outreach in the Town’s Edge Trailer Park to a ministry organization.  In 2005, Sister Renee retired from ministry, and Casa Guadalupe continued as a parish ministry until 2010.  In 2010 in order to secure outside funding, Casa Guadalupe became a separately incorporated non-profit organization.  However, in 2014, Casa Guadalupe closed its doors as it could not maintain operations. 

Casa Guadalupe was serving not only the Latinos of Cold Spring, but also those who live in various towns of central MN: Rockville, Melrose, Wilmar, Pelican Rapids, St. Cloud, Waite Park, and Montevideo.  The Latino community who lives in the above-mentioned towns, is comprised mainly of poor immigrant farm laborers of Mexican and Central American origin; they are hundreds of unfortunate persons who need to get support for their spiritual, economic, and social needs. 

Program Summary

When Saint John’s Abbey was founded in1856, its most essential ministry was to provide pastoral care, and religious and academic education to German immigrants in central Minnesota. Today, and for the last 20 years or so, groups of immigrants from Latin America have been arriving in central Minnesota, pursuing better job opportunities with the hope of offering a higher quality of life for their families.  These contemporary immigrants are mostly poor farm laborers and dispossessed factory workers. They seek the most basic needs of life: decent jobs, food, clothing, housing, education for their children, faith formation, spiritual direction, sacraments and prayer, basic legal counseling, and a warm welcome. 

Mindful of their initial mission to the German immigrants, and seeing similarities in the need of today’s local Latino community, the monks of Saint John’s feel called today to provide help to these new immigrants. In addition to offering the assistance of monks to cover the spiritual and sacramental requirements of these Latino immigrants, the monks are committed to providing basic counseling and support in matters of the immigrants’ legal and material necessities. With the support of the abbey’s Center of Latino Ministry, the Latino community and Saint John’s Abbey together will continue the labor of building up the Church, the Body of Christ, in central Minnesota.   

Scope of services

Saint John’s Abbey is committed to providing support and aid to the local Latino population in the following ways:

• Providing ministerial assistance for Sunday and Holy Day Masses and other sacraments and prayer services for Latinos: choir at Mass, Liturgical Feasts, groups of prayer at church and at homes, groups of lectors, acolytes, altar servers, Eucharistic ministers.

• Assisting with sacramental preparation classes (baptism, first communion, confirmation and marriage).

• Assisting with retreats and faith formation classes for adults, children and youth, and offering financial assistance for the SOT Youth in Theology and Ministry (YTM) program and other educational programs of the diocese.

• Supporting adult ESL classes for Spanish-speaking immigrants.

• Providing charitable assistance for individuals (clothes, food, etc.), translation services for filling health care and legal forms and applications, and guidance for persons in need to contact appropriate charitable organizations.

• Supporting the education of Latino/a teenagers who want to attend classes at St. John’s Prep school by getting donations for scholarships for them.

• Promoting the integration of the Latino community into local parishes and schools, with a goal for interculturalism, in which groups of people come together in a spirit of mutual respect and appreciation for who they are and the gifts they bring.

  For More Information, please contact:
  Fr. Efrain Rosado OSB
  Email: erosado@csbsju.edu
  Tel. 320-761-0942

  
  
  
  
  

The Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps.

The abbey’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps provides volunteer opportunities for recent graduates of Saint John’s University at Benedictine monasteries and schools around the world. Utilizing the skills and spiritual values they learned at Saint John’s, the young men serve in collaboration with the host Benedictine monasteries in which they are placed, mostly located in developing areas of the world. The work is varied, sorely needed, and greatly appreciated. The presence of the volunteers is also a gift to the host monks with whom they live and work, for they enrich each monastic community with youthful energy and new insights in a common search for God. Finally, the young men are transformed by the richness of being in a “new world.” Support is needed to provide orientation and training, transportation, health coverage, and modest volunteer stipends, as well as to provide funds for entrepreneurial projects at the sites.

Visit the Benedictine Volunteer Corps Website for More Information

Saint John’s University Campus Ministry

Saint John's University Campus Ministry, rooted in Catholic tradition and Benedictine values, cultivates the faith life of the campus community "that in all things God may be glorified." (RB 57:9) While welcoming all students, we primarily focus on the spiritual and religious development of undergraduate men and the ministerial formation of graduate and undergraduate students.  We foster discipleship through worship, pastoral care, faith formation, service, and reflection in order to form students to understand, embrace and live out their faith "that they are better prepared to witness to the kingdom of truth in the world." (Empowered by the Spirit, USCCB)

The SJU Office of Campus Ministry is to operate in accord with the Catholic Benedictine character and mission of Saint John's University. It is to be as "an expression of the Church's special desire to be present to all who are involved in higher education" (cf. Empowered by the Spirit: Campus Ministry Faces the Future [ES],13). As such, the SJU Office of Campus Ministry will carry out the Church's mission to "preach the Gospel of Christ and to help the human family achieve its full destiny"... through the "formation of individuals who have a sense of ultimate purpose and are moving toward greater freedom, maturity, and integration"...with a "sense of responsibility for the common good" that is supported by the development of skills "for active involvement in community life." (cf. ES 17).

In this light, the SJU Office of Campus Ministry is specifically charged with addressing the pastoral and spiritual needs of the undergraduate men who are students of Saint John's University. That is, the SJU Office of Campus Ministry must be attentive to using the lens of gender to recognize the needs and proclivities of students in planning, implementing, and assessing ministry programs for student engagement and growth.

The Benedictine Living-Learning Community

The Benedictine Living-Learning Community is a program jointly sponsored by the Benedictine Institute, Saint John’s University Residential Life, and the Abbey Vocations office. It provides an opportunity for 10 to 12 SJU students each year to live together in an intentional way, deepening their understanding of the Benedictine way, as they build bonds of community, practice hospitality, pray with the monastic community, and participate in facilitated discussions about Benedictine history, spirituality, and practice.