One Bread, One Cup Liturgical Leadership Conference

You might think it would be crazy to spend a whole week with Benedictine monks praying and celebrating daily Mass and learning more about our Catholic faith and not getting much sleep. But I thought it was rather wonderful.

I spent about five days at One Bread, One Cup, a summer Liturgical leadership conference, or as Benedictine Father Godfrey Mullen would say “Monk Camp.” We arrived at St. Meinrad on a Monday afternoon and departed that Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful and inspiring event that I experienced with my sister, Anna, (since my youth minister couldn’t be there, she took his place) and two others from my St. Maria Goretti Youth Group, Rachel Weiss and Joseph Buehner. We weren’t really sure what to expect from One Bread, One Cup, but it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.

Every day, we prayed the Liturgy of the Hours together, which is a set of prayers that contains psalms, readings, intercessions, songs and prayers that are spoken or chanted together as a group. We prayed these prayers for the morning, for Vespers (the evening), and for Compline (night prayer). In the mornings, we were given the chance to pray the Liturgy of the Hours with the monks in the big archabbey church at 5:30 a.m., but for some reason, quite a few people passed up this wonderful opportunity. I valued the beauty and dedication of the monks more than my precious sleep, so I was there in that magnificent church every morning.

We spent a couple hours every day learning about each day’s theme: word, sacrament and mission. The main leader of the program, Father Godfrey, led this portion of the day. He spoke about how we need to listen with the ear of our heart because God speaks to us with a still small voice (1 Kings 19:9-13a). We need to look for Christ in everything, and if we truly look for Him, we will find Him. We discussed the times that made us feel most loved and the times when we felt that our faith was most challenged. We are all one Body in Christ and we are equal and irreplaceable. In our own way, each one of us is essential to being a part of the Body of Christ.

On the day we focused on the sacraments, Father Godfrey spoke about sacrifice. I have found that this is the major thing that most people struggle with in this day and age. We want every aspect of our lives to be comfortable, and we listen to the cries of our flesh instead of denying ourselves for the greater glory of God. We tend to put ourselves first and ignore others who are starving for bread and for love. That night, we had a powerful reconciliation service that brought many to tears and united us more closely in Christ. Afterwards, we all shared the peace of Christ with one another through hugs. This part of the night was very moving.

The third and fourth sessions focused on mission and how we as Christians are called to take the lessons we learn and put them into action, both in our daily lives and in our relationships with each other. Over the course of the week, we meditated on three scripture passages: the 1 Kings story about Elijah listening for God’s still, small voice; the 1 Corinthians reading about the importance of love, and the Matthew story about the multiplication of loaves and fish. Each story reflected different aspects of word, sacrament and mission, and it was a great opportunity to recognize the impact Scripture can still have on us even today.

Each night, we got together with our theological reflection groups and recapped the day. Our leader asked us every night: “Where did you see God today?” When I thought about this, I felt like each day had more worth and more meaning. It was really powerful to think about how God had impacted everyone each day in a different way.  I plan on continuing to meditate on this question every day, so that I will begin to see God more and more in my life.

There were 14 different workshops we were chosen to be a part of, depending on our preferences. Some were Chanting, Stewardship and Hospitality. I specialized in Cantor Development and learned about singing and leadership ministry. We worked with Janet Sullivan Whitaker, an amazing Catholic songwriter and musician. She taught us so much, both in a musical sense and in a spiritual one. There’s something about music that makes me feel so close to God. Singing is when I feel the most united to Him, and I feel His presence with every note. It was amazing to lead the music at every Mass and to lift our voices in a harmonious praise to Him.

I had an amazing experience at One Bread, One Cup, and I know for certain that everyone in attendance was changed by that week. As the song One Bread, One Cup says: “As we go forth from this place of perfect peace, may Your light shine in our lives for all the world to see.”