Homecoming Message from Father Gregory

Over the weekend of October 7-8, we celebrated Homecoming at Priory. It was a beautiful weekend, and we welcomed many of our graduates and their families back to campus. On Friday evening, the monks welcomed the reunion classes (those whose graduation year ends in 1 or 6) back for Mass celebrated by alumnus-monk Father John McCusker ’01 and a reception (see photos) where I enjoyed catching up with classmates from my own class of 1976. Saturday saw the Homecoming soccer game against Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau), the football game against Cardinal Ritter Prep, and the Alumni Association’s barbecue (see photos) in honor of our alumni, which was available to all our guests on campus that day.
Homecoming weekend is an occasion which affords us the opportunity to reflect on the greater Abbey family and the bonds we form with our graduates and their families. In his Rule for monks, Saint Benedict admonishes the Abbot to be particularly solicitous regarding the reception of guests, because Saint Benedict teaches that the guest is a kind of ‘icon’ of Jesus Christ himself, and in receiving the guest, the monks encounter Christ in the other person.
For us at Priory, Homecoming is a wonderful opportunity to receive our graduates “as Christ,” and to experience in a particularly powerful way that spiritual bond which ties us all together: the bond of the Holy Spirit. On the human level, it is wonderful to reconnect with former students, to meet their spouses and children, and to see alumni parents again. There is never enough time to catch up fully with everyone. But even though the encounters be brief, the underlying reality of the communion which we all share is very real, and Homecoming is one point in the year when that communion manifests itself very powerfully.
For me personally, as this was my own class’s 40th reunion, it was a very special Homecoming. I hope it was equally special for all who attended.
Laus Tibi Domine!

Father Gregory Mohrman, O.S.B. ’76
Headmaster, Saint Louis Priory School