Fr. Vincent DeLeers, O. Praem.
-Interview conducted by Stephen Gaertner, O. Praem.
Recently, I sat down with Father Vincent DeLeers, who at age 93 is the senior professed member of the entire St. Norbert Abbey Canonry, to ask him a few questions about his daily life as a Norbertine of Santa Maria de la Vid Priory.
See Fr. Vincent's answers to these questions:
- What does a typical day look like for you?
- Where do you find God in that day's activities?
- How do these activities fulfill a uniquely Norbertine vocation?
- Why the Norbertines of Santa Maria de la Vid?
(Click here to also see Fr. Vincent's biography and profile.)
A typical day . . . I think just what I was doing when you knocked on the door. I spend most of my time reading. And, the reading is not just casual; it’s about spiritual matters, theological discussions, no—explanations would be a better word. I think I have no work assignment except picking up the table pads after each dinner; it’s the only assigned task that I have.
I try to have at least an hour a day in the chapel, or some quiet place where I’m out of my room, and I try to be in touch with God by making myself available to His graces.
Community prayer. The day’s activities . . . I don’t have many activities. Reading theology and spirituality and trying to make myself available to God’s grace. I guess that’s it.
Well, my strongest sense of being a member of a Norbertine community is when we’re praying together, when we’re doing the daily Office, the daily assigned Scriptural reading and prayer. Witnessing others doing the same thing: we do it together. And we’re doing what the Norbertine community for almost a thousand years has, what formed it as a community and empowers it to be a strong supporting element in pursuing the will of God.
I would have to ask myself a question: How do I justify using the word “Norbertine” and applying it to myself? What’s in the history of the community, the experience of the community, that makes [it] a proper home for what I’m trying to be, trying to live? Norbertine . . . yes, we have traditions in many years of existence. They’re offered to us in the Norbertine life that we experience. Sometimes, I am disappointed because when we gather to pray and try to be a community and keep the traditions of Norbertine life in our common prayer, we don’t always do it at a high level of perfection. And as I say that, I ask myself: What right have you to make a judgment about this? And I have no right. It’s just . . . I have a habit of judging which I try to suppress, at least insofar as it is expressed in audible words.
Well, I became a member of the community many years ago, I don’t remember exactly how many years . . . maybe somewhere between twenty-five or thirty years, something like that. And I had been a member of [St. Norbert] College for a long time . . . I had that contact with the community in the school that they run. When I wanted to become a member of a religious community . . . it was strange to become one anywhere else. I passed from being a student, and moved into being a member of the community. The ministry of the Norbertine community was education, so I accepted the chance to become an administrator, a teacher.
Well, let’s see . . . I just remembered something else. The Norbertine community is mainly committed to . . . its main task is education; they ran schools. I was involved as an employee of the community, not as a member, in the management of schools, colleges, that kind of work. Well, it satisfied me; I like being involved in the schoolwork, especially at the college level.
One thing I do remember, when this community started, this part of the Norbertine community of the whole world, it worked toward this kind of life. I was in De Pere, and I saw what this community was trying to do, and I wanted to be involved in it, I thought it was doing the right thing. So I asked to be transferred here as a part of this community. My wish was granted, so I packed up my things and came to this community, before any of these buildings were here. I joined that community, and I participated in the development of thisbranch. It was an easy decision. I liked what I saw them doing, and I wanted to participate in it. So, here I am. I have never regretted becoming a member of this particular gathering of human beings.
[The Jewish-Catholic Dialogue of New Mexico dedicated its 2010 Spring Colloquium, the 17th annual interfaith event of its kind, to Fr. Vincent DeLeers, O. Praem. Fr. DeLeers has participated in the group since 1990]
(Click here to also see Fr. Vincent's biography and profile.)