February 9, 2021

Our gentle confrere, Father David, has been called to his rest. It is our confident hope that our good God has now provided His faithful servant with that peace and happiness which so often seemed to elude him in this life.

Father David was born and raised in Clifton Forge, VA,, where his father was employed by the C&O Railroad. He would remind me from time to time that we shared in common that our fathers were employed by the same railroad. By his own testimony, he grew up in a happy home. He had two older sisters, Phyllis and Sister Dolores C.S.C, both of whom were teachers. He spent his vacations regularly with his family. After the death of his parents he joined his sisters each year for vacation without fail. When his sister Phyllis was badly injured in an accident several years ago, Father David requested and received permission to live outside the monastery in order to care for her. He spent over a year with her at her home in Roanoke nursing her back to good health. Phyllis’ death in 2010, followed several years later by the death of Sister Dolores, left Father David without close relatives and brought a certain sense of loneliness to his latter years.

In the autobiography he wrote for his admission to vows, Father David recounted that, when it was time to select a college, he and his family corresponded with several Catholic colleges, but were unable to decide on one. A priest, who was a friend of his older sister, Sister Dolores, suggested some colleges, among which was Belmont Abbey College. The hand of Providence directed Father David here in 1949 to enroll in what at that time was the junior college, and the rest is history, as they say. After completing his A.A. degree here, he matriculated at Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, MD, where he earned his B. S. in History and Economics. Subsequently, he would pursue graduate studies in Library Science at the Catholic University of America. After college, he was drawn back to Belmont Abbey, this time to request entrance into the monastic life.

Father David liked to recount how, after having received the monastic habit on July 1, 1953 from Abbot Vincent, he was dispatched on the very same day on the longest solo trip of his life, traveling by train to Saint Bernard Abbey in Cullman, AL, to receive his novitiate formation there. He professed his first vows at St. Bernard to Abbot Bede Luibel on July 2, 1954. The reports of the novice master to Abbot Vincent note that Frater David was a most diligent novice with one glaring weakness – he had received only two years of instruction in Latin and was testing the patience of the good fathers at St. Bernard as he stumbled through the readings of the Office. Those of us who have lived with Father David can well imagine the abject terror which must have possessed him at the prospect of declaiming the complex Latin sentences in public. He was supplied with additional tutoring in Latin and is reported to have applied himself most diligently. Father David retained a lifelong affection for St. Bernard and was happy to be reunited with Father Raphael Salasek of that community while participating in the renewal program at Sant’ Anselmo in Rome in the 1980s.

Happily back at Belmont after the novitiate, Frater David completed his seminary studies here at Belmont, during which time he taught – believe it or not – Plane Geometry in the prep school and served as assistant librarian and assistant infirmarian. Those were the good old days when assignments were determined more by the needs of the school than by the preferences of the monk. Father David was ordained here in the abbey cathedral on May 31, 1958. He was promptly sent for one year of service at St. Benedict Priory in Richmond, followed by a second year at Sacred Heart Priory in Savannah. He returned to Belmont in the summer of 1960 and stayed here until last Sunday, when he went to heaven.

On his return in 1960, Father David was assigned to the college library, where he worked for eleven years. In 1971, overwhelmed by the pressures and responsibilities of his work, Father David resigned his position as librarian and was sent for a couple of years of recuperation to Louisville. During his convalescence, he was kindly welcomed for a time by the monks of St. Meinrad Archabbey, and then by the Passionist Fathers at their monastery in Louisville. The Passionist Monastery happened to be across the street from Bellarmine College, where I was a student at the time. Knowing Father David’s love of classical music, I was able to acquire through a program at the college discount tickets to performances of the Louisville Symphony. Father David and I regularly and happily attended the orchestra concerts together for the duration of his sojourn in Louisville. Father David had received his love of music from his mother, was quite knowledgeable about composers and their works, and had an extensive collection of classical music.

Father David never completely recovered from the weight of pressure and responsibility. After his return to the abbey, he willingly accepted a variety of assignments and services over the years. As buyer for the community, he set up his “David K Mart” stocked with various toiletries and supplies. Father David was diligent in his pastoral service and was ever willing to accept assignments for Masses and penance services. He had a special compassion for the sick and the homebound, and had an active ministry of visiting them, taking Communion and celebrating the Anointing of the Sick. His gentle nature made him a much sought-after Confessor, and he spent hours in the confessional. His service as chaplain to the sisters at Sacred Heart Convent and Holy Angels was a special joy, and the Sisters of Mercy richly returned his affection. He was a regular presence at the annual Chrism Mass, jubilee celebrations, priests’ funerals and other diocesan functions.

Father David’s memory will always be closely connected with Abbot Walter and Father Kieran. He was deeply devoted to Abbot Walter and cared for his every need in the later years of Abbot Walter’s life. Father David and Father Kieran were, most of the time, inseparable, though their relationship could be fraught at times. Father David traveled several times with both Abbot Walter and Father Kieran on pilgrimage to Fatima. In the mid-1980s, Father David and Father Kieran attended together the renewal program offered at Sant’ Anselmo, in Rome. The program took them to Masses at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, to St. Benedict’s birthplace at Norcia, to Subiaco, to Monte Cassino and numerous other shrines. For Father David, however, I think the highlight of the trip was his pilgrimage to Vienna to visit the grave of Franz Schubert.

Father David had a quick wit, which sometimes, because of his self-effacing demeanor, surprised people. He loved to tell jokes, of which he had an endless supply, and puns were his specialty. He could laugh at himself. Since he had undergone not two but three knee replacements, one hip replacement, two shoulder replacements, a pacemaker and cataract surgery on both eyes, he liked to joke that he didn’t know whether he should be buried or recycled! His library training also made him an indefatigable researcher, an avocation which reached new heights with the advent of the photocopy machine and the internet. If you ever mentioned in his presence something you were curious about, you would likely find in short order several pages of information on the topic – copies of which were also stored in his room!

Father David was a gentle man, the kindest of men. The same gentleness and compassion, which made him so dedicated a pastor of souls and a good Confessor, also at times made life difficult for him. He could not understand why people were unkind, and he struggled to understand the inevitable trials of life. It was important to him that people knew that he always tried to do what was right, and he was exacting in his obedience. He always tried to exceed people’s expectations, which in itself led at times to misunderstandings. In many ways, Father David’s purgatory was provided here on earth. In recent months, as his health declined, he made it known that he wished he could somehow sneak into heaven through the back door. As he had patiently endured so many trials throughout his life, I would like to think that, this past Sunday afternoon, far from sneaking quietly in the back door, Father David was welcomed at the gates of heaven by the choirs of angels and escorted amid a joyful throng of the martyrs to Mary, the Help of Christians, who presented him to her Son, Jesus.

February 10, 2021

At the very end of the Prologue to his Rule, Saint Benedict sets out his purpose for us as follows: “Never swerving from his instruction, then, but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom. Amen.” For sixty-eight years, three quarters of his life, Father David has faithfully followed that admonition. He was the senior professed member of this monastery. He was certainly one who was exacting in his striving to observe faithfully the teachings of Christ and of St. Benedict. During his monastic life, Father David was required more than most men to share by patience in the sufferings of Christ. We trust that he now shares all the more abundantly in his kingdom.

Our first reading, from the Book of Wisdom is of special consolation today. It was selected by Father David himself, and I suspect he may have found an autobiographical connection with the text. I think Father David often felt that God tried him and tested him as gold in the furnace. How often he repeated, especially in these last months, “I just don’t understand.” We can, then find consolation in the fact that he is now greatly blessed, and has at last attained that peace and happiness which he always sought.

The Letter to the Romans, too, was Father David’s choice, and I think it likely that it was a passage he turned to often through these last sixty-eight years. To the Apostle’s question, What can separate us from the love of Christ?, Father David by his life consistently answered, “Nothing!” He certainly endured throughout his life enough challenges to his trust in Jesus’ love. In addition to many and various chronic health issues, Father David’s kind and sensitive nature made the hurts and slights and disappointments which life brings to everyone all the more hurtful to him. He was always at the service of others, and the sometimes-peremptory rebuffs given to his kindness wounded him. Saint Benedict instructs us that a novice “should be clearly told all the hardships and difficulties that will lead him to God.” Although Father David may not have experienced all the hardships, he certainly had more than his share. When he was feeling overwhelmed, you would see him shut his eyes, get quiet and, most certainly, hold on tightly to the assurance that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Our most consoling instruction from the Word of God comes to us, I think, from the Gospel that Father David chose for us on this occasion. It is the very end of Jesus’ great prayer at the conclusion of the Last Supper, after which he will proceed to Gethsemani to be betrayed and to hand himself over to his Passion. Jesus is praying for his disciples, but he also adds, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in my through their word. Father David knew himself to be one of those who believed through their word, and thus he knew that, in this prayer, Jesus was praying for him as well. Jesus tells his Father regarding his disciples and those who will believe through their word: Father, they are your gift to me. How beautiful! I believe that Father David, too, was convinced that his parents and his sisters, his confreres in this community, the sick and homebound to whom he ministered, the Sisters of Mercy, our college community, all those he encountered were God’s gift to him. This gift of God’s grace to him, was the source of his gentle and compassionate kindness. How different would our lives be if we viewed the people we encounter each day as God’s gifts to us! Jesus concludes his prayer with the words: I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. It is true. In our gentle confrere Father David, the kindest of men, there lived the love of God imparted continually to him through Jesus Christ.

Today, February 10, is the Feast of St. Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict. It is uniquely fitting that we celebrate on this day the conclusion and perfection of Father David’s life according to the Rule of Saint Benedict. Through his fidelity to this way of life by the grace of God, it appears that he had achieved that perfection of monastic life illustrated by Saint Scholastica. The reading for the vigil office of today’s feast is the well-known story from the life of Saint Benedict, where he and his sister meet, as was their custom once a year, in a house not far from Benedict’s monastery. On this occasion, Scholastica, knowing that her death was approaching, entreated her brother to stay with her through that night that they might talk “about the joys of heaven till morning.” Benedict curtly replied that he could not possibly go against the rules like that, but had to return to his monastery. In response, Scholastica bowed her head and prayed – and how many times did we see Father David, when things become too much for him, simply close his eyes and bow his head? Immediately so violent a storm broke out that Benedict had no choice but to stay. The story tells us that “they spent the entire night together and both of them derived great profit from the holy thoughts they exchanged about the interior life.” In commenting on why, in this instance, Scholastica had proved mightier than her brother, the text explains: “Do we not read in St. John’s that God is love? Surely it is no more than right that her influence was greater than his, since hers was the greater love.” And so fittingly we celebrate Father David’s passing over to eternal life on Saint Scholastica’s feast. By his fidelity to Saint Benedict’s “little rule for beginners”, his love became greater. He was always the “first to show respect to the other”, he supported with the greatest patience weaknesses of body or character, both his own and others’; he competed, in obedience to others, never pursuing what he judged better for himself but for instead what he judged better for someone else. He showed us, his confreres, the love of a brother and to God he rendered loving fear. Father David truly preferred nothing whatever to the love of Christ, and it is to Christ that we offer our prayer today that he take his faithful servant, our gentle confrere, to everlasting life.