In the Prologue to the Rule of Saint Benedict, our Holy Father echoes God's question in Psalm 33: Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days? If you are someone who answers: "Yes, I yearn for life and I desire to see good days," then you can live out your life-response to that question here at Saint Vincent Archabbey. But the question remains: Why live out your response to God here? The only answer is a question: "Why not here?"

Ultimately any monastic vocation is a response to God's invitation to grow in loving union with the one who first loved you. This is the Christian vocation to holiness. It has as many unique responses as there are believers. All the particular aspects of each vocation are quite impossible to identify. Why does anyone marry a particular spouse? Why does anyone choose to live a single life? Why does anyone seek holiness in any professional position or unskilled job? Only each Christian can answer such a question. The extent to which such a question can be answered depends upon the growing self-awareness of each person. The more honest we are with others and ourselves, the more we can identify the complex and multiple answers to the question of vocation. There are no easy answers to such questions, though there may be some simple answers.

Simply put, the more you test your vocation, with spiritual direction, vocation visits and growth in prayer, the more you become comfortable with a particular place and a certain group of like-minded people. Here at Saint Vincent the life of prayer and our many ways to serve provide a fertile ground for developing community. The primary reason for the existence of any monastery is to provide a school of the Lord's service. We exist as a fragile yet powerful witness in the world that it is possible for adult men to live together in harmony and peace. This harmony arises from a great diversity of talented men who honestly care about each other. We show our concern in a genuine openness to each other's spiritual growth and an honest respect for each other's strengths and weaknesses.

The unique charism of our founder Archabbot Boniface Wimmer was that he sought to provide a place to educate people so that they could become leaders, ordained and lay leaders, in church and in society. Education is central to our monastic witness here at Saint Vincent. From very early, on we have provided college training and seminary training for young people. We have also made a generous commitment of priests to serve in the local church and have developed two foreign missions, one in Brazil and the other in Taiwan. Our witness both within the monastic enclosure and outside the abbey has also expanded to hospital ministry, counseling services, spiritual direction, military chaplains, and retreat work. These are some of the traditional ways that this monastic community seeks to grow in prayer and in service to our brothers and sisters.

The question of why to become a Benedictine here at Saint Vincent Archabbey can be answered only within the mystery of a call. This call of God is unique for each individual.  If you do not respond in some fashion to God with a life commitment, you will not be fulfilled in your yearning for life and your desire to see good things.

The Father calls everyone to everlasting intimacy with himself in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit. This intimacy provides the absolutely necessary security and confidence to live in a constant state of self-donation. Without the strength that comes from intimate prayer and genuine community, it is not possible to bear the fruits of the Spirit: love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Giving yourself away in loving service to God and others is the only way to find life—in abundance.