Back in 2015, a new friend at college invited me to do an internship during my freshman summer. Little did I know that invitation would change my life. For the next three summers, from 2016-2019, I interned with the “One Bread, One Cup” program at Saint Meinrad. Each summer, I lived with a community of interns who quickly became some of my best friends as we prayed together, took classes, and put on conferences around liturgy for high school students. We witnessed the lives of the monks, soaking in our time at the Holy Hill. One year while back at school, a professor of mine asked me why I would intern at a monastery during my college summers. I have come to realize that my time at Saint Meinrad was a gift from the Lord, filled with so much hope. It is this hope that I experienced at Saint Meinrad in the lives and the prayer of the OBOC and monastic community that influenced where I went after college and how I live my life.
After graduation, I moved to Baltimore City. I started volunteering with Source of All Hope, a missionary program that seeks to give Christ a home in the places He’s most neglected. I have now worked with the program for five years, originally as a volunteer, then as a missionary, and now as staff. Over time, I have seen many people react to the way the missionaries live: praying and going out to the streets of Baltimore to come to know the men and women living on the streets with only a small monthly stipend. Not only do the missionaries bring out socks and water to meet a need, but they also come to know the names of those experiencing homelessness to meet the need of loneliness they experience. As a community, we’ve celebrated the birthdays of many men and women on the street. We’ve visited local museums and shared a meal and also talked with them at stoplights and tents. We’ve gotten to see friends get off the streets and be reunited with their families, but we’ve also seen friends get worse and eventually pass away.
Many parishioners express how the missionaries give them hope. But what does this mean? To the majority of society, this job makes no sense. Why spend time with the poorest of the poor and waste time in prayer? Why do we continue on when a friend passes away after years of living on the streets? Why give up a year of your life to live in Baltimore? It’s because we hope in the Lord’s promises of eternal happiness and recognize that He desires this for all people. It’s because we’ve come to recognize how the Lord has fulfilled His promises in our lives and we want to share that with others. That is the only way a life like this makes sense.
We must ask daily for increases of hope to draw ourselves and others closer to God. Do we live in such a way that our lives only make sense if we have hope? We live in a day and age where many of us struggle with anxiety, the big questions of how and why we suffer, and witness injustices and suffering in the world around us. My experiences at Saint Meinrad and subsequently at Source of All Hope prompt me to respond — I must live a life in which I hope in the Lord. May the Lord grant us an abundance of hope that leads us to desire Heaven and “rouse one another to love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:24)
Abby Steele, “One Bread, One Cup” Intern 2016-2019