By Mary Owen
Mentoring families and pioneering lay spirituality were a few of his passions, but perhaps his most intense was guiding youth.
Father Bernard Sanders, a well-loved Benedictine monk at Mt. Angel Abbey, died June 3. More than 400 people came to pay respects at his funeral on June 10.
Those who mourned the 89-year-old priest, ordained in 1944, called him a visionary, open to new ideas. His attributes were many – patient, accepting, loving, amiable, radiant, gentle, compassionate and nurturing.
“He modeled what it means to be a Christian present to others in a troubled world,” said his niece, Kathie Diaz. “Although I am sad to lose him, I am grateful that his work will continue on through the many people whose lives he has touched.
Liza Bizon, who is writing an essay about his life, called him “an extraordinary man, monk and priest.”
“He had many close spiritual sons and daughters of which I was one,” Bizon said. “He intersected my life at a time when I was in crisis. My husband was reaching the end stage of alcoholism, had an anger problem and I had become sick in the ways that people in codependent relationships do.
“Fr. Bernard would sit and talk to me about life and suffering and my own unique experience of that suffering, which he told me I could link with Christ’s own suffering.”
Fr. Bernard convinced Bizon, who wasn’t a Catholic at the time, that her life was not wasted, no matter what her decision was regarding her marriage.
“It was like sitting down with Jesus and talking about things in all of their reality,” she said.
Bizon said Fr. Bernard had an uncommon, intuitive way of seeing and fostering individual potential.
“He just somehow managed to gently love people into seeing what needed to be seen,” she said gratefully.
His forward-looking concern for Catholic families garnered him many honors, including the first Lumen Gentium Award in 1988, the highest honor granted by Mt. Angel Seminary.
He also gathered youths. In the 1960s, he invited young Christian students to the abbey’s guesthouse, inspiring them to begin a new social and spiritual movement called Catholic Action. His involvement guided the group that founded the Father Bernard Youth Center, dedicated Jan. 27, 2006. FBYC is a growing retreat center for Catholic youth, ages 16 to 38.
“We take Fr. Bernard’s messages to heart, particularly his phrase that ‘if young people do not bring Christ out into the world, He ain’t gonna get there!’” said Don Robison, FYBC interim executive director.
Robison said Fr. Bernard’s hope for youth ministry was for it to “reach one young person’s soul at a time, and that they, in turn, will indeed bring Christ back out into the world.”
Fr. Bernard served as guest master and director of the Abbey Guest House, fostering other retreats, including those for married people, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, church artists and musicians, and for several ecumenical groups. In 1982, he established the Mount Angel Abbey Summer Conference, an event that draws about 200 participants of all ages annually to learn and grow in their family life.
Marilyn Kruse, Fr. Bernard’s office aide for 18 years, told the Catholic Sentinel that working with him at the guest house led her to an infusion of contemplative prayer. Kruse eventually led several of the retreats.
Fr. Bernard helped to form, through the Abbey Library, the Christian in the World program, through which a variety of Catholic speakers give workshops on how to live one’s Christian life. He also served as director of the Abbey Oblate Program, expanding it to more than 600 laymen, women and clergy today.
“This man had a huge impact on many, many lives and also on various programs and ministries,” said Robison.
Fr. Bernard’s continual example of undying faith, and his unconditional love and hope for those he served, was the vision that birthed the youth center, Robison maintains.
“People are to be received as Christ himself,” the humble monk was known for saying.
Last year, more than 1,500 youth and young adults visited FBYC on retreat and at various events. The Father Bernard Youth Center is a lasting legacy, a tribute to a life lived in service of and with the laity in the church, FBYC leaders agree.
Memorial donations may be made to FBYC, P.O. Box 790, Mt. Angel, OR 97362, online at www.fbyc.info or at any Wells Fargo branch.
