As a child, I told everyone my best friend was a monk.
This monk has since passed, but the relationship I had with him still remains in my heart and is an important part of my life.
Brother Maurus Glenn taught me what it meant to live a life in Christ. By the time I knew him, he was ill and unable to work on his usual tasks around the monastery.
He did not let this keep him from living his life, however. He would continue to do small tasks through his suffering, such as setting the table at meal times. Since working all day was no longer an option, Brother Maurus switched his focus toward the most important thing to him: people.
Brother Maurus’ face would always light up when he got the chance to talk about his brothers at the monastery and their adventures. His stories showed me what friendship should look like.
It was his relationship with my family, however, that would have the most profound impact on me and my brothers.
Brother Maurus was able to spend a large amount of his time with my family. He might sit in a chair for hours as my brothers and I drew a chalk house around him on our driveway. On other days, he would lie on the floor for hours as we built a train track and split it into developing countries. He would always have the least developed territory, but that would be because he was much more focused on visiting our sides of the tracks than developing his own. This, of course, is only a children’s game, but this models how Brother Maurus lived his life.
A day of great confusion for me as a child was Brother Maurus’ birthday. He showed up at our house that day just like any other, but he was carrying gifts. He handed these gifts out to each member of the family, saying they were birthday gifts. I responded, saying this was all wrong. He should be receiving gifts, not giving them. He disagreed, saying that it was the giving and the joy it brought us that made him happy.
As I live my life today, as a young woman going through college, I try to remember Brother Maurus in the way I live each day. His love and selflessness are things I strive to achieve. Brother Maurus’ constant love and presence in my childhood taught me that to be human means to love.
Brother Maurus’ great joy stemmed from the fact that he never kept God’s love for himself. He was constantly sharing it with those around him, especially with my family.
He lived a simple life focused on others. This is a life that many would not understand, just as I did not understand the joy Brother Maurus received from giving us gifts on his birthday. It was not the world that was important to him — it was the people God put in it.
From Brother Maurus, I learned that true happiness comes from choosing to live in joy even through hardships and, most importantly, choosing to love those around you in a selfless way.
Anna Constantino is a parishioner of St. Benedict Church in Subiaco. She is currently studying philosophy, theology and business at Benedictine College in Kansas.
