Seth’s new life in Silverstream...
SETH Borders, a 27 year old computer programmer from Ypsilanti, Michigan, was clothed in the Benedictine habit at Silverstream Priory in Stamullen at the weekend, becoming Brother Thomas Aquinas.
The son of Stephen and Ann Borders, Brother Thomas Aquinas is the youngest of six children and graduated in 2012 from Kettering University with a degree in Computer Engineering.
As a novice at Silverstream Priory, Brother Thomas will learn to live the 6th century Rule of Saint Benedict in 21st century Ireland. A lover of music and enthusiast of Gregorian Chant, the new novice happily sings in the monastic choir, spending five to six hours a day in prayer.
At other times, he can be found working on the land, serving in the monastery kitchen, or applying his technological skills to the monastery’s website and podcasts.
Conventual Prior Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B., delivered the homily at the ceremony, remarking: ‘People, upon hearing of your decision to enter Silverstream Priory, surely wondered what could have compelled you to leave your home in Michigan, your beloved family, your friends, and your work? You did not come to Silverstream Priory because you wanted to live in Ireland. Nor was it the Rule of Saint Benedict that drew you here; you had not yet discovered the Holy Rule and, in fact, knew little of Benedictine life.
‘ It was not the richness of the liturgical life; you might have found that elsewhere. Were you perhaps attracted here by the brethren? We are, I think, it is a true, a congenial lot; we are blessed with a warm family spirit and marked by a special grace of fraternal charity, but these things, too, you might have found elsewhere.
‘You did not come to Silverstream seduced by breathtaking landscapes and splendid architecture. You did not come here in search of any material advantage; here at Silverstream everything is poor, humble, and either in need of repair or waiting to be built.’
He said Bro Aquinas was there as a ‘patently Eucharistic vocation. You came to this monastery because the Host had become your lodestone.’
He added, ‘ The perfect monk, according to our father Saint Benedict, is the man who, having set his heart where his treasure is, prefers nothing to the love of Christ.’