Those of us here on the Belmont Abbey campus sometimes joke about “monastic time.” It’s a quip we’ve borrowed from the monks themselves, though it would be hard to imagine actually applying it to their faithful work, despite their good-humored self-deprecation. In the course of our teaching or administrative work, however, if some objective seems slow in approaching or a goal aims far in the future, we can always tease ourselves with the playfully applied truth: that this is just the monastic way. In an overarching, historical sense, the scale of Benedictine time responds to a 1500 year tradition, after all; its units are more properly centuries than days or weeks. But even on an individual scale, the Abbey monk lives his life in view of eternity. To be clear, Benedictine monks absolutely get things done. One look at Belmont Abbey history shows dozens of visionary servant-leaders who built and sustained this college and community over the last 150 years, bringing it by the grace of God from two students and a few, old farm buildings to a thriving community of 1700+ and a campus full of beautiful, historic architecture. But in looking back at Abbey history, it’s important to remember that these men didn’t always see the fruits of their labors, which unfolded slowly across generations. They didn’t need to see what would come or know how long it would take. Being human, of course, they may have wondered, but they also drew strength and perspective from a community whose way of life, sense of priority, and attitude toward time look ever more radical by today’s standards. In the monastery, the daily rhythms are steady and consistent, cultivating a faithful interior space in which to await the still, small voice so easy to miss in our urgent, polarized, and media-saturated world. Those of us outside the...