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St. Benedict of Nursia as painted by Hans Memling in 1487. |
About Fr. Mark
He is the fourth of nine children from a close family in the Pittsburgh area. Having entered the Benedictine monastery of St. Vincent Archabbey his monastic family is considerably larger. He regards the family setting as a kind of school that teaches human relations, and thereby, human nature.
The Archabbot of St. Vincent Archabbey sent him to acquire a doctorate in "Anthropological Sciences" in order to teach anthropology at St. Vincent College. He returned from his fieldwork in Egypt to teach in the 1980's and continues full time till now in that work. Anthropology is of course the science of human nature, and its teaching another avenue of learning the same. Aside from his teaching, Fr. Mark provides limited spiritual direction to a variety of people as well as the pastoral work mentioned above.
It is this intense investment in human nature that provides Fr. Mark his insights into divine things. As others have reasoned, ever since God placed His Image in man, the study of Man is a sacred science. Ever since God became man in the Incarnation, Fr. Mark regards the study of Man as a manner of prayer. The Bible is a revelation not only of God, but of His people. And since His people must be at last all who bear the stamp of His nature, the Bible is treated by Fr. Mark as a kind of anthropological text. He uses the mode of Biblical prayer known to monasticism as Lectio Divina to study Biblical texts and he brings to his prayer of Scriptures his anthropological, pastoral, pedagogical communal and familial experience. From this background he "preaches" God's word on retreats, missions and conferences. This likewise is the intention of the present Webpage.