Long-serving abbot reflects on his Subiaco leadership

Monk known outside state as author, Little Rock Scripture founder

Published: November 7, 2009

By Serenah McKay
Rogers correspondent

Courtesy Subiaco Abbey

Abbot Jerome Kodell, who originally started with woodworking making pine coffins, now creates wooden bowls. He is seen here in 2007.

Courtesy Subiaco Abbey

Abbot Jerome Kodell, who originally started with woodworking making pine coffins, now creates wooden bowls. He is seen here in 2007.

Abbot Jerome Kodell, OSB, was a priest stationed in Central America in 1989 when his monastic community at Subiaco Abbey was preparing to elect its next abbot.

He came back for the election, but the outcome caught him by surprise.

"I thought I was far enough away, but I wasn't," he joked. "When they started voting, I kind of got a funny feeling."

On Nov. 8, Abbot Jerome will mark 20 years as the superior of the religious community about 40 miles east of Fort Smith. He said no special events are planned for the occasion, "but I'm sure people will be praying for me."

He is only the sixth abbot in the monastery's 131-year history. Most abbots serve 10 to 15 years, he said.

The Clarksville native is a product of Subiaco Academy (Class of '57) and Subiaco College (Class of '61). He made his solemn profession of monastic vows in 1959 and was ordained as a priest in 1965.

He left Arkansas to study in Rome from 1966 to 1969, first at the Collegio Sant' Anselmo and then at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

Over the next 20 years, he served in many capacities at Subiaco. In the academy, he was a teacher, yearbook adviser, soccer coach and assistant basketball coach. He was a chaplain at Arkansas Tech University in nearby Russellville, and editor of the Abbey's newsletter, The Abbey Message.

But perhaps one of his most far-reaching achievements was helping found Little Rock Scripture Study, working with others to develop its format that includes study questions, small group discussion and lectures. The program was conceived as a small study group in 1974, but proved vastly more popular than anyone envisioned.

"At the time, Vatican Council II had encouraged Bible study within the Catholic Church, but there hadn't been much for the laity," Abbot Jerome said. "This was about 10 years later, this was in a rural area, a small diocese, we didn't have a college or other program, so it had to be self-contained.

"It also emphasized prayer and the guidance of the Church. It answered a need and offered a way that anyone could participate."

The program is now offered in thousands of parishes in the United States and around the world, according to the Little Rock Scripture Study Web site.

"It was so popular, it began to travel and just took off by itself," Abbot Jerome said. "That wasn't the idea at all. We'd have one (session) in the fall and one in the spring. It was wonderful, it was a blessing, a great blessing."

In 1989, he was serving at Santa Familia Monastery in Belize when he made the trip back to Arkansas to help his Subiaco brothers elect a new abbot. Father Raphael DeSalvo, Subiaco's fifth abbot, resigned in November of that year because of health problems.

As the leader of the religious community's 44 monks and four novices, Abbot Jerome also oversees the operation of the abbey and its ministries.

But he adds, "My main duty in all of it is prayer, to stay in touch with God."

In his free time, Abbot Jerome enjoys fishing and woodworking. He started the latter in the late 1970s by learning to make pine coffins for the deceased monks at the abbey.

"In the process, I discovered I loved to work with wood and continued with other projects besides the coffins," he said in a 2007 interview with Arkansas Catholic.

Abbot Jerome has written eight books and hopes there will be more. Before becoming abbot, he wrote "The Eucharist in the New Testament," "Responding to the Word: A Biblical Spirituality," and "The Gospel According to Luke," part of the Collegeville Bible Commentary Series.

Since then, his books have been collections of shorter writings and essays. His latest, "Don't Trust the Abbot: Musings from the Monastery," was published by Liturgical Press earlier this year.

Despite having served a longer than usual term as abbot, the 69-year-old doesn't foresee retirement anytime soon.

"Every four years, members of our (Swiss-American Benedictine) Congregation visit and give the signal if they think it's time for the abbot to retire. We just had ours (visit), and I didn't get that signal, so I'm still going on."

"I didn't expect to be abbot," Abbot Jerome said. "The reason I had a vocation in the first place was as an opportunity to serve God and to serve people. Being abbot has allowed to me serve. It's been a blessing every day."