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Subiaco brothers profess vows to religious life

Brothers Cassian and Reginald are continuing their studies to become priests

Published: August 29, 2015   

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

During the Aug. 8 Mass at Subiaco Abbey, Brothers Cassian Elkins (left) and Reginald Udouj stretch out their arms to sing “Sustain me, O Lord, as you have promised that I may live.”

During the Aug. 8 Mass at Subiaco Abbey, Brothers Cassian Elkins (left) and Reginald Udouj stretch out their arms to sing “Sustain me, O Lord, as you have promised that I may live.”

Brother Cassian Elkins, OSB, and Brother Reginald Udouj, OSB, are every bit the odd couple.

After all, Brother Cassian, 34, is vegan, organized and has been on the path to religious life for years. Brother Reginald, 54, is a “carnivore” and “messy,” he admits, and new to a religious calling.

“We’re truly the Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar,” the characters from the play, TV show and movie adaptations of “The Odd Couple,” Brother Reginald laughed. Brother Cassian agreed they are opposites, “like the north and south.” 

However they do have at least one thing in common — on Aug. 8 they professed their solemn, lifelong vows as monks at Subiaco Abbey together. But their life experiences and what led them to that day are much different.

“Relief is a big word,” Brother Cassian said about his final vows. “It was kind of a culmination of all this joy, anxiety, apprehension I was dealing with inside.”

Brother Cassian, then known as Derrick, found his niche with the deaf community in Church Point, La., learning American Sign Language at 6 years old.

“I had two good friends who were deaf growing up,” he said. As a teenager he became an interpreter for the deaf during Mass at his local parish. “Once I started learning I couldn’t stop.”

He turned his passion into a career, becoming a professional sign language interpreter and later an independent living skills instructor.

“It’s about giving equal access to the deaf and blind,” Brother Cassian said.

While studying in minor seminary out of high school, he felt the call to religious life.

“A monk was working there one day and I said, ‘Where are you from?’ He said, ‘Subiaco in Arkansas.’ My response was ‘There’s a monastery in Arkansas?’” and at that moment he knew one thing — “‘I would not be a monk in Arkansas.’ I know now God has a very weird sense of humor.”

Brother Cassian entered the Dominicans of the Western Province, but before his final vows, he felt a call to monastic life.

“I’ve always felt at home with other people, a community,” he said. “The name Subiaco kept on coming up in my prayer. I had never set foot at Subiaco before.”

He set up a retreat and when he first saw the monastery in the distance, “something deep inside just said ‘home.’” Backed by his family, Brother Cassian entered the monastery in 2010, starting all over again with his studies.

“They said, ‘Just keep on doing what God is calling you to do,’” he said.

Brother Cassian has continued to work with the Catholic deaf community in Little Rock and hosts retreats as far away as Canada.

For Brother Reginald, formerly Richard, the Fort Smith native’s faith grew because of the “priests and the nuns in my life,” he said.

He graduated from Subiaco Academy in 1979 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from High Point College in North Carolina. Before joining Subiaco in 2010, he got to know Sister Reginald Mooney, RSM, who worked at Mercy Hospital Fort Smith. While he was busy traveling around Arkansas and other states as a manufacturer representative for several furniture companies, he couldn’t help but think of Sister Reginald and what she said every time they’d see each other.

“She would tell me I belong at Subiaco,” he said. “You just feel there’s something more you could be doing. I felt there was something missing.”

When he helped supply furniture to a recreation area at Subiaco Abbey, he felt the call. Sister Reginald, who died June 1 at 102, was at the Mass where he professed his temporary vows and first learned his chosen name.

“She was pleased, happy that a monk had taken her name,” Brother Reginald said. “She’s not somebody I saw a lot, but she was always just so straightforward, just a good nun. She was always in control and put out an example of what you should be like.”

While many associate religious life with giving up freedom, Brother Reginald said he felt free, finally following God’s will.

“Surprisingly it was very easy, I knew this was where I was supposed to be,” he said, admitting it’s not always roses. “You have to give up parts of yourself for the greater harmony,” adding he’s had to control his “noisy” habits like “whistling in the hallways.”

While both monks have had to make changes to live a monastic life, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You can grow in grace and grow in patience. The Lord teaches you just to take things as it come,” Brother Cassian said. “I’m also loved by a community of brothers on that same journey.”

Brother Reginald said he’s most fulfilled by the structured prayer life.

“I had never prayed the Liturgy of the Hours before I got here,” he said. “It’s something I’ve grown to love.”

The two will continue their theology studies for three years toward being ordained Benedictine priests — Brother Reginald at St. John School of Theology in Collegeville, Minn., and Brother Cassian at St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana.

“It’s very difficult to explain a solemn profession. Someone said, ‘Oh I guess you’re finally hitched.’ In a way it is,” Brother Cassian said. “It’s a greater step in my commitment to God and to the Church.”

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