An open spirit inhabits abbey

By Bella English, Globe Staff

Abbeys, those quiet, enigmatic abodes of monks and nuns, aren’t known to advertise. But if you travel on the Southeast Expressway in Quincy, you’ll notice a new billboard: “All Are Welcome at Glastonbury Abbey.’’ There’s a lovely photo of the abbey’s bucolic grounds in Hingham.

“We’re trying to get out there more,’’ says Brother Daniel Walters, one of the 10 Benedictine monks who live at the abbey. “We like having people come in. We want to make it more of a place where people know they can come for prayer and retreat.’’

During the controversial church closings five years ago, in which the Archdiocese of Boston shuttered dozens of churches, some parishioners from the South Shore began attending Mass at the abbey. “I think we’re considered to be pretty open-minded here,’’ says Brother Daniel, as he is known. “All God’s children are welcome here.’’

Buddhists and Unitarian Universalists often hold retreats at the abbey, as well as the Catholic flock. It’s a peaceful place with grounds boasting evergreens and trees ablaze in orange, red, and yellow. The ocean is only a mile away and you can almost hear the waves and smell the salt air. The main building, the former residence of a wealthy family, is a lovely stone-and-wood structure, with a chapel added in 1962. Founded as a monastery in 1954, it opened as an abbey in 1973.

“Benedict was born in 480, and he wrote this rule for monks about the idea of being separated from the world and praying,’’ says Brother Daniel. But St. Benedict also spoke of hospitality. The monks, whose numbers vary from eight to 12 here, are a shrinking breed. They want, and need, people to visit.

“I just think we’re living in a different age now than when I first joined,’’ says Brother Daniel, who is 65. “Religion has changed. Catholics don’t go to church the way they used to. Catholic schools have closed. People are still involved spiritually, but they’re going about it in a different way.’’

Marian Craczyk of Scituate was out for Mass the other day. “It’s a place of peace, of joy, of hospitality, community, and spirituality,’’ she says. “It’s the liturgy as it should be. I come here and it has me going the rest of the week.’’

Her friend, Susan Baush of Scituate, sings in the choir at the abbey and attends a women’s spirituality group. She and others also maintain an herb garden they planted. Baush plans to attend an upcoming women’s retreat, with music, movement, readings, and discussions around spirituality. Such retreats last a couple of days, with participants staying in one of the abbey’s houses and paying a fee for room, board, and programs.

Recently, 56 Buddhists from Cape Ann came on retreat, setting up a Buddhist shrine in the conference center, and hosting a lama. A week ago, Congregational ministers performed an outdoor wedding for a couple; red and white rose petals still mark their path.

In good weather, there’s a wisteria-covered stone gazebo for coffee after Mass. A stone labyrinth, a meditative pathway, was built by monks and lay people, and beckons walkers with the sign: “Solvitur Ambulando,’’ Latin for “It is solved by walking.’’

“We often find people walking here,’’ says Brother Daniel, as a couple leaves the path. One elderly woman stumbled once on the roots beneath, and noted: “You know, this is like my life, sometimes smooth, sometimes not.’’

For years, 12-step groups have met on the abbey grounds. An all-male group began meeting decades ago on Wednesday nights, made up mostly of police officers. In more recent years, a new group has joined them, mostly former inmates. “They call themselves Cops and Robbers,’’ says Brother Daniel with a laugh.

This week kicked off a lecture series, “Listening to Other Voices,’’ for the public. Former Boston news anchor Liz Walker, who became an ordained minister, spoke about her path to spirituality and her work with women and children in war-ravaged Darfur.

What’s life like for a monk at the abbey? Each man has his own room upstairs in the main building. They get their own breakfast, and a cook provides lunch and dinner, which they eat together in the dining room. Dinner is silent; the men listen to a recorded religious reading. (“You can say things like, ‘Pass the butter,’ ’’ Brother Daniel says with a smile.) There’s a television room and a meditation room upstairs, and, out back, a Zen garden with a goldfish pool.

The average age is 60. There is only one “novice’’ now, and he’s 53, a teacher seeking a new vocation. The monks make soap and sell it in their gift shop: lavender, citrus, coconut. They’ve got four new goats and hope to make goat cheese. There are bees for honey-making.

But they interact with the community, too. Twice a month, monks and lay people from the South Shore cook and serve food at Father Bill’s Place for the homeless in Quincy. Soon, the brothers will begin hosting monthly “Sunday Suppers’’ at the abbey for the local needy, including the elderly living alone.

Brother Daniel, who grew up in Quincy, lived at the abbey for 16 years until 1989, when he was called to work with the inner-city needy in Boston. Two years ago, he was summoned back to the abbey. It was an adjustment.

“I lived on Mass. Ave. all those years. There were trucks and ambulances, and I’d sleep right through it,’’ he says. “Out here, the birds wake me up.’’

In June, Brother Daniel is going to Auschwitz with Buddhist monks. The group will sit on the railroad tracks that brought the Jews to their deaths in the concentration camp. They’ll chant and read the name of victims aloud.

“It will be very powerful,’’ he says.

Globe columnist Bella English lives in Milton. She can be reached at english@globe.com.