This article first appeared in Our Sunday Visitor magazine. Subscribe to receive the monthly magazine here.
When Father Ambrose Criste, O.Praem, remembers why he dedicated his life to God and joined an ancient monastic community, he points to St. Augustine.
“I saw in my own life a kind of mirror of that rebellious youth like St. Augustine represented,” he tells me over a video call on Zoom. “That realization that my heart was going to remain restless until it rested in God was very much my story.”
His restless heart led him to enter St. Michael’s Abbey, a growing community of Norbertine priests in Silverado, California, in 2000. Today, Father Ambrose serves as director of the Evermode Institute, a new educational initiative that instructs Catholic teachers, administrators and formators in the fundamentals of the Faith. The institute is run by the abbey and its new daughter foundation, Corpus Christi Priory, in Springfield, Illinois.
Both the institute and the priory, which opened in 2023, align with the Norbertine mission to praise God and serve the faithful. Founded more than 900 years ago, in 1121, the Norbertine Order embraces a life of liturgical prayer and care for souls while preaching and teaching the Gospel. St. Norbert of Xanten, who saw a need for clerical reform, founded the order — also known as the Canons Regular of Prémontré or Premonstratensians — in Prémontré, France.
In the United States, only four Norbertine abbeys exist. The plan is that Corpus Christi Priory, which is currently connected to St. Michael’s Abbey, will eventually become the fifth.
Clad in the all-white habit of the Norbertines, Father Ambrose spoke from the new priory. The 50-year-old priest from Denver recalled growing up in a pious Catholic family. But his journey to religious life wasn’t straightforward: He first pursued a more worldly life. His approach changed during his time as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England, where he studied classics.
“I found myself to be very deeply unhappy in what was a very rich life by worldly terms,” Father Ambrose describes.
He realized that the happiest people he knew — the people who exhibited a sense of deep peace — were consecrated religious men and women.
“There was a moment,” he tells me, “when I had the grace to say, ‘No, it’s time for me to stop running away from God and to start running toward God.'”
A thriving abbey
Father Ambrose joined a thriving abbey: More than 60 priests and 40 seminarians reside at St. Michael’s in California, with five more priests at the priory in Illinois. The abbey, established in 1957 by seven Hungarian refugee priests, moved for more space in 2021 even before establishing the priory, Father Augustine Puchner, O.Praem, the prior, tells me over the phone.
“We live as monks in monasteries, and we work as active priests in whatever ministries the local Church needs,” he says of their way of life. “St. Norbert’s motto, which is our charism, is we are ‘prepared for every good work.'”
The Norbertines take this phrase, he says, from St. Paul.
“Our life in the monastery is very much a life of prayer and the life of regular observance and discipline,” he adds. “Then we go out from the monastery and do priestly ministry in schools, parishes, whatever the local Church needs.”
The abbey sees itself not only as a house for religious but also as a center for Catholic culture, a place of scholarship, craftsmanship, art, music, hospitality and prayer. The priests want to interact with the local Church and community: In addition to welcoming online visitors to their virtual monastery, The Abbot’s Circle, they invite people to join them for prayer, the sacraments and retreats at their physical locations.
Their work, they hope, renews the Church and the world.
A warm welcome to Springfield
The priory itself is already making a difference in Springfield. The priests sacramentally serve and interact with religious sisters — the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis — who previously maintained the buildings and grounds. They’re also welcoming a new trades school to their location.
“It’s a very well-established religious house, very large, 290,000 square feet, two churches, 100 acres; it’s an enormous place,” Father Ambrose tells me. “It’s a very beautiful property on the outskirts of a small Midwestern city — Springfield is a small city — so it’s a very quiet location and a very quiet and contemplative religious life here because of the nature of the property and the buildings.”
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, who invited the order to his diocese, commended the Norbertines’ ministry in emailed comments. He expressed excitement over witnessing “several holy endeavors come to fruition through God’s providence.”
“First, the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis generously sharing their beautiful property so the Norbertine Fathers from St. Michael Abbey in southern California could establish a presence in central Illinois to accommodate their growing number of vocations,” he lists. “Then, the actual establishment of Corpus Christi Priory and their Evermode Institute.”
Already, the Norbertines have taught hundreds of teachers of the Faith, delivered spiritual talks, provided Catholics with faith-filled experiences at the priory and even hosted a leg of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage procession in July that carried Jesus Christ in the holy Eucharist across the country, he wrote.
“Up next, their community will be collaborating with the San Damiano College of the Trades, scheduled to open on their campus in 2025, by providing spiritual instruction, direction and sacramental ministry to students,” he adds.
As prior, Father Augustine also expressed excitement over the trades school.
“The next big, exciting project is the diocese is starting a trade college on our campus that will use our facility,” he says. “We hope that we’ll have our first class of students on campus this coming summer, of 2025.”
A collaboration between priests and sisters
Father Augustine shared the history of their location, which houses 25 religious sisters in addition to the five Norbertine priests.
“The facility still serves as a convent of Franciscan sisters who’ve been there for over 125 years,” Father Augustine says of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, who ran their motherhouse and novitiate there.
While the sisters’ community thrived in the 1950s and ’60s, the community since then has been declining in number, he tells me.
“They realized … that it was going to be very difficult for them to maintain this very large facility, which included not only their convent and the big, beautiful church, but then they also built a retreat center,” he recalls. “Then, during COVID, they basically had to close everything down.”
The sisters began looking for another religious community or Catholic institution to use their facility, and they turned to Bishop Paprocki for help. Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Orange in California, the diocese where Saint Michael’s Abbey is located, also played a role. Bishop Vann is from Springfield and knew the sisters and their situation.
“It was Bishop Vann who recommended to Bishop Paprocki that Bishop Paprocki contact our abbey in California and ask if we could come,” Father Augustine says.
Bishop Paprocki did just that and, in 2022, the Norbertines accepted his invitation.
A prayer to God
Father Augustine remembered his surprise when he was first approached to lead the priory as prior. He called his position an honor as well as an adjustment. The 60-year-old priest originally hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He discerned his vocation, he said, when he was 25.
“I was a little older; God was very patient with me,” he tells me. “I’d been through college and graduate school actually, and I was just sort of working in the world for a little while before I answered the call.”
He grew up Catholic with good priests for role models. Entering the priesthood was something he thought about, even earlier in life. But as a young adult, he pursued a career in theater and the entertainment business after studying theater at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and in graduate school at California State in Long Beach.
“There was just a kind of emptiness in my life at that point, a longing to do something of value and service to God and for others,” he says of discerning his vocation.
“God just sort of inspired me to ask him what he wanted me to do,” he adds. “That was a big moment, where I just really prayed to God and I said, ‘OK, God, what do you really want me to do with my life?'”
He had help along the way, including people who reminded him that he had talked about becoming a priest when he was younger. He also felt at peace when he prayed and thought about doing the work of priests and joining a religious community.
“There was a great joy and peace in my heart just considering that,” he says. “I knew I had to at least give it a try.”
An initiative to teach teachers
Bishop Paprocki’s name comes up again when Father Ambrose talks about the founding of the Evermode Institute. He explains that, as part of his invitation to Springfield, Bishop Paprocki invited the Norbertines to help him and his curial staff reinvigorate the Catholic educational system
“The Evermode Institute was born out of our participation, our collaboration with the Diocese of Springfield,” Father Ambrose says.
The institute takes its name from St. Evermode, who was one of St. Norbert’s first followers in the 12th century. St. Evermode was sent by St. Norbert to evangelize a pagan tribe on the edge of the Christian empire, in what is now Germany. He later became the bishop of Ratzeburg.
“Because St. Evermode was on the vanguard of evangelization in the 12th century and taking the Faith to people who don’t know it, we thought that was a perfect name for this institute because we see ourselves as re-evangelizing a post-Christian world,” Father Ambrose says.
The institute offers a four-year curriculum made with three demographics in mind: educators in the Catholic school system, catechists in parishes, and Catholic parents.
“We’re laser-focused on imparting the Faith, strengthening the Faith, for those who should be teaching the Faith to other people,” he says.
Right now, the program has about six professors, and classes are taught primarily online. The diocese, which stretches across the state, encouraged the institute to build an online learning management system to make the program accessible to more people.
“It’s basically the fundamentals of our holy Faith, the four pillars of the catechism, along with some philosophy and other Catholic foundational ideas, spread over four years,” Father Ambrose says. “We want people to understand what it means to have a rich and full Catholic identity. That’s what this program is all about.”
The curriculum isn’t limited to their diocese, he says, and they’re already expanding to other dioceses and schools.
A love for the priesthood
When Father Augustine and Father Ambrose share what they most love about their vocation, it isn’t serving as prior or as the institute’s director. It’s being priests.
“To be able to say Mass every day and to be so close to Jesus and the Eucharist — that never gets boring,” Father Augustine says. “It’s an incredible miracle.”
He also points to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
“How beautifully that works in transforming people’s lives and allowing them to experience God’s mercy in that beautiful and sacramental way,” he says. “Because you’re literally acting in the person of Christ.”
Father Ambrose also shared his love for celebrating the Mass and hearing confessions, as well as solemnly singing and praying the Divine Office seven times a day with his community.
“I love priestly ministry,” he says. “And I love the rich community life that comes along with our style of religious life.”
Advice for discernment
They shared their advice for those who might be discerning a vocation.
“Ask God to show you your vocation. Make that a very specific intention, and ask God, ‘Show me what you want me to do. Show me some signs, give me some indications, place in my heart the things that will lead me to fulfill your will in my vocation,'” Father Augustine recommends.
As the former novice master of the abbey community, he also advises that, at some point, “discernment has to end and you have to make a decision.”
“One thing I used to say in terms of discernment is, I said, ‘Guys, listen, discernment ends in decision. You’ve got to just feel confident, and you make that decision,'” he tells me. “It’s like discerning marriage, right? … You can’t wait forever for absolute 100% certainty.”
Both he and Father Ambrose say that discernment continues when someone enters a religious community or diocesan seminary.
“Don’t make such a big deal out of whether or not I should join religious life or join a seminary,” Father Ambrose says. “That’s just the beginning of the process, it’s not the end of the story.”
He encourages people to visit religious communities and see where they are drawn.
“Taking concrete steps in the direction of discernment, it’s as important as thinking and praying inside one’s head or heart,” he says.
Encountering Christ
No matter what they’re doing at the institute or the priory, Father Ambrose and Father Augustine hope that when someone encounters them, they also encounter God.
“I hope that everyone I meet would be able to see in me the love of Jesus Christ,” Father Augustine says. “That in my ministry, in my life, even in just my conversation and kindness, and in my ministry of preaching and teaching the Faith especially, that people would just experience the love of Jesus and his presence.”
Father Ambrose also hopes that the people who see him think about Christ, heaven, the meaning of life and their direction in life.
“I hope that someone has an encounter with Jesus Christ by interacting with me or by even just looking at me,” he tells me. “I also hope for the same for myself, when I interact with anybody … I have the faith to see the face of Jesus Christ in everybody I meet as well.”
