A gentle reminder of patience, trust and reflection in Spain

My name is Jack Scheck. I graduated from St. John’s University in 2021 and, beginning this January, I returned for a second stint as a Benedictine volunteer at Escolania de Montserrat, where I first served just over four years ago.

I want to share a little about my experience in Montserrat: a glimpse into the place, the work and some of the lessons that make volunteering so worthwhile.

Montserrat Abbey sits just over twenty miles from Barcelona and is nestled within a jagged rocky outcrop that legend says was formed by the saws of angels. It is a place that breathes a magic that can’t be captured in words.

The monastery is old—very old. Though the original buildings of the monastery and all its rooms were destroyed by Napoleon’s troops in 1812, it celebrated its 1,000-year anniversary this past December. It is home to a community of Benedictine monks, but also receives more than two million visitors and pilgrims each year. It is as peaceful and charming as it is bustling and chaotic. From my room, I hear bells calling monks to prayer while the voices of tour guides’ rise from the street below, echoing off stone walls. Birdsong, snowy caps of the Pyrenees, mountain goats clinging to cliffs and the voices of a boys’ choir make up the serenity and grandeur of the place.

Attached to the monastery is the Escolania, a boarding school for music and home to the oldest boys’ choir in Europe, where volunteers spend most of their days.

Our work is simple: we serve food during meals, watch them sing once at midday prayer and once during night prayer. We spend time with the boys between classes and music lessons and accompany the boys to their concerts, which can number over fifteen a year and include at least one international trip.

The school is incredible: the boys’ study in small classes, learn two instruments, take voice lessons and become proficient in Catalan, Spanish and English. Phones aren’t allowed, so the boys spend their time playing chess, solving Rubik’s cubes, reading Harry Potter and playing “Mata Conilles,” (translated as “Kill Rabbits” in Catalan), essentially a never-ending game of free-for-all dodgeball. They end each day with a nighttime prayer, which is always preceded by a spiritual reflection from the headmaster about living a joyful, meaningful and charitable life.

This is the environment where the volunteers live and work: simple, structured and incredibly rich. The interactions with the kids, conversations with teachers and monks and occasional travel throughout Spain and Europe add color and vibrance to life.

With the volume of life turned down, free from distractions and school deadlines, the important questions that you’ve never had time to ponder come to you. You look for ways to fill the large swaths of free time… reading, running and journaling became my favorites.

Authors introduced me to ideas and stories that made me more compassionate to myself and others and created paradigm shifts in the way I think about productivity, time and relationships. Journaling became a way for me to grapple with the important questions like: What fears and insecurities once protected me, but no longer serve me? What unrealistic expectations do I have for myself that I should let go? How can I live courageously and in a way that helps others? These are not such small things.

I learned through attempting to speak in Spanish and in Catalan that, while we tend to try to hide our flaws and portray a smooth, sheen exterior, it is often the rough edges of our personality that people are drawn to, that  invite others to show you their quirks and imperfections. Putting yourself out there, bumbling through incorrectly conjugated verbs and grammatically unsound sentences says: “I am not perfect, and you don’t need to be either.” That matters more than you know.

Finally, I learned that there are times to act and there are times to let go. You can’t control most things in this life. When challenges and hardships arrive (as they most definitely will), you will meet it with the same capabilities and resilience that have brought you this far.

So, breathe a little. It’ll work out.