Hello! I am Brother Jacob Berns, o.s.b., but you can call me Brother Jacob. I am a monk of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.
What is a monk? As a monk, I have dedicated my life to seeking God in my community, sharing in the common life of prayer and work.
Can monks make music? In fact, yes! My community gathers to pray together four times a day, and there is always music during our prayer. Sometimes it’s just singing, but much of time an organist accompanies the singing, too.
Here’s a little about me and my musical history: I grew up in Perham, Minnesota, and my participation in church music started at about age 7 when I joined the children’s choir. Not long after that, I learned to play the violin and viola. In middle school, I started piano lessons, and soon I was playing regularly at church. Throughout high school, I played in the orchestra, sang in the choir, and performed on piano whenever I could.
I went to Saint John’s University for college to study music and theology. I kept up my viola playing, and I helped lead the viola section in the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University orchestra. This is also when I seriously encountered the organ for the first time. I started taking organ lessons, spent hours in the organ practice room, and eventually I started playing for a number of churches in the St. Cloud and Twin Cities areas.
After college, I volunteered for a year in Rome, Italy, with the Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps. While I was there, I served as a regular cantor for the community I was staying with. However, most of my musical experiences were attending concerts. So many good performances to see!
Then, I moved back to Minnesota. After working for a time coordinating the music at my home church, I applied to enter the monastery at Saint John’s Abbey, and they accepted me! The first year or so was learning how everything works in the monastery, but soon enough I was enrolled in the liturgical music program at Saint John’s School of Theology. I used this as a chance to expand my organ skills and to talk about what music means in a life of faith. I earned my Master’s degree in 2021. I believe that music is important for everyone. At this point in my life, my biggest passion is faith, but I couldn’t imagine faith without music. Whether you want to be a performer, a scientist, or an astronaut, I hope you can also see how important music could be in that life.