Now that I have been here for almost three months, the question most often posed to me has changed from, What is your day like? (see All in Time, Part II) to, How are you doing (i.e., now that the initial flush of newness is fading)? I hear myself say, “I am still finding my way, but I feel very much at home.” At home… I recently watched The Hobbit on DVD. In J. R .R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic, hobbit Bilbo Baggins leaves his beloved shire, gently nudged by his friend the wizard Gandalf, and finds himself on an “unexpected journey” …
Groups Enjoy Benedictine Hospitality
“All guests are to be received with sincere hospitality, ‘with the courtesy of love.” – Rule of Benedict 53:1 Benedict of Nursia determined this rule in Italy over 1500 years ago, and it still rings true today at Holy Wisdom Monastery as we host groups of all faith backgrounds, school and business groups, medical and meditation groups, state government agencies and many other groups. “If the group fits within the sisters’ mission of prayer, hospitality, justice and care of the earth we welcome them,” explained Sister Mary David Walgenbach. Group Health Cooperative meets in the sunny garden room in the Retreat and Guest House, …
Welcoming Volunteers in Community
Four of the five Volunteers in Community work in the vegetable garden. Much of the produce from this garden ends up being served to guests at Holy Wisdom Monastery. This month the sisters welcome five women as Volunteers in Community between June 10 and July 6, 2013. Noreen and Mary will be with us the entire month. Noreen comes from Princeton, New Jersey where she works in the area of media and marketing. She has participated in domestic and international missionary trips for her church. Noreen grew up on a farm in Michigan and has gardening experience to bring to her participation …
Volunteer Spotlight: Margaret Sommers
Most Wednesday afternoons you can find Margaret Sommers in the lower level monastery workroom printing, folding and collating 200 copies of the Sunday Assembly worship bulletin and inserts. Holy Wisdom Monastery is blessed to have a dedicated group of volunteers. Many of the volunteers help outside on the 95 acres of prairie. Margaret Sommers, on the other hand, almost always volunteers inside doing a variety of tasks related to Sunday Assembly worship. Margaret came to Holy Wisdom sometime in the early 1980s for Sunday morning worship. In the late 1990s she learned from Mark Johnson who was director of worship and music at …
2012 Annual Report
The Benedictine Life Foundation of Wisconsin, Inc. is pleased to unveil its 2012 annual report. It is always a humbling experience to see all the names of supporters in one place. There are a lot of people spread out over the country who believe in and support the sisters’ vision at Holy Wisdom Monastery through gifts of time, talent and treasure. It takes a village to support all the ministries taking place here. It’s also touching to highlight our long-term supporters—members of Benedict Society (those who have made planned gifts, such as bequests in a will, to support the sisters) and Scholastica …
Scripture Commentary for June 19-25, 2013 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 7 June 19-25 FIRST READING I Kings 19:1-15a Elijah having bettered the Baal prophets in a contest of who can evoke a sign from God and bring rain, now has them killed. King Ahab tells his queen, Jezebel, that Elijah had killed the Baal prophets, who were her allies. The queen casts aside all pretenses and announces that she will kill Elijah. He flees. After the first day of flight, he is so discouraged he longs to die, but God will not permit that. After being miraculously fed, he undertakes the long journey to mount Horeb (also called …
Scripture Commentary for June 12-18, 2013 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 6 June 12-18 FIRST READING I Kings 21:1-21a Our reading is an incident in the longer story of how young King Ahab was seduced into Baal worship and cruelties to his subjects by his wife, Jezebel, a Sidonian princes and Baal worshiper. The king desires the vineyard of Naboth, but Naboth will not sell his ancestral inheritance; in fact, he cannot sell it legally, for he is bound by ancient law to keep inherited lands in the family. So Jezebel has him murdered in the guise of justice. ALTERNATIVE FIRST READING 2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:10, 13-15 …
All in Time – Part II
What is your day like? This is the primary question I get from folks as they learn that I am a “Benedictine Sojourner.” So, here’s a snapshot. The big picture is that every day is framed by prayer in community: morning prayer, midday prayer and evening prayer. These periods, the Liturgy of the Hours, include sung and recited psalms, hymns, readings from Scripture and other writings, intercessory prayer and silence. Joined to these in the morning and evening is Centering Prayer, wordless prayer in the presence of God. Even before our gathered prayer in the morning, I spend time in …
Scripture Commentary for June 5-11, 2013 by Arthur H. Cash
PROPER 5 June 5 – 11 FIRST READING I Kings 17:8-24 Elijah prophesizes that God will send a famine to punish the kingdom of Israel for worshiping Baal. Fearing the wrath of Ahab, Elijah flees to Zarephath, where the poor widow on the verge of starvation reluctantly feeds him. You will read how God miraculously sustains them. The widow believes in worldly retribution, that good comes to those who do their duty, evil to those who are sinful. So when her child falls ill and dies, she assumes the death is punishment for her own past sins and naively …
Sister Lynne Smith's Homily from June 2, 2013
Body and Blood of Jesus Last week I caught the end of a TV ad for the Volunteers of America. A smiling young man says: “We use our bodies to help others.” It is such an earthy image. I thought “That’s what the celebration of the Body and Blood of Jesus is about: using our bodies to help others.” Because Jesus lived among us as a flesh and blood human being, he showed us that human life is holy. To follow him is not a matter of having some esoteric knowledge. Christian discipleship involves us in the earthiness of life …