After 13 years with the Benedictine Women of Madison, Jerrianne Bland has announced her retirement for the end of this month. She has served in a variety of roles at Holy Wisdom Monastery—leading retreats, working in the Membership department recruiting new members of the monastic community, being a spiritual director and leading daily prayer. With her new free time, Jerrianne will be doing more kayaking, biking, yoga, and spending time with her family. We wish you the best Jerrianne! If you would like to send her your well wishes, please email Jerrianne.
Unless a seed dies…
(Originally posted: August 3, 2011) So here I am–hot, sweaty, slightly dehydrated, with dirt under my nails and an odd rash appearing on my arm. And I’m loving it! While the days have been a lot hotter than expected, we have done a lot of restoration work in the prairie, weeded, pruned, and picked in the garden and surrounding orchards, and lobbed off a fair amount of prairie wood brush. This afternoon a naturalist who started the monastery’s restoration project came to give us a tour. We picked various seeds both for replanting and also for sharing with other restoration projects around the area. While …
Returning to Volunteer in Community
Who are these women, celebrating their new-found strength from days of working on the prairie or in the garden at Holy Wisdom Monastery? These are some of our 2009 Volunteers in Community (VIC). Sara Jo Emmerich, second from the right in this picture, returned again this summer and did some blogging about her second VIC experience. She has offered to let us share her posts on our website, and she sets the stage for her first post with these words: Back to Being a Prairie Fairy For the next week I have returned to Holy Wisdom Monastery to participate in …
Back to Being a Prairie Fairy
(Originally posted: July 31, 2011) For the next week I have returned to Holy Wisdom Monastery to participate in their Volunteer in Community (VIC) program. I was a part of their program for seven weeks in 2009 as part of my seminary field education requirement, and now I’m back for a short week as a means to recoup from my last year of seminary, a year of stressful (though amazing) internships and jobs, and three and a half years of the “what ifs” of graduate student life. And I’m really grateful to be back. While one of my internships and one …
“Piti piti na rive” – The Journey of the What If? Foundation
The sisters at Holy Wisdom Monastery have befriended many neighbors over the years in the Fox Bluff neighborhood on the north side of Lake Mendota. Along the way, they got to know the Trost family: Frederick, the former President and Conference Minister of the UCC’s Wisconsin Conference; Louise, a former employee of the sisters at St. Benedict Center; and one of their five children, Margaret. The Trost home, where Margaret spent her college summers and grad-school years, was near Lost Lake. Margaret’s parents were and continue to be great admirers of the sisters and the Rule of St. Benedict. Margaret …
Mike Sweitzer-Beckman's Reflection on the Gospel from September 11, 2011
Mike Sweitzer-Beckman delivered the following reflection on the Gospel on September 11, 2011, the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The lectionary readings for the day included Genesis 50:15-21 and Matthew 18:21-35. Today, President Barack Obama and George W. Bush have gathered in Lower Manhattan for a solemn remembrance of the attacks ten years ago today. The past couple weeks, I have been so saturated with commemorations of September 11, 2001 – ten years ago today. It’s been all over the newspapers, email alerts from socially conscious organizations, and on NPR. So coming up with something new to share with all …
Tours as Blessings at Holy Wisdom Monastery
It was two years ago last month that the sisters and coworkers at Holy Wisdom Monastery began to move into the new, ‘green’ building. I can still remember the first time I visited this building. It was for my job interview, and I received a tour later that day. I was in awe with all the natural light, the pristine walls with feminine curves, and all the places to gather for socializing and living out the sisters’ call to hospitality. I was quite pleased when they called back to offer me the job! One of the reasons I enjoy coordinating …
Lynne Smith's Homily from August 28, 2011 on Matthew 16:21-28
Lynne Smith, OSB, delivered the following homily at Sunday Assembly on August 28, 2011. The Gospel reading for the day was Matthew 16:21-28. Imagine what Peter’s thoughts might have been after this exchange with Jesus. “But I love you. I don’t want you to suffer or die. Besides, you are the Messiah. You are supposed to free us from the Romans – not be killed yourself. Bad things shouldn’t happen to good people, let alone to you, the Messiah. If they kill YOU, what will they do to ME? If YOU are put to death, what hope is there for …
Mary David Walgenbach, OSB in the New York Times today: If I Were President …
Have you ever wondered what Holy Wisdom Monastery’s prioress, Mary David Walgenbach, OSB, would do if she were president? Now you can find out, courtesy of the “If I Were President …” piece in today’s Sunday Review of the New York Times. Click here to visit their site and then click on Mary David’s photo.
Leora Weitzman's Homily from Sunday Assembly on August 21, 2011: Not Always So
The following homily was delivered by Leora Weitzman at Sunday Assembly at Holy Wisdom Monastery on August 21, 2011. The readings from the common lectionary for the day included Isaiah 51:1-6, Romans 12:1-8 and Matthew 16:13-20. The essence of Buddhism, I once read, can be expressed in two words: Not … Always … So. A lot of things are not always so in today’s readings. In Isaiah, what was desert… becomes garden. The earth itself, and the heavens… will one day vanish. Despite this, salvation… is forever. Salvation may look, from time to time, like gardens, or like life on …