When I was in formation for community life, Sr. Joanne would say to me on occasion, ”The environment will teach you.” At first, I took this as referring to the outdoor environment. I knew this to be true before I came to the monastery. To walk in the woods or in a park, to spend time working in the garden or simply sitting outside listening to the birds and crickets is healing for me. The sounds of nature calm me down when the noise of machinery or too many words have set me on edge. When I sit by Lost …
Jim Penczykowski's Homily from September 18, 2011
The following homily was delivered by Jim Penczykowski at Sunday Assembly at Holy Wisdom Monastery on September 18, 2011 – the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our scripture today invites us to examine some of our base instincts, some of the characteristics we find least attractive about ourselves. In our first reading from the Book of Jonah we have Yahweh in the role of “anger management counselor” utilizing the first documented example of Rational-Emotive Therapy. Anyone who has prayed the psalms is aware that some are replete with calls for Yahweh to wreak vengeance on the psalmist’s enemies. Some of …
Centering in the movement
(Originally posted: August 6, 2011) Here it is–my last day at Holy Wisdom Monastery and with the Benedictine Women of Madison. This morning we had our last morning walk between Oak House (where us volunteers are housed) to the monastery, admiring the black eye susans and the cup flowers along the way. Everything, from our last centering prayer and our last morning prayer times, to floating the rubber duckies in the baptismal font, seemed a little surreal since it felt as if we would be doing the same thing once again tomorrow. The last few days have been filled with spreading …
The Ecumenical Path
How does a person raised in a small Evangelical Protestant church become an oblate of a Benedictine monastery and a member of Sunday Assembly at Holy Wisdom Monastery? The journey is not as long as one might suppose, because these two seemingly-opposites of the Christian spectrum have a lot in common with each other. Both of them have a strong belief in ecumenism, a realization that all Christians should be able to worship together. I grew up in the Christian Church (a conservative relative of the Disciples of Christ denomination). When I was in high school, we learned that our …
Best Wishes, Jerrianne!
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 …