It’s odd how there are things you can go through your whole life not thinking about. Like “invasive plant species.” I can honestly say I do not recall there ever being a time in my life I have ever truly thought about that term. Here, at Holy Wisdom, it has become a regular part of my vocabulary. Sometimes we shorten it to just ”invasives.” An invasive plant is, to put it subjectively, “a plant growing where it doesn’t belong”. There are no “good plants” or “bad plants” here at Holy Wisdom. All plants are looked at as performing some sort …
Being good
People think it’s easy to be a good person. They seem to think it’s the simplest thing in the world to live a good life and be nice to people. Well, it’s not. If it were that easy everyone would be able to do it all the time and we would achieve world peace, an end to hunger and violence, and most of the world’s problems would end. It’s pretty darn difficult, in fact. Even when you try and try, sometimes without meaning to, you can really screw things up. It’s hard to get a good grip on the world …
Missing my life
Our days at the Monastery lasted from 6:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening, Monday through Friday. Technically we had free time to do whatever and to come and go as we pleased from 6:30 onwards until bedtime. Frequently, after a day filled with meditation, praying, working, and studying there was little we felt inclined to do except recline. After the last dishes were put away from the dinner service, I would often retire to the computer room to write my blog while the other girls went walking on the trails or spent time in the library. The …
Libby Caes' Homily from August 7, 2011
Libby Caes delivered the following homily at Sunday Assembly at Holy Wisdom Monastery on August 7, 2011. The readings from the lectionary for the day included I Kings 19:9-18, Romans 10:5-15, and Matthew 14:22-33. Libby Caes is the oncology and palliative care chaplain at UW Hospital and Clinics. She is ordained by the Mennonite Church USA but makes herself at home in the larger ecumenical community. She received her M.Div. at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Seminary) in Philadelphia, PA. Focus statement: The invitation the Old Testament and gospel readings is to live our lives in our God given, …
Books are my friends
I love books. They are my friends. So, it was lovely to see so many of my old crowd in the monastery library here at Holy Wisdom. “Oh hi, Dorothy Day! I didn’t know you’d be here?”, “Karen Armstrong! Its’ been too long.” and “Why Thomas Merton, you old dog…where have you been hiding yourself?” There they all are, hanging out on the shelves, identified by their catalog numbers, spines ramrod straight. I walk through the aisles, brushing my right hand over their wonderful selves in a gesture of camaraderie, recalling all the good times we’ve shared together. The library …
And still more…
The next session with Claudia, centered on forgiveness. … I wanted to be able to forgive my ex-husband … I wanted to see him as a hurting soul, as a person in need of something that I could never give. I wanted to be able to, as the Dalai Lama says, “Imagine him as a 5 year old child” in my attempt to see him as a person who was very wounded and who might never find peace, and to send him light and love and to only think good thoughts when I thought of him. I wanted to forgive …
The View from My Window
Before I came to work at Holy Wisdom Monastery, or Saint Benedict Center, as it was called then, I was employed by the Archdiocese of Chicago Archives. For seven years I toiled in a second-story room that was my office, my assistant’s office, the reading room, the conference room, site of our reference library and off times the lunch room. There were two windows, neither of which opened, with a view of the traffic below. Today I can look out of three windows—five actually, if I were a tad bit taller than my present five foot nothing—onto native prairie. I …
More guidance
… Claudia asked me if my mother’s view towards the faith had changed any since I had hit my thirties and my mother had grown older. I thought about that for a moment. And it was so. … Having raised all her children to adulthood and finding herself more alone after they had all left home, Claudia posited that my mother had suddenly perhaps had time for the first time in many years to examine her faith on a different level. I supposed that could be true. Perhaps the softening I was witnessing was the beginning of her entering a …
Spiritual guidance
Claudia is my spiritual guide. … She looks more like an early 70′s guitar player than a gifted psychoanalyst, yoga practitioner, mother, and spiritual guide. … Claudia specializes in eco-conscious Christianity and the role of the Feminist in Christianity. … Claudia and I have been working together these past three weeks in one-on-one sessions, 1 day a week, 1 hour at a time. In our sessions we discuss my relationship with God, my views on my experience here, and what the future holds for me in terms of my spirituality. … I like Claudia. She is funny and fun, she …
Patti LaCross' Homily at Sunday Assembly from July 31, 2011
Patti LaCross delivered the following homily at Sunday Assembly on July 31, 2011. In the fullness of summer, even occasional swimmers need no second invitation to come to the water; In this cranky, miserly political and economic scene, People everywhere seek welcome, bread and milk as they struggle to keep their bearings, and even feed themselves and their families. The refreshment offered in today’s readings from second Isaiah and Matthew’s Gospel is perfectly attuned to our needs at this end of a warm, dry July. And in the comfort of this chapel, we pause in order that the rich images …