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 …
Why We Care for the Earth
The sisters’ commitment to caring for the earth has deep roots in our Benedictine spirituality. Having made a promise of stability, we seek to work for the good of the place where we live. This refers to both the people and the land which is our home. Benedict tells his community members to care for the tools of the monastery as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar. By this he lets us know that all things are holy. Such a mindset leads us to care for creation by reducing, recycling and reusing whatever we can. A monk …
All in Time – Part I
I am walking into the sun. I am struck with this thought as I am temporarily blinded on my way to the monastery this morning. I am by no means experiencing a dramatic post-resurrection vision like Paul on the road to Damascus; it is just that the sun has been such a rare sighting since my arrival at Holy Wisdom Monastery in early April. It is now May. Spring is finally here, I think. And after a little over a month I am cheerfully settling into my Sojourner Year (though still arriving over the long term – see my introductory …
A New Thing
Hello from Trish Stefanik, the newest Benedictine Sojourner. I have arrived. At the monastery, that is; I have a long way to go to acclimate to a new part of the country, get to know a whole new community of people and enter into a new way of life. Not to mention, learn what light switch turns on what light, where the dishes and utensils are kept in the kitchen, and how to get around the oratory, offices, buildings, the prairie and a new town. Whew. Yes, arriving will take time. I am very grateful that the sisters and the …
Celebrating our 60th anniversary ~ March 11, 2013
This month the sisters celebrate 60 years of presence in Madison – a wonderful opportunity to renew the vision, commitment and strength of our sisters’ community and to recall the women who set out on a new venture. In the seeds of our founding, 60 years ago, was a deep faithfulness to God’s call and a pioneering spirit that has moved our community into uncharted waters throughout our history. Most recently this “pioneering spirit” motivated the bold step of becoming the first ecumenical Benedictine community in the US. Reflecting on early ecumenical experiences and the move toward greater ecumenism, …
Benedictine Sojourners Coming and Going
Esther de Waal writes that the purpose of every Benedictine experience is to bring people together in community for mutual support on the spiritual journey, to teach them to live a balanced life and to enable participants to take their learning into their everyday life. This is what the Sojourner experience seeks to provide. On August 15, 2012, Linda Steg and Nancy Melin arrived at Holy Wisdom Monastery as our first two Benedictine Sojourners. During their time here they entered fully into the life of the monastery sharing common prayer, meals, work, study and leisure with the community. The sisters …
Celebrating a monastic anniversary
On January 6, 2013 Sister Mary David Walgenbach will celebrate the 52nd anniversary of her monastic profession. We join Sister Mary David in celebrating God’s faithful presence through all these years, and we give thanks for the gifts of stability and growth in monastic life. The Suscipe, a prayer which is sung as part of the monastic profession, continues to offer its blessing: Sustain me, O God, as you have promised, that I may live, and disappoint me not in my hope.
Thank You to All the Women Who Have Journeyed with Benedictine Women This Year
The sisters are grateful at year’s end for the women who have lived with us and volunteered in our mission through the Volunteer in Community and the Benedictine Sojourner programs. Volunteers in Community Hershey Mallett and Stephanie Borger lived, prayed and worked with us this summer helping to tend the vegetable garden. When the weather was too hot to be outside, they helped in the kitchen or in guest services. We are also grateful to Rebecca Meier-Rao who worked outdoors with the women for the first two weeks of the program. The sisters offered classes and two of our oblates offered the women spiritual …
Celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours in Advent and Christmas
During the last week before Christmas, we begin the daily singing of the O Antiphons, an ancient practice that embraces the sense of longing and anticipation for Christmas which swells with each day. These antiphons are sung prior to the Magnificat, the Song of Mary from Luke 1:46-55, in our evening prayers throughout this week. Each antiphon begins by addressing God with a name that expresses God’s loving design for people of all times and places. Each antiphon is completed with the petition to “Come” and continue the redeeming activity needed in our lives and in our world today. We …
Integrating Prayer into Community Life
Prayer is an integral element of the Benedictine Sojourner experience as they participate in our life and ministry. Our Sojourners, Linda and Nancy, are faithful to the Liturgy of Hours three times a day and to morning and evening centering prayer. Since centering prayer is new to them, some of our faith formation classes have focused on centering prayer. In addition, they are taking part in a class on centering prayer offered by oblate Beth O’Brien. Lectio divina, a prayerful practice of reading and meditating on scripture, is an important prayer practice in the Benedictine tradition. We sisters spend time each morning in lectio, …