Category Archive

In this season of waiting, I wanted to send you good tidings of great joy that a new Executive Director has been approved by the Benedictine Women of Madison Board of Directors and she has accepted the job at Holy Wisdom Monastery!  Her name is Erin Trondson, and she will be starting on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. Erin wrote a beautiful letter of introduction that I wish to share with you.  Dear Community of Communities,   I am grateful to the members of the Search Committee and the Benedictine Women of Madison Board for their invitation to serve Holy Wisdom Monastery as the …

Submitted by Janet Neurauter, mission advancement Whether it is the people or the land, many people feel a personal connection to Holy Wisdom Monastery. For Susan Santner, her personal connection goes back to her childhood. “I remember coming here for picnics at my grandparent’s farm in the 1950s. There was a small white farmhouse, a huge garden and a barn nearby. We had chicken dinners on Sundays, and I played with my brothers and cousins in the yard. We had such a good time,” Susan remarked. It was Susan’s maternal grandparents, Stella and Thomas Kennedy and her great aunt and uncle, …

Submitted by Nancy Enderle, director of the Center for Clergy Renewal and Kathleen Owens, manager of clergy programming and communications We are excited to announce that the Center for Clergy Renewal was selected by Leadership Education at Duke Divinity as a 2023 Collaborative Discernment for Project Sustainability grant recipient. Holy Wisdom Monastery will receive $15,000 to support discernment work around the sustainability of the Center for Clergy Renewal. The Center for Clergy Renewal was founded in 2018, when Holy Wisdom Monastery received a grant from the Lilly Endowment as part of the Thriving in Ministry initiative. The initial Lilly Endowment grant is ending in …

by Nancy Enderle, director of the Center for Clergy Renewal and Kathleen Owens, manager of clergy programming and communications In addition to what the ecumenical cohort of 18 pastors experience when they are in residence at the monastery for their Immersions, a major component of The Center for Clergy Renewal experience includes ongoing spiritual formation that occurs in a “monastery without walls.” This community is nurtured through: Ongoing virtual access to Holy Wisdom As part of the million-dollar Lilly endowment grant, The Center for Clergy Renewal made a substantial financial investment in 2019 to purchase and install equipment for streaming Sunday Assembly services and …

Submitted by Rajai Atalla Last week I summarized the evolution of the connection between Holy Wisdom and Sarthi. In 2013, when Holy Wisdom adopted Sarthi as part of its overseas mission, we had just been asked for additional support for a 5-year-old who had been abandoned by his parents who went their separate ways. We were asked for an additional $480 to support him for one year. To make a gift to Sarthi, visit the giving page on our website https://holywisdommonastery.org/support/donate-today/ and select “SARTHI” on the designation drop-down menu. Thank you! Soon after that they began a program to prepare …

By: Rajai Atalla Sometimes the Holy One moves us in ways we don’t anticipate! Our relationship with Sarthi started when our son Ian was travelling in India for language and cultural studies; it was the 2005/2006 academic year. Soon thereafter he was walking the streets of Delhi and saw a young boy about six years old, with a cleft palate. He seemed quite timid in comparison to other kids his age on the streets. Ian took the boy, whose name is Akshay, to a hospital nearby and asked what it would cost to have the cleft repaired. He was told …

By Sally Bowers and Julie Melton, Friends of Wisdom Prairie volunteers The story of Noah and the Flood is not unique to the Bible. There are three flood stories in Native American culture. In each one, the flood follows human failure to live in balance. Food sovereignty is about balance. Use what our Creator has provided, but use it sustainably, respectfully. Balance recognizes that we humans are but one of God’s creations. We are related to every other piece of creation from microbe to mountain. ReStoryation from the native people and their ancestral lands teaches us this importance. Food Sovereignty preserves …