Pathways to wisdom

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Living in Community, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

“Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily $1000 loan today discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for she will be found sitting at the gate. To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding, and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care, because she goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths, and meets …

Scripture Commentary for March 4th (Year B)

Arthur CashScripture commentaries, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT   FIRST LESSON Exodus 20: 1-17   Our reading consists of the first version of the Ten Commandments00repeated with minor changes in Deuteronomy 5: 6-12.  The first four commandments are religious, number 5 a family rule, and numbers 6-10 social rules. The first commandment:  there hasn’t been much need of the first commandment in the West in the last five or six hundred years. The second has given a lot of trouble.  On the authority of this commandment, Puritan types in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries pulled down and destroyed masses of religious paintings and sculpture, …

Scripture Commentary for December 10th (Year B)

Arthur CashScripture commentaries, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT   FIRST READING Isaiah 40: 1-11 In 539 BC, Babylon, where the Jews had been held in slavery for fifty years, was captured by the Persians.  The Persians had set about establishing a more stable empire than Assyria or Babylon had been able to effect.  A key policy was tolerance of local customs, governments, and religions so long as the vassal states gave them money and soldiers.  Accordingly, as Second Isaiah has just learned, the Jews are to be released from their captivity and allowed to return to their homeland.  You will hear one of the …

Benedictine Sisters win international Assisi Award for conservation efforts spanning more than 60 years

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Living in Community, Uncategorized 2 Comments

The Benedictine Sisters at Holy Wisdom Monastery received the inaugural Assisi Award for faith-based conservation at the 28th International Congress of Conservation Biology’s Opening Ceremony on July 23, 2017 in Cartagena, Colombia in front of nearly 1,500 attendees. The Assisi Award acknowledges organizations and individuals whose work demonstrates that faith-based conservation is contributing significantly to the common global effort of conserving life on Earth. Sisters Mary David Walgenbach and Joanne Kollasch accepted the award on behalf of their religious community located near Madison, Wisconsin. Their community is the first ecumenical Benedictine community in North America where Catholic and Protestant women …

Paul Knitter’s Homily, February 19, 2017

Holy Wisdom MonasteryHomilies, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time                                                              Feb. 19, 2017     DWELLING WITHIN US – ACTING THROUGH US (Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18; I Cor 3:10-11,16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48)  I. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: TO BE AS HOLY AND AS PERFECT AS GOD        A. Before I sit down to put a homily together, I try to give it a title; that helps to keep me focused on a central theme. For today’s homily, after an initial reading of today’s texts, the first title that came to mind was “Mission Impossible.”   Fearing, however, that that title might more readily elicit images of Tom Cruise …

Spiritual hunger – growing together

Lynne Smith, OSBBuilding Community, Living in Community, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Today, people young and old, are turning to Benedictine communities in their search for a balanced, meaningful way of living. Thanks to the wisdom of the Rule of Benedict, tested and lived out over time, Benedictine sisters embrace a way of life that provides for contemplation and service, meaning and growth in the company of others. Most Benedictine communities have flourishing oblate communities and retreatants who come for prayer, silence, spiritual mentoring and the presence and intimacy of community. In a blog about the new monasticism and the spiritual hunger of young adults, Jamie Manson notes that young adults are …

New prairie plants

93 different kinds of prairie plants growing in new prairie

Greg ArmstrongFriends of Wisdom Prairie, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Randy Hoffman, Ron Endres and I cruised the South Prairie (the 20 acres we planted on November 1, 2014) and took an inventory of the species of prairie plants that have germinated and are growing there. We planted 103 species, back in 2014, and have found 93 species. Wow, we are impressed at this level of success in only its second season! I thought you would be interested to know what we found. Scientific Name Common Name Grasses and Sedges Andropogon gerardii Big Bluestem Bouteloua curtipendula Side-oats Grama Elymus canadensis Canada Wild Rye Elymus hystrix Bottlebrush grass Elymus virginicus Virginia …