Photo from Wiki Commons

In a recent class with Sister Paz Vital and Novice Denise West, we discussed the Benedictine promise of stability. Sometimes stability is thought of as staying in the same place with the same people for the rest of your life. Stability has that aspect to it, but there is more. Michael Casey, Cistercian monk from Tarrawarra Abbey in Australia, uses the image of a surf boarder to describe the dynamic character of Benedictine stability. A surfer needs both a strong center and an ability to adjust her weight and position of her feet on the board in order to maintain balance in the changing surf.

That analogy is helpful in thinking about how stability serves to help Benedictines remain rooted in our core faith and values and adjust to the changing needs and circumstances of our times. At our core is our commitment to seeking God with a particular community of people. At our core is also a commitment to a particular set of values and ways of being in community: listening, respect, hospitality, humility, moderation and others.

Father Jerome Kodell, OSB, from Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas, presenter at the September 2017 Benedictine Retreat, spoke about another concept that illumined for me another way that stability works in our lives. He called us to reflect on what is in the foreground and what is in the background of our lives. With our instant communication and 24 hour news availability, the latest tragedies are constantly before us and it is easy to become overwhelmed by the immensity of the suffering or by the fear of what might happen next. If this is constantly in our foreground, we are easily thrown off balance and become immobilized by fear or our inability to relieve all the suffering we see. We can become paralyzed by this.

Father Jerome called us to remember what is in our background, what serves as our backbone, so to speak, which is our faith and trust in God. When we move our faith to the foreground of our lives, we can stay balanced and find ways to respond rather than react and be thrown into despair. We put our faith in the foreground when we remember the many ways we have experienced God with us in the past. We put our faith in the foreground when we pray in trust that God is at work in our lives and in the world. When our faith is the foreground or the backbone of our lives, we have a strong and centered place to stand in responding to the crises and opportunities of our times.

The post What do surfing and Benedictine spirituality have in common? appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.

Women on retreat find strength in a shared journey

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 seeking “presence, mentoring and intimacy.” Many young adults say that their ideal religion would offer them “a place where they can be quiet and practice some type of meditation” and “a small group to meet with regularly just to talk.” (—National Catholic Reporter, Grace on the Margins, The spiritual hunger of young adults)

Our praying community welcomes all

The sisters at Holy Wisdom Monastery recognize that young people today are seeking mentors on their spiritual journey. The Benedictine way provides rich resources of prayer, meditation, community and wise elders that can speak to the spiritual hunger of many today.

Here at Holy Wisdom Monastery, the sisters offer several retreat experiences in which young, single women can reflect on their lives in the company of the sisters and other women like themselves. At the Exploring Benedictine Community retreat, women do centering prayer and pray the liturgy of the hours with the sisters. We engage in sharing around important life questions such as where have you experienced grace in your life? How do you find meaning in life’s challenges? The sisters offer wisdom from our lived experience of the spiritual life in community.

Sister Mary David Walgenbach, prioress (center), enjoys sharing stories over shared meals

Our conversation continues around the table at meals. Over the course of the weekend we create a temporary but meaningful experience of community. For those who can’t come for a weekend, we offer A Day Away retreat as a brief taste of the balance of quiet contemplation and small group conversation. A meal and prayer together contribute to the experience of community.

Communities living the Rule of Benedict today have wisdom and experience to share with people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. The sisters at Holy Wisdom Monastery want to be mentors to the next generation of spiritual seekers. We hope you will pass the word along.
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Read other blog posts in Lynne’s series, Building Community.

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Lynne Smith, Paz Vital, Denise West and Rosy Kandathil celebrating Rosy’s 40th birthday with deep-dish pizza in Chicago

I was turning 40. There was no avoiding it, but for the weeks leading up to my birthday I tried not to indulge a creeping sense of dread. Although I could laugh over the prospect of having to check the “40 and over” survey box, I also felt anxious about crossing a threshold into middle age.

There is something about milestones that force reflection, self-assessment, and in my case—mild depression. What had I accomplished with my life? I would be turning 40 at a monastery, with nothing to my name. All the accomplishments of a legal career built during my 20s and 30s, seemingly abandoned. No property, no husband and children, no bank account to claim. Everything I owned had been dutifully (and symbolically) signed away on the altar at my first monastic profession. Saint Benedict even required a recognition from every prospective monk that, from the moment of profession on, their very body was no longer only their own to command but belonged to the community (Rule of Benedict 58)!

After another round of final exams at Saint John’s University and an enervating election season, I was depleted, eager to come home to my community, return to our prayers and recharge. I did not want to think about the future. I knew that I needed an Advent in my life—in more ways than one. Thankfully, the liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas, the beginning of a New Year, and the experience of returning once more to the rituals of celebration in this community of faith, have helped to restore my sense of balance, hope and gratitude.

It is easy for me to feel overwhelmed, but one of the many benefits of living at a monastery is that I am surrounded by others who have successfully made the transition into what Richard Rohr (in Falling Upward) has called “the second half” of their life. Whether they are retreatants, Oblates, Sunday Assembly members or the community of sisters that I live and pray with every day, they model an integrated spirituality that serves to revive my own imagination about the gifts of aging well. I need this kind of renewal, because so often I find myself taken in by the cult of youthfulness and a paralyzing nostalgia for the past. Although, on a basic level, I know that self-worth cannot be founded on the illusory ground of any career, wealth, property or particular relationship, it’s easy for me to forget.

Christmas dinner selfie: Rosy Kandathil, Camille West, Paz vital, Joanne Kollasch, Denise West, Lynne Smith, Mary David Walgenbach

The seasons of Advent and Christmas speak honestly of a profound and mysterious darkness surrounding the dawning of God among us. I don’t always recognize Christ in the immediate circumstances of my life. But this year, I found myself looking around me at the community of wise and graceful people that make their spiritual home at Holy Wisdom Monastery. Instead of running away from the task of aging well, I decided to mine the riches of my environment by seeking guidance on how to approach my forties with wisdom, grace, and a sense of adventure. Here’s just a sampling of answers to the question I started asking of folks around here: what advice would you give someone approaching their forties? 

• Develop a good relationship with your body. Take good care of it, invest in its care. Go to the doctor. Your body will thank you for it in the years to come.
• Appreciate your skin!
• Celebrate being healthy and all the things your body can do now. Don’t waste time thinking about getting old.
• Your forties are about integration. After having accomplished those outward things in your 20s and 30s, your 40s are an invitation to go inward and deepen, if you allow it.
• Your forties are about self-acceptance. You aren’t as concerned about what people think.
• Enjoy it all: my forties were my best years!

And one woman simply offered me this quote by e.e. cummings:

“It takes courage to grow up and to be who you really are.”

Is there anything else you would add to this list? Please share your wisdom as a comment to this blog post.

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Read other blog posts from Sister Rosy in her series, Letters home.

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