After about a year of getting to know the monastery and its members, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life living and growing and praying and working with these people—with you people—and to do whatever I could to help make real the mission and vision and values of the Benedictine Sisters of Madison. One way to do that was to become a Benedictine oblate. So I joined eight other intrepid souls to become the oblate class of 2013.

The formation program for oblates included a series of weekend retreats with other experienced oblates. But one retreat was for oblate candidates only, when just the nine of us spent a weekend with members of the formation team at our wonderful Retreat & Guest House. And within that retreat, I most remember and treasure when the sisters joined us for a session focused on the history of Holy Wisdom and the essential values and practices of Benedictine spirituality—some of which you just heard reflected in the sisters’ comments.

After the sisters had shared their thoughts, we moved into an open conversation. I asked Sr. Mary David if there were some definitive moments or events in their long history, forks in the road or turning points of such significance that had they made a different decision, the monastery as we know it might not have emerged. Mary David, in her straight-to-the-point manner, said, “No, not at all. We just got up each morning, prayed together, and did our work.  Each time we faced an issue or challenge, we made the best decision we could, and trusted it would be enough. And the next day, we did that again. And the next day, again. And here we are.”

That’s 65 years, day after day, of faithfully living the Benedictine way, with all its routines and rhythms, its gifts and challenges, its highs and lows, its predictability as well as its wondrous surprises. I did the math. That’s 23,709 days (and yes, I factored in 16 leap years!), 23,709 days, one day at a time, of living the Benedictine vows of stability, obedience and conversion of life. And here we are. Amazing grace, indeed.

Fifty years ago, when I was in my early 20s, I bought a book titled Markings. It’s author, Dag Hammarskjold, was a Swedish diplomat and served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations until his death in 1961 in a plane crash while en route to negotiate a cease-fire in a conflict in the Republic of Congo. His diary was discovered after his death and published in 1963 and became an international best seller. Many who knew Hammarskjold were aware that he was a religious man, but they were stunned by the diary’s spiritual depth and insight. Some consider him a genuine mystic.

One very brief entry in this book has over time become a kind of mantra for me, summing up in just a dozen words the attitude with which I try to live my life and, at the risk of melodrama, hope to have in my heart, if not on my lips, when I die. And I think they might sum up what we now feel on this very special occasion. Hammarskjold wrote this:

For all that has been—Thanks!
To all that shall be—Yes!

This evening, dear sisters—old, young, and in between (and you know who you are!)—this is what we hold in our hearts for you and because of you, and what we want you to now hold in your hearts as well:

• For ALL that you and all the Benedictine women who have walked these sacred grounds over these 65 years have done—for day after day after day faithfully living into the mission, vision, and values of what is now Holy Wisdom Monastery, and especially for inviting all of us into your home, we can only say, thank you, thank you, thank you.
• As for all that shall be? Of course, that’s wrapped in deep mystery. But given what has unfolded here over the past 65 years, it’s possible that the Holy Wisdom Monastery of 2083 may look as different from today as we do from our founding as a high school for girls in 1953. In light of that, perhaps the greatest gift we can offer you this evening, sisters, is this commitment: We will do everything in our power to do what you have done: We will try every day to get up with hope in our hearts, to say our prayers, to do the work that has to be done, to make the best decisions we can make, and trust that it will be enough. And we will do that day after day after day. And 65 years from now, our heirs may gather in a celebration like this one, and shout out, “My, oh my, what wonders Spirit has done among us!”

To that unknowable future, with trusting hearts we loudly proclaim yes, yes, yes! Amen, amen, amen!

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I recently came across one definition that seems simple and helpful. It doesn’t say everything, yet it is a place to start. Charles Vogl, in his article, “Behind every strong leader is a strong community,” defines community as: “a group of people who share mutual concern for one another’s welfare. A group may call itself a community but if members are really only looking out for themselves, they’re just a group….A real community is comprised of relationships that are effective and resilient. These relationships can then in turn lead to profound change, however you define it.”

Benedict’s Rule is all about how to live well together in community. Chapter 72 on the good zeal of monastics paints a picture of effective and resilient relationships. He recommends showing respect, patiently supporting one another’s weaknesses, mutual obedience, pursuing what one judges better for the other, and love. Elsewhere, Benedict emphasizes listening, prayer, humility, forgiveness, trusting in God’s mercy, perseverance. Benedict is a realist. He knows building community is hard and demanding work that hollows each of us out to make more room for the love of God to work within and among us. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but its fruits are life-giving change–something Benedict called conversatio or conversion of life.

Oblate gatherings provide time to catch up and renew friendships

A large part of the work we sisters do at the monastery is building community–among ourselves, within and among the communities at the monastery such as the coworkers, oblates, Sunday Assembly, Friends of Wisdom Prairie. Sharing prayer, meals and conversation, working together, rubbing up against each other and staying connected through conflict to resolution, coming to deeper self-knowledge and respect for each other are building blocks of community.

At our February, 2017 oblate retreat, the oblates and sisters experienced a sense of community especially during our Sunday morning conversation time. Throughout the weekend Sisters Rosy, Joanne and I shared our personal reflections on what it means to seek God in the Benedictine way.  On Sunday the oblates spoke about their own experiences. The comments built upon each other and took us deeper, bringing to light another angle, another consideration. Together we built up a sense of mutual understanding, care and connection. The retreat ended with a time of prayer for the needs and concerns the oblates and sisters expressed. We left feeling more whole and connected to ourselves, God and one another. That’s what community can do for us when it is lived well. It is community that sustains us into the future.

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Our oblate community is open to women and men of all ages. More information is available on our website: Oblates of Holy Wisdom.

If you are a single Christian woman, 21-50, interesting in experiencing a taste of community, and of the following retreats led by the sisters here at Holy Wisdom can provide the time and opportunity to enter into community with others in a safe space. Follow links to more information on our website:

Holy Week Retreat – April 13-16, 2017

A Day Away retreat  (next retreat:  May 6, 2017)

Exploring Benedictine Community   (next retreat:  June 2-4, 2017)

Consider giving yourself the gift of a community experience at Holy Wisdom!

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Brad Lutz receives a warm welcome from Mary David Walgenbach

In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy performs a simple magic spell: she clicks the heels of her magic slippers and repeats, “There’s no place like home….” Walking through the doors of Holy Wisdom Monastery does not require magic but it is an enchanting homecoming. The familiar sounds of bells and psalms, the warm embrace of the monastery’s communities gladden my heart—it’s like I’ve never been away and nothing has changed.

Truth is, however, I live a long way from this amazing place and it is increasingly expensive to travel. Truth is, connections through social media are not as fulfilling and distance dulls the senses of the heart to the wonder of community. Truth is, when I am away there are other relationships and demands to distract me. Truth is, at every homecoming, plenty has changed—I have changed!

No wonder Benedict devotes two chapters of the Rule (50, 51) to travel. Precisely because there are so many distractions, Benedict encourages us to be faithful to the rhythms of prayer, work, rest, and study—especially when we are away. These practices keep us rooted in the still-speaking God, who is the heart of community and whose presence knows no boundaries (see Psalm 139:7-12). Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove reminds us: “it is God who holds this body together, not strength of effort or will” (The Rule of Saint Benedict: A Contemporary Paraphrase, Paraclete Press, 2012). He further reflects: “a community that is centered around [God] is always poised to greet the God who shows up…looking every bit like a beggar and just wanting a place to stay.”

So, the open doors of the monastery usher me into an astonishingly safe space to step aside from the angst, to reconnect to the Center and renew my commitments. I cherish—indeed need—times to pray psalms in the oratory, share conversations at table and savor the beauty of the prairie. Sue Monk Kidd suggests that “unraveling external selves and coming home to our real identity is the true meaning of soul work.” Unraveling and coming home are images that express the meaning of being an oblate for me.

I need this soul work—we all do! I need the daily rhythms of Benedictine spirituality to keep me authentic, expressly in Florida when the monastery is far away. I need these practices to awaken my heart both to God and to the “cloud of witnesses” surrounding me. It’s not magic but it is the path to finding my true self anew—changed, yes, but hopefully for the better and ready to begin again to “climb on to the higher summits of teaching and virtue…and under God’s protection…reach them” (RB73, Hartgrove).

I love coming home to Holy Wisdom and the oblate community. The rhythms of daily practice along with the encouragement of my companion oblates unravels the trifles, transfigures the ordinary into a mystical experience, and transforms the journey itself into my home.

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