Benedictine spirituality Archives - Holy Wisdom Monastery

How Did You Become a Sister?, Ft. Sister Denise West

Holy Wisdom Monastery — Mon, 03 May 2021 16:28:13 +0000

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How do you imagine one becomes a monk? Is it something you plan or something you discover? Do you have to be religious your whole life before joining a monastery?

Truth be told, there is no one answer. Our own sister’s community at Holy Wisdom Monastery have an array of unique stories that led them to their lives here in Middleton.

In this episode, we sit with Sister Denise West and listen to her journey from a non-secular home in Tennessee to her life in New York as a teacher and eventually, through her search for spirituality, becoming a sister at our monastery.

Sister Denise’ story is a beautiful example of the unexpected turns in life that can lead us to our place in the world. Listen in to this episode and tell us in the comments below: What are the unexpected parts of your journey that have led you to where you are today?

Where to Listen?

You can listen to The Holy Wisdom Podcast at any of these online locations:

Our Blog, under the “Podcast” Category

The post How Did You Become a Sister?, Ft. Sister Denise West appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.

‘Becoming Ecumenical: Bringing Christians Together,’ The Holy Wisdom Podcast

Holy Wisdom Monastery — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 22:00:00 +0000

Ecumenism is defined as “the principle or aim of promoting unity among the world’s Christian Churches.” Led by this strive for unity, Holy Wisdom Monastery has long been welcoming people of a variety of denominations and religions.

Therefore, it made sense to sit down for a deeper look with the women who have led us here.

Thus, this first episode of The Holy Wisdom Podcast features Sister Mary David Walgenbach and Sister Joanne Kollasch. They begin by sharing their early memories of meeting people from other denominations. Then, they regale some of the early stories that led to the monastery becoming a retreat center.

One of these stories may involve some horses and some startled Monks of Taize.

Where to Listen?

You can listen to The Holy Wisdom Podcast at any of these online locations:

Our Blog, under the “Podcast” Category

The post ‘Becoming Ecumenical: Bringing Christians Together,’ The Holy Wisdom Podcast appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.

Looking Back: ‘Ecumenical Monastic Life Offers Journey into a New Culture’ (2003) by Erica Thiessen

Holy Wisdom Monastery — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 17:18:33 +0000

In 2003, Erica Thiessen was a novice of Benedictine Women of Madison. In Issue 12 of Benedictine Bridge from Ordinary Time 2003, she wrote this article reflecting on the value of Benedictine life in relation to her own experiences as a Mennonite.

I have been journeying into different lands from almost before I was born. My parents were both Russian Mennonite immigrants to Canada. As a family, we traveled to Ghana and Trinidad where my father taught school. In ways, I became a pilgrim, and for much of my adult life, I have lived and worked around the world. Always on the move. Always sensing the call into the “more of life.” I have now found my way into the stability and rootedness of monastic life.

I am not surprised. Perhaps it was inevitable that I should find myself in a place where I am always invited by Saint Benedict and Benedictine Women of Madison to ever begin again to live the ordinary life as the extraordinary gift that it is. What does surprise me is that I can bring with me my heritage–the times when I have plodded, hiked, skipped, swam, flown, delighted in and been frustrated by the journey.

True ecumenism embraces diverse faith traditions

I come with my relationship with God that has been nurtured by my Mennonite tradition and through the stretching experiences where I encountered people of different denominations, faiths and cultures.

Even though I come with all that has brought me this far, I am again invited to begin anew. I am invited to again discover what it is that really matters and to set aside those things that perhaps don’t matter as much as I thought they did. But don’t get me wrong, I am very much a beginner.

The other day, I was reading the reflections of a Mennonite volunteer in a Third World assignment as she grew familiar with a new culture. I had been thinking about my own experience in the monastery. It was feeling somewhat burdensome. What had been fun and exciting at the beginning was losing some of its appeal.

I feel embarrassed by my inability to figure everything out. Sometimes I even felt like an irritable and angry child. There is so much to learn and yet there is a part of me that says I’m tired of being a beginner again. This young volunteer’s reflections became a balm of comfort as I recalled the many times I had passed through similar periods of adjustment and learning.

Saint Benedict understood our impatience

I remembered the words I put on my screensaver during the first weeks I was a candidate. They are from the Prologue of the Rule of Benedict: “…don’t be daunted immediately by fear (and frustration)… It’s bound to be narrow at the outset… But as we progress in this way of life and in faith… our hearts will overflow with delight.”

Just hang in with the ordinary. I can live with that. I’ve been there before. And remember–it’s a new beginning.

The post Looking Back: ‘Ecumenical Monastic Life Offers Journey into a New Culture’ (2003) by Erica Thiessen appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.

Knowing who we are journeying with

Lynne Smith, OSB — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 15:39:03 +0000

Last Friday, the Servant Leadership class from UW Extension held its monthly class at the monastery. Toby Grabs, our operations manager, gave the class a tour and introduction to the monastery. I met with them to talk about how we exercise leadership in the monastery. I lifted up three principles that have guided us and served to move us into the future: listening to others collaboration and community.

Because we have always been a small community and because we value collaboration and community building, we have consulted with and involved others in our ministry and decision-making through the years. In the early 90s the sisters brought together a group of people to help them vision for the future. The result of that process was that the sisters’ community decided to explore becoming ecumenical.

In 1998, Sister Mary David Walgenbach, sensing the interest in Benedictine spirituality among people who came to the monastery, called together Father Ken Smits, OFM Cap who was serving us in liturgy and spirituality, Jody Crowley Beers, the director of spirituality at the monastery, and a group of people who wanted to develop Benedictine spirituality in their lives. After a year of meeting together, the oblate community was born as the first class made their promises as oblates. In 2019, the oblates will celebrate their 20th anniversary as a community.

Sunday Assembly grew out of the people who came to the monastery beginning in the 70s to celebrate the Eucharist with the sisters. When we were in the process of becoming ecumenical 30 years later, the sisters held listening sessions after the Eucharist to hear how the people wanted to go into the future as we became ecumenical. They told us they wanted to continue worshiping at the monastery because of the open and welcoming community and the inclusive language used in the service.

More recently, Friends of Wisdom Prairie was born from the growing desire of many people to be involved in and support caring for the earth at the monastery. With the establishment of the Ecumenical Center for Clergy Spiritual Renewal, another community of people will be added to those who journey with us.

At the end of my presentation to the Servant Leadership class, Carolyn, a member of the class, commented that this was an evolutionary way of moving into the future. Indeed, it is. The Benedictine values of prayer, listening, humility, seeing Christ in the other, collaboration, openness to change and community building are the guiding practices that will continue to lead us as we evolve.

Carolyn also noted that what we offer at the monastery is the wholeness that so many people are seeking in their divided and fragmented lives. As we offer the opportunity for integration through Benedictine practices, people will continue to be drawn to participate in the life of the monastery.

Years ago when I was talking with Sister Joanne Kollasch about the uncertainty of the future, she said to me, “We don’t have to know what we are going to do in the future. The important thing is to know who we are with.” I take comfort and hope in those words. We sisters are with wonderful people: our coworkers, oblates, Sunday Assembly members, Friends of Wisdom Prairie members, retreatants, guests, friends and other seekers.

As we stay faithful to Christ and the Benedictine values that guide us, we will be led step by step into the future. During this month of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the people with whom we journey.

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The gift of encuentro

Denise West, OSB — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 22:13:09 +0000

Last November, Sister Lynne Smith, Sister Paz Vital and I headed up to Milwaukee for a conference on the future of religious communities in the United States. The theme of the conference was Encuentro, and the focus was around the great diversity of cultures in this country and the changing face of religious communities as greater numbers of women and men born outside the US join American religious orders. The keynote speaker was Sister Teresa Maya, president-elect of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious. A native of Mexico City, she is a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and lives in San Antonio, Texas. Encuentro literally translated is a meeting, a conference, even a sports match, but in Spanish its meaning is dynamic. It is used to reflect two parties coming together and being transformed. As Sister Teresa said, “the call to encounter is a call to journey beyond ourselves…it’s not encuentro if it leaves you unchanged.”

The community of sisters at Holy Wisdom Monastery has certainly changed over time in response to engagement with people of varied backgrounds. Regular visits from the monks of Taizé in the mid-sixties, meetings with clergy members of different denominations, and conversations with members of Madison Interfaith Dialog—all of these experiences prepared the sisters for their encuentro with Lutheran missionaries and their families in the 1970s. It was living, praying, and working side by side with people of different backgrounds that deeply changed Sisters Mary David Walgenbach and Joanne Kollasch and inspired them to ultimately open their Catholic community to women of any Christian denomination. This paved the way for the community to receive Sister Lynne and other Protestants like me.

Sister Paz and I experienced desencuentro—clashes—during our time as Sojourners as we discovered how utterly differently we see and engage with the world. I have since discovered what it means to experience the United States as an immigrant and to experience American culture as a person of color and a Mexican woman. This was not easy to hear. At first I listened, (or rather, didn’t listen) with my defenses up. But with the help of numerous blog posts, online articles, and podcasts by black and brown people, my hard shell softened enough to be able to hear “with the ear of my heart” (Rule of Benedict), and it changed me. It was only over time that we began to truly listen to one another’s experiences and see the world as the other sees it.

Our community has become interested in the ways we all see and experience the world differently based on our upbringing and our culture. At lunch some weeks ago, Rev. Al Heggen happened to mention a book his church group had read called, Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism by theologian and activist Drew G.I. Hart. We meet every other week to discuss a chapter, reflecting on what struck us as new, significant or challenging. In one section, Hart names the problem and presents hope for transformation:

For too long, the church has gone about its business as though nothing were wrong. Meanwhile, it has been a racialized organism, not only fractured relationally but actually practicing, perpetuating, or remaining silent to the racial oppression of others…. Jesus lived a life that nonviolently subverted the powers and confronted the establishment…. Jesus can help us transform how we understand and resist racism in our society.

The message for me is one that is consistent with Benedictine spirituality and the monastic life: What are the places in me that keep me separate from my neighbor and from God? How am I blind to my faults and to others’ needs? Where do I need transformation? If I haven’t listened deeply to the experiences of people who are not white like me and if I haven’t noticed the ways in which I’ve been socialized as an American to see with the eyes of my dominant white culture, then I am still blind to the ways I perpetuate the system, unknowingly. Listening, reading and reflecting are all part of what our community is doing to grow into new understandings and to see with new eyes. We are preparing for more Encuentros as Benedictine Women of Madison becomes more culturally diverse.

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What do surfing and Benedictine spirituality have in common?

Lynne Smith, OSB — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 18:10:23 +0000

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.

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