Anointing of the Sick The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick will take place at Holy Wisdom Monastery in the Oratory on Sunday, March 22nd, following Sunday Assembly. If you are sick and in need of the healing presence of the Holy Spirit – perhaps you have a diagnosis, or you are waiting for test results, maybe you have a surgery coming up, if you are sad and full of anxiety, whatever the issues – this sacrament is for you. Allow the prayers of this community to wash over you and let the Spirit calm your heart and soul. …
Christmas Prayer & Worship Schedule
Christmas 2025 Prayer & Worship Schedule December 24, 2025 – January 1, 2026 Dec. 24, 2025 8:00 am – Morning Prayer (Oratory) 11:45 am – Midday Prayer (Oratory) 4:00 pm – Christmas Eve Eucharist (Assembly Room) Dec. 25 8:00 am – Morning Prayer (Oratory) 9:00 am – Christmas Day Worship (Assembly Room) Dec. 26-27 No Public Prayer Dec. 28 8:00 am – Morning Prayer (Oratory) 8:40 am – Christmas Carol Sing-Along (Assembly Room) 9:00 am – Sunday Assembly Eucharist (Assembly Room) Dec. 29-Jan. 1, 2026 No Public Prayer Jan. 2 Resume regular prayer schedule
Christmas Day Worship
Celebrate the joy of Christmas with worship on Christmas Day, Thu., Dec. 25, at 9:00 am. This service takes place in the monastery building assembly room. All are welcome!
Christmas Eve Worship
Celebrate the joy of Christmas with worship on Christmas Eve, Wed., Dec. 24, at 4:00 pm, starting with prelude music sung by the choir. This service takes place in the monastery building assembly room. All are welcome!
An Overdue Reflection on Advent
Lent is around the corner but I’m of a mind to look back on the wintry beginning of Advent. The gift – and torment – of the season of Advent is the quiet stillness that beckons us to turn inward, to perceive the darkness residing within. By December every year I’m aware of some niggling bit of unpleasantness that separates me from God, and I know that ‘now is the time’ to reckon with it. I always look forward to the peace and space, the early sunsets that make it easier to use the evening time for reading and reflection. …
Sojourner diary—hopeful expectations
Advent is a season of hopeful expectation. Nowhere is that more clearly illustrated for us than in the Gospel stories of mother-to-be Mary as she surrenders herself to God and then patiently waits for the Divine plan and purpose for her life to develop and emerge within her. I’m guessing from my own childbearing experiences that it wasn’t always easy or comfortable. For Mary, saying yes to the Spirit was risk. It was a guarantee that her life would change and that some of that change would bring pain. But, say yes to God also meant that she would be …
Mexican celebrations during Advent
Growing up in Mexico, every year around this time everyone looks forward to major festivities. The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on December 12. It’s a huge celebration throughout the whole country which commemorates the appearances of the Virgin Mary to an Aztec man in the 16th century. The story is that Mary appeared to Juan Diego and sent him on a mission to have a shrine built in her honor. He hardly felt capable of achieving this task since he was an indigenous man and spoke Nahuatl, not the Spanish of the Bishop. At first the …
Celebrating Advent, Christmas and Epiphany at Holy Wisdom Monastery
(Selections from the Liturgy of the Hours used by Benedictine Women of Madison, Holy Wisdom Monastery, Middleton, WI) Anticipating Christmas with the O Antiphons During the last week before Christmas, we begin the daily singing of the O Antiphons, an ancient practice that embraces the sense of longing and anticipation for Christmas which swells with each day. These antiphons are sung prior to the Magnificat, the Song of Mary from Luke 1:46-55, in our evening prayers throughout this week. Each antiphon begins by addressing God with a name that expresses God’s loving design for people of all times and places. Each …
Christmas preparations
It has been three months since I arrived at Holy Wisdom Monastery. I am becoming an expert window cleaner. And I am enjoying singing, some days I surprise myself humming a hymn. I am thinking about my Christmas preparation time back in Mexico, and I remember that I used to have a communal preparation. We, the whole neighborhood, start the Our Lady of Guadalupe Novena on December fourth. The neighbors take turns hosting evening communal rosary at their houses. After that everybody enjoys drinking coffee, tea or atole (a sweet, hot drink) with cookies or sweet bread. During these nine days …
O Antiphons
In the monastic Liturgy of the Hours (morning, midday and evening prayers of the community), antiphons are sung as an introduction and a response to readings of the psalms, the heart of our liturgy, and before and after the Benedictus at the end of morning prayer and the Magnificat at the end of evening prayer. During the last days of Advent we change to special antiphons, the O Antiphons, to accompany the Magnificat, Mary’s song of joy and humility. Sung each evening at the end of evening prayer, they provide an additional layer of hope and expectation. The origin of the O Antiphons …