After lunch, I went to the garden where Sister Denise West, and later Sister Paz Vital, met me. The previous Monday, I had raked the stubble off the asparagus patch and piled it up for burning. The following Saturday, Sister Denise and I burned the pile. So now the patch was ready for a new layer of wood chips. We spent the afternoon hauling wood chips from the large piles by the lower garden. I was surprised to find that about 10 inches down the chips were still frozen solid. That’s just a reminder that spring is only beginning. In fact, as I write this, snow is predicted later in the week.

Manual labor is built into Benedictine life. I love working outside in the yard and the garden. I learned my love of outdoor work from my mother who still takes care of her yard at 88. Whenever the weather was halfway decent, she would shoo us outside to find something to do saying, “It’s too nice a day to be inside. Go outside and play.” And we did. She was the one who did most of the yard work, so when I was old enough, I would help her rake or pick up sticks or plant and weed the garden. It was my job in high school to trim the bushes that surrounded the back yard.  Only once did I cut the extension cord with the electric trimmers!

When we weren’t working or playing in the yard, I would take a book and climb the old boxelder tree near the garage, sit in its branches and read until dinner time.

Sister Meg Funk, from Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana, has written: “Work is a back door to pure prayer. For a proficient practitioner who is working mindfully, there is no distinction between work and prayer.” I’m not sure if I’m a “proficient practitioner” yet, but when I work outside, I feel one with my surroundings. My mind is quiet, and I’m not thinking about other things. I’m present, attending to the warmth of the sun on my skin and sensing my muscles as I lift the bucket of woodchips to spread on the warming earth. It feels like prayer.

On Sunday at the Eucharist we sang “O Christ Surround Me” as the communion hymn. I looked around the Assembly room at the people present and knew Christ was surrounding me. As I stood in the middle of the asparagus garden and looked around, the hymn came to my mind again, and I knew Christ was surrounding me in the garden. I think Sister Meg is right; there is no distinction between work and prayer. I’m blest to be able to work in the garden and deepen my prayer.

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Beginning today Sister Lynne will share occasional insights into her experience in a new blog series, Living in Community – Notes on a Sister’s Time Away for Education:

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Today was our first class—on spiritual direction. Up until this point we have been having orientation. Yesterday we had a class on physical fitness. It was a couple of hours of stretching and fitness exercises. Then we walked to the University of Chicago fitness center for a tour. By the time we walked back, we pretty much decided we had had our exercise for the day. There is a lovely park on Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan where I and others have been walking. The program has bikes we can use. I brought my bike helmet with me and plan to take a bike out while the weather is nice.

Tomorrow and next week we will each have time to give a presentation about our community. Karyn [a current Benedictine Sojourner at Holy Wisdom Monastery] is coming down for the weekend. We will spend some time exploring Chicago. It should be fun.

Coming next…more about the international cohort with whom Lynne will share the year ahead. 

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Ed Note:  Sister Lynne’s year away was described in our Benedictine Bridge, July 2014, as follows:

Attending classes in Chicago
Beginning August 21, 2014 Sister Lynne Smith will attend the Institute for Religious Formation at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, studying formation for people entering religious communities. This academic-year program includes courses on Scripture, theology, human development and growth, spirituality and research. Lynne will be back in Madison during her semester break in December. When she completes the program on May 15, 2015 she will continue in formation work with women who come to begin the process of joining Benedictine Women of Madison. Women interested in learning more about exploring life with Benedictine Women of Madison may contact Ann Moyer at 608-836-1631, x197.

This article reveals the breadth of the academic program and also hints at changes at the monastery in Sister Lynne’s absence. Vital roles she fulfills must be covered for the coming year and many are stepping up to that challenge. Sisters Joanne Kollasch and Mary David Walgenbach are covering all the formation activities for Benedictine Sojourners and for the novitiate; Ann Moyer has picked up additional responsibilities as director of membership; many oblates are taking on additional responsibilities within the oblate program; Sunday Assembly members are carrying additional worship leadership rolls.

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How am I attending to my physical self? Am I getting enough exercise, eating balanced meals? How am I attending to my senses? As a way of attending to my senses this spring, I decided to take a drawing fundamentals class. An artist told me some years ago that drawing is about seeing. I want to learn to see God in the beauty around me. Learning how to draw is helping me to see. In the first class as we were practicing shading, the instructor said, “You need to learn to see the light.” Now there is an appropriate metaphor for the spiritual journey! As I practice shading simple forms, I am learning to notice light that I hadn’t seen before. This also awakens my spiritual senses to be attentive to ways that God shines around me.

How am I attending to my intellectual life? Benedict asks that each monk read a book during Lent as a way of adding some additional study to one’s life. In April’s Living in Community newsletter, a couple of us sisters will share something that we are reading currently.

How am I attending to my prayer life? Has it become routine for me? How is God calling me into a deeper experience of the divine presence? My image of God has been changing over the course of the past several years. This is sometimes uncomfortable and even distressing as my familiar ways of relating to God don’t “work” anymore. Change is never easy, but God wants to draw us deeper into Mystery. Can we let go of the familiar and move into the unknown?

How am I attending to the imagination? Poetry, photography, art or music can awaken our imagination and attune us to the power of symbol. Doing lectio divina with Scripture can also help nurture this aspect of our being.

Of course, these practices are not just for Lent but are for everyday of our lives as we seek to live our baptismal commitment as Christians.

What practices help you to learn everyday of your life? Please share your thoughts with us below.

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