Big events, quiet moments

We have three big events on the horizon and the entire monastery has been abuzz with activity and anticipation. On Sunday evening, our Novice, Sister Sara Aiden, will make First Monastic Profession. On Monday, our annual summer Community meetings will begin. These will last through the week. And then, next Saturday, Sister Brigid will celebrate her 25th Jubilee, a significant milestone in the life of a vowed religious.

It seems that everyone in the community has been doing something to prepare for one or the other of these events. Programs for the profession and jubilee have been printed and delivered. Parchment paper for handwritten profession documents has been taken from its special file. Committee reports have been prepared, or are nearing completion. The refrigerators are stocked for festive meals. Tables are arranged in the meeting and dining rooms. The LCD projector is at the ready. Guest lists are settled. Table cloths have been ironed. Music rehearsal has begun. Yes, we have been busy…

Yet within the busyness, a stillness remains. Last evening, in the moments before Vespers, silence filled the chapel. Everything, everyone was still. It was the kind of emptiness that is paradoxically rich, an absence of sound that felt like the fullness of presence, like a single flower that fills the eye with color in an otherwise empty room. It was the kind of stillness that reminds one of what the motion is all about.

This time of year can be particularly heavy with activity. Yet even in the midst of big events we are always called back to prayer, back to the silence of our hearts, back to stillness before the God who is, who was, and who will be. Back to the One who calls us to prayer and work, to stillness and motion, to silence and celebration within this monastic community.

Postscript: For photos of these events, check our Community News web page from time to time over the next week or so.




Afternoon Addendum... Sr. Therese, who has been working with tables and tablecloths for much of the day along with finishing up a report for community meetings, just went outside with the camera and found Sr. Mary Adrian down at the creek gathering greenery. Here she is with some of the bounty that will grace our tables for tomorrow's celebration...

A warm welcome

I am finally back home in the warm, sunny South. My three and a half week conference and retreat at Annunciation Monastery in North Dakota was followed by a weekend meeting at Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Kansas. And now I’m back home. All told, I was away for four weeks.

In both Bismarck and Atchison I was the glad and grateful recipient of warm Benedictine hospitality. Sometimes it's good to visit another Benedictine house and to be on the receiving end of the welcome. The experience gives a good reminder of the importance of welcoming the guest as Christ, which is what St. Benedict enjoins us to do in his Rule.

When I returned home Sunday evening I experienced yet another warm welcome, this time from my own community. Sr. Regina met me at the airport and caught me up on all the community news. Sr. Tonette helped me haul a month’s worth of luggage up the stairs to my room. The Sisters on my floor greeted me with festivity and listened to my initial burst of stories. I’ve also received countless hugs in the past day and a half from my monastic Sisters who are eager to welcome me home and hear about my time away.

Their warm welcome reminds me that Benedictine hospitality is not just for the guest. It is for everyone we encounter – both those arriving from far away and as near as hand as the Sister next door.

Travelin' shoes

The Benedictine Spirituality Workshop and Retreat (BSWR) has concluded and tomorrow I will begin making my way south from Bismarck back home to Sacred Heart.

My stay in North Dakota has spanned three and a half weeks. Although I will be glad to return home, there is something bittersweet about leaving Bismarck. The Sisters here at Annunciation Monastery have welcomed us with open arms and have embodied Benedictine hospitality in a way that is both inspiring and humbling. During BSWR we have not only studied Benedictine spirituality through classes and discussion, we have experienced it daily as it is lived by this wonderful monastic community.

It is also a little bittersweet to be leaving the prairie, the Missouri River, and these wonderful bluffs above the Missouri. The meditative landscape has complemented well the reflective nature of BSWR.

And yet…I will be glad to get back home, back to the Sisters who have supported and nurtured me throughout these years of initial formation into the monastic way of life and who have made it possible for me to put on my travelin’ shoes and make my way to North Dakota.

In many ways I have not traveled up here alone. My community has been with me in Bismarck through prayer, practical support, letters and packages, and through taking on my various responsibilities back at the monastery. Most importantly, they’ve been with me in the program content itself. As I’ve listened to lectures and participated in discussions I have done so with my community in mind and heart.

Although they have been with me in spirit, and though I will miss the prairie and this monastic community, I will be so glad to wake up tomorrow, put on my travelin’ shoes, and follow the Missouri on down to Mount St. Scholastica in Kansas, and then the rest of the way back to the beautiful Tennessee River Valley and the rolling hills of northern Alabama.

Postscript: The highway sign numbered 1804 is so numbered because that is the year Lewis, Clark and the Corps of Discovery passed through here on their journey westward. The highway stretches along the eastern side of the Missouri. The highway on the western side is numbered 1806, the year the Corps passed back through on their return to the east. Over these few weeks I’ve taken many a walk along Hwy 1804, engaged in my own journey of discovery. I’ll have more to say about BSWR in a later post…once I’ve taken off my travlin’ shoes.

Northwest Passage

(Still writing from the Benedictine Spirituality Workshop and Retreat [BSWR] at Annunciation Monastery in North Dakota...)

This is Lewis and Clark territory. The two explorers traveled the swift-flowing Missouri through these parts in search of the Northwest Passage. They didn’t find the fabled passage, but they did encounter the Missouri, the Columbia, the Yellowstone, and so much more. And then, the ocean...

On Monday evening, a week of silent retreat will begin for those of us attending BSWR. Each of us will meet daily with a retreat director, but otherwise we will be wrapped in a robe of silence as we spend sustained time with God exploring regions of the heart.

A silent retreat is always a journey of sorts. You get in your boat and push away from shore. You may imagine what you hope to discover, but you cannot know where a journey into silence will lead. You’ve got to be willing to go where God takes you and find what’s there to be found, even if it’s not where or what you expected. The director’s supportive, and occasionally challenging, presence helps make sense of the terrain.

As I write this on Saturday evening, I am sitting on a bluff above the Missouri, watching the sun make its own silent passage. I’m thinking about Lewis and Clark. I’m imagining them covered by these same skies, this same setting sun, this same prairie nighttime. Like them, my gaze is northwest. My heart, though, is inclined toward God, and soon I will begin my own silent journey, opening my sails to the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God upon the waters of the deep.

Postscript: This blog will be silent for about the next week and a half. In the meantime, you can keep up with monastery happenings on our Facebook page (Friends of the Benedictine Sisters of Cullman, Alabama).

I should add that this is not just Lewis and Clark territory. It is the land of the Mandan and Hidatsa, coyote and fox, bird and buffalo, immigrant and native, and all who have sought life and breath here on the bluffs of the Missouri River.

Shelterbelt

Still blogging from the Benedictine Spirituality Workshop and Retreat in Bismarck, ND.

Here in North Dakota, linear stands of trees called ‘shelterbelts' are inscribed like wooded hieroglyphs here and there across the prairie. Sometimes they form a three-sided square around a homestead. More often they stand as long, parallel lines that cut through, or alongside, cultivated fields. I’ve learned they are planted as wind guards to reduce erosion in this wind-scoured landscape, as well as to form a natural snow fence in winter. In the field, the ‘fence’ allows precious moisture to accumulate for springtime planting. Around homes and structures, the shelterbelt offers protection from the buffeting wind and blowing snow of blizzards.

As a kind of side benefit, the trees often serve as a haven for deer and other wildlife. Earlier this week, I watched two deer dart into the protecting foliage of the shelterbelt depicted here, which stands just beyond the monastery. This particular belt is three trees deep, with beautiful Russian olive trees standing tall to the left (northeast).

These past days I’ve been meditating on shelterbelts and on the ways in which we seek, create, and offer shelter - both shelter from and shelter for. There is something deeply humble about the way the shelterbelts lie so quietly across the land. It brings to mind St. Benedict’s ladder of humility, as if his ladder had been planted like a row crop of goodness along a stretch of barren earth.

St. Benedict’s 12th step of humility is that a monk “should always manifest humility in his [her] bearing no less than in his heart.” The shelterbelt reminds me of this humble stance. It is silent, yet full of right speech. Still, yet full of right action. Humble in its bearing. Fruitful in its work. I pray that my words and actions may be like a shelterbelt on the windswept prairie, offering a safe haven and protecting presence, standing humbly yet firm against the scouring winds and swirling snows that so often buffet and blow.

“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust…’” Psalm 91: 1-2


Postscript: See chapter 7 of the Rule of St. Benedict to read more about the ladder of humility.

Middle C

(Writing from the Benedictine Spirituality Workshop and Retreat [BSWR] in Bismarck, ND…)

Middle C is what came to mind as I scanned this startlingly beautiful landscape. The union of earth and sky writes itself across the horizon like a single, flowing line of chant. I expected flat terrain here in North Dakota, and it is mostly flat; but to my surprise there are many hills – gentle, green rises that sing sweet serenades to the massive bluegrey clouds that pass unhurriedly overhead.

From the hilltop just outside the monastery I can see for miles (30, I am told). This feels like the top of the world. Yet the spreading earth seems so solid, so firm, and, well, so reliably here, that it also feels like the foundation of everything, including the sky. Middle C – the center of two musical staves, both source and summit of a scale – is the first analogy that came to mind. A place that both grounds and uplifts.

Middle C also happens to be a good image for what I’m up to here in North Dakota. If you read my last post you know that I’m here at Annunciation Monastery meeting with other “first professed” Benedictines from around the country. We are all preparing for perpetual monastic profession and this workshop is designed to deepen our foundation in the Benedictine charism. For several years now we have each been engaged in monastic formation in our home monasteries – participating in the life of the community, taking classes, and engaging in ministry. These weeks of BSWR are a time to review the fundamentals of Benedictine life and integrate our experience of monastic formation as we each discern this next important step in our journey. It’s kind of like taking a melodic line and returning it to its source, to a place that both grounds and uplifts.

In her presentation on the Liturgy of the Hours yesterday, Sister Magdalena said, “You all know this, but it’s good to have a reminder sometimes.” Although her wonderful presentation was far more than just a reminder, it is indeed “good to have a reminder sometimes.” I can’t imagine a more beautiful land-and-skyscape in which to get both re-grounded and uplifted in this wonderful Benedictine charism.

Postscript: The workshop is more than just classes. We’re enjoying having some down time in which to get to know one another, read and relax, and just “be.” A week-long retreat will conclude the three-week program. A few outings are scheduled, too. Last night we attended a choral concert in the city. Tomorrow we’ll tour a nearby heritage site. And of course we’re getting to know this wonderful Benedictine community here in Bismarck. (I don’t think we will need a class on Benedictine hospitality; we are experiencing it first hand…)

On Sister's Wings

In about 30 minutes, Sister Magdalena and I will depart for the Huntsville airport, board a plane, and begin a 3-legged journey to Bismarck, ND. My bags are packed and sitting at the infirmary door. Car keys are at hand. My room is clean. The garden is tidied. Everything is ready.

Our destination is the annual Benedictine Spirituality Workshop and Retreat. It is being held this year at Annunciation Monastery in Bismarck. The event is for Benedictine women in temporary monastic profession (first profession) who are preparing for final, or perpetual, profession. I am attending as one of the participants, and Sister Magdalena as one of two Co-Directors. The workshop portion lasts about two weeks, followed by a week-long retreat. In total, we will be away for nearly four weeks.

Sister Magdalena and I will travel to Bismarck with a major air carrier, but more importantly we travel on the wings of our Sisters and we depart this morning with their support, love, and prayers. On a practical level, they are covering our many and varied responsibilities around the monastery, providing funds for our travel, and making it logistically possible for us to go. Yet while the logistical assistance is what is most readily noticed, the spiritual support that travels with us is what is most prominent in our awareness.

Each day, near the conclusion of Lauds and Vespers, the leader intones “May the Spirit of the Lord be with us throughout this day.” The community responds, “And with our absent Sisters.”

We will be absent, yet present in the Spirit, and borne up on the wings of God's great love.

Postscript: I will continue to blog from Bismarck. If you wish to keep up with happenings at the monastery while I am away, Facebook users can follow Sister Therese's posts on our Facebook group, Friends of the Benedictine Sisters of Cullman.