Bakery Day!

Greetings,

This morning I was giving the chance to fill-in for our Sister Baker and was quickly reminded that the best way to get your Sisters to visit you at work is to bake cookies! Sister Baker met me in the bakery and to remind me about where the necessities are and to be ready for a few guests during the morning. As I dipped out pan after pan of dough, Sisters dropped in for a 'sample' of dough or a 'quick bite' of a cookie fresh from the oven. My Novice Director (now retired) preferred the fresh cookies while our Sister who coordinates maintenance and housekeeping likes the dough better.

The bakery warmed up quickly as the morning wore on, but by 11 o'clock the cookies were packed away, the dishes done, and the stainless steel counters polished up!

96 Ginger Snap Cookies
96 Sugar Cookies
96 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Blessings!

Feast of Saint Benedict

Saint Benedict blessing all who pass by
his shrine near our cemetery.

Greetings,

Benedictine communities are well known for their communal lives of prayer and work.  Today, I continued in that tradition during our summer celebration of Saint Benedict. 

We started this morning with a full chanted Lauds followed by our celebration of the Eucharist.  Very nice.  My favorite part was our Communion meditation "Seek God".  One of our Sister Professors adds to the simply beauty of the song with a clarinet solo...some of the notes seem to hang in the air of chapel.  After a very dignified recession from Chapel, the Gardening Sisters and I dashed up to our rooms to change into work clothes.

Once in the gardens, there was plenty to do in our shortened work time.  We started up in an apple tree!  The summer apples all green tart and sharp were ready to be picked.  The tree looked hopefully short which made the apples easy to reach, but we soon realized it was so leafy and low that it was more difficult to pick than some of the taller trees.  Soon enough, we had filled five boxes that will soon be made into pies, sauces, and jelly.

"O holy Father, Benedict, in pray'r and work without cease, in your untiring search for God, you found Christ's joy and peace."
Vespers Antiphon.

Blessings,

Ordinary Daze

Greetings,

Living these Ordinary Days have left my in an unordinary daze!  Summer at the monastery is always filled with a variety of prayer, work, and play that can leave a sister spinning if she doesn't write it all down (well, at least this sister anyhow).  I have been blessed with house ministries that keep me working with a variety of sisters throughout the house...

First, the garden, poor thing, has been receiving all due attention with weeding, watering, and loving care.  However, the lack of rain in our area has driven the rabbits, gofers, and a whole variety of critters into our fair acre and so very little of our beans, peas, and other lovey veggies have grown very far without being nibbled back down to nubs. However, Saint Benedict predicted that a monastery would never be without guests and it continues to ring true today.  Another of my works for the house is to assist the sister who cleans our guest rooms.  It is easy to forget how many people come to visit when we spend our days on the 'cloister' side of the house, but the mix of friends, travelers, and the curious continue to amaze me!  There are also the little works of the monastery are simply called 'charges'.  The house charges are the many little things that need to be done to help care for the daily needs of our family home.  I have Chapel cleaning on Fridays as well as supper and lunch dishes.

Framing all this is our rhythm of prayer.  Admittedly, this is my favorite part of being home for the summer.  Being with the whole community, the whole family for prayer and Eucharist.  A chance to look around Chapel and pray for each as we pray together.  A chance to fall back into the heartbeat of our pace in prayer...each house seems to have its own pace and spacing and it's nice to be home in our rhythm for awhile so as to carry it back to the convent apartment this Fall.

Blessings,

Monday Ministry

Greetings,

Yesterday was filled with a variety of service to community.  The Garden Sisters were dropped off at one of our four apricot trees...it was already ripening!  After a few reminders about picking, we started plucking the egg-yolk colored little fruits off the tree.  Sister Gardener would have given the tree another day or two so more fruit would be ripe, but our little corner of South Dakota was being buffeted by high winds and the ready apricots were starting to fall pretty quickly.

Once we had picked all that we could reach from the ground, we started up the ladders and this simple chore became a little more interesting.  Ahem...apricot trees have a lot of 'play' when being blown by the wind.  There were moments when we needed to stop picking and simply keep one hand on the ladder and the other swaying with the tree.  We weren't in danger of being blown off our ladders, but it can be a bit dizzying when the a the tree becomes a whirl of green and orange while your standing still.  The blessing was three boxes to begin our apricot season (several more will follow) and the 'breeze' was enough to keep all the gnats away!

The sisters were very excited to see the fresh apricots served for supper that night!

Blessings,

"There's No Place Like Home"

Greetings,

This is the first Saturday I have free and clear from school work.  My morning began slow with a cup of coffee, a Sacred Heart chaplet, and some quiet time with Christ.  I could take all the time my heart needed without worry of getting my homework done...

However, this afternoon will be filled with Suzy-homemaker chores and tasks.  After some teacher meetings on Tuesday, I will be going home to the monastery for the summer; so I need to leave my areas of the apartment convent ship shape!  My bedroom will become the 'Guest Sister' bedroom for the summer and little dusting and sorting needs to be done.  I'm glad to do this when I know that I get to be home at the monastery while another sister uses our convent apartment as a get away space.

Home!  I will be home in time for Vespers--Liturgy of the Hours--Divine Office with our sisters.  Our prayer together is the thing I miss most while working away from the monastery during the school year.  Sister Roommate and I follow the same prayer here at our apartment convent, but there is a big difference between two voices alternating and a hundred voices harmonizing. 

Sister Subprioress has me busy about the monastery for the summer: gardening, cleaning guest department, doing dishes, and scrubbing bathrooms; and I am excited to do it.  Charges (in-house work assignments) are a part of our Benedictine life.  Chapter 48 of the Rule of Benedict reminds us to balance daily manual labor and prayer in our daily life:

And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty should require that they themselves do the work of gathering the harvest, let them not be discontented; for then are they truly monastics when they live by the labor of their hands, as did our Fathers and the Apostles. Let all things be done with moderation, however, for the sake of the faint-hearted...Weak or sickly sisters should be assigned a task or craft of such a nature as to keep them from idleness and at the same time not to overburden them or drive them away with excessive toil. Their weakness must be taken into consideration by the Abbess.

My daily charges within the monastery aren't just work; they are a ministry of love for my sisters in community, a way of taking care of each other.  The work of weeding and gathering we do in the garden eventually helps to feed our sisters homegrown produce not just for one day but throughout the winter months as well.  The ministry of cleaning and caring for our guest rooms is an outreach of Benedict's call to receive all guests as Christ.  Even the daily work of doing dishes and scrubbing floors can be lifted above the mundane to the divine when we remember that it is done for the love of our Sisters.

While there will be much to do once I arrive home, I am excited to be there. 
There is no place like home!

Blessings,

Car Dancin' with God

Greetings,

It has been a crazy couple of weeks and the mad dash to the end of school has begun. I've been very grateful for our morning and evening Liturgy of the Hours with Sister Roommate and Mass with the Monks. My nighttime Lectio and Noon Praise break at school have added some extra peace to my day. All of this prayer has been what keeps me moving forward to going home to the Monastery for the Summer.

The end of the school year has been filled with busyness. The students are already on a mental summer break; especially, the juniors which have been bouncing between classes and AP Tests. Keeping track of students isn't the only diversion; I'm also helping with the planning of our new curriculum this fall. The meetings for the curriculum planning sent me to the Archdiocesan offices, back to my co-teachers, and even the textbook publishers. However, this isn't the only planning! The accreditation committee that I serve with has been madly at work in reading the suggestions, comparing files, and seeking more information. To top it all off, I might recommend to all readers that you don't offer testy teachers more helpful 'suggestions' when they have more than enough on the their plate (oops).

All of this culminated into one tired, crabby sister climbing into her car at the end of this day. My prayerful focus had worn away throughout the day. I flipped on the radio and turned it to LOUD hoping to sing along with some grouchy music. However, there are no coincides and God keeps a watchful eye on His beloved. "Walking on Sunshine" poured out of my speakers! This song always reminds me of those days before I entered community. The anticipation filled with a hope overflowing with Love for Christ and the Community I desire to join...waiting for the letter of acceptance. I broke into song, turned the radio up a few more notches, and car-danced with God all my way home : ) Thanks God!
Blessings,

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Greetings,

While away from the monastery, we continue to pray for those who are seeking to follow God's will in their lives.  Using two identical candles, the monastery began a circulating vocation prayer for the sisters both at home and on mission.  Sister Roommate and I are the current hosts for the mission sister's vocation candle. 

On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, I lit the candle and settled in to read Pope Benedict's message for this day.  His reflection on God's continuous love was a wonderful focus for quiet meditation..."The love of God is everlasting; he is faithful to himself, to the “word that he commanded for a thousand generations” (Ps 105:8). Yet the appealing beauty of this divine love, which precedes and accompanies us, needs to be proclaimed ever anew, especially to younger generations. This divine love is the hidden impulse, the motivation which never fails, even in the most difficult circumstances."

While reflecting on this never ending love, the morning's light, chilly mist gave way to a cold spring rain.  She landed on our porch and quickly hopped down the railing to get out of the rain; a beautiful, though soggy, little cardinal lady.  The rose of her feathers showed through the brown overcoat as she shook the extra rain from her wings.  Then she hopped around to watch the rain fall; it felt like I was enjoying this springtime moment with a her.  Both the Psalms and the New Testament speak of God's loving care for the birds of the air; they will be given places to nest and even the hundreds of sparrows are counted.  If God guides her to our humble little porch for protection from the storm, He will send loving hearts to watch over each of us as well.

A beautiful reminder of the Pope's message...

Blessings,