State Fair Fun!

Greetings,

This weekend some of us sisters serving in Nebraska gathered for fun at the State Fair! A weekend of prayer and play to rejuvenate our hearts and souls.  Saturday was spent cooking and catching up on all we've been doing since we returned to our missions (our parish and school work).  That evening we attended Mass at Sister's parish where she helps out with caring for others.  A big surprise for me was a familiar face!  One of my students who just graduated was at Mass with us!  He peeked over at me as I was peeking over at him...both of us unsure if we were recognizing the right person since neither knew the other should be there.  After Mass he came over to greet me with a big smile and hug.  It was fun to catch up with him at the start of his new college career...by the by...he was getting ready to show his hogs at the fair the next day. 

I loved seeing all the folk wandering up and down the streets of the fairgrounds.  Here we were watching the folk's check out a hay bale designed to look like snoopy flying one of his doghouses!  There were families with baby strollers, teens sporting their school-4H-FFA affiliations, young couples, and those who had seen many more fairs.  It was fun to watch them go by...

Important to all state fairs is the fried food on a stick! We tried fried Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies, HoHos, MilkyWays, Chocolate covered Bacon, Corndogs, and the winner...Fried Peaches!  They tasted like fresh peach cobbler with a little cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over the top.  The peaches were sweet and juicy and all warm with a crunchy batter covering.  Hmmm...luckily we were all willing to share.  Between the giggles, we swapped bites of the sweet and the savory. 

 The fair had a marvelous exhibit with huge sand sculptures about the state.  This one shows a variety of the states fish, bird, flower and rock formations.  It was amazing to see these grand sized sand castles tower over the families and lookie-loos.  It was also amazing because they seemed to hold up against the wind and heat of the wide-open fair grounds.

While strolling through the quilt exhibit, we were amazing at this Triptych of panels telling the story of Christ's love for us in blocks and thread.  Each of the panels had a Bible verse stitched in to tell the message of the fabric.  The first began with "Come to me..." then the next was "I am with you always"...and finally "It is finished."  We paused quite awhile to ponder the images and what they could mean. 

 Sea lions and Tigers were the exotic animals of choice for the fair!  We tried to get to the sea lion show, but it was all the way across the fair and one of our sisters got overheated and needed a cool break.  So we trekked back through the 100 degree heat to a fan cooled exhibit hall and listed to some fiddle and folk music while sipping our cool sodas and lemonades.  Later, we did get to the Tiger experience with many other families.  The tigers were a bit slow and grumpy, but the tamers shared that they like to sleep through the heat of the day or cool out in pools of water.  Still, they thrilled the little kids and intrigued the grown ups.  We sisters decided we agreed with the tigers, hot days like our fair day were designed for laying low in the shade or cooling off in a relaxing pool with friends.

As we left the fair for our little convent home, the lights and squeals of delight from the midway carried all throughout the fairgrounds.  We had been all over the grounds by this time and were too weary to check out the goings-on but it was a beautiful reminder of fun and life and joy of the young and old we had been seeing all day long.  I had to take a quick picture as we made our way to the shuttle-bus, a picture of how I remember fairs when I was little, a picture of how the rural fairs still celebrate today. 

Blessings,

Community takes Work

Greetings,

Community life, like family life, takes some extra work and determination! Our community of over a hundred has small groups of 5-14 for evening recreation, family support, and prayer.  Every Fall our small groups gather to set goals, evaluate how they are supporting each other and the community as a whole, and determine how the work of community life can be helped.  Out on the mission, Sister and I just sat down to discuss life at our little Convent apartment away from the Monastery. 

We asked one of our sisters from the closest of our Convents to guide us through our discussion.  The work of our community life was wonderful discussion and all worked out well.  Our life together moves along fairly smoothly, but it is always good to reflect and share about the past year and our hopes for the year to come.  Then the secondary reason for our going to the other sisters' Convent apartment was FUN. 

We recently put our 6 bedroom, 2 full bathroom, 2 living room (you get the picture) house up for sale since we only had a couple sisters still living and working in the city.  So...They gave us a tour of our new place in the big city!  It is a lovely little Convent apartment, simply furnished but homey.  After our meeting, we shared in a wonderful supper, Liturgy of the Hours, and reflection on the Gospel.  Then we returned to the table for some fun!  A lively game of hand and foot which my partner, Sister Principal, and I lost...but a good time was had by all.  It was good just to visit, see our new place, hear their stories of moving and packing and moving, and share some prayer together.  Sister Roommate and I didn't set out for home until 9:45PM (very late)! 

Even though it was quite the late night by the time we reached our little convent, it was a wonderful day and blessing to get to visit with our sisters nearby.  Now, we are getting back to the work of our daily life our horarium here together while we remember our sisters at the Monastery.  Soon enough we will be home for a weekend Theology Institute and later on our holiday fair...

Blessings,

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,