Learning Curve

Greetings,

I had forgotten the learning curve of the first year teacher. There is so much happening all at the same time! I am learning about the course material I am teaching; keeping just a step or two ahead of the students at a time. I am learning about the school and how it is organized. I am learning about the faculty and staff; each school's ministers work together in a unique way. I am also learning about my new convent home with just one other sister; she is a wonderful help, but there is so much to learn!

Benedict challenged his monks to respond obediently to the call of the Spirit and the needs of the community. However, doing the service isn't the challenge; Benedict continues with the further call to do the work of the community without any grumbling! So...as I face these challenges and scale my learning curve, I remind myself of what I love about my new ministry. I have the opportunity to teach students in the age catagories that I enjoy : ) I have the opportunity to live with a sister from my community within a few hours drive of the monastery : ) And the faculty & staff of the school have been very supportive!

Now, back to my homework!

Blessings,

Preparing to Serve!

Greetings,

I know I have been a bit absent from my stories, but I have just begun a new ministry! August 2nd I interviewed for a teacher of Theology position in Omaha and received an offer to teach at the school; August 3rd I met with my Prioress to discuss the teaching ministry and called the school to accept their offer; the rest of the week (3 days) was spent packing, organizing, and reading a bit of the textbooks that the school sent back with me. It has all moved so quickly, I hardly had time to think except to thank God for His goodness in gifting me with a school to serve.

The next Monday morning, I drove down with Sisters Kathy and Mildred (procurator) to unload my bedroom and teaching boxes; and load Sister Clarice's bedroom and office boxes. She too had been looking for a ministry position and after seven months had been offered a parish ministry position in another Nebraska city! God is good. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent between unpacking at my new school and unpacking at my new convent. Between unpackings, I also tried to keep reading and developing some lesson plans because school starts on Monday, August 16th! This Thursday and Friday, I began to meet faculty and staff at the inservice and retreat meetings...I feel overwhelmed with information, but blessed by good folk with which to serve and minister to the students of the school.

"Monastics who work so far away that they cannot return to the oratory at the proper time--and the abbot determines that is the case--are to perform the Work of God where they are, and kneel out of reverence for God. So too, those who have been sent on a journey are not to omit the prescribed hours but to observe them as best they can, not neglecting their measure of service" (RB 50: 1-4).

Sister Marietta has been wonderful community as I transition from student to teacher and monastery to convent life again. She is flexible enough to help find a time for our lauds and vespers together each day...even when school starts and I need to pray by 6:15! I feel blessed to share our convent home life and service with her.

Now for two stories about my new school!
The first includes the Abbot/President of the Benedictine school. He came to visit me as I was looking about my little office space trying to determine how to arrange my desk and file cabinet. "Sister! You don't have an air conditioner," he made this statement as if he was accusing himself of some negligence. "No Abbot, but it isn't supposed to be this hot for too long and I can buy a fan to carry me over." The Abbot nodded with a grandfatherly wisdom and strode out of my room without another word, but he returned within thirty minutes with a work study student in tow. The student set up a fan as the Abbot explained, "tomorrow there will be an air conditioner installed before the morning is over. Thank you sister for your patience." I thanked him for his consideration and thoughtfulness, and inwardly did a dance of joy for the promised air since the heat index was topping out at over 100 for the next week or more!
The next story is more of an observation; I have not felt so feminine in my life :) Now that I am working at a boys school for a Benedictine monastery, I am outnumbered by men in an educational setting for the first time in my life (there are only 5 women at the school itself). The monks, male teachers, and boys have been offering to carry boxes, open doors, and all sorts of odd jobs since I arrived. I jokingly told them they had best not spoil me too much, I am one of the sisters who is to lift, carry, and serve as errand runner when I am at our monastery! They assured me it wouldn't last too long.

Please pray that I am able to keep my nose above water as school begins on Monday after only 10 days of preparation!

Blessings,

Corn Parties!

Greetings,

"The monastics should serve one another. Consequently, no one will be excused from kitchen service unless he is sick or engaged in some important business of the monastery, for such service fosters love" Let those who are not strong have help so that they may serve without distress, and let everyone reieve help as the size of the community or local conditions warrant"(RB 35: 1-3).

The cooler has been filled with three pickup loads of sweet corn and the sisters have just about had their fill of the fresh ears at supper; now it is time to begin the corn parties! Before the "Corn Party" sign goes up, some sisters volunteer to gather to husk and wash the corn of their silks. On my way to the corn cutting station, I happened upon a group yesterday as they were laughing, talking, and husking their way through several bushels of sweet corn.

The corn cutters gathered in the kitchen with knives, boards, and a few specialty corn cutters from the South Dakota Corn Palace. We were a bit quieter as we sliced our way through the cooled bushels of steamed ears. (The 'Corn Zipper' was an awesome tool to removed kernels from the cob without cutting too close or slipping!) Later a couple of sisters took away the barrels of husks and cobs and dumped them back in the field to mulch the future harvest.

Last year we cut and froze almost 500 pounds of sweet corn to eat during the rest of the year. Each bite is a treat from summer and a promise of the next year's field. It is also a great reminder of how much we can do together as a community.

Blessings,

A Prayer to Scholastica

Greetings,

The only story we have of Saint Scholastica, the sister of our founded Saint Benedict, retells the last time she met with her brother. To keep her brother from returning to his monastery and ending their holy conversation, she prayed to God with her head bowed as tears flowed from her eyes. A storm settled over the small house just as she raised her head from her hands and it rained so hard that Benedict needed to stay over night with his sister talking of the glories of God.

Dear Scholastica...please stay the rain! The skies opened over Yankton just after 11 AM and it rained over an inch and a half in the first two hours! It slowed a bit after 1:30, but just an hour later it is beginning to rain harder again. The difficulty is that there is nowhere for the rain to go. The summer has been so wet that the rivers are brimming over and the soil is saturated. The monastery is high on a bluff over the Missouri, but surrounded by little pools of water in every low spot on the grounds. It is also seeping through the stone walls of the chapel and into the sandstone blocks on the inside! So, please Scholastica, answer our prayer and stop the rain.

Blessings,

Advice from Julian of Norwich

Greetings,

The availability of possible ministry positions in education has narrowed greatly since returning home from my travels about Italy and Switzerland. While I was very hopeful when writing letters and calling schools during March, April, and May, the search in July and maybe even August has me loosing heart at times. My prayer up to this point has been to "seek God's will"; however, I changed my prayer to a more simple and much more challenging focus: "I will trust in God." This is very difficult when all seems to be going wrong and life is being lived in the great unknown of God's timeline.

I returned to Julian of Norwich's "Revelation of Love" to remind myself of God's great care and attention to each and everyone of us. My favorite quote comes from her Thirteenth Showing in chapter 31. "I may make all things well; I can make all things well, and I will make all things well, and I shall make all things well; and you shall see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well." I have always found great comfort in God's assurance that He is a part of all that is occurring in my life and in the lives of those I love. However, it is the following quote from chapter 32, explaining part of her understanding of the quote I just noticed today and it has helped me to reaffirm my trust in God.

"One was this: that He wishes us to know that not only does He take heed of noble things and the greatest, but He also attends to the little and small, to low and simple, as much to one as to the other. This is His meaning when he said, "All manner of things shall be well"; for He wants us to know that the least thing will not be forgotten.

"Another understanding is this: that there are evil deeds done that we know of, when such great harm is taken that it seems to us that it were impossible that they should ever come to a good end. And we look upon this with sorrow and mourning, so that we are unable to rest in the blessed contemplation of God as we ought. And the cause is that the working of our reason here and now is blind, so low and simple that we cannot know the high, marvelous wisdom, the might and goodness of the blessed Trinity. This is His meaning when He says, "You shall see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well," as if He had said, "Take heed now in faith and trust, and at the last end you will see it truly in the fullness of joy."

I may not see the blessings of this time now, but I shall if I keep my faith and trust in God and grow in the compassion and care of my Benedictine community. For I can not see the long design or understand the future to come, but I will continue to trust that God is in the details of my life.

Blessings,

Noodle Party!

Greetings,

Sister Gift Shop Guru had a new idea for our holiday sale ~ noodles. Another of our sisters had been making noodles (in smaller batches) to give as gifts; when these two connected, this idea was developed into a plan that required many hands to work with the noodles. The "Nun-Better Noodles" would be mixed, kneaded, cut, and dried by our sister volunteers at the monastery for the family, friends, and serious shoppers this winter.

The mixers were none other than the two sisters who dreamt up the plot to create the "Nun-Better Noodles"! Sr. Margo had been tweaking and double checking her noodle recipe for the last few months...just the right balance of flour, salt, and egg was needed to make the proper consistency for the noodle dough.

The noodle kneaders were a hard working group of sisters! The noodle dough needed to be kneaded for at least fifteen minutes to create the proper glutton strength. Some of us had to knead our one pound of dough for thirty minutes to create the elasticity...one sister had to knead for almost an HOUR! While the stiff dough did challenge the noodle kneaders, we had a wonderful time visiting, singing, telling stories, and pondering how all twenty-five of the one pound lumps of dough would look as noodles.

Even the prioress joined in the noodle activity as she rolled out sections of the dough through one of the two noodle cutters we used. The whole pound of dough would not fit through the noodle cutter; so each pound was cut into slices or sections by another sister assisting the one cranking out the noodles. This part of the production moved from the monastery bakery to our refectory (dinning room). In fact, the noodles soon covered over half of the tables!

After being cut, each noodle was laid out one by one on our sheet covered tables! Soon there were sisters moving between the tables in a carefully choreographed dance of the noodle. Some chose to catch the noodles as they were cut and then pass them on to those setting them out. Other sisters preferred to catch and lay out the noodles. The refectory was abuzz with the activity of the noodle production. The sisters had to be very careful that the sisters did not touch while drying or they would stick permanently.

These are three of the NINE tables bedecked with noodles drying in the refectory! To aid in the drying process, the air conditioning in the room was turned way down to combat our ever present heat and humidity during these late July summer days. Soon the next crew of sister volunteers will come together to break the noodles in proper sizes and weigh them out to fill each bag with 1/2 pounds of noodley goodness.

I hope you have enjoyed this little view in our "Nun-Better Noodles" production and I pray that our nun made noodles will be a great seller at our holiday sale!

Blessings,

Apple Pies and Community

Greetings,

Since I've come home for the summer, our sub-prioress has been helping me find odd jobs around the monastery. I'm glad to be giving back to the sisters in all these little (and big) ways and thankfully they usually involve working with some of our elders.

My favorite work so far has been the 'apples'. Our monastery has a large garden and orchard in our backyard. One of the trees is a summer apple that is called a Transparent Yellow even though is shines a pretty light green when ripe for the picking. The one tree was overflowing with the crisp, tart fruit this year; our gardener sisters came in with 10-12 boxes of apples from just the one tree! This abundance has provided the sisters who prepare the fresh produce with much to do in the mornings. The sub-prioress asked that I help work with the produce as well.

I LOVE my morning work. There are four of our elders that gather regularly to prepare the community's produce for the table. Each of the sisters has her own 'job' for each type of vegetable or fruit. Considering the apples: one of the sisters uses the peeler, two core & quarter the apples, and another empties the buckets of trimmings/peelings and transfers the apples from table to table. All of this work is done with the quiet, easy efficiency of a family who has served together for years. However, they joyfully welcomed the addition of this 'young sister' who is home for the summer. Tucked between those who were coring and quartering the apples, I've been trying to keep up with their able hands while listening to the stories and tales of a combined total of over 200 years of religious life. It has helped me remember that I need to keep aware of trust in God in the midst of my current search for a teaching position. So many of their stories hold twists of difficult times bringing them back to an awareness of Christ or surprise of how God lead them to their ministry. So much to learn...

But the lessons from morning work weren't over! Yesterday, I was borrowed by the community baker
to help make pies! The apples we had been preparing are perfect balance of crisp tartness for sauces, crisps, and pies. She had filled dozens of pie pans with her flaky crusts in anticipation of an apple day. I filled the pans with heaping piles of sliced apples all dusted with a sweet-cinnimony seasoning and three dabs of butter. The baker would then roll out the cover, set it, and crimp the edges...beautiful. The bakery was quiet except the rhythmic sounds of our work. The space was warm and scented with the peanut butter, oatmeal, and snicker doodle cookies being baked by another assistant in the bakery that day. A wonderful place to contemplate while working.

I decided community is little like one of our summer apple pies. There might be one tree of apples, but not one of them looks the same! Each one needs the individual attention to be picked, peeled, and cored. Some need to be trimmed of bruised spots or worm bites, but once they're cleaned; all the apples are tossed in together to be washed. After being sliced for the pies, the apples are mixed together, a combination of odd sizes and pieces. It is the final preparation that brings them together. Piled into a crust to hold them all together, generously dusted with spices to counter the tartness, dabbed with butter to mellow them, and sealed with a lid of more flaky dough; the apples are now a pie. One does not resemble the other in appearance or taste, being together and responding to the tender loving care of the baker makes all the difference.

Blessings,