To the Oaks

Hail, giant stately survivors,                                                                     

Weathering frigid winds and humid heat,

 lavishly popping kernels of acorns on the walk beneath,

(as everyone knows who has crunched through them)

Urging life to upspring into the future.

You were young’uns, yourselves,

eighty years or so ago.                                                                                                    

You out-sized your neighbors.

With towering high-rise canopies, and rooted deep,

You appeared as staunch sentinels enclosing the way.

You always had room for more inhabitants,               

from the hidden, least noticed, down-deep creature

 to the most melodious bird or roguish squirrel.

You urged life to upspring into the future.

Your presence welcomed Sunday visiting relatives and friends –

 children played under you, crisscrossing your leafy, shadowed patterns. 

You witnessed laughter, joy and, sometimes, tears.

Many a soul intuitively sensed your strength, stability, awesomeness,

 And, hopefully, left refreshed. 

You will be re-membered (not just in Sr. Mary’s album).

 In the ground nurtured by your deepest-down strands,

 young’uns (Oaks? We don’t yet know) will grow…

green and full and vibrant with life –

the new Guardians of the monastery way –

 inviting all who enter here, to seek peace and pursue it.

 That in all things God may be glorified!

    Sr. Sharon Portwood, OSB

The holy seed is its stump*.

          Over the past year several large branches of our seventy + year old pin oaks which were approximately 75 feet high spontaneously fell onto the walk leading to the monastery’s front door. Clearly it was no longer safe to keep the trees.
               These pin oaks were planted in 1937, the year this monastery building was erected. Each of the current members of the community walked beside or under the oaks as she entered. Over the past week we have watched and heard the whirring blades and heavy thuds as those eight mighty oaks were taken down, branch by branch and trunk by trunk. Right now, only the stumps remain.
                         Eventually they will be grounded out and something new will be planted. In the meantime, we will see and appreciate the main entrance with its expanded openness.
         An aside: Never having seen such large trees cut down I was amazed and grateful to the team of men who did all the work. Their task was not easy, but their skills kept them and our front entry safe.
          *Isaiah 6:13


              Sr. Mary Catherine Wenstrup, OSB
           

Words are Powerful

       Everyday we speak many words to each other.These words are often words said to establish or
preserve a relationship with others. Words can be instructive or destructive, uplifting, forgiving, encouraging, and the list goes on and on. Some of us utter words before we think and perhaps
later regret these words.  Harmful words hurt people and may cause scars for many years.  A good goal for each of us is to think before we speak and consider the effect of our words.

       St. John in opening his Gospel, tells us that "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us..."(Jn.1:14).Jesus is the Word of God uttered in our midst. At the Ascension, Jesus tells us to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who he will send us. The Feast of Pentecost celebrates this gift of the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Gospel writers with the words about our salvation.  Do we relish these sacred words and put them into practice in our lives?

             Sr. Barbara Woeste, OSB

Celebrating the Founders of St. Walburg Monastery

       On Monday, June 3, we celebrated Founders’ Day, commemorating the five sisters who came from Erie, PA to establish St. Walburg Monastery in Covington, Kentucky. The sisters came in two batches. The first three-- Sisters Josephine Buerkle, Anselma Schoenhofer and Ruperta Albert—came on June 3, 1859. Two months later—Mother Alexia Lechner (left), who was appointed the first prioress, and Sister Salesia Haas arrived on August 2. Their mission was to "take charge of the girls' school" at  St. Joseph Parish on 12th Street in Covington.

       The commemoration of our founders fills us with joy and pride in our tradition—even though Sr. Josephine Buerkle left soon after Mother Alexia arrived to go back to Erie where she married a young man she knew before she was asked to go
to Covington. Such an event reminds us of the humanity of those who have gone before us and who begin a good work.

       At dinner on June 3 some of the sisters at my table encouraged me to share with you the closing prayer we use at Liturgy of the Hours on Founders’ Day and the general intercessions I wrote for Eucharist that day. One sister said these two prayers manifest how we look at our past and how our past informs who we are in the present and who we want to be in the future.

Closing Prayer for Founders’ Day Liturgy of the Hours

       O God, we remember and give thanks for courageous and visionary women who founded this community. You filled them with the love of prayer, the desire to serve your people and good zeal for the monastic life. May their example inspire us, their memory encourage us and their intercession sustain us as we seek to respond to your call of today. Bring to the fulfillment the good work you began in them and continue in us. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who abides with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

General Intercessions—June 3, 2019

In faith Benedict and Scholastica envisioned a life of stability and peace amid the turmoil of their time. Give us a monastic vision for our time, we pray:

In faith the sisters of St. Walburg Abbey in Eichstatt sent women to America to serve in new and different ways. Open Church leaders and ministers to new ways to spread the Gospel, we pray:

In faith five sisters set out from Erie to come to a place they had never seen to serve people they did not know. Give us courage to face an unknown future, we pray:

In faith we proclaim that we serve Christ and open our hearts to the young and the old, the sick and the poor, the stranger and the guest. Bring to fulfillment the good work you have begun in us, we pray:

In faith women of strength and courage came together to seek God. Strengthen our community life and increase our confidence that God is with us always, we pray:

In faith Mother Alexia and all her daughters who are now part of that great cloud of witnesses, persevered in the monastery until death. Bring them all together to everlasting life, we pray:

                              Sr. Deborah Harmeling, OSB

Speaking a word of peace

           Easter season is coming to an end. I will miss the beautiful Easter songs. Songs singing of “days of delight, joy, glory and freshness of the newness of life.”

            In the Acts of the Apostles, we have grieved with the Apostles over Jesus’ death. His Resurrection three days later was a wonder and fulfillment of his promise. The Apostles’ work of establishing the early Church continued Jesus’ work. Much new life came with conversions and disappointments as well as deaths.

In the Gospels of the Easter season, Jesus walked with the Apostles. He even prepared and ate breakfast with them. His words reassured them that He would not leave them alone. PEACE was the greeting he gave them in many of his appearances. “PEACE the world cannot give.” I go so that the Paraclete, whom I will send, will come [upon you]."                          Jesus’s words were not only for the Apostles. They are for all of us. We are ‘the others’ Jesus must go to.

            We reap the benefits of the Paraclete Jesus sent. After Pentecost we begin Ordinary Time knowing that the ‘ordinary” simply means “the order of time.” There is nothing “ordinary” about this season since Jesus and the Spirit are with us.

            Let us enjoy the peace the word cannot give.

        Sr. Kathleen Ryan, OSB