“Keep death daily before your eyes.” RB: 4, 47

       Looking out my bedroom window this morning, I watched the healthy, bright green leaves on the hillside trees sway and bend in the breeze. Within a moment, I called to mind the pandemic coronavirus that is causing so much death and sorrow for all of us. Neither do the leaves keep me from hearing Benedict’s words in Chapter 4: “Keep death daily before your eyes.” The number of cases, deaths and sorrow increase daily.

       As some of you may remember, our property sits above the muddy Ohio river and is large enough to give us some protection. We have isolated ourselves, but are able to let walkers and runners use our main drive around the Academy buildings. We can walk to our cemetery and beg those sisters to do something: Enlighten those seeking a vaccine. Keep safe those who care for the sick and dying. Protect our employees whose personal circumstances allow them to come to continue to work. Console those who have lost family and friends.

       Keep yourselves and your families safe. 

           Sr. Mary Catherine Wenstrup, OSB

Listen Carefully

Listen carefully…

            Rule of Saint Benedict

       It is hard to write a blog today that will be made public without thinking about what is publicly taking place in our country. Yet two statements come to mind that I share with you. The first two words at the beginning of the Prologue to the Rule of Saint Benedict are “Listen carefully.” Benedict goes on to instruct us to “listen with the ear of your heart.” That is usually easier said than done, especially if one is expected to withhold making a final judgment until all the talking and discernment are concluded and it is time to vote.

       I am also reminded of a statement made some years ago by Sr. Augusta M. Raabe, OSB, who wrote that “…discernment is the process by which a person distinguishes his (her) own inner promptings, and therefore, the source of his (her) motivation." We each know how difficult it can be to listen and name the source of what motivates us to act or not; to speak or not. For sure, it motivates me to pray for all involved.

     Sr. Mary Catherine Wenstrup, OSB

An Annual Retreat and the Questions of Life

            From Sunday evening, July 29, through Friday afternoon, August 3 the community was engaged in our annual retreat. Our retreat director was Abbot Paul Mark Schwan, OCSO, (pictured below right with Sr. Aileen Bankemper, our prioress) from The Abbey of Our Lady of New Clairvaux in Vina, California. Fr. Paul was our first Cistercian retreat director and he was a delight and blessing to our
community.

            The title of the retreat was For what have you come? and Fr. Paul focused on some of the questions in the Rule of Benedict. He began by talking about the art of the question, particularly the questions God addresses to us in our daily living of the Rule. Each talk centered around one of the questions from the Rule:

•             What does the Spirit say? (RB  Prol  2)
•             Who is it who desire life and longs to see good days? (RB Prol 15)
•             What can be sweeter to us than this voice of the Lord inviting us, dearest sisters? (RB Prol 19)
•             Lord, who shall dwell in your tent or who shall rest upon your holy mountain? (RB Prol 23)
•             Do you not know that patience of God is leading you to repentance? (RB Prol 37)
•             How could you see a speck in your sister’s eye and not have notices the plank in your own? (RB 2:15)
•             For what page or what words are there in the divinely inspired Old & New Testaments that are not a most direct norm for human life? (RB 73:3)
•             Are you hastening toward your heavenly homeland? (RB 7:3)

            In each conference Fr. Paul’s unique approach was telling a story from the Gospels that he related to each question. He was good storyteller and didn’t try to draw direct parallels to the questions and the Gospel story. It was up to each of us to explore the Gospel and relate it to the question from the Rule. Sometimes that left us with more questions. As I listened I was reminded of the quote from Rainer Maria Rilke about the great questions of  life.

            Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves . . .       Live the questions now.

           Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the

              answer.

            Fr. Paul’s closing conference, entitled When does the journey end?, explored the Christology of the Rule and illustrated the centrality of Christ in the monk’s life.

            On Friday evening we had an informal discussion with Fr. Paul beginning with a brief video on the Cistercian life at New Clairvaux. We were impressed by the work of the monks’ hands—harvesting walnuts and plums for prunes. New Clairvaux also has a thriving vineyard which produces internationally acclaimed wines. The community has recently completed a capital campaign that allowed them to use stones from an 800 year old extinct monastery in Spain, brought to the US by William Randoph Hearst, to build a new chapel. Our discussion with Fr. Paul allowed us to understand the Cistercian life and charism better as it is lived in this young, diverse monastery. We now feel a connection with the monks at New Clairvaux and will always have an interest in their well-being and an affection for their abbot.

      Sr. Deborah Harmeling, OSB

What would St. Benedict Find?

A reflection given on the July 11^th Feast of St. Benedict

       Have you ever thought about Benedict as in St. Benedict coming to visit here? Well the thought came to me in a dream. What would he find at St. Walburg Monastery? What would Benedict experience? I think he would be gratified at how central to our lives is “the work of God” praying the Liturgy of the Hours and lectio. This community takes our prayer life seriously that we are to prefer nothing to the love of God as expressed in our communal prayer and in community life.

       I believe Benedict would be humbled by the way the community cares for one another – seeing that even those infirmed are quite solicitous of the other. He would observe countless small ways in which we try to lighten the burden of each other. He probably would be amazed at all our rollators! And at the same time be impressed at the desire of each sister to stay involved (the best she can) in doing the work of the community. We are rather unique in our self-sufficiency despite the fact that we have a significant number of lay helpers. Perhaps Benedict would even give a positive remark about the longevity of our lay staff: “your community must not be excessively demanding ! or your lay staff must really love you!”

       Through Benedict’s teachings and example a love for learning has been handed down for over 1500 years. We do come from a long line of educated women and have continued that tradition. Whatever our professions are now or have been in the past, a love for learning, is one we share, have shared and is central to this community.

       We are not a perfect community – Benedict might hear a bit of murmuring. However, since he commented on it so often in the Rule hearing a bit of murmuring might even make him feel at home!

        And, what might he say to each of us personally? He might ask; how much do we practice and use the tools of good works? Where are we on the climb of the ladder of humility? Do we practice the good zeal that monastics ought to live? And so on.

       I think that perhaps Benedict would give me a “pass – for now” as prioress – as I have only just begun. But I know I would have to answer as a community member. Benedict would likely take the opportunity to counsel me “to daily read over and put into practice Chapters 2 and 64 of the Holy Rule describing the qualities of an abbot or prioress. By the way, both chapters seem daunting and impossible!  I do have hope and take consolation in words from Joan Chittister regarding chapter 2 “Once chosen, it is their weakness itself that becomes the anchor, the insight, the humility and the gift of an abbot or prioress. . .but only if they themselves embrace it” knowing and realizing that it is in the acknowledgement and acceptance of my weakness that I am strong. It is with vision and understanding I can see myself strive to undertake the role.

       At the end of the visit I believe Benedict would encourage us to: continue our community quest for God, be attuned and disposed to God’s will and presence and through our mutual love and support journey together onward to God.

Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict: Insight for the Ages, New York, Crossroad Publishing Company. 1992

       Sr. Aileen Bankemper, OSB

Ash Wednesday 2018

Editor's  Note: In monastic communities the prioress gives an Lenten address to the members of the community on Ash Wednesday. This is Sr. Mary Catherine's 2018 address.       

The purpose of Lent according to Benedict is to purify our way of life and to wash away negligence—to make reparation for what we have done or failed to do. He names five practices to help us: refuse to indulge in evil habits, devote yourself to prayer, reading, compunction of heart and self-denial. No one of these is unfamiliar to us. This evening I would like to lift up one phrase from verse 4 as a possible focus for our reflection and practice during this Lent: Devote yourself to prayer. Devote commonly means to give one’s all or much of one’s time or resources to a person, cause, goal, etc.

        Benedict speaks of private prayer here in chapter 49, as well as in chapters 20 and 52. In chapter 20 he instructs us to keep our prayer short and pure. In chapter 52 he reminds us that the oratory is to be a quiet place that is used only for prayer. Timely reminders to us this evening!

        On average we are daily together in the chapel for around 1½ to 2 hours at Liturgy of the Hours and Eucharist. That experience and practice of prayer is primarily with words—lots of words, spoken, chanted and sung. Much of it we know by heart. Our minds may wander or drift off at times but our eyes and ears are on the words and actions.

        This Lent finds us living in an extraordinary time of insecurity, fake or threatening news, unrest and violence of every sort and the usual worry about the unknown and the future.

        My recommendation to us this Lent is to find and make part of your private prayer a few words from a Liturgy of the Hours antiphon, psalm or the closing prayer. Our Lenten liturgy provides numerous images, phrases or a word that can capture our prayer and carry us and others through the day and the season.

Here are only a few of the ones that we have heard today alone:

v  Have mercy O Lord.

v  Rescue the weak and needy.

v  Teach me wisdom.

v  Create in me a clean heart O God.

v  Give a future with hope.

v  Forgive and you will be forgiven.

v  Do not be like a horse or a mule.

Let us hear God’s word and pray it as our own this Lent. 

        Sr. Mary Catherine Wenstrup, OSB

Spring cleaning and the Rule of St. Benedict

          “ I put away my winter clothes this morning.  What a chore!” and “I cleaned the ceiling fan today.” These two comments made during lunch last week caused me to reminisce about good old fashion spring cleaning. Without coal furnaces and open windows, the emphasis is no longer so great. But some really old memories gave me cause for enjoyment. Helping my grandmother to put the lace curtains on the curtain stretcher was a treat.(Can you tell I was young?)  She only had two rugs that had to be taken outside, hung on the clothes line and beaten.(Thank God for more powerful vacuums and steam cleaning.)  My favorite was helping my parents to clean the coal dust from the wallpaper with this play-dough-type eraser. ( It was tricky to not leave stripes so I think we children probably got to do the wall behind the couch!)

          And then my brain jumped to the related wisdom as found in the Rule of St. Benedict. Some quotes follow.

• ·         “regard all utensils and goods of the monastery as sacred vessels of the altar.” (Chapter 31)
• ·         “ Whoever fails to keep the things belonging to the monastery clean or treats them carelessly should be reproved.”  (32)
• ·         “The utensils required for the kitchen service are to be washed and returned intact” (Ch 35)
• ·         “Idleness is the enemy of the soul.  Therefore the brothers should have specified periods of manual labor” (Ch 48)
• ·         “additional help should be available when needed” (Ch 53)
• ·         “a brother may be assigned a burdensome task. . .should he see that the weight of the burden is altogether too much. . .he should explain patiently . . . the reasons why he cannot perform the task” (Ch 68)

And one for the person exchanging clothing:

• ·         “clothing distributed to the brothers should vary according to local conditions and climate. . . they are to wash it. . .(Ch 55)

Happy transition from winter to summer!

            Sr. Mary Rabe, OSB

St. Benedict on Suffering and Patience

The following is Sr. Mary Catherine's Ash Wednesday talk to the members of St. Walburg Monastery.  

            Like many of you, I have given some time since Saturday thinking about the presentations we heard from Fr. Ken Overberg. Quite a bit of conversation that day was given to the pros and cons of offering up our suffering to make atonement for our sins and failings—a concept that is familiar to us, especially at the beginning of Lent. I wondered what Benedict had to say about suffering. 

           Benedict uses the word suffering only once in the Rule. It’s found in the last verse of the Prologue: Never swerving from his instructions, then, but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom. Benedict does use the word patience, a word that has the same Latin root as suffer, at least 10 times in the Rule. Sometimes the reference is to God’s patience; sometimes it is about patience with other members or with myself.

            That led me to reread Chapter 49 with a different focus. Benedict’s words are very clear, concrete and proactive in what he says we ought to do. Keep your life pure. Wash away acts of negligence. Devote yourself to prayer, reading, compunction of heart and self-denial. Add to the usual measure of service by way of prayer and abstinence from food and drink. Do not indulge in evil habits. Benedict’s Lent asks us to correct our faults, not atone for our sins. Benedict asks us to put our lives back on track. That is to live each day putting into practice active fidelity to our profession to seek and find God in this community. Our monastic life and practices and behaviors are not suffering that is offered to God. The daily round of common prayers and meals, sharing house hold tasks, caring for the characters we all can be are the stuff of every day—the glue of community life here on earth and the path we follow to eternal life.

            The commentaries on that last verse of the Prologue acknowledge a difficulty in translating the obvious close connection of patience and suffering in the phrase: through patience share in the sufferings of Christ. RB80 refers us to Colossians 1:24 where Paul writes that he rejoices in his suffering for their sake and is completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the Church.

            Terrence Kardong’s commentary on the closing of the Prologue picks up the same theme and the verse from Colossians, noting that patience is a central theme in the Rule. In his wry way he notes that the practice of patience is essential given the stress of living community life with a variety of characters (2.31). We’ve all learned to some extent that you cannot offer up characters to God. They don’t go anywhere until God calls them. Benedict’s Rule requires patience if we are to have community. Terrence Kardong further remarks that the monastic life has the reputation of being ascetic and a hard life. But Benedict’s vision of monastic life is essentially joyful and dynamic. In living the life, not offering it up, we will grow in love of God and others. Kardong concludes his commentary by saying that this kind of growth needs nor has an end.

            I encourage you to use the Prologue of the Rule for Lenten lectio sometime during Lent.

                        Sr. Mary Catherine Wenstrup, OSB

To Follow St. Benedict

       In his Rule, St. Benedict counsels his followers to "pray and work." He further advises them to "love one another in charity" by practicing "good zeal with the most fervent love."
       As I pray and work in God's world today, Benedict reminds me "never to despair of God's mercy and to desire eternal life with all passion of the spirit."
      How do these words affect my life now? In my daily life as a Benedictine sister I am challenged to pray and work in a monastic community, to be present, to communicate, to serve, to love and live out my Benedictine profession.
       I am grateful to God daily for this call, and I hope to celebrate it for years to come.
       Sr. Martha Walther, OSB

Benedict's Rule: a Holy Leaven for Earth

              The vocation of a Benedictine is to seek God. Since the 6^th century the Rule of St. Benedict has aided women and men in that search by proposing to create an environment which enables persons to became aware of the sacred in the ordinariness of everyday life. St. Benedict calls the place where his followers learn this reverence the house of God. He makes his followers aware of the holiness of time by creating a rhythm of prayer and work. Human relationships are sacramentalized by recognizing the divinity present in every person, especially the sick, the poor and the guest.

               As we, the Church and monastic women and men and Benedictine Oblates throughout the world, celebrate the feast of St. Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monasticism, we might ask why the Rule which we call holy, has lasted so long. It is flexible, having within itself the dynamic for change. It is moderate, encouraging the weak and challenging the strong. But most of all it is humble, embodying values that have touched human experience for centuries. The Rule recognizes the need for solitude and for stable community life. There in mutual love and obedience conversion is possible.

               In the poem “Birches” Robert Frost writes, “Earth’s the right place for love; I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.” St. Benedict believed that. Because it is of earth and blessed by God, the Rule has lasted.

      Sr. Justina Franxman, OSB