A Sabbath Week

          This past week we were blessed to have welcomed in our presence the new Benedictine Abbot Primate, Father Gregory Polan, the 10 ^th Abbot Primate. Pope Leo XIII created this office in 1886, to bring order to the Benedictine order around the world. Abbot Polan had been the Abbot of Conception Abbey for the last 20 years.  He flew in from Rome, his new home, since he was elected on September 10, 2016. His talents include a very warm personality, being a well known Scripture Scholar and published musician. Even though the ministry of Abbot Primate meant he had a full and varied schedule, he agreed to keep his commitment to us to give our retreat. This gave him an opportunity to return to the US and also visit his home monastery. 

          Abbot Gregory arrived Saturday evening, and immediately asked names of sisters he met along the way through the monastery, and remembered them. He presided at our Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy, creating a thirst for more of his wisdom. After Mass he sat in the refectory with a circle of sisters and oblates for a good hour sharing stories

      .  We were all well stimulated to enter into the silent Retreat time – a Sabbath Week – with his insightful presentations on “Benedictines Living the Paschal Mystery.”  

          Based on references from Scripture and the Holy Rule his conferences were titled:

• Listening to God’s Questions
• Listening:  The Heart of the Monastic Vocation
• Holy Leisure – The Place to Listen:  Sabbath Time
• The Paschal Mystery and the Grace of Failure
• The Weight of Glory:  Our Great Hope
• Forgiveness and Reconciliation:  The Heart of the Gospel
• Prayer and the Paschal Mystery
• Living the Paschal Mystery with an All-Knowing God

          After the final Conference and Thursday Evening Prayer, where we renewed our Monastic Promises, we celebrated with a wonderful feast prepared by our own chef Maureen, and Thank You time to Abbot Gregory. He was most gracious, and agreed to have an informal chat time with us after Night Prayer. Most of the community gathered in a big circle in the refectory to ask questions and hear his  stories about his getting acquainted with his new role, which takes him all over the world, and especially the offices in Rome. Getting used to the Italian culture has been the most challenging for him.  He will have many more years to work on that one. We wish him every blessing in his new ministry.

            We have been nourished and are all most grateful for this Holy Time of Retreat and coming to understand the need for real Sabbath Time in our lives.     Sr. Mary Tewes, OSB

Retreat Jottings

     The annual community retreat always leaves me with a spiritual high and this year’s was no exception. Directed by the Most Rev. Joseph L. Charron, C.PP.S., Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, the July 29 to August 3 retreat raised the bar for inspiration, or more truly, for the certain presence of the Holy Spirit. 

     The Word of God in the celebrations of Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours, and in Bishop Charron’s person and conferences, spoke powerfully to all of us. While the soil outdoors baked in extreme summer heat, the community’s soul was drenched with grace. 

     We were reminded that “without silence words lose their meaning,” and that every day the Good News is that Jesus is knocking at our door with promise and mission for us. We were encouraged to be free, honest and humble enough to come close to Jesus and to respond to the will of God as Mary did. Yet conversion is an ongoing process, so forgiving and receiving mercy are integral to community life. Because we are tempted basically by “plenty, pleasure and power”, our religious profession calls us to be generous, hospitable and obedient as members of a monastic “communion”. 

     My favorite conference was on hope. Bishop Charron used the scriptural image of the potter shaping and re-shaping the clay to illustrate how God creates, shapes and sustains us so that, hand in hand with God, we become messengers of hope. Grounded in God’s powerful love, hope enables us to expect the positive, to grow in patience, forgiveness and generosity and above all, to trust God’s creativity without doubt. 

     The whole retreat provided a “time-out” and renewal for community members. We are grateful to God for Bishop Charron, for Sr. Martha Feder’s library offerings, for employees and for each other who made the 2012 retreat a highly holy journey.

      Sr. Martha Walther, OSB