Sacred Stones, Sacred Stories

Walking the semi-dark halls of the monastery one comes across furniture and boxes yet to be moved, odds and ends of cleaning supplies and lots of silence. 

There is nary a soul to greet or hear.  Bells do chime, but there are no scurrying feet to chapel or elevator doors opening to deposit someone to begin scurrying.  There is no early morning dishwasher sloshing or phones ringing.  There is silence.

The organ is silent.  The echoes are silent.  The stairwells are silent.  Silence waiting for new growth, new life and new beginnings.

Our Prioress Sister Sean has always been intrigued with electricity and cyberspace. 

That includes an old pair of  TV “bunny ears” complete with aluminum foil caps recently re-discovered.  You never know what you will find in those dark recesses of hard-to-get-to places and often overlooked cabinets and attic corners.  These will be added to the collection of oddities we are gathering for some future use, even if it is for our own amusement.

It looks like a space travel portal from a sci-fi movie set.  Rather, it is a negative air space for some asbestos work that needed to be done. Several of these popped up around the house after an abatement crew moved throughout the crawl spaces and basement of the monastery to rid our old pipes of their asbestos wrappings.

Monks live by the work of their hands, according to the Holy Rule.  Last Saturday, several of us Sisters helped with a “community assist” with the vacating and deconstruction work. 

Helping hands were evident all around.  Some of us dismantled lighting fixtures and sorted all kinds of little gadgets for later use.  Some of us pulled nails and many of us hauled the nail free bits of wood to a waiting trailer to be taken to a storage place. 

Some of us continued to clean out the numberless closets and hidden nooks and crannies.  One Sister made chocolate chip cookies and distributed cool water.  The spirit of camaraderie and purpose was palpable, and we did not stop until it was time to clean up for prayer – another thing we do with united hearts and purpose.

In the monastery, there is such a person referred as a cellarer who is to be “wise, temperate, not offensive or wasteful.  She will regard all utensils and goods of the monastery as sacred vessels, aware that nothing is to be neglected.  If goods are not available to meet a request, she will offer a kind word in reply.” (Rule of Benedict 31) 

In our monastery several Sisters share this responsibility. As we continue to prepare for the taking apart and taking down a large portion of our monastery, those with a cellarer’s heart are not neglecting members of the community at large. 

Many people have benefited from our offerings.  Our Amish neighbors have received material, canning jars and other containers.  Other neighbors have received beds, tables, chairs and household linens.  A woman in Stanberry was given fabric to help her in gifting the homeless with sleeping bags.  The Salvation Army has received many boxes of household items, and the local correctional center had need of our collection of music and spiritual conference tapes.  This process has indeed reaped a hundredfold for all.

Our lives have been in transition these past few weeks, bringing with it exhaustive preparation, working and sleeping in new places and – yes – more than a little stress. However, something always happens that brings a smile to our faces and reminds us of all the blessings our Lord has given us.

We received an e-mail from a grateful mother whose daughter recently celebrated her First Communion thanks to our low-gluten altar breads. It is stories like these and smiles like Uriel’s that help us realize our ministry is a special one.

Uriel was just a baby when her family first visited our monastery in Tucson, Ariz.

“We had a meal with the Sisters, and she had her first taste of ice cream then,” recalled her mother, Sonya. “That was before we learned we had Celiac disease.”

Celiac Sprue Disease is an autoimmune disease that involves the inability to eat foods with gluten, a name for proteins found in wheat and related grains such as rye and barley. It involves a major lifestyle change in that certain foods must be cut from the diet or else a toxic reaction can occur in the small intestine. Gluten is often found in bread, pizza, cookies, ice cream…and altar breads.

With a rising number of people being diagnosed with Celiac Sprue Disease, it means they cannot tolerate communion hosts made of wheat without becoming sick. In the past, they could either take the host and get sick, bypass the host and only take the wine or skip the Eucharist completely.

Thanks to the Benedictine Sisters’ invention of low-gluten breads in 2004, Celiac Sprue Disease sufferers have another option. There is enough gluten in the Sisters’ breads to satisfy the Church’s cannon law, but not enough to cause sickness in a majority of those with a wheat intolerance.

The low-gluten altar breads recently allowed young Uriel to celebrate her First Communion a few years after that first meeting with the Benedictine Sisters.

“She carried her pix and the special low-gluten altar breads in it for communion,” her mother said. “I was very worried about how we would manage it, but everything went smoothly. It was a wonderful and positive experience for our daughter.”

Years ago, we centralized our altar bread production at our Clyde community. So as we begin our Sacred Stones, Sacred Stories project, we have continued to produce millions of wafers each week to serve the Church and those around the world. We won’t let a little construction hamper the process!

Here is a wonderful column written by Prioress General Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB about our upcoming altar bread centennial.

Sister Pat

“One hundred years of producing and distributing altar beads, hosts that have become the spiritual nourishment of believers in this country and around the world!

This is the proud tradition of our Benedictine Congregation, a tradition that flows from our dedication to the Christ who is Eucharist and a most fitting expression of prayer and work, which is a basic tenet of the monastic life envisioned by St. Benedict.

We will observe this work, begun in 1911, by a year-long celebration beginning on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, June 6, 2010, and we hope that you will share with us our gratitude.

Some years ago I was talking with one of our Sisters about her decision to enter our Congregation. Her response left a deep impression on me and has taken up a permanent place in the recesses of my mind and heart over the years. She said she did not feel called to teach or nurse. She was looking for a community with a different kind of ministry. She came across some information on the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and was attracted by the emphasis on a life of prayer, both at the Eucharist and in the monastic Liturgy of the Hours.

Besides that, it was mentioned that the Sisters baked altar breads/communion hosts as part of their livelihood. She was struck by the nobleness of the work. Here was something that would give her a sense of contributing to the spiritual life of the Church. She would be helping to build the Body of Christ by providing the means of communicating the Body of Christ to the Church’s members. Noble indeed.

It is with a sense of deep gratitude that we celebrate these 100 years in which we have been blessed to be able to nourish and sustain our Congregation materially and spiritually and to share that spiritual nourishment with our many patrons throughout the world. Bread blessed, broken and shared. Lives blessed, broken and shared. Noble, indeed.”

As we begin our own version of Extreme Home Maker, we are happily preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our altar bread ministry this summer!

In 1910, our Sisters first ventured into the Eucharistic ministry to produce altar breads for people of many faiths around the world.

Throughout this celebratory year, we will share the history behind this ministry and reflections of Sisters who have been a part of it. Published this month in the latest issue of our Congregational magazine, Spirit&Life, you will find a wonderful piece titled Banquet of Love by our Sister Sophia.

Here’s a little preview: “Eucharist is a bridge between humanity and Divinity, between mortality and immortality. The timelessnes of the salvific banquet spans all ages, the past, present and future. It is always about the now, the present. Jesus offers himself at each moment every day for the salvation of the world.”

These days, you’ll see our workmen spending a majority of their time moving furniture.

The Correspondence Office has been moved to a new, temporary location. Thankfully, the phones and computers all work to receive prayer requests, and our Sisters remain on the job.

The Correspondence Department is now at home in our conference room area, which has been turned into a space to house work stations, reading areas and for fellowship.

Sister Nancy Rose is one of many who helps answer prayer requests from people around the world.

A group of geese is called a gaggle.

A group of cows is called a herd.

A group of newborn kittens is called a litter.

A group of nuns is called a community.

What is a group of fans called? Groupies!

As we clean out areas to make way for the renovations, we have put a lot of stuff in storage. Including all these fans. And speaking of fans…have you joined our Facebook Fan  page?