Sacred Stones, Sacred Stories

There’s always time for a little recreation after prayer

It’s time! Participants are arriving to begin their Summer Monastic Experience at our Clyde, Missouri, monastery today! And we know it will be just as successful as the earlier event we held last month at our Tucson, Arizona, community.

This is such an exciting time for us – to help young women on their path of discernment, to guide them in prayer life and “show them the ropes” in regards to monastic life.

Experiences like this help delve into the mystery of our life, to show others who find themselves called to a life of prayer what we really do, who we are and how we live.

Throughout the next week, they will live in community with us, share our table, pray with us in our Adoration Chapel, discover the Liturgy of Hours and lectio divina, learn about our monastic works, spend time in personal prayer…and have a lot of fun. Games, recreation, hiking, paddle boating. God is good!

Members of all ages of St. Edmund’s Church, along with Knights of Columbus and their families, spent time lending their skills to help out at our San Benito Monastery in Dayton, Wyo.

They spent time washing windows, making small repairs and cleaning a variety of community spaces.

“They worked so hard, and, as always, we are very grateful for all their wonderful work,” said Sister Josetta, superior of the San Benito Monastery.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

There is nothing like a little light when you are in the dark and need to get information.

Between Sister Sean and our workmen, we now have three new hanging lights in our Sister Services room.

The design is from a piece of furniture that is special to us, and they add beauty as well as illumination to this space. We are most grateful.

It’s been a while since we gave a renovation update, so we’re excited about this recent addition!

No, Clark Kent wasn’t spotted in one of our phone booths, changing into Superman.

Instead, our phone booths are now insulated, so that they are more sound proof. Privacy is regarded as a value here, even during our phone calls.

Prioress General Sister Pat

Prioress General Sister Pat reflects on St. Benedict’s Rule and how everyone can learn a little something from it.

Each year when the July-August issue of (Spirit&Life magazine) comes around, I view it as an opportunity to reflect with you on an aspect of the life and teachings of St. Benedict of Norcia, Italy.

As Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration we claim St. Benedict as our spiritual founder and guide. Fifteen centuries have elapsed since he wrote his rule, yet we are still delving into its depths and gleaning spiritual insights that have transformative power.

One of his insights that has the power for spiritual transformation is simply to listen. In St. Benedict’s mind listening allows us to quiet our inner noise in order to hear what God has to say to us. It is a means to lay aside our own will in order to obey God’s, and in that submission “the Lord in his love shows us the way of life” (RB Prologue:20).

A resolution to become better at listening can result in transformed relationships. Unnecessary strife can be avoided when parents or spouses listen to, rather than argue with, one another. Healing can be effected in families when misunderstandings are clarified through attentive listening—what St. Benedict would call listening with the ear of your heart.

When I observe and reflect on the over-stimulation that seems to be an out-growth of the never ending cacophony present in our culture, I cannot help but wonder what it is costing us in terms of spiritual growth and peaceful living. St. Benedict’s advice to “listen carefully to the master’s instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart” (RB Prologue:1) could be a 6th century voice well worth listening to by those of us in the 21st.

 “Holy Family” by Juan Simon Gutierrez

For those who are still with us on earth, for those who live in heaven, we thank you for being our dads.

May God reward you for all you have done and are doing to teach us the love of a faithful father, the love of God.

“There is nothing in life which unites and cements so firmly as love. It unites one to the beloved, and more, it transforms the lover into the beloved one.” - Diego de Estrella

Today we observe a Sunday schedule, one in which we step away from our daily work tasks to commit ourselves to prayer and community.

Kathy Conry (right) shared this special photo of her and our Sister Pascaline taken recently at Osage Forest of Peace in Tulsa, Okla. Photo courtesy of Conry and her husband, Joe Farney.

The photo was taken during the blessing of the ashram’s Peace Pole, which includes the inscribed words “May peace prevail on earth” written in four different languages: English, Japanese, Sanskrit and Cherokee.

It is a delight to see dedicated lay persons continuing the tradition begun by Sister Pascaline and her fellow Benedictine Sisters when they founded the original Osage Forest of Peace Monastery in 1979 as a place of prayer and peace for all people.

To learn more about this very special place, please visit them online or on Facebook.

The Church celebrates the centrality of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist today. We commemorate the beginning of the new covenant written in the blood of Christ.

In the first reading from the book of Exodus, we hear about the promises the Israelites made to God when Moses offered the blood of young bulls as peace offerings. This was in keeping with the old covenant.

Today’s second reading from the letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus offered his own blood for the salvation of the world. Jesus “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanses our consciences from dead works to worship the living God” (Heb 9: 14). The new covenant is rooted in the personal and free choice Jesus made to enter into an eternally committed relationship with us for the love of God. This is what we celebrate each time we gather for Eucharist.

In the gospel we enter the story of Jesus’s last supper with his chosen disciples once again. We cannot pray with this event often enough as it is so vital to our faith. This is when the body and blood of Christ were blessed, broken and shared in the gifts of bread and wine with the faithful followers. This is when they became the body and blood of the Lord.

As we celebrate Eucharist we too take the body and blood of Christ, in the form of simple bread and wine and partake in Christ’s sacrifice, becoming part of his sacrifice. We share in His gift of salvation for the world. As He did with the disciples, let us sing hymns of praise for God’s fidelity to the new and everlasting covenant.

(Photos are of painted stencil-work in the Relic Chapel of our Clyde, Missouri, monastery.)

Do you ever wish you had pockets deep enough to hold all those things that you tend to carry from one place to another not knowing why, and most often, set down and forget where you set them? Some of us Sisters are no different.

Luckily, our workmen have fashioned us a set of cubby holes to keep/store/set our things in when we are away from our bedrooms.

The cubbies even have doors so others can’t see your stuff. Hopefully, this will alleviate our losing valuable things we place on tables, window sills or benches near the doors.

Hopefully, we will remember where we have squirreled away our stuff.

Hopefully, our cubby holes are big enough!