Sacred Stones, Sacred Stories

One of the most beautiful aspects of our contemplative monastic life is our community life. The Sisters in each of our three communities live and pray together, sharing meals, their lives and their work.

To celebrate our community life, we host Community Days. This is an opportunity to step back from our daily tasks and simply enjoy being together. We still gather for prayer and meals. But we have a lot of fun too!

Sister Marie Jona blows bubbles off the back porch

Our Clyde Sisters celebrated Community Days last week. Some took a trip to the zoo. Others enjoyed a day at a nearby lake.

Sister Maria Victoria, Sister Cheryl and Postulant Rosa are joined by Maggie the Dog for an outing at the lake

Many stayed closer to home, grilling pizza, blowing bubbles, creating chalk drawings.

Sister Jane and Sister Lynn Marie

All in all, it was a special time of relaxation and spending quality time with each other.

We are immensely grateful to our dear friends of the Knights of Columbus and their beautiful families.

Tucson Prioress Sister Ramona recently accepted a check for $1,500, which was made possible due to a fundraiser hosted by the St. Thomas Apostle Church’s Knights of Columbus in March. She is pictured above with Lloyd and Erin Lacomb who worked very hard to make the event a success.

As always, we are grateful for their devotion to our community and for the wonderful acts of kindness they have shown us these many years.

We had a lovely time hosting three young women for our Summer Monastic Experience in Tucson, Arizona.

They spent the week with our Sisters in order to experience monastic life. They experienced the rhythm of prayer throughout the day, recreation and work, such as helping out in the kitchen and at our retail gourmet popcorn location, Prayerfully Popped.

Joining Postulant Rosa (second from right)

There was daily input on prayer, monastic life and discernment, and time for personal prayer and faith sharing.

We will also host a Summer Monastic Experience at our Clyde, Missouri, monastery in July. There is no cost for the residential event. For more information, please visit our Vocations Page.

“…and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)

There are many traditions of when we began to mark a day of remembering those who gave their lives in service for our country, many places of origin, differing persons and acts. Perhaps a look backward to those we knew, those who no longer walk the earth, will help us look forward to the days when we will no longer need war to settle differences.

Perhaps this Memorial Day we can honor those who gave their all by honoring God who gives us life, one person at a time, one unique human being to walk amid the loveliness of the Earth, one human heart to know joy, love and peace. Let us come together to give glory and praise to Whom it is due and honor those who gave their all.

“He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40: 29-31)

We keep in prayer all those affected by the horrific storms that moved through the Oklahoma area. We know the love and compassion of Christ will be there to help, taking the form of first responders, volunteers, citizens and friends. All coming together to do as Christ taught us: Love one another as I have loved you.

Please consider making a donation to the American Red Cross to assist with relief efforts. You can do so by visiting the ARC online or texting REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.

New storage lockers located near a back entrance to the motherhouse of the Sisters’ monastery in Clyde, Mo., were brilliantly crafted by members of the maintenance staff, including Larry Jensen, Jared McQueen and Jeremy McQueen.

Sister Ruth Elaine stands next to her new locker, crafted from salvaged pine trees.

After coworker Don Combe renovated the space, the trio built the new lockers for Sisters to store coats, hats, gloves and other weather-related items.

In addition to their daily use, the lockers represent a part of Benedictine history. They were built from Austrian pines, once part of a large stand of trees planted under the direction of community chaplain Father Lukas Etlin, OSB in the early 1900s.
“Some of the trees gradually died from too much moisture after the floods in 1993,” Sister Sean Douglas, OSB said. “The excess moisture led to a fungus, and over the ensuing years, they all died.”
All was not lost, as the Sisters saved the wood, cut the logs in their saw mill, stored the lumber and use it for various projects around the monastery.
“As Benedictines, even in loss, we find beauty and a new purpose,” Clyde Prioress Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB said.

Words of wisdom from Pope Francis:

“We have One who always defends us, who defends us from the snares of the devil, who defends us from ourselves and from our sins!

Dear brothers and sisters, we have this Advocate; let us not be afraid to turn to him to ask forgiveness, to ask for a blessing, to ask for mercy! He always pardons us, he is our Advocate: He always defends us!…The Ascension does not point to Jesus’s absence, but tells us that he is alive in our midst in a new way. He is no longer in a specific place in the world…He is now…present in every space and time, close to each one of us. In our life we are never alone: We have this Advocate who awaits us, who defends us.

We are never alone: The Crucified and Risen Lord guides us. We have with us a multitude of brothers and sisters who, in silence and concealment, in their family life and at work, in their problems and hardships, in their joys and hopes, live faith daily and together with us to bring the world the lordship of God’s love, in the Risen Jesus Christ, ascended into Heaven, our own Advocate who pleads for us.”

Blessings to all on this great feast of Jesus’s triumph over death for all eternity.

St. Benedict makes it clear in his Holy Rule that all the community should be assembled and lend their voices to the decision making process.

This is our responsibility. We are not looked upon as members who have no sense, thoughts or words of wisdom. We who live in a monastery have the important task of helping govern the community, from the oldest member to the youngest, from the highest ranked to the lowliest sister.

For two weeks our congregation gathered for our annual General Assembly to fulfill our responsibility. We came together to pray, listen, break bread and share our thoughts and feelings around several topics. A facilitator helped us focus our collective work.

Our work is done for now. It is time to return to our daily life of monastic women, continuing the conversation with God and one another, seeking the Spirit’s guidance and always, always, turning to God out of love.

Frank White, All-Star major leaguer and an eight-time Gold Glove winner with the Kansas City Royals, visited the Benedictine Sisters’ Clyde, Mo., monastery in April.

Sister Laurentia (standing) accepts an autograph from former Major League Baseball player Frank White while Sister Cheryl looks on.

White, who does sales work for the roofing company that recently completed repairs to the Clyde monastery, spent his time visiting with Sisters and signing autographs.

White signs a photocard for Sister Sarah (standing)

This was White’s second visit to the monastery. He also stopped by briefly earlier in the year, visiting with members of the Benedictine Sisters’ lay staff, including Jared McQueen (pictured).