Oblate Weekends
Clyde Oblates and Oblate Candidates gather three times a year for a long weekend of spiritual input and sharing, renewing friendships and feeling the support of the community.

Space is limited and registrations are accepted on a first come, first serve basis. Please register at least 10 days prior to the scheduled weekend.

For information about future retreats, please contact:
Sister Jean Frances Dolan, OSB
Congregational Oblate Director
Phone: 660.944.2221

February 17, 2010—St. Scholastica feasts

Benedictine Sisters have a strong tie to St. Scholastica, the twin sister of their patron, Benedict.

Each year, the Sisters celebrate the Feast of St. Scholastica on Feb. 10. The Clyde, Mo., community observed the feast with an annual dinner and celebration of Vespers with monks from nearby Conception Abbey. The Tucson, Ariz., Sisters celebrated the event with guests from the Holy Trinity Benedictine Monastery from St. David’s. Guests included the monastery’s six monks and lay folks who live in residence and help care for the monastery property.

“It started to rain toward the end of the meal,” Tucson Prioress Sister Ramona Varela, OSB remarked. “It seems so fitting since rain storms are part of St. Scholastica’s story.”

To learn more about St. Scholastica, click here: http://bit.ly/aq7SKw.

February 17, 2010—Novice Clarisa enters canonical year with Benedictines

Novice Clarisa Cutaia has entered into her canonical year of the novitiate with the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

She has begun study of the Benedictine vows of stability, conversatio and obedience to prepare for her First Monastic Profession.

Novice Clarisa was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and moved with her family to the United States when she was 3 years old. She was raised in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans.

Learn more about Novice Clarisa at http://bit.ly/b9n6ia.

Novice Clarisa Cutaia

February 17, 2010—In the News

Several Sisters made appearances on national media during the past two months, discussing several aspects of their ministry, including low-gluten altar bread production, their line of handcrafted soaps and about Eucharistic adoration.

Benedictine Sister Rita Clair Dohn, OSB and Sister Jane Heschmeyer, OSB appeared on Relevant Radio’s The Drew Mariani Show in January. The nationwide broadcast featured the Sisters discussing their low-gluten altar bread production. http://bit.ly/5pDCR4 (choose Hour 3, interview begins at approximately 14:45)

The Sisters’ altar bread production was also featured in the January issue of Catholic Digest. The story chronicled the history of the altar bread ministry. An additional story profiled the low-gluten altar bread ministry.

Sister Cathleen Marie Timberlake, OSB was interviewed for EssentialU blog regarding her Monastery Scents handcrafted soaps: http://bit.ly/7DJnMv.

Sister Joan Ridley, OSB appeared on the Son Rise Morning Show with Brian Patrick in February to discuss her new book, “In the Presence: the Spirituality of Eucharistic Adoration.”

February 17, 2010—OLR staff attends dementia workshop

Helping loved ones cope with dementia was the top priority for Sisters and lay staff members of Our Lady of Rickenbach healthcare center during a workshop last fall.

The three-day event in Atchison, Kan., was presented by Edcon Group and covered information such as identifying the six greatest needs of people with dementia and how to meet those needs, new skills to effectively communicate with those with dementia and innovative ideas for making visits special.

“They helped us to see ways in which we as caregivers may unintentionally say or do things that can hinder rather than help communication with loved ones with dementia,” OLR Director Sister Virginia Anne Argenziano, OSB said. “I felt enabled to know as a caregiver we have the gift of being a source of joy to those who have lost the ability to communicate in ‘normal’ ways.”

February 17, 2010—Sisters attend Conference of Benedictine Prioresses

Contemplative Dialogue was the focus of this year’s annual Conference of Benedictine Prioresses meeting in late January/early February in Beech Grove, Ind.

Hosted by the sisters of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, the 2-day workshop explored the reality and working at understanding and having a shared meaning of contemplative dialogue with others.  Fifty-four leaders attended the conference, including Prioress General Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB, Clyde Prioress Sister Sean Douglas, OSB and Tucson Prioress Sister Ramona Varela, OSB.

“A real example was used to help us in this process,” Sister Ramona said. “For instance, how to vote in a mining town where coal creates needed jobs but also creates health issues. Members of the Beech Grove community were wonderful hostesses and made us feel the warmth of home in the 20-degree outdoor cold weather.”

BSPA Prioress General Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB (far right) joined fellow Benedictine leaders at the annual Conference of Benedictine Prioresses meeting in late January/early February.

January 25, 2010—Life gets exhausting. You need a break. Benedictine Sisters host popular Spring Break program

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde will host their annual Spring Break Monastic Experience for college students looking for a place to relax and unwind from their busy lives.

Students can choose from two five-day sessions scheduled March 13-17 and March 20-24 at the monastery. Each session takes place Saturday through Wednesday. Cost, which includes room and board, is $25 per person.

Hosted for single women age 18-30, students will participate in the sisters’ daily prayer schedule, share meals and stay in the monastery’s guest house. Students will work with a group of sisters each morning then have free time in the afternoon. They’ll also attend sessions involving prayer life and how to incorporate Benedictine practices into their daily lives.

Those who participate aren’t necessarily women discerning a call to religious life, according to organizer Sister Ruth Elaine Starman.

“They are young women looking for a quiet place to unwind, share in prayer with others, enjoy the beautiful acreage available for hiking and biking and spend a few days reconnecting with God,” she said. “Many of them aren’t planning to become a nun. They just desire a place of prayer and peace, to recharge their batteries before returning to their busy lives.”

The Spring Break experience has been hosted by the sisters for several years and serves as an introductory compliment to the Summer Monastic Experience, which involves a more focused look on the vocation of monastic life.

For more information about the Spring Break Monastic Experience, please contact Sister Elaine at (660) 944-2221 or e-mail vocation@benedictinesisters.org.

For a flyer, please click here.

The Clyde monastery of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration will host its popular Spring Break Monastic Experience for college students in March.

January 13, 2010—Mary Hastie enters novitiate

“I am going to be a nun when I grow up.”

Mary Hastie wrote those words in her journal when she was barely a teenager. It may come as even more of a surprise since she was neither Catholic nor had ever met a nun.

Raised on a farm as the oldest of three children, Mary often attended services at a Protestant church and always had a hunger for Christianity.

When she was 12 she was suddenly struck with the conviction that the Catholic Church was what she’d been searching for and began hearing the call to religious life just one year later.

“I began reading every Catholic book I could get my hands on and watching Catholic television programs,” Mary said. “I spent years in self-study on Catholicism and learning about the sacraments. I spoke with Catholics and grew in faith.”

She began the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program and at the age of 16 was baptized, confirmed and received Holy Communion all in one night. It was at the Easter Vigil and one of the happiest moments of her life. She soon became an altar server and began teaching faith formation to elementary students after graduating from Fremont-Mills High School in Tabor, Iowa.

The call to religious life was getting louder and she started researching different communities. After learning about the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration through the Internet, she chose to attend their Summer Monastic Experience to learn more. The program reaffirmed her desire to commit to religious life and spend it praying for others.

“I chose to enter here because I wanted a life of prayer and one devoted to the Eucharist,” she said. “I wanted to live a contemplative life and for prayer to be my main focus in life.”

Mary, who was working as a certified nursing assistant and attending college to earn a nursing degree, entered as a postulant in March 2008 during a ceremony at the Benedictine Sisters’ Adoration Chapel in Clyde, Mo. During the next year, she participated in communal prayer, developed her personal prayer life, worked in the monastery and took classes to aid in her transition to monastic life.

The sight of Mary rollerblading around the monastery grounds wasn’t unusual, and the spark she provided to those in community was very welcomed. She was accepted in the novitiate in September.

The novitiate is an intense period of spiritual formation lasting two years. Novice Mary will continue discerning her religious vocation through prayer, spiritual guidance, instruction and the lived experience of the Benedictine life. “I love this opportunity to live with and grow with other women, all of whom have the same goals in life,” Novice Mary said. “It’s neat to live with Sisters from several generations, to learn from them and share with them.”

Novice Mary is quick to credit God for where life has taken her and encourages others to take time to listen when the heart is being called to whatever life has in store. “Be open to what God is calling you to do,” she said. “Seek His will because He has a plan for your life. His plan is of great value and will bring you the most fulfillment and be of most value to Him.”

Mary enters the novitiate

January 13, 2010—Soap Sister shares ministry

Known affectionately as the Soap Sister, Benedictine Sister Cathleen Marie Timberlake, OSB has helped introduce Monastery Scents to homes across the country.

As the inspiration behind the Sisters’ line of hand-crafted soaps and as a board member of the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild, she is often on the road attending conventions, trade shows and parish festivals to help spread the word about this relatively new ministry.

“I love creating something the Sisters can use and benefit from,” she said. “Monastics are encouraged to live by the work of our hands and that in all things God might be glorified. I often wondered in the beginning how I could make the connection between our ministry of prayer and the work of my hands. I realized one day that I could add holy water to the soap and pray for everyone who used it.”

Attending parish festivals has become one of Sister Cathleen Marie’s favorite joys, giving her the opportunity to meet new people and seeing firsthand how her soap becomes the gift that keeps on giving.

“People buy my soap as a gift for someone and, in turn, that someone purchases it either for themselves or as a gift for yet another and the cycle keeps on going,” she said.

Traveling outside the monastery also gives Sister Cathleen Marie a chance for people to “put a face” on the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

“Since our works and ministry are within the monastery, people often do not know who we are or where Clyde is located,” she said.

Sr. Cathleen Marie Mixing Soap

December 5, 2009—Sister Elizabeth Mary passes

Sister Elizabeth Mary Meyer, OSB, 91, entered into eternal life on Dec. 5, 2009, at Our Lady of Rickenbach in Clyde, Mo., immediately after receiving the Sacrament of Anointing.

She was born the fourth of seven children on Oct. 26, 1918, in Carlyle, Ill., to Henry Bernard Meyer and Catherine Mary Seiffert Meyer. She enjoyed the years growing up on her family’s small farm, aware of God’s presence in all things such as a stroll through the woods, a rainbow and the beauty of the wildlowers.

Betty, as she was called, enjoyed school, piano lessons and babysitting. She helped her mother care for the lawn, flower beds and bushes that decorated the home and learned fine stitching, embroidery and quilting. After high school, Betty became a nurse’s aid at St. Mary’s hospital in East St. Louis.

“Going to church for Mass and other devotions was the highlight of that time,” she said. “I received divine energy from my faith, which made my life a joy and allowed me to see beauty all around me.”

She heard the call to religious life when she was just 7 years old and recalled hearing God’s voice around the table during the family meals and when she was alone. When she was older she looked at communities ranging from the Carmelites to foreign missions to nursing ministries. She regretted not being able to be a priest and felt that prayer for priests was a personal mission. She even considered the possibility of founding a new religious community with a cousin who was in the seminary at the time. The cousin left the seminary, and the idea for new community left as well.

It was through her sister (who had become Sister Mary Anselma Meyer) that she learned more about the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and their contemplative life.

She entered on Easter Sunday, April 15, 1939, and made her first profession of monastic vows on Feb. 8, 1941. She received the name Sister Mary Dymphna, but when Sisters were allowed to return to their baptismal names after Vatican II, she chose to return to Elizabeth Mary because Elizabeth meant “House of God.”

In 1943, Sister Elizabeth Mary was one of the founding pioneers of the Sisters’ Kansas City, Mo., monastery. She felt it was the answer to God’s inspiration to be part of founding a new religious community. She returned to Clyde to prepare for her final profession of monastic vows, which she made on the Feast of St. Scholastica on Feb.10, 1946. She returned to Kansas City and worked in the altar bread department and as an assistant in the sacristy.

In the ensuing years, she lived at the monastery in Mundelein, Ill., where she worked with many of the seminarians from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, fulfilling a lifelong dedication to praying for seminarians and for priests. In 1954, she was chosen to be a pioneer for the Sisters’ new community in San Diego.

“It was my joy and delight to be one of the two who carried the living flame of the Clyde sanctuary light to San Diego,” she said. “Only God knows what this tremendous experience meant in my life as an adorer of the Eucharist.”

When the Sisters closed the Mundelein community, Sister Elizabeth Mary recalled, “This was truly a deep pain, a stretching, a letting go of our monastery where we found a deep, spiritual relationship and a spiritual, liturgical sharing with the priests and seminarians. For me, this letting go led me to enter more deeply into the awareness of God’s obedient love.” She would also spend time in the Sisters’ St. Louis community.

Besides her years of work in the printery, altar bread department, sacristy and sewing room, Sister Elizabeth Mary served many years as portress, serving every guest as Christ. Serving as a Eucharistic minister was also one of her greatest joys, filling another of her desires for priesthood.

Of the changes in her life, Sister Elizabeth Mary said, “In all the transfers during my religious life I experienced a ‘new beginning’ even though it wasn’t easy packing and moving away from the little monastic family I had come to know and love. Yet, I felt God was working in so many wonderful ways through these changes.”

She was preceded in death by her parents; three brothers, Joe Meyer, Robert Meyer and Paul Meyer; and a sister-in-law, Dolores Meyer. Survivors include her monastic family; a brother, Fritz Meyer; three sisters-in-law, Marie Meyer, Guillermina Meyer and Mary Ann Meyer; and a niece, Rita Meyer.

Sister Elizabeth Mary Meyer, OSB

December 2009—Special Foods features low-gluten breads

The history and spirituality behind the Benedictine Sisters’ low-gluten altar bread ministry was a featured article in the December issue of Special Food Groups Magazine.

Read it here: http://bit.ly/4ugvKo

November 2009—OLR Sisters enjoy September retreat

In September, the Sisters of Our Lady of Rickenbach enjoyed a “Celebration of Life’s Journey,” a retreat directed by Sister Connie Kristolic, OSB of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kan.

Based upon a train ride on The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe railroad and taking special note of the meaning of Santa Fe “Holy Faith,” each car on the train was taken as a jumping-off spot for the day.

Topics included the Engine – symbolizing who is in control, Fuel – from where our energy comes, Diner – what has nourished us along our path, Passenger – who has accompanied us, and Tracks – where life has taken us.

“Sister Connie was available for private consultation and was so at home with us she made everyone comfortable,” said Sister Virginia Anne Argenziano, OSB, director of Our Lady of Rickenbach. “We would be delighted to have her visit us again.”

October 2009—Starstruck Sisters enjoy Community Days

Several members of the Clyde, Mo., community celebrated Community Days in October with a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb.

Enjoying the IMAX theater are (first row, from left) Sister Rita Clair Dohn, Sister Ruth Elaine Starman, a community friend from New Zealand, Sister Nancy Rose Gucwa and Sister Virginia Anne Argenziano; (second row, from left) Sister Jane Heschmeyer, Novice Mary Hastie and Sister Rebecca Leis.

The Starstruck Sisters

November 10, 2009—Northwest choral ensemble performs in Adoration Chapel

Northwest Missouri State University’s Tower Choir warms up before a “blissful” performance on Nov. 8 in the Adoration Chapel of our Clyde monastery. Many of the singers were awestruck by the chapel’s glorious beauty.

The 48-member choral ensemble, joined by accompanist Dr. Charles Badami and soprano Dr. Pamela Shannon, performed “Some Aspects of Bliss,” a program that encompassed the happiest aspects of life such as love, music, conquering fear and knowing of heaven.

October 14, 2009—Northwest choral ensemble to perform in Benedictine Sisters’ Adoration Chapel

Northwest Missouri State University’s Tower Choir will perform a concert beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, in the Adoration Chapel of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration’s monastery in Clyde.

The 48-member choral ensemble, joined by accompanist Dr. Charles Badami and soprano Dr. Pamela Shannon, will perform “Some Aspects of Bliss,” a program that encompasses the happiest aspects of life such as love, music, conquering fear and knowing of heaven.

Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Town, the Northwest Tower Choir performs nationwide at high schools, colleges and universities, churches and other organizations. Tower Choir has also worked with nine nationally-known choral conductors and has produced one CD, titled “Caritas et Amor: The Best of the Tower Choir 1999-2003.”

“The acoustic is especially fine in the Adoration Chapel, allowing the unaccompanied music in specific to be executed in an ingratiating manner,” Dr. Town said. “The convent, together with Conception Abbey, is one of the treasures of our region. It is a beautiful place to sing because of the unique qualities of the architecture and the acoustics.”

The concert is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. For more information, please contact Clyde Prioress Sister Sean Douglas, OSB at (660) 944-2221.

October 12, 2009—Benedictine Sisters to host Discernment Weekend

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde will open their doors to women discerning a call to religious life from Friday, Nov. 13, to Sunday, Nov. 15.

Hosted for single women age 18-45, participants will take part in the Benedictine Sisters’ daily prayer schedule, share meals and stay in the monastery’s guest house. They will experience monastic life and learn about Benedictine practices.

“This weekend will give those discerning religious life a chance to learn more about what this life means and to strengthen their relationship with God with no strings attached,” said Sister Ruth Elaine Starman, OSB, the congregation’s vocation director.

The event will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday and conclude at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. There is no cost to attend.

For more information about the weekend discernment, please contact Sister Ruth Elaine at (660) 944-2221 or e-mail vocation@benedictinesisters.org.

October 6, 2009—Sister Mary John Meyer Celebrates 60th Jubilee

It’s been 60 years since Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Mary John Meyer made her first monastic profession, and one word continues to come to mind. “Gratitude,” she said simply. “I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to God for calling me to this life and keeping me all these years.”

As a young girl growing up on the family farm outside Baileyville, Kan., Laurene Marie felt blessed by the presence of her large family. One of 11 children born to Henry and Clara Meyer, she recalls those years during the Depression when times were tough.

“There were many nights when supper was bread and milk,” she said. “I remember mother and father having to cut down the trees so the sheep would have leaves to eat and not starve.”

Regardless of lean times, she recalls those memories with great fondness. “There was a lot of love,” she said. “Plus, I think it helped prepare me for life in the convent.”

Sister Mary John always knew she was being called to religious life. She just didn’t know where. Then she visited the Benedictine Sisters in Clyde when she was only 14.

“It was on the Feast of the Assumption, and the Sisters were praying the Office in Latin,” she said. “I thought I was in heaven. I knew this was it.”

She returned home, only to pray each night that God would lead her back to the Benedictine Sisters. At the age of 16, she packed up and left to enter in 1948. “My mom really needed me at home, but she let me go,” Sister Mary John said with a smile.

She made her first monastic profession on Sept. 17, 1949, and was given the name Sister Mary John. She spent the next few years working the Sisters’ farm, in the kitchen and in the infirmary. But it was in the sewing room where she really shined.

Today, she is still responsible for making the Sisters’ clothing, along with mending other items. One of her greatest joys is when the Sisters host Monastic Experiences, inviting college students and young women interested in learning more about religious life to spend a week or two with them. During their time at the monastery, they pray with the Sisters and help out with various works – including sewing.

“I just love young people,” Sister Mary John said. “I may look like an older woman, but my heart is young.”

The Clyde community held a celebration for her 60th jubilee in September. It included the Eucharist, “a great act of thanksgiving, beautiful beyond words,” she said.

Later, when Sister Mary John asked someone if she had seen the photograph from the jubilee, the person answered that she had and thought Sister looked very happy.

Sister Mary John laughed and answered, “Well, who wouldn’t be? This life has strengthened me. Adoration was my life, and it still is.”

Sister Mary John Meyer

September 22, 2009—Tea is served: Benedictine Sisters announce teahouse opening

Picture beautifully decorated tables set with delicate tea cups and plates of delicious goodies amid a serene and peaceful setting of a Benedictine monastery and you have High Tea at St. Paul’s.

Beginning in October, the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde will open their new teahouse as a unique location for those wishing to experience the ambience of a tea room with great friends.

“The Benedictine Rule we follow teaches us that hospitality is one of our greatest gifts," Teahouse organizer Sister Cathleen Marie Timberlake, OSB said. "We are so excited to offer this fun new venue for our guests.”

On selected dates in October, November and December, the Benedictine Sisters will open their St. Paul’s teahouse to guests. Established in 1929, St. Paul’s was originally built as the chaplain’s residence. Over the years, it has also served as living quarters for sisters and housing for guests. Favored by many as the guesthouse of choice, its quaintness and vintage character make it a perfect setting for afternoon High Tea.

Each day there will be one seating for 15 to 17 persons in one of three rooms appointed for tea and arranged with antique furnishings and specialty gifts. The menu will include sandwiches, scones, assorted pastries, coffee and tea. There is no set cost, but donations will be accepted. Guests are also welcome to attend Day Hour with the Benedictine Sisters in the stunning Adoration Chapel prior to lunch and tea.

“As part of the complete experience, we invite our teahouse guests to join us in chapel to enter into the centuries-old monastic practice of sanctifying time through periods of communal prayer throughout the day,” Sister Cathleen Marie said.

Guests should arrive by 11:45 a.m. if they have arranged to join the sisters for Day Hour prayer in the chapel. Lunch is served 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

For days and hours of operation and more information, please go to http://teahouse.clydemonastery.org/ or call (877) 672-7627.

Offering a peaceful setting for enjoying good tea with great friends, St. Paul’s will be the site of a new teahouse hosted by the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration on the grounds of their monastery in Clyde.

August 24, 2009—Benedictine Sister Jean Cecile Ostertag Passes

Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Jean Cecile Ostertag passed away Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, at Our Lady of Rickenbach healthcare facility in Clyde.

Elizabeth Jean Ostertag was born Dec. 11, 1927, in Louisville, Ky, one of six children born to Charles and Nellie Gray Ostertag. Elizabeth was the second oldest and attended St. Boniface church and school, the same parish her family had attended for many generations.

Before entering the monastery, she did secretarial and clerical work for an insurance firm and for The American Tobacco Co. Elizabeth also had a great love for classical music, the symphony and the opera. She frequently spent weekends driving to Cincinnati with a friend to attend the opera there. Elizabeth was very active in her parish choir and was a member of the Archdiocesan Choral Club, which gave four large concerts a year. She also took part in many archdiocesan celebrations and activities sponsored by the choral club.

After leaving work, she would frequently make a holy hour from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Cathedral. It was there she learned about the Benedictine Sisters at Clyde from a prayer leaflet she found in the pew.

“I was seeking a contemplative life, and I had a great devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” she once said. “This holy hour that I tried to make almost daily was before the exposed Blessed Sacrament.”

Elizabeth entered the Benedictine Sisters on April 22, 1949, and was invested as a novice on Feb. 16, 1950. On her profession day on May 20, 1951, she was given the name Sister Mary Stephen but changed her name to Jean Cecile in 1971. Her perpetual vows took place on May 27, 1956. Over the years she lived in communities in Clyde, Mundelein, Ill., Tucson, Ariz., and Kansas City, Mo. Her works included printery typesetting, making collariums, altar bread department bookkeeping, portress, kitchen and sacristan.

Sister Jean Cecile was noted for her beautiful soprano voice and was always happy to sing in schola or take her turn at chanting duties. She had a great love of the water, enjoyed swimming very much and also loved to hike. True to her Louisville roots, she watched the Kentucky Derby every year on television. When she lived in Kansas City, it was often a whole community celebration complete with mint juleps.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place Tuesday, Aug. 25, in the Adoration Chapel, Clyde. Burial will follow in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Clyde. Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo. 64432-8100.

Sister Jean Cecile Ostertag

August 24, 2009—Benedictine Sister Nancy Rose Gucwa makes First Monastic Profession

As the sun broke through the clouds and washed over the fields of rural Missouri, it was obvious that Nancy Gucwa had traveled a long way from her native Staten Island, N.Y., to embark on the next chapter of her life. It was a journey not only of great distance but also of the heart.

On Aug. 15, the West Point graduate and former finance professional made her first monastic profession as a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde. After serving in the military on active duty, she worked in banking and finance, most recently in the St. Louis area. She entered the Benedictine Sisters in 2006 and retired from the U.S. Army Reserves in 2008.

Before the ceremony began, the warmth of the summer sun spread into the sisters’ monastery, reflecting the happiness within. Friends and family exchanged hugs in the hallway. Postulants and a novice were laughing as Nancy zealously guarded the paper that included the Benedictine name she would take, which would remain a secret until revealed during the ceremony.

Full of smiles and dressed in a bright red shirt and flowered skirt, Nancy moved through the crowd. When asked if she was nervous about the upcoming rite of passage, she smiled radiantly and answered in a confident voice, “No.”

The bells began to ring, and the sisters filed into the Adoration Chapel. Excited whispers could be heard as the years of Nancy’s dedication and preparation were about to be rewarded.

“This day was the fulfillment of my heart’s deepest desire,” Sister Nancy Rose Gucwa, OSB said. “I am so happy to be a sister in this wonderful Congregation. Making a profession of vows to God and to this community of sisters is such a wonderful and grace-filled moment in my life. I am thrilled that my family could be here to mark this new and exciting beginning of life in my monastic family.”

As her profession took place on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, celebrant Father Xavier Nacke, OSB, remarked during the homily, “May we see heaven as our final goal.” He praised Nancy for her “graced determination” so like Mary’s and said religious life was the “way of humility and obedience is the way of divine love.”

Nancy was then presented by Formation Director Sister Rita Clair Dohn, OSB and formally asked for admittance into the Benedictine Sisters’ Congregation. “We accept her. We welcome her,” the sisters said in unison. “Thanks be to God!” echoed through the Adoration Chapel.

“You come to this monastery having been formed by a variety of life experiences through which you have developed a broad perspective and numerous friendships,” Prioress General Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB addressed Nancy. “You have gracefully and admirably managed the transition from urban to rural, from self-sufficiency to interdependence and from positions of authority to last in rank.”

She continued, “The walls of this monastery could begin to feel restrictive and stifling but for the fact that walls cannot contain the Kingdom of God, the power of prayer or the mystical union of the Body of Christ. So do not fall prey to thoughts that question the validity of the effectiveness of a life of prayer and community. Instead, keep your perspective broad, Nancy, and your love for people flowing outward to embrace all of God’s children throughout the world, for that is the essence of a life of prayer.”

Sister Pat ended her presentation by revealing the name Nancy would be given upon her monastic profession. “And so I confer on you the name of Sister Nancy Rose, under the patronage of Mary, Mystical Rose, to be celebrated on August 15,” she said. “May she be your inspiration to continue to blossom like a rose coming to full bloom.”

After making her Benedictine vows of stability, a commitment to God; conversatio, the rules of monastic life including poverty and chastity; and of obedience, Sister Nancy Rose was presented with her habit of a black smock and white shirt and left for a moment to change clothes.

“Changing from secular to monastic clothing is an ancient Benedictine custom,” Sister Pat said. “It ritualizes dispossession, conversion, simplicity and incorporation into the community.”

Upon her return to the Adoration Chapel, Sister Nancy Rose was presented with the emblem of the Benedictine Sisters.

“Sister Nancy Rose, receive this emblem, a sign of your profession and of our charism of dedication to the Holy Eucharist,” Sister Pat said. “May the signs of bread and wine which you wear inspire you always to prefer nothing whatever to Christ and to live a life generous in love and humble service.”

Sister Nancy Rose is now considered a member of the juniorate, during which she will follow her Benedictine vows. It will be at least another three years before she will be eligible to make her final monastic profession.

How does a woman become a Benedictine Sister?

Women considering religious life are called in different ways from different backgrounds with different experiences. However, each must undergo the same rigorous process that will help them decide if a life devoted to God is for her. That process involves an application that includes interviews, health and psychological examinations and writing an autobiography.

If accepted, she then enters the postulancy, a chance to learn more about the vocation of religious life, to become acquainted with other members of the community, work in the monastery and take classes. Those who pass their evaluations and wish to continue then enter the novitiate for two years. They undergo an intense spiritual formation of prayer, instruction in Scripture and liturgy, guidance and living the Benedictine lifestyle.

Women then enter the juniorate and make their first profession. They follow the three Benedictine vows of stability, a commitment to God; conversatio, the rules of monastic life including poverty and chastity; and of obedience. After a period of three to six years, a woman can then take the final step and participate in the rite of final monastic profession.

Sister Nancy Rose Gucwa reads from a proclamation during the ceremony for her first monastic profession as a Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration.

August 13, 2009—Benedictine Sisters re-open popular exhibits

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde have re-opened two monastery exhibits, which were temporarily closed during renovations in October.

The Heritage Room and the Relic Chapel are now available for public tours.

“The Relic Chapel has been altered slightly to accommodate shelving used for storage during our monastery renovations, which are on-going,” Clyde Prioress Sister Sean Douglas, OSB said. “However, the relics and other displays depicting our history can still be viewed by our guests. As hospitality is a vital part of Benedictine life, we are very happy to welcome visitors once again to our home.”

The Relic Chapel houses an extensive collection, unmatched anywhere in the United States, of more than 500 saints’ relics and artifacts. Many of the relics, which include the remains of St. Beatrice, a 13-year-old martyr from the early Roman Christian centuries, were gifts from European monasteries in gratitude for the sisters’ financial support after World War I. On exhibit in the Heritage Room are beautiful hand-stitched vestments, chalices, banners and information about the altar bread making history of the Congregation.

Tours are free and open to the public. For more information, please call (660) 944-2221.

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde have re-opened two exhibits to the public, including the Relic Chapel. The room has been altered to accommodate shelving needed during on-going renovations at the monastery.		The Heritage Room, which includes exquisite samples of hand-stitched vestments, is once again open to the public. The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde temporarily closed the exhibit during the beginning of monastery renovations last October.

OLR Jubilees

Three Benedictine Sisters observed their jubilees of monastic profession, surrounded by Sisters and guests in May. The celebration took place at Our Lady of Rickenbach, the Congregation’s healthcare facility, and included a special mass and dinner. Combined, the Sisters have experienced 210 years of monastic life.

Sister Mary Irmina Blatt - 80th Jubilee

As the oldest member of the Benedictine Sisters, Sister Mary Irmina, 102, holds a wealth of memories and knowledge about contemplative life.

“I am grateful that God called me to our Congregation and for the daily Eucharist,” she recalled. With 10 siblings, she was the first to enter religious life. “I read a missal that it was vital to save your soul. So from my early days I had a desire to become a sister.” She entered when she was 19 and took her first monastic profession on March 16, 1929.

For decades, she served the Clyde community in the kitchens, the bakery and on the farm, raising chickens and milking cows. She also lived in other communities, helping with altar bread production and in the sacristy. It was while at the St. Louis monastery she developed her craft of baptismal stoles and other items.

Sister Mary Pauline Kramek - 70th Jubilee

As she celebrates the 70th jubilee of her first monastic profession, Sister Mary Pauline recalls, “the love and support of our Sisters who helped me, especially in my early years of religious life. I am also grateful for the grace to be faithful to my vocation.”

Born Angeline Kramek in Hamtramck, Mich., and raised in nearby Detroit, Sister Mary Pauline learned of the Benedictine Sisters through their magazine.

Drawn to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and feeling a call to religious life, she entered the Benedictine Sisters in 1937 at the tender age of 16. She made her first monastic profession on Aug. 26, 1939. She has lived in many of the Congregation’s communities, including Clyde, Mo., Mundelein, Ill., Kansas City, Mo., San Diego, Calif., and Tucson, Ariz. Her jobs have varied to include portress, sacristan and liturgical vestments making.

Sister Mary Gertrude Gross - 60th Jubilee

Catherine Mary Gross was 27 years old and contemplating a call to religious life.

The business school graduate, who enjoyed her work with companies like Southern Pacific Railroad and state and federal government agencies, had never heard of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. When she briefly spoke with a priest he remarked she should inquire about the contemplative order.

She had her doubts about joining a teaching or nursing order and no intention of leaving her beloved native California. However, in the following months she discovered she was a perfect fit for the religious order dedicated to Eucharistic adoration and a life of prayer. She entered in 1947 and made her first monastic profession on May 29, 1949, receiving the name Gertrude. Throughout the years, she served as bookkeeper, treasurer general and general councilor. She also helped coordinate marriage encounter groups that visited Clyde.

Clyde oblates gather for June retreat

In June, the Clyde, Mo., community welcomed more than a dozen of their oblates for the annual retreat to share and pray in a monastic atmosphere.

“Our oblates feel our monastery is a holy place and they are so dedicated to the community,” Oblate Director Sister Jean Frances Dolan, OSB said. “They enjoyed learning more about us and our history.”

The weekend included the oblates sharing in prayer services, enjoying private time, attending a seminar titled, “Holding Life and Spirituality Together,” tours of the soap shop and altar bread departments and was capped with a hayride tour of the monastery property.

“Many of our oblates said this was the best meeting ever,” Sister Jean Frances said. “It made them feel more connected with the community, which thrilled me.”

Oblates are Christian adults formally affiliated with a Benedictine monastery in order to seek God more intentionally, sharing in worship, reverence, humility, universal love and stability of purpose in accordance with the Rule of St. Benedict.

“They are a wide variety of people with backgrounds from young professionals to grandmothers,” Sister Jean Frances said. “They are wonderful, wonderful people.”

Oblates of the Clyde community enjoyed a weekend retreat in June, which included a hayride tour of the Sisters’ monastic property.

Seven attend Summer Monastic Experience

For one week each summer, women feeling a call to religious life can delve into the life of a Benedictine Sister and learn more about monasticism with no strings attached.

The Benedictine Sisters in Clyde hosted the Summer Monastic Experience, a week-long residential program that invites women to explore monastic life and prayer. Seven women from states across the nation attended the session held July 8-14.

“They often expressed how meaningful it is to join us in the Liturgy of Hours, the Eucharist and just daily life in the monastery,” Clyde Prioress Sister Sean Douglas, OSB said.

During their stay, participants worked in the Sisters’ altar bread department, soap shop, sewing room and correspondence department. They joined the Sisters for liturgical prayer, meals and recreation. They also received input on Lectio Divina, centering prayer, adoration, community life skills, the life of St. Benedict and the Liturgy of the Hours.

“I always enjoy hosting the monastic experience week here in Clyde,” Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza, OSB and former participant of the Summer Monastic Experience said. “The youthful and enthusiastic presence of the participants blows a fresh breeze through the monastery. I am allowed to glimpse our life through new eyes and rediscover the graces and blessings of this life of prayer to which I have been called.”

Some of the participants are discerning a religious vocation, and the Benedictine Sisters feel privileged to demonstrate what contemplative monastic life is all about. “We hold each of them in prayer as they continue in their life’s journey,” Sister Sean said.

Sister Mary John Meyer takes a look at the work offered by one of the participants of the Summer Monastic Experience.		Seven women from states across the nation attended the session held July 8-14.

Restored prairie grasses surround Clyde monastery

After three years, a project to restore native prairie grasses to a part of Northwest Missouri has finally bloomed.

The Benedictine Sisters in Clyde planted about 200 acres of native prairie grasses and wildflowers around the monastery in 2006 as part of their mission to serve as stewards of God’s earth and their commitment to environment-friendly initiatives.

For the first three years, the areas were mowed to prevent weed growth, which robs the new plants of vital nutrients and sunlight. This is the first season the plants have been established enough to allow them to grow free. The prairie grasses will eventually reach anywhere from 5 to 9 feet tall and grow in clumps, allowing a variety of wildlife to call the new prairie home.

Sister chosen for formation program

Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza, sub-prioress for the Clyde, Mo., community has been chosen to attend the Institute of Religious Formation at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

The program, which prepares religious to become formation directors, takes place from August 2009 to May 2010.

“I am excited and nervous at the same time,” Sister Lynn said. “I know it will be a learning and growing experience for me.”

Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza

Nuns who tweet

Nuns who tweet? From Facebook to MySpace to blogging to Twitter, there are many options available to make one’s presence felt on the Internet, and the Benedictine Sisters are making strides to incorporate new social media into their millennium-old mission.

However, integrating all of one’s resources into a successful package can be a daunting task. So it’s time to call in an expert.

In July, the Benedictine Sisters in Clyde hosted a social media workshop led by Donna Maria Coles Johnson, founder and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network and Indie Business Media and a woman who knows her way around the Web.

A former attorney, she began the Indie Beauty Network in 2000 and followed it with Indie Business Media to provide an outlet for independent cosmetics makers to share information and resources. She is also an author, hosts her own radio show and travels the country leading seminars to help others launch new business ventures that fit their lifestyles.

The three-day workshop for the Benedictine Sisters included an introduction to methods of social media like Twitter and Facebook, integrating audio and video resources on the Web and how to approach social media in a measured, goal-oriented way.

“It was fantastic and helpful in every way. Donna Maria brings everything down to a level of understandability for those of us who might not be as computer savvy as we would like to be,” Sister Cathleen Marie Timberlake, OSB said. “Using social media has great implications for us as we strive to make our way of life, ourselves and our products known to a larger audience.”

The Benedictine Sisters hope the expansion into social media will help increase awareness of their ministry of prayer and their products such as altar breads, handcrafted soaps and lotions and liturgical vestments and as another avenue to reach women who might be discerning call to religious life.

Donna Maria Coles Johnson (center) enjoyed conducting a social media workshop with several Benedictine Sisters. The event included demonstrations on new ways to use the Internet.

May 26, 2009—Sister shares craft before heading to national soap conference

Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Cathleen Marie Timberlake, OSB was a guest of the monks at Christ in the Desert Monastery in Abiquiu, N.M., before heading to a national soap conference in May.

Christ in the Desert was founded in 1964 and has followed the Benedictine life with no external apostolates but maintains a guesthouse for private retreats where men and women can share the Divine Office and Mass in the Abbey Church with the monks. A gift shop is also part of the monastery’s income, which includes a mail-order department of books and other religious items.

The monks asked Sister Cathleen Marie if she would teach them the soap-making process so they could add it to their revenue-generating works. “The brothers, along with Rosey Verdile who heads up their craft-making efforts, were great students,” Sister Cathleen Marie said. “It was an honor to get to immerse myself in their life of liturgical prayer outside of our class times.”

Afterward, she traveled to Indian Wells, Calif., for the 11th annual Handcrafted Soapmakers conference. Topics included good manufacturing practices and cosmetic regulations, profit margin killers and trademarking.

“It is a marvelous opportunity for networking among other soapmakers who have honed their skills through years of experience,” Sister Cathleen Marie said. “This was the first time I had attended the conference as a member of the board of directors, so that added a wonderful new dimension for me.”

Benedictine Sister Cathleen Marie Timberlake (far right) enjoyed sharing her knowledge of handcrafted soapmaking with members of Christ in the Desert monastery.

May 20, 2009—Atchison Picnic

The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica of Atchison, Kan., visited the Clyde, Mo., community in May for a day filled with games, picnics and hayrides.

“It had been years since they had visited as a group, and we had a grand time,” Clyde Prioress Sister Sean Douglas, OSB said. “It just seemed like it would be a great idea to do this again since it had been so long. The weather was great, we did a couple of hayrides out to the back hills where we have the prairie grass planted. It was a chance for old friends to just get together and visit and enjoy the day.”

Hayrides were on the schedule for a fun gathering with the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica when they visited the Clyde community in May.		A badminton squad - affectionately dubbed Charlie’s Angels by spectators - featured the teamwork of (from left) Benedictine Sister Jane Heschmeyer, Postulant Mary Hastie and Sister Rebecca Leis.

May 20, 2009—Irmina’s b-day

The Clyde, Mo., community gathered to celebrate the 102nd birthday of Benedictine Sister Mary Irmina Blatt, OSB during a party held May 7 at Our Lady of Rickenbach.

Sister Mary Irmina, the Congregation’s most senior Sister, enjoyed a cake and punch reception and posed with the numerous cards she received from a variety of friends and family across the country.

Longtime friends Sister Mary Denise McMahon (left) helped celebrate Sister Mary Irmina Blatt’s 102nd birthday in May.		Sister Mary Irmina admires the dozens of well-wishes she received in recognition of her birthday.

May 20, 2009—Nancy runs Abbey Run

Novice Nancy Gucwa (pictured with Conception Abbey seminarian Juan Carlos) won her age group division in the 4th Annual Abbey Trails 5K run at Conception Abbey in Missouri. The event raised almost $8,000 for the Conception Seminary College Wellness Program.

May 20, 2009—Community Days

Celebrating community life is vital to the Benedictine monastic. In April, those living at the Clyde, Mo., monastery celebrated their annual Spring Community Days, a variety of events that strengthen the common spirit shared by Sisters and those in formation, giving them an opportunity to socialize with each other inside and beyond monastery walls.

Events included a visit to the Truman Library in Independence, Mo., and an afternoon social with the Sisters from Our Lady of Rickenbach.

Several Sisters visited a Catholic Worker Farm in Iowa, hosted by founders and Benedictine Oblates Brian Terrell and Betsy Keenan. Strangers and Guests CW includes a large garden, an orchard and animals. The family works hard to emphasize the idea of simplifying oneís life and the importance of community.

During their visit, the Sisters had the opportunity to meet many of the farm’s animals, including goats, lambs and even camels.

Goats became new friends with Benedictine Sisters Mary Audrey Jones (on left) and Mary Benita Luetkemeyer when they visited a Catholic Worker Farm founded by Benedictine Oblates Brian Terrell and Betsy Keenan for Community Days in April.		Benedictine Sister Mary Joy Heinlein enjoyed petting lambs held by Don, a neighbor of Brian Terrell and Betsy Keenan, who invited the Sisters to visit their Catholic Worker Farm in southwest Iowa for Community Days.
Clyde’s Community Days included a visit to the Truman Library in Independence, Mo. Pictured (from left) are Benedictine Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza, Novice Clarisa Cutaia, Novice Nancy Gucwa and Postulant Mary Hastie.

April 15, 2009—Benedictine Sisters’ formation group visits former monastery in Sand Springs

In February, those involved with the Benedictine Sisters’ formation program traveled to Tulsa, Okla., to attend a conference and took time to visit with Benedictine Sister Pascaline Coff, OSB during a side trip to Sand Springs.

“We had the opportunity to spend part of the day with Sister Pascaline, go to day hour and have lunch. Then three of us adventured out on trails for a couple of hours,” Novice Clarisa Cutaia said. “My experience at Sand Springs was unforgettable even if we where there for just a few hours. It was a joy to revisit Sand Springs and to spend some quality time with our dear Sr. Pascaline.”

Also attending the event were Novice Nancy Gucwa, Postulant Mary Hastie and Sister Rita Clair Dohn, formation director.

Sr. Pascaline has spent the past year at the Osage+Forest ashram during the time it transitioned from the Sisters’ monastery into a private retreat center.

Stopping by to visit Benedictine Sister Pascaline Coff (seated) were (from left) Novice Nancy Gucwa, (standing) Formation Director Sister Rita Clair Dohn, Postulant Mary Hastie and Novice Clarisa Cutaia.

April 14, 2009—Benedictine Sister Mary Mildred Sobba Passes

Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Mary Mildred “Millie” Sobba, OSB, 92, passed away Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, at Our Lady of Rickenbach Health Care in Clyde.

She was born Frieda Adeline Sobba on Aug. 11, 1916, in Pratt, Kan., the oldest of six children and the only daughter of Christopher Sobba and Ruth Ralston.

When she was one year old, the family moved to western Kansas to a farm in Meade County. She attended the parochial grade school in Fowler, Kan., and was taught by the Dominican nuns from Great Bend, Kan. After graduating from the public high school, she stayed home until 1936 when she attended business school in Wichita, Kan. Afterward she worked at the Farm Bureau Office on the Farm Program in Meade, Kan., until 1942.

Her oldest brother, John, went to Tucson, Ariz., for his health, and Frieda went with him. She worked for a construction company for awhile and then was a bookkeeper and accountant for a wholesale plumbing and heating company. During World War II, she did USO work with a Catholic girls group she had joined while in Tucson.  

Frieda was introduced to the Benedictine Sisters after a friend of hers back home in Kansas who was a cousin to Benedictine Sister Mary Gabriel asked her to visit. She then became an oblate of the Sisters’ Tucson monastery in 1947 and volunteered in the library.

After her mother passed away, she returned home to Kansas in 1957 to take care of her aging father. He died two years later, and she started making inquiries about entering the convent. Although she was past the usual age of entrance, she had proven to be a dedicated oblate of St. Benedict and preferred a life of contemplative prayer rather than one of teaching. Her application was accepted, and she entered the Benedictine Sisters at the age of 44 on the Feast of St. Agnes on Jan. 21, 1961. She made her First Monastic Profession on Sept. 12, 1963, and received the name of Sister Mary Mildred. 

As a novice and a junior sister her work assignments were in the veil room, main kitchen and the infirmary kitchen. She transferred to St. Louis in 1968 and worked in the sewing room. She was then transferred to Tucson for 2 1/2 years to do the bookkeeping.  In 1971, she moved to Clyde to be sub-prioress, and in 1974 was assigned to St. Louis to serve as the local bookkeeper and to take care of the Mass intentions for the house and the Congregation. She would also worked many years in the correspondence department at St. Louis before moving to the infirmary.

Some of her many hobbies over the years were reading, embroidery, playing cards and playing pool.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place Thursday, April 16, in the Adoration Chapel, Clyde. Burial will follow in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Clyde. Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo. 64432-8100.

Sister Mary Mildred Sobba, OSB

February 24, 2009—Artist gives impromptu painting demo during Benedictine Sisters’ visit

Artist BillyO O’Donnell (left) gave an impromptu painting demonstration when he visited the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, and his inspiration was Clyde Prioress Sister Sean Douglas, OSB (seated). O’Donnell and author Karen Glines recently visited the Benedictine Sisters’ community to discuss their book “Painting Missouri: The Counties in Plein Air,” in which the Clyde monastery appears. Photo courtesy of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

February 3, 2009—Benedictine Sister Miriam Humbel remembered for humor and intelligence

Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Miriam Humbel, OSB passed away Jan. 29, 2009, in Clyde, Mo.

She was born Mary Margaret Humbel to Fred and Katherine Seman Humbel on Sept. 8, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was a cabinet maker from Cleveland, and her mother was a homemaker born in Austria. Mary was the oldest of four children, two brothers, Carl and Fred, and a sister, Dorothy.

Mary attended St. Vincent de Paul grade school and St. Stephen Commercial High School where she studied typing, shorthand and bookkeeping. She did housework to help pay tuition.

After graduating from high school, Mary worked as a bookkeeper for a manufacturing company. When the United States entered World War II, Mary worked at a bomber plant for six months before enlisting in the Women’s Army Air Corp.

She served stateside for two years then transferred to the WAC, arriving in Paris on V-J Day. She was a driver for a general and was assigned as a clerk-typist during the 10 months she was stationed in Vienna, Austria, and received an honorable discharge at the war’s conclusion.

Returning to Cleveland, Mary worked as an accounts payable bookkeeper in the business office of a hospital and attended night classes at college. During this time, Mary and her brother (who was also a veteran) bought a house for their parents using the G.I. Bill.

Feeling a call to contemplative community, Mary discovered the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration through one of the booklets found in the vestibule of St. Mary’s Church, a Jesuit parish in Cleveland.

She entered at Clyde as a postulant on Feb. 2, 1950, and was invested as a novice later that year on her birthday, Sept. 8. She became Sister Miriam when she made her first monastic profession on Sept 15, 1951.

After several years as a junior sister in Clyde, Sister Miriam was transferred to the monastery in Tucson, Ariz. In 1956, she returned to Clyde for her final monastic profession and remained there until 1966 when she was transferred to the monastery in Kansas City.

She was a typesetter in the Clyde printery, baked altar breads in Tucson and Kansas City, and handled the monastery bookkeeping in Clyde and Kansas City. In early years, she worked the Clyde Farm and was responsible for all the correspondence for the pedigree Holstein herd. She also served as prioress of the monastic community in Kansas City.

In 1974, Sister Miriam was appointed treasurer general for the Congregation and moved to St. Louis where she served in that position for 22 years until she retired. Sister Miriam then became the monastery bookkeeper until the finance offices were consolidated. She spent a short time in Tucson before she returned to Clyde as a resident of Our Lady of Rickenbach, the Sisters’ healthcare facility.

She possessed a keen financial mind and was a fierce, competitive card player. When dealt an unlucky hand she would stand up and circle the chair to change her luck.

She enjoyed watching sports, playing chess and winning at Scrabble. In later years, she was able to play chess and Scrabble with her computer. The machine gave her some tough competition, but the victory was made sweeter for her when she won.

Sister Miriam was an intelligent and dynamic member of community and enhanced every place she lived and worked. She will be fondly remembered for her humor, her sense of adventure and for her love of the Lord and contemplative life.

She is survived by her monastic family; a brother, Fred Humbel; a brother-in-law, Raymond Palascak; nephews and a niece.

Sister Miriam Humbel, OSB

February 3, 2009—Clyde Benedictine community receives surprise donation

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Mo., were a surprise beneficiary during a theatrical performance in January in nearby Maryville.

Several of the Sisters attended “Late Nite Catechism,” an interactive comedy that is part stand-up and part audience participation. The one-woman play evokes memories of Catholic school and features a benevolent “sister” who teaches class to a roomful of “students,” also known as the audience.

Before the performance began, Benedictine Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza, OSB overheard the play’s producer asking if there was a religious community of sisters in the area.

“I got my courage up and said there is a motherhouse in the area and that several of the Sisters would be attending the play,” Sister Lynn said. “He said that was good and asked if we would please stick around after the show.”

The performance was well-received and at its conclusion the actress informed the audience that the Sisters were in attendance and asked them to stand. Then she surprised Sr. Lynn and the others by saying a special collection would be taken.

“Sure enough, there were baskets at the door,” Sister Lynn said. “We came home with more than $700 for our retired Sisters.”

Asking for donations for area religious sisters is something the play’s production staff does when performing the show.  In fact, when the show was performed in Tucson, Ariz., donations were also requested for the Benedictine Sisters’ community there.

January 14, 2009—Get back to the basics: Spend Spring Break at a Monastery

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde will host their annual Spring Break Monastic Experience for college students interested in a more non-traditional celebration of the spring rite.

“It’s about putting away the cell phone, stepping away from the computer and learning how to relax again in a peaceful setting,” Vocation Director Sister Ruth Elaine Starman, OSB said. “We schedule these opportunities in coordination with college spring breaks to give women a break from the hectic pace of school and a chance to strengthen their relationship with God with no strings attached.”

Students can choose from one of several five-day sessions scheduled March 7-11, March 14-18 and March 21-25 at the monastery. Each session takes place Saturday through Wednesday. Cost, which includes room and board, is $25 per person.

Hosted for single women age 18-30, students will participate in the sisters’ daily prayer schedule, share meals and stay in the monastery’s guest house. Students will work with a group of sisters each morning then have free time in the afternoon. They’ll also attend sessions involving prayer life and how to incorporate Benedictine practices into their daily lives.

“Those who participate aren’t necessarily women discerning a call to religious life. Many who participate are simply looking for a way to get back to the basics of life,” Sister Ruth said. “So this is an affordable opportunity in more ways than one.”

The Spring Break experience has been hosted by the sisters for several years and serves as an introductory compliment to the Summer Monastic Experience, which involves a more focused look on the vocation of monastic life.

For more information about the Spring Break Monastic Experience, please contact Sr. Ruth Elaine at (660) 944-2221, e-mail or click on www.benedictinesisters.org.

December 22, 2008—Benedictine postulant takes next monastic step

Clarisa Cutaia entered the novitiate of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration during a ceremony on Dec. 8 in the Adoration Chapel in Clyde.

Novice Clarisa began as a postulant in August 2007.  Postulancy is the time where a newcomer lives within the monastic environment and, with guidance, tests her vocation and gives the community the opportunity to experience her as a potential member. During the past two years, Novice Clarisa has been learning more about monastic life, participating in communal prayer, taking classes and developing her personal prayer life.

“As a novice, Clarisa will have further instruction, spiritual guidance and a lived monastic experience that will help prepare her for monastic profession in our Benedictine way of life,” said Sister Rita Clair Dohn, OSB, postulant/novice director.

Clarisa, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was raised in Metairie, La., a large suburb of New Orleans.

Novice Clarisa Cutaia

November 24, 2008—Book highlighting paintings of Missouri’s counties features Benedictine monastery

It was a massive undertaking and took seven years to complete — painting a unique and vibrant scene on canvas and writing essays about the locations to capture the heart and soul of each of Missouri’s 114 counties and the city of St. Louis.

However, artist Billyo O’Donnell and writer Karen Glines were up to the challenge. Their work has been published in “Painting Missouri: The Counties en Plein Air,” a collection of 115 oil paintings and stories that reflect the state’s unique and beautiful places.

Each county in Missouri is represented, with locations specifically chosen for historical significance or geographical features. The monastery of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde was chosen as the subject of the painting for Nodaway County.

Glines visited the monastery on Nov. 20 for a presentation about the book and exhibited the oil painting, which features the monastery overlooking the rolling hills of northwest Missouri.

“The Benedictine Sisters’ monastery has been a vital part of the area for more than 125 years, and the sisters were honored that Mr. O’Donnell and Ms. Glines chose their home to represent the peaceful spirit of Nodaway County,” Director of Communications Kelley Baldwin said. “It is such an honor to be part of an exceptional project that encompasses all of the wonder the Lord created in our beautiful state.”

For more information about “Painting Missouri,” please log onto www.paintingmissouri.com.

Author Karen Glines recently visited the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde to share her book and showcase the oil painting of the sisters’ monastery that appeared in “Painting Missouri.”

October 28, 2008—Benedictine Sister Mary Mercedes Kelemen Passes

Benedictine Sister Mary Mercedes Kelemen, OSB, 92, passed away Oct. 27, 2008, at Our Lady of Rickenbach healthcare center in Clyde, Mo.

She was born Irene Marie Kelemen on Jan. 17, 1916, at her grandparents’ home in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents, Francis and Julia (Toth) Kelemen, and her grandparents were originally from Hungary. She was the oldest daughter of the family, and after the birth of her younger sister the family moved to Detroit where her father became a member of the Detroit Symphony. A few years later they moved to Los Angeles where her father played as a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. After one season he became homesick for the East, and the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where her father played with the symphony and the opera.

Sister Mercedes attended Catholic schools in Ohio and California. When her father re-enlisted in the Naval Academy band and moved the family back to Annapolis, Md., she finished her education in public high school.

She began piano lessons at the age of 5 and started to study art at the Cincinnati Art Museum in seventh grade. When the family moved to New York she continued to study sculpture and drawing.  She continued her art work until World War II when she had to discontinue and never took it up again. Later the family moved back to California where her parents owned a restaurant, and Sister Mercedes worked for them.

She was a woman of varied interests. An avid bicyclist, she biked about 10,000 miles before entering religious life. She collected stamps and dabbled in photography. She also served as sacristan for her church and attended Mass daily. In 1940, she joined the Women’s Ambulance and Defense Corps of America and was a member for over four years. When the family sold the restaurant she felt free to follow her vocation.

Sister Mercedes had contact with the Benedictine Sisters through their magazine and the correspondence department. She even made donations toward the construction of the Kansas City, Mo., monastery, which would later become her home.

She entered the Benedictine Sisters at the age of 33 on Dec. 7, 1949, and made her monastic profession of vows on Sept. 15, 1951, when she received the name Sister Mary Mercedes in honor of Our Lady of Mercy.

Except for a brief stay at Clyde to prepare for perpetual vows, she lived at the Kansas City community from 1954 until it closed in 1982. She also lived at the communities in San Diego and St. Louis until moving to Our Lady of Rickenbach in 2001. While a Benedictine Sister, she worked in the vestry, the craft shop, the kitchen and the altar bread department. In the Kansas City monastery, she had charge of the bells and the sound system and learned to play the classical guitar and the bass viol. Several sisters had the pleasure of listening to her play.

She enjoyed walking and other exercise and appreciated beauty, art, classical music and good books. More than anything she had a deep and abiding love for God and confidence in God’s abiding love for her. It made her both perceptive and compassionate.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place Wednesday, Oct. 29, in the Adoration Chapel, Clyde, followed by burial in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Clyde.

Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo. 64432-8100.

September 30, 2008—Clyde Celebrates Annual Retreat for Oblates

The Clyde, Mo., community celebrated its annual retreat for oblates Sept. 26-28, concluding with an oblation ceremony for two women in the Adoration Chapel.

Fifteen oblates attended the weekend conference, enjoying a presentation on the Prologue to the Rule of Benedict by Father Daniel Petsche, OSB of Conception Abbey.

Geri Herfkens and Betty Carneal made their oblations, and Marie Fitch has begun a one-year formation program as an oblate candidate.

For more information on Benedictine oblates, please log onto www.BenedictineOblates.com.

Sister Mary Demetria Newman, OSB, 90, passed away Sept. 15, 2008, at Our Lady of Rickenbach in Clyde. She was a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

She was born Frances Cecilia Newman on April 21, 1918, in Norman, Okla., to Otto Joseph and Mary Agnes (Meyer) Newman. Her family moved to California when she was 5 years old and settled in Maywood, a suburb of Los Angeles. She learned how to sew and to cook as a child. After graduating from high school, she worked as a housekeeper for a year before pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a religious sister.

“Many years after I was in the convent I learned that when my grandmother held me in her arms at my baptism, she asked the Blessed Mother to obtain a religious vocation for me,” Sister Mary Demetria once recalled. “Her prayer was answered because from the first dawn of reason, I had this desire and conviction. Moreover, I had a picture in my mind of exactly the kind of nun I was going to be – not teaching, not nursing, but the kind that prays.”

Discouraged by her lack of interest in the religious communities she had inquired about, she asked her mother what she should do. Her mother advised she write to the Benedictine Sisters in Clyde to ask them to pray for her to find the right place. Her mother said she always received help with whatever she asked them to pray for. So Sister Mary Demetria wrote to Clyde and was sent the vocation booklet, “The Eucharistic Adorer.” “On opening the book and seeing the sisters, I knew this was where God wanted me,” she once said.

When she talked it over with her mother, she learned her grandmother was born in nearby Conception, Mo., and her mother was also born in the area and knew of the Clyde community. Her mother had not shared this with her previously because she wanted to leave Sister Mary Demetria free to go wherever God directed.

She entered in 1939 and made her first profession on Feb. 8, 1941, receiving the name Sister Mary Demetria. During her years as a Benedictine Sister, she worked in the laundry and in maintenance. She made and mended cucullas and veils for the novices and served as a night nurse in the infirmary.

She later moved to the sisters’ community in Tucson, Ariz., where she worked in the altar bread department and sewed liturgical vestments. A gifted seamstress, she was privileged to help with the drapery for the new altar when the Tucson monastery’s chapel was consecrated and helped with vestments for Bishop Green’s consecration.

Sister Mary Demetria was preceded in death by her parents and an infant sister. Survivors include her monastic family; a sister, Theresa Patrick, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; three brothers, Joseph Newman, Downey, Calif., John Newman, Santa Anna, Calif. and Fred Newman, Vancouver, Wash.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held Sept. 17 in the Adoration Chapel, with burial in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Clyde, Mo. Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo. 64432-8100.

Sister Mary Blanche Aubuchon, OSB, 88, passed away Aug. 31, 2008, at Our Lady of Rickenbach healthcare facility in Clyde. She was a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

She was born Helen Bernice Aubuchon on Sept. 17, 1919, in Philadelphia to Cleveland and Helen Kelly Aubuchon. She was the second oldest child of five children. Her older brother, Alex, died of influenza as an infant. She had two sisters, Miriam and Joan, and a younger brother, Jerome.

The family moved often because of her father’s work as an industrial investigator for the railroad. From Philadelphia, the family moved to St. Louis where Sister Mary Blanche attended NativityParochial School. During her childhood, the family also lived in Arkansas, Texas and in Kansas City, Mo., where she graduated from WestportHigh School in 1938. After high school, she did housework to help bring in income for the family.

The novel “Quo Vadis” by Henryk K. Sienkiewicz inspired her to consider religious life. She learned about the Benedictine Sisters from the Pink Sisters in St. Louis, a community also dedicated to the adoration of Christ in the Eucharist.

A few months after Sister Mary Blanche applied to enter the Congregation, a Benedictine Sister from Clyde was in St. Louis for business and stopped by the Aubuchon house to visit. She asked Sister Mary Blanche if she would like to enter, and she said yes. She accompanied the sister back to Clyde that very evening.

Sister Mary Blanche later wrote, “It all happened so suddenly I didn’t have time to bring anything! The convent had to supply everything. How I finally came to enter at Clyde is so astounding and thrilling. Only God could, as it were, ‘pull off such a stunt’ with such aplomb. When I woke up that morning, I didn’t know that by the evening I would be saying goodbye to my family and be on a train for Clyde.”

She entered the Benedictine Sisters on June 7, 1940, and was invested in the habit Feb. 8, 1941. On Feb. 10, 1942, the Feast of St. Scholastica, she made profession and received the name Sister Mary Blanche after St. Blanche of Castile, the mother of King Louis IX, who became St. Louis.

Sister Mary Blanche worked for almost 30 years in the printery at Clyde. She faithfully ran the folder for the Congregation’s booklets and its magazine, Spirit & Life.  She also worked in the bakery, the altar bread department and in the Clyde and St. Louis infirmaries. In addition to those communities, she also lived and worked at the Congregation’s monasteries in Kansas City and Tucson, Ariz.

In May 1984, Sister Mary Blanche fulfilled a dream to travel to the then-Soviet Union. Drawn to the land by its writers and poets, she visited Russia, Georgia, Siberia and Samarkand, Uzbekistan, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.

She was an avid birdwatcher with over 120 species on her check list and an ardent student with an adventurous spirit. Knowing that Pope Paul VI wanted Benedictine monastic men and women to enter into dialogue with the religious traditions of the East, Sister Mary Blanche often met with a Vipassana meditation group to learn about that spiritual discipline.

Sister Mary Blanche was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Alex and Jerome Aubuchon; and a sister, Joan Bishop. She is survived by her sister, Miriam Speicher, Marietta, Ga.; sister-in-law, Trudy Aubuchon, Greensboro, N.C.; several nieces and nephews and her monastic family. Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo.64432-8100.

Sister Mary Andrew Faber, 91, passed away Monday, July 28, 2008, at Our Lady of Rickenbach in Clyde. She was a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

The youngest of five children, Sister Mary Andrew was born Gertrude Genevieve Faber on June 10, 1917, in Mellen, Wisc., to Francis and Laura (Walport) Faber.

She began school in a one-room public schoolhouse where one teacher was responsible for all eight grades. Her family moved to Minnesota when she was 8, and she made her first Holy Communion when she was 12. During high school, she was torn between becoming a sister or a nurse but knew she did not want to do both.

She worked as a waitress after graduation and then decided to enter religious life. She was deeply attracted to the life at Clyde, which she read about in the sisters’ magazine, “Tabernacle & Purgatory.”

Sister Mary Andrew made her first monastic profession on Jan. 21, 1939. During her years as a Benedictine Sister, she lived in the Tucson, Ariz., St. Louis and Clyde communities and worked in the kitchen, the infirmary, the embroidery department, altar bread production, maintenance and as portress.

Highly respected by her sisters in community, Sister Mary Andrew served on the monastery council of two prioresses. She was well-loved and a good example of patience and practicality. She also played a challenging game of cards.

In later years, she suffered from cancer and several other chronic illnesses. Her cheerful nature carried her through much suffering. She was a woman of deep prayer and devotion who practiced living in constant awareness of God’s presence.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place Wednesday, July 30, in the Adoration Chapel, Clyde, followed by burial in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Clyde.

Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo.64432-8100.

Sister Marion Alice Ambrose, 85, died Thursday, July 24, 2008, at Our Lady of Rickenbach Healthcare in Clyde, Mo. She was a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

She was born Marion Alice Ambrose on June 6, 1923, in Johnson Creek, Wisc., to Lawrence and Frances Anna (Schneeberger) Ambrose.

Sister Marion, who had felt a call to religious life since childhood, attended parochial school taught by Franciscan Sisters. While attending a public high school, she faithfully continued her religious instruction until she was 21 and work conflicted with the class schedule. For five years after her graduation from high school, she worked part time as a switch-board operator and helped with the family at home.

She suffered from a severe form of asthma, but her health improved in 1945. So she pursued her religious calling and was accepted by the Dominican Sisters in Sinsinawa, Wisc. After a few weeks, Sister Marion suffered such a severe asthma attack that she had to be hospitalized. As a result, her health was deemed too fragile for religious life and she returned home.

She later moved to Tucson, Ariz., for health reasons and it was there she began to consider contemplative life and to discern if it was God’s will for her. She spent hours praying at the chapel of the Benedictine Sisters’ monastery in Tucson. Returning to Wisconsin, she once again worked at the telephone office. In 1947, her health worsened and she sought help from a doctor in Milwaukee.

Five years later, her asthma condition had improved. She entered the Benedictine Sisters in 1952 at the age of 29 and made her first monastic profession on Feb. 11, 1954.

During her years as a Benedictine Sister, she was part of the Congregation’s communities in Clyde, St. Louis, San Diego, Calif., Mundelein, Ill., and Tucson. She worked as kitchen manager, bookkeeper and treasurer, cared for the elderly and infirm sisters, and managed the sisters’ altar bread department.

Within the community, she was most renowned for her photographic memory and could remember names, dates and events for each sister. As the living memory of the community, Sister Marion had an instinct for how to find our hunger for God, for freedom, truth, justice, peace and the Eucharist.

A Mass of Christian Burial took place Saturday, July 26, in the Adoration Chapel, Clyde, followed by burial in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Clyde.

Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo.64432-8100.

Novice Nancy Gucwa, who is in formation with the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, was honored for her official retirement from the U.S. Army during a reception July 12 at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.

Born and raised in New York, Novice Nancy was a member of the first class that admitted women to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

After graduation in 1980, she served active duty for six years and continued her army career as a member of the reserves, earning the rank of lieutenant colonel. She later earned an MBA and enjoyed a career in the financial and banking industries. Heeding the call to religious life, she entered the Benedictine Sisters in 2006.

“I would encourage all women who have had careers, even in their 30’s and 40’s, to consider whether a religious vocation is right for them,” she said.

During the retirement ceremony, Novice Nancy presented remarks that provided insight to the Benedictine Sisters and compared monastic and military life.

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration have elected Sister Sean Douglas, OSB as their new prioress for the Clyde community.

During a discernment process that ended with the July 15 vote, the Sisters chose Sister Sean to lead them during her two-year term. She succeeds Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB who was recently elected prioress general for the Congregation during the sisters’ chapter meeting in June.

Sister Sean entered in 1979 and made her first monastic profession on July 29, 1982. Her most recent position within the Clyde community was as building maintenance director. Talented in computer networking, she has also been instrumental in developing MonasteryPodcast.com, a Web site that provides podcasts of the sisters’ prayer services, which has allowed them to share their prayerful worship with people around the globe.

Sister Sean was officially installed into office during a ceremony held July 16 at the sisters’ Adoration Chapel in Clyde. During the ceremony, she received the ceremonial keys to Clyde and the Rule of Benedict from Sister Pat.

Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration Natalia Barela was surrounded by her community, family and friends during a celebration to mark her 100th birthday on July 8, 2008.

Born on that date in 1908 in Albuquerque, N.M., Sister Natalia entered the world before New Mexico was officially granted statehood. The first Model T Ford had just rolled off the assembly line, Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States and it would be four more years before the Titanic would make its historic plunge to the bottom of the North Atlantic.

Sister Natalia’s earliest years were spent on a small ranch outside Albuquerque. After the death of her father when she was just a toddler, the family moved to town to be near relatives. She went to pubic school until the ninth grade when she began attending St. Vincent Academy, a Catholic high school.

After graduation, she took business courses and worked in retail and insurance before entering the Benedictine Sisters in 1929. Throughout her years as a Benedictine Sister, she lived in several of the congregation’s communities. However, she is especially fond of her time spent in Arizona, witnessing the sisters’ move in 1939 into the Pink Rose of the Desert, Tucson’s lovely monastery.

Sister Natalia now resides at Our Lady of Rickenbach, the sisters’ healthcare facility in Clyde, where she continues to deepen her union with God and remains committed to the vows she professed so long ago.

“I can pray and be more attentive to God when silent,” she said. “I am grateful for and have enjoyed all these years. God has never failed me.”

Her 100th birthday celebration included a cake and punch reception, which was also attended by a family friend and several nieces and nephews who made the trip from New Mexico and Arizona.

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration held elections for their new prioress general and council members during their two-week chapter meeting, which concluded June 12 in Clyde.

Sister Pat Nyquist, OSB was elected prioress general and Sisters Dawn Annette Mills, OSB, Cheryl Morehead, OSB and Ruth Elaine Starman, OSB were elected to the general council.

They were installed during a ceremony held June 13 at the Adoration Chapel in Clyde, presided over by Abbot Gregory Polan, OSB of Conception Abbey.

The sisters will each serve six-year terms for the congregation, which includes 93 professed sisters and four women in formation. Their communities are located in Clyde, Tucson, Ariz., and Dayton, Wyo.

Sister Pat Nyquist, a native of Moorhead, Minn., joined the Benedictine Order in 1974 and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame.

Among her earlier jobs within the Congregation were treasurer, co-manager of the altar bread department, director of novices and Clyde subprioress. She is a member of the American Benedictine Formation Conference. Sister Pat served as prioress of the sisters’ Clyde community from 2005 until her election as prioress general.

Sister Dawn Annette Mills was born in Gary, Ind., and entered the Benedictine Sisters in 1975. She completed a master’s program at the Institute for Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland, Calif. She is an accomplished author and presents workshops on a variety of religious subjects throughout the country.

She has served as prioress of the Tucson community, as a pastoral minister and an oblate director. Most recently she headed the sisters’ correspondence department, which answers prayer requests, handles direct mailings regarding prayer intentions and keeps the records for the Association of Perpetual Adoration, an affiliation of those who are remembered daily by the sisters in their prayers and ministry.

Sister Cheryl Morehead is from Albert Lea, Minn. She earned degrees from Corbett College in Crookston, Minn., and the University of North Dakota. She made her entrance with the Benedictine Sisters in 1989 and was the subprioress of the Clyde community from 1998 to 2002 and again since 2005. She will also serve as the community’s administrator until the sisters hold elections for their new prioress in July.

Sister Ruth Elaine Starman is an Elgin, Neb., native and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and computer science from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. She entered the congregation in 1993 and has served as the congregation’s vocation director since 2005.

Spring ushered in a celebration for a trio of Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration during a jubilee ceremony on April 4 at Clyde.

Sisters Jean Frances Dolan, OSB and Lioba Hanley, OSB celebrated their golden jubilees of monastic profession and were joined by Sister Jane Heschmeyer, OSB who was honored for her silver anniversary.

While all three were called to religious life with the Benedictine Sisters and dedicated themselves to contemplative prayer and the Eucharist, each took a different path in getting there. With a great-aunt who had become a nun, Sister Lioba was familiar with and interested in religious life but not drawn to her particular community.

“But I knew there was something special about that life,” Sister Lioba said.

As a teenager, she played sports, went to movies and dances and hung out with her friends. She spent her summers at her family’s home at the lake. It was at St. Celestine’s in Elmwood Park, Ill., outside of Chicago that she would meet a young girl named Jean Frances.

They played in the same neighborhood as children. As the years passed, they attended Trinity High School in River Forest, Ill.

While different interests meant different classes, they still managed to share an interest in religious life. Drawn to a contemplative and prayerful life, Sister Lioba made plans to enter the Benedictine Sisters before telling her friend of her decision.

“I took Jean Frances to (then-community) Mundelein for a visit,” Sister Lioba said. “As soon as she walked in the door, she nudged me and said, ‘This is it. This is where I want to be.’ The spiritual connection that drew us together as children led us both to the Benedictine Sisters.”

For Sister Jean Frances her interest in religious life began when she was only 4 years old.

“I announced I wanted to be a nun when I grew up because the nuns lived with God,” she laughed. “My mother insisted I would change my mind when I got older, but I never did.”

While in high school, she confided in her chaplain that she was considering a vocation as a contemplative sister. He gave her a brochure about the Benedictine Sisters, but one look at the cover’s photograph of the beautiful chapel and she changed her mind and returned the brochure.

“I was thinking of a more simple order. The sisters’ chapel was too fancy for me,” she laughed. “Then the chaplain asked me, ‘Are you entering for the Lord or for the place?’ I answered, ‘The place,’ and he handed the brochure right back to me.”

She left her home near Chicago and along with Sister Lioba entered the Benedictine Sisters in 1955. They each made their first monastic profession on March 13, 1958.

During her years as a Benedictine, Sister Jean Frances spent time at many of the congregation’s monasteries.

“My family jokes – Join the Monastery, See the World,” she said. “I’ve loved the transfers because each was a new adventure. You are changed by every place you go and everyone you meet.”

She currently serves as the congregation’s director of oblates, lay people of any faith drawn to the Benedictine life who adapt monastic practices to their own lives.

“I meet these beautiful people who are sincere in sharing their desire for something deeper in their lives,” Sister Jean Frances said. “To walk with them has been such a gift and one of the biggest joys of my life.”

Sister Lioba has served the congregation in a variety of ways such as a pastoral minister, in the finance department and formation and now works in the low-gluten altar bread department.

“I enjoy making the wafers because I like how much they help people. I unite with them in prayer,” she said.

Unlike Sisters Jean Frances and Lioba, the Lord took a bit longer to call Sister Jane to religious life.

It was on the banks of a river in Germany on a glorious autumn day that Sister Jane felt a call to religious life. A college graduate who was backpacking her way through Europe, she had not thought much about monastic life until that very moment.

“I experienced something that day. There were no words but a strong interior sense that God wanted me to consider religious life,” she said. “It all just came as softly and naturally as an autumn breeze.”

Her parish priest helped her explore options with regards to active or contemplative communities but it was the life led by the Benedictine Sisters that attracted her the most. She entered in 1980 and made her first monastic profession on Aug. 20, 1983. She received degrees in sociology and psychology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in addition to monastic studies at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. She serves as a general councilor for the congregation and was also instrumental in helping develop the sisters’ low-gluten altar bread.

While they traveled a different path, they each found a home, a sacred place, that they discovered by listening to God with their hearts.

“We are a microcosm of society at large,” Sister Jane said. “Among us you’ll find incredible talent, wisdom, knowledge, skill, strength, weakness, health, illness, compassion, joy and sorrow – the scope of human existence. God has called us to live this life together because he wants to do his work in this particular group of people.”

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration formally welcomed Mary Hastie to their congregation when she entered during a ceremony held March 3 in the Adoration Chapel in Clyde, Mo.

Postulant Mary grew up in Tabor in the Loess, a town located in western Iowa, and was drawn to nature at an early age.

“At home you could find me out wandering in the hills. I love nature and was always seeking adventure,” she said. “I dug caves into canyon walls and tried to build little huts and rafts. I played in the creek and climbed trees.”

As the daughter of Protestants, she didn’t hear the word “Catholic” until she was in the seventh grade.

“I was drawn to the word and wanted to learn what it was all about. I went to the school library and looked it up in the encyclopedia,” Postulant Mary said. “From that point on I knew I had to become Catholic, and I read everything I could get my hands on about God and Catholicism.”

As she entered her teenage years, Postulant Mary began thinking about religious life. She realized that becoming a nun was how she could give her entire life to Jesus.

“I wanted a whole-hearted surrender, and this was it,” she said. “Even though I wasn’t Catholic and I had never even seen a religious sister, I knew it was the answer for me.”

She was 16 when she finally entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, one of the happiest days of her life. After attending the Monastic Experience in Clyde when she was 18, her desire for religious life was strongly re-awakened.

Postulant Mary, who worked as a nursing assistant and in a critical care unit in a hospital before entering, was also active with the National Catholic Youth Conference and taught faith formation to younger members of her parish.

“I want to become a sister because I aspire to a deep relationship with Jesus Christ and want to spend the rest of my life praying for others,” she said. “I am striving to make God the center of my life and to seek his will in all things.”

Women who enter the postulancy spend the first year exploring a religious vocation under the guidance of a spiritual director. Postulants will develop and deepen their prayer life, take classes that aid in the transition to monastic life and work in various jobs throughout the community. If she is accepted into the novitiate, she will observe stricter enclosure for the sake of her discernment and study the Benedictine vows of stability, conversatio and obedience in preparation for her First Monastic Profession.

Sister Mary Esther Elbert, OSB, 96, died April 11, 2008, in Clyde, Mo. She was a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

She was born Sept. 4, 1911, to Michael and Clara Belle (Kanappel) Elbert in Sedro-Woolley, Wash.

After graduating high school at 16 she attended Holy Names Normal School in Seattle. When her older sister entered the Benedictine Sisters, she became interested in their contemplative life and dedication to the Eucharist. She entered in 1932 and made her final monastic profession on April 22, 1939.

Sister Mary Esther once said, “I just knew I wanted to be a bride of Christ. I am grateful for the beauty of our monastic homes and the peace and quiet that has helped our seeking closer union with Jesus and one another. I recall the awesomeness of adoration, especially at night when in the quiet stillness and semidarkness God seemed so near.”

During her years as a Benedictine Sister, she lived in the congregation’s communities in Mundelein, Ill., San Diego, Tucson, Ariz. and St. Louis. She served in a variety of ministries including work in the printery, the altar bread department, garden, library, maintenance and the reception room. She was as a chronicler, a councilor, an oblate director and worked with the Benedictine Guild and as a pastoral minister.

She was preceded in death by her parents; two sisters, Sister Mary Johanna Elbert, OSB and Josephine Elbert Smernoff; and three brothers, Paul, Anthony and Bernard Elbert.

Sister Mary Esther was known for her joy and her appreciation of beauty in nature, in life and in others. She was generous, gracious and loving. Now one with the Lord whom she adored, she delights in the fullness of joy and beauty.

A Mass of Christian Burial took place on April 14 in the Adoration Chapel, Clyde, followed by burial in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Clyde.

Memorials can be sent in care of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, 31970 State Highway P, Clyde, Mo. 64432-8100.

Our Lady of Rickenbach, the healthcare facility for the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, was damaged during a fire on Easter Sunday, March 23.

The fire was discovered around 8 a.m., just as the sisters were gathering for prayer services. With assistance from guests, staff members, neighbors and first responders, each of the 25 sisters in residence were evacuated safely to the motherhouse.

While the fire was detected and extinguished quickly by the building’s automatic sprinkler system, much of the interior received extensive water damage.

“Even though the sprinklers put out the fire, the responders were a godsend,” Prioress General Sister Ramona Varela, OSB said. “They immediately went to work cleaning up the water, which was ankle-deep on the floor. If they hadn’t done that, then we would have suffered much more damage to the walls, the floor and contents inside the building.”

Our Lady of Rickenbach, which opened in 2001 to provide a wide range of the sisters’ healthcare needs from recuperative to long-term care, will be closed until restoration efforts are complete. In the meantime, the sisters have been moved to a wing of the motherhouse where they will receive proper medical care under more challenging conditions.

“The sisters are all settled in an area that coincidently used to be the infirmary many years ago,” Clyde Prioress Pat Nyquist, OSB said. “However, we’ll have adjustments to make. There are several people to each room, the restrooms are quite a distance from the bedrooms and the area is not handicapped accessible.”

Investigators will spend the next few days examining the building to determine the cause of the fire and assess the damage, which includes charred trusses in the roof. Insurance will cover much of the repair cost, but the sisters will be responsible for a $5,000 deductible.

It could be several weeks or up to two months before the residents will be able to move back in. In the meantime, the sisters have been deluged with offers of assistance from kind-hearted people throughout the area.

“At this point a walk-in bath tub would be wonderful to install in our temporary infirmary as it would be safer for the sisters to use,” Sister Pat said. “Since there is no designated recreation area at that location, it would also be nice to have volunteers visit to take the sisters for a walk, to enjoy the spring weather.”

When repairs are completed and the sisters can move back to their permanent home, it would be a blessing to have someone help coordinate those relocation efforts, Sister Pat added.

“We’ll need to transport sisters, heavy hospital beds, records, food and other supplies,” she said. “It will take a lot of people working together.”

A fire wasn’t the Easter celebration the sisters were expecting, but they are grateful no one was injured and the building was saved. The outpouring of help from those in the area that morning and afterward has served as another reminder of the miracle celebrated each year.

“Beginning with our heroic guests and ending with generous neighbors, we have been humbled by the kindness we received and know we have been incredibly blessed,” Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza, OSB said. “We have seen with our own eyes the resurrection, where death and destruction do not have the last word and the living spirit of God rises up in God’s people.”

For a list of requested donation items or other ways to help, please contact the Benedictine Sisters at (660) 944-2221.