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Category Archives: E Newsletters

Monthly E-Newsletter

October 2020 E-Newsletter

September 2020
As a part of our commissioning service at the September 12 day of community meetings, each member of the community was presented with a copy of her first vows. We were invited to reflect on that original commitment to seek God with this community and to be of service to one another and the Church. The Benedictine Feasts days of February 10 and July 11 are typically the dates marked by commitment for a monastic. October 18 is my anniversary date. It was on this day in 1987 that I professed my first vows. The reason for such a date was due to the fact that I entered the Novitiate on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, September 14 of 1986, and so a date in October of the following year made sense.
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September 2020 E-Newsletter

August 2020
Fall is a favorite season for many of us. All around we see folks collecting dried seeds for spring planting, some are nurturing the ground with rich soil or cleaning a bird feeder. Others may be modifying daily schedules to accommodate school or childcare needs. We are all seeking normality in a time of uncertainty amidst global health concerns. All around we are hearing the following words, intending to offer comfort: “We are all in this together.”
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August 2020 E-Newsletter

August 2020
It has now been about a half-year, or perhaps a half-century, since the coronavirus pandemic exploded onto our national, communal, and individual consciousness. The end of the stay-at-home order and the reopening of Minnesota has not brought a return to normal, but a time that feels like no-time, like an in-between place. At the monastery, we’ve been encouraged to consider this no-time as a “covid pause.” During no-time, we are outside of our normal routine, making this a very good time for us to slow down and be reflective. We are all invited to consider and begin to act on what really matters, what doesn’t matter, and what needs to change in our lives.
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July 2020 E-Newsletter

June 2020
The Feast of our founder St. Benedict is July 11. It is a very special time of celebration. Our Order, founded over 1500 years ago, means that Benedictines are the oldest religious community. I believe that this speaks to the depth and breadth of the foundation that St. Benedict built. When I am working with the youth, I have opportunities to explain Benedictine life to them. When they hear that Benedictines are 1500 years old, I usually ask “Don’t I look good for being 1500 years old?” Then they laugh or their jaws drop. I have to admit, this is one way I know whether or not the students are paying attention. And they are: Our youth are listening and looking to us for wisdom and guidance.
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June 2020 E-Newsletter

May 2020
Many years ago, I attended a contemplative prayer retreat at our Monastery. It was lead by Sister Ludwiges Fabian, a Tutzing Missionary Benedictine. She introduced me to a lovely story which I would like to share with you. Consider yourself as the bamboo tree in the story below. The story calls us into a deeper understanding of how we can serve as to bring life to others. We experience joy not in being praised or being accepted but in feeling how we function as a channel.
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May 2020 E-Newsletter

April 2020
The world I knew as a child is so much larger now; no longer just my own family and country, but a world that includes persons living oceans and continents away who I will never meet. St. Paul’s message to the Ephesians that we are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household (Eph. 2:19, NIV) exactly expresses what my sense of “world” is today. While this current health crisis is horrific, it also is an opportunity for every person to realize how we are all truly “members of his household”: Inseparable, interconnected, interdependent.
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