From One Generation to the Next

The other day Sister Trish Dick and I enjoyed an incredible lunch, sitting at an outside table of a local restaurant to which I had a gift certificate. Because we were both hungry for the same entrées, we split our order. We enjoyed a salad that had ingredients neither had thought of putting together, but agreed how good it was, and how we would surely duplicate it for a special meal. We ate a gourmet pizza and savored each bite.

In the delight of the connection the food was providing, we discussed our passions and pilgrimages, recipes, and the garden that provides vegetables and herbs for making Sister Lisa’s salsa and Sister Addie’s infamous spaghetti sauce, both of which we enjoy. We covered a lot in a two-hour span.

We traveled around the soul many times, told stories of life conversion, probed a lot of problems, created new recipes and shared insights. We left full of energy and encouragement. Even though our two lives are separated by a good number of years in age, as well as by the number of years in religious life and variety of life experiences, we recognize and cherish a closeness in our commitment to the Benedictine way of life.

That is the gift of community, living in unity and sharing the divine in each other. The Rule says that the younger are to respect the older, and the older to love the younger. Leaving the restaurant, we both wondered at the gift this provides for the two of us.