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| Monastic Cemetery (Photo by Nancy Bauer, OSB) |
Fortunately,
the monastic cemetery of over 1000 sisters is available right on our monastery/college
campus. In addition, right next to our
cemetery is the cemetery for the local St. Joseph parish church where equal
numbers of holy ones are resting.
Recently I have been walking among the markers of sisters I have known
over the past 60 years. So many remind
me of things they have taught me during their lifetime. There are community leaders that walked
through amazing times of change and had to go forward with incredible faith to
withstand waves of opposition to their decisions. In the end, their faith-walk has helped each
person in the community evolve.
There are
sisters that spent their entire energy in support of social justice or faithfully
supporting the sisters they lived with by having warm bread and kind words
ready for whoever entered their kitchen. Each sister or parish member carries
their uniquely hidden ways of saying “yes” to their call to connect their
God-gifts and the tender transformation of the persons around them. Most of these humble and authentic persons
would be shocked at how many people they have taught important life lessons.
As Baba
Dioum says, “In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only
what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught”. These
expressions of the continually transforming love of God seem to create a single
heartbeat of the divine in all that is.
Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB
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