Lessons from the Other

Over recent weeks, along with millions of others, I have been distressed, dismayed, horrified by the magnitude of the refugee problem. I have never lived anywhere that isn't relatively "safe" and when I've moved, it's always been my choice at some level. I have never been forced from my home or felt that the perils of staying there were so great that I had to leave at any cost.

I hurt at my powerlessness to do much to help as an individual and also at the unwelcoming way in which many affluent countries (fail to) greet and handle those fleeing their homeland. I think there are many reasons for this but one of them is almost certainly that many refugees today are of a different race, skin color and religion from the majority of people living in the countries best equipped to receive them.

That's not right, but I think most people have had the experience of feeling slightly alienated by someone or something different. It sometimes has to be a conscious choice to overcome those feelings of prejudice, or even simple unease, with the unfamiliar.

Yet, as I've seen people in extreme circumstances being interviewed and observed the grace and dignity with which many of then face their situation, I've been forcefully struck, not only by our common humanity, but also by how much I can learn from them.

I have never been tested as they are being tested. Yet many of them seem to maintain a trust and hope in God, in the future, and in what life can hold for them, which I find truly inspiring. That leads me to believe that, far from turning people away, we should positively embrace because they have so much to teach us. We should welcome the lessons that the Other can teach us.

Karen Rose, OSB

Gentleness and Fearlessness

Madonna Kuebelbeck, OSB

Gentleness and wholeheartedness can be a catalyst for fearlessness. Sister Madonna Kuebelbeck, OSB, manifested just such fearless energy. The gentleness of her voice invited a collaborative listening and speaking exchange. That openness of heart allowed her to always have space for those who needed the light of her presence and creative responses in their life. As a nurse she helped establish the first intensive care unit in a large local hospital in order to protect the safety of patients with life threatening illnesses. She went on to use her mental health knowledge to give loving hope to persons with mental illness and addiction by setting up state of the art units for each of these populations. 

Later, her lack of fear allowed her to choose to go to Brazil and live for 12 years among people living in poverty and to coordinate mental health and pastoral breakthroughs in Recife. These activities put her safety at risk because Brazil’s dictatorship was not friendly towards any social change attempts which supported those living in poverty. 

In her old age she herself needed assistance due to hearing and memory loss. Even though she ultimately could no longer hear or speak her gentle smile would delight her caregivers whenever she sensed their love her. On her last day a nursing assistant was moving her into bed. To support her she put her arms around Madonna’s back and then noticed a change in her.  She said to her, “Madonna are you dying?” Madonna then leaned her head on the assistants shoulder and breathed her last. She died as gently as she lived, exuding love and surrounded by love.

[S. Madonna died on September 3, 2015. May she rest in peace.]

Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB

Ora et Labora

A recent issue of Restoration (Vol. 68 #6) published by the Madonna House Community in Combermere, Canada, included these intriguing titles: “God in the Nitty-Gritty,”  “Give Wings to your Work,” and “The Adventure of Washing Dishes.” Do these titles not indicate a theme attractive to our spirits but not always easy to accomplish? Or as a friend puts the question: “How does one find God in the chaos and busyness of life?” or in the words of Catherine Doherty, foundress of Madonna House, “What can a person do who tries to love God tremendously?”

Each of the articles mentioned seeks to respond to those questions . . . which in my opinion have much to say to our Labor Day celebration … and musings! Catherine herself says: “It never occurs to me that I can possibly separate anything from love. For example, I will speak of washing dishes. If I have the attitude that this is a beautiful thing that I can give to God, then washing a cup becomes an adventure.”

Teresa Davis couches her response within a question. “And what is our Father’s business? To live the Gospel without compromise. To do the duty of the moment. To do little things well out of love. … Love raises everything from the natural order to the divine order.”

And finally Pope John Paul II, who addressed Italian workers in 1980, challenging them to let the famous Benedictine dual concept of ora et labora (work and prayer) be for them an inexhaustible source of true wisdom, of sure equilibrium, and of human perfection. He pleaded with them to respect human beings and not to allow technical progress to diminish or impoverish humanity’s spiritual interior lives. John Paul II ended his address to laborers—and to us, I’d say--with the words:  “May prayer give wings to your work, purify your intentions, and defend you from the perils of boredom and carelessness; and may your work, after your exertions, allow you to re-discover the invigorating force of the encounter with God, in whom we once more recover our true, great stature.  Ora et Labora!”

A refreshing Labor Day consideration for each of us!

Renée Domeier, OSB

Photo: S. Elaine Schroeder, Director of Liturgy and one of our gardeners. For our sister-gardeners, tending the earth and growing produce is a way to pray.

All in a Spin

Karen Rose, OSB: Monastery washing machine

Before I entered the monastery, I wasn’t entirely bought into the myth that women and men who enter monasteries are a different species floating effortlessly from prayer to prayer, transcending normal life and its attendant duties and annoyances, but I never really thought about what everyday life, in a monastery would be like. Specifically, I never considered laundry.

Now, there was a time when there was a monastery laundry here at Saint Benedict's. It was housed for many years in what is now the Formation House, the place where women live for the first two years while they begin discerning their call to monastic life. The building was also home to the Spirituality Center for a period, which is a lesson in being adaptable. My experiences with laundry here highlight that I have a way to go before I’m as accommodating as that house!

By the time I got here in 2007, Sisters had, for some time, been responsible for their own laundry, but this doesn’t mean that it’s not a community experience. We live in small groups of 3-10 Sisters here at the motherhouse. Laundry facilities are often shared by groups and this creates a great opportunity for learning to love others, even when their laundry practice doesn’t match you own. So here’s a list of the laundry challenges I have learned to live with!

• 1.      I’ve realized that when 15-20 other people are using the same two machines, you can’t always do your laundry when you’d like to.

• 2.    You can’t choose the machine you’d like. I prefer front loaders (common in Europe where I come from) but ours are top loaders. Guess what? I’m going to have to use what’s there and learn to be grateful for it.

• 3.     People put laundry in the machine and forget it. This raises the ticklish question of whether they will mind if I take it out. An exercise in trying to read the mind of another and do the least offensive thing while bearing in mind the communal good. After all, a lot of people will be held up if one set of laundry is in the machine for five hours!

• 4.    Ditto for the tumbler drier.

• 5.     When finding the machine finally unused at an inconvenient time, I put in some laundry. I forget it. This leads to guilt. (For the record, I prefer people to take my stuff out so they can get theirs in.) Maybe it’s best sometimes to resist the lure of the free machine just before I go to a meeting. An exercise in moderation - a Benedictine value.

• 6.    Soap/detergent/bleach/spot remover are supplied. What is supplied is not necessarily what I would choose. Until recently we had a stick spot remover available. No longer. The spray is not nearly as good. I will have to be more careful not to drop anything on my clothes. A lesson in caring for all things “as vessels of the altar” which is what St. Benedict teaches.

• 7.     Other people. I am positively sanctimonious about energy and money saving when it comes to laundry. Big load, minimal use of the tumbler drier which, from owning a house and paying bills, I know positively EATS both money and energy. It is, therefore, very difficult for me to share laundry with facilities with people who don’t have these priorities. Please, God, help me to be aware that I probably do things that irritate them and that being careful with laundry is not the only requirement for entering heaven!

Honestly, before I entered the monastery, I never thought laundry would get me in such a spin! Sometimes when it’s whizzing round at the end of the washcycle, I feel a distinct empathy …

Karen Rose, OSB