When you care enough to send the very best - (Hallmark's trademark)

How often I look for “the very best” to gift my friend, my community and my family.
What I have learned is that “very best” isn’t found in token items, beautiful cards or expensive gifting. Rather, the gifting of my true self to another is the very best offering of love. It places me in a stance of vulnerability and trust as I expose my strengths and my limitations. The beauty of this way of self-giving frees me to claim my person as one who is continually becoming the more of who I am meant to be. When I choose to gift from my authentic self I am able to: speak with confidence and claim my fears; let my words be formed from a heart of gratitude and allow the sting of disappointment speak its truth to me; release the guards I have placed at the door of my heart and welcome in forgiveness those who have left scars upon my heart.

The gift of me won’t be wrapped in beautiful paper with an elegant bow that creates curiosity and excitement. The gift of me will be offered in the very ordinary and daily encounters of life. This is where I am becoming the more I am meant to be. … the very best of me.

College Campus Capers

There are so many advantages to being a member of a monastery that shares a campus with the students attending the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University. On the evening of January 22, Sisters Stefanie and Cecelia experienced that advantage in a new and rather unique way. They were part of a packed audience that had been enjoying a show by the talented and entertaining Jared Sherlock. When they left the Escher Auditorium they were quite dismayed to find that during the show a rainy ice had covered the sidewalks and parking lots. Three college women noting their apprehension offered to walk the Sisters to their residence in Evin Hall. The three students (Baylee Mehr, Maura Sullivan and Kalleah Morseth) linked arms with the two Sisters and five-strong they made their way across campus. However, when they reached the incline that is part of the entrance into the parking lot, all five went down in the blink of an eye. Together they all fell forward onto their stomachs right into the wet road.

The Sisters told me how at first all that the five of them could do was lie there giggling hysterically. They found that trying to get up on that icy surface was almost impossible. Finally they crawled to where there was a snowy surface and helped each other up. They told me that they were barely on their feet when two other students (Catherine Pollock and Rachel Welz) rushed up and told them they could help these Sisters home because they were hockey players. And at that point another student (hockey player, Brenna Gould) approached and offered to give the Sisters a ride in her car. The Sisters protested that they were really not far from their residence, but the hockey students insisted on getting them into the car and making sure that they got delivered right to the door. What a boon it is to be on a college campus where young, observant and adventurous students volunteer their aid so generously.

To read more about the relationship between the Sisters and the college, see the Winter 2010 issue of Benedictine Sisters and Friends magazine. Click here to access the online copy.

Hearing Voices

On Wednesday evening, January 27, between 8:15 and 9:20 p.m., I was glued to the televised live broadcast of President Obama’s State of the Union speech. Alongside four companions, I took note of the setting, row upon row of representatives and senators and watched their body language. There were many smiles, frequent handshakes, some back slaps and, from one side of the aisle particularly, mainly stony faces.

The president spoke of the hopes and aspirations of the American people, their fears and anger about the extraordinary economic upheaval this nation has been going through for almost two years now. He quoted from letters he has received and referred to stories about people who have suffered or managed to succeed in these perilous times. That makes me ask: what voices are heard on Pennsylvania Avenue? Who speaks up and how are they sure of being heard?

St. Benedict states in his Rule that the abbot or abbess should seek counsel, the advice (and consent?) of many voices as he or she makes decisions. He refers first to senior advisors—known for their wisdom and community-mindedness—to share in the process of decision making. But Benedict then advocates calling upon “the young”—the less experienced, though no less community-minded—to also serve as advisors. To me, this means giving credence and respect to a variety of voices, a diversity which can be enriching —though admittedly also confusing and perhaps even contradictory at times.

President Obama needs to and seems to hear many voices as he ponders courses of action for this nation. Presidents (like abbots and abbesses) can rely so heavily upon an “inner circle” that they fail to hear the full range of voices which are clamoring to be heard. Worse yet would be an atmosphere of fear or apathy preventing the raising of these voices. Fortunately, there is no lack of people ready and willing to speak up—nationally and locally. In my own community, I am so grateful that there are a goodly number who regularly speak up and share concerns, ideas and ideals—all of which can enlarge and enliven our present and future hopes and plans.

Sister Teresa Duerr's Final Journey

The sisters in our community are both grieving and celebrating the final journey of Sister Teresa Duerr who died on Monday, January 11, 2010. Just ten and a half months before that, on February 25, Teresa received her pancreatic cancer diagnosis – a date that happened to be Ash Wednesday. As she found out that her cancer was inoperable and experienced that chemo treatments were extremely difficult for her, she made a brave decision. She wrote a letter to all of us in the community telling us she did not wish to do anything more to prolong her life. In the letter she asked us to accompany her on her final journey with our love and our prayers. It was difficult for all of us to see this happening. She was only 73 years old and still very active. In our community 73 is considered a young age. S. Teresa had been a delightful friend to many of us and all of us knew her as a faithful Benedictine monastic. We were not at all ready to think of having her leave us.

S. Teresa was able to carry on life here at our monastery until some time in August, 2009. At that point she again wrote a letter to all of us telling us that she had come to a place where she felt she needed the support of a nursing staff and would be moving to St. Scholastica (our nursing and retirement house). I recall that the handwriting on this note was small and spidery – the handwriting of someone whose trembling hand makes writing difficult. As the months went by we saw her becoming weak and fragile. Teresa died early in the morning on January 11. Many Sisters in our community had been taking turns keeping watch with her during the two weeks before she died.

S. Teresa’s loving acceptance of her death was a gift to all of us. Her invitation to us to accompany her on the stages of her journey was both a challenge and a privilege. We are relieved that her suffering is over and she has completed her journey home to God, but we miss her deeply.

For S. Teresa's obituary on the monastery Web site, click here.

God, Dogs and Dog Sledding

“God, Dogs, and Dog Sledding”: an unlikely combination, or an unforgettable experience of God’s beauty in dogs, frozen lakes, snow-covered pines, and sledding in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota? That’s what 13 college students, Sister Trish Dick and I experienced during a four-day retreat which combined dog sledding, cross country skiing and snowshoeing with prayer, silence, reflection and community building. What made this retreat so memorable?

I want to say, “It’s the dogs!” Imagine being greeted every morning by a chorus of 65 dogs howling not only for their breakfast, but for connection with us. We won’t easily forget: Lufa, Isis, Orion, Patches, Fennel, Samson, Daisy, Larry, all the dogs, and Wilbur, the everywhere-we-went-puppy.

They taught us what it means to be whole-hearted about what you were born for--in their case, pulling, running, connecting with each other and with us. They helped make us a community. Together, we raced over frozen lakes and bogs, through forests, up and down hills. Together, we fed and watered the dogs, cleaned the dog yard, and thanked them for their hard work. Together, we prayed, played, talked, laughed, and discovered the sheer goodness of each other. I’d do it again, in a minute!

submitted by Katherine Kraft, OSB

A Thousand Names for God

Recently I read a book with the intriguing title, Theology Brewed in an African Pot. The author, Agbonkhanmeghee Orbator, a Jesuit priest from Nigeria, teaches theology in Kenya.

At the end of each chapter, Father Orbator has prayers that reflect the African way of relating to God. At the end of Chapter 2, “A New God Comes to Mbanta,” the author has an African Invocation of Divine Names. Here is only a sample: watcher of everything who is not surprised at anything; sun too bright for our gaze; mother of people; father of laughter; the one who sees both the inside and the outside.

Having prayed that lovely list of names for God, I found myself paying more attention to the psalms during our Liturgy of Hours as I looked for names of God from our Judeo-Christian culture. Those names, too, are many and varied: tower of strength; rock of my salvation; lover of justice; protector of our very bones; my stronghold and defense; one who is good and forgiving; gentle breeze; mothering God.

In the silence between the psalms, I began to make my own names for God: keeper of our sighs; holder of our tears; comforter of the broken hearted; bearer of our sadness; healer of our grief; one who delights in our joy; lover of our humanity; deep well of our trust. And so there are a thousand names for God.

Out of our own experience we can add to those names, as do millions of persons of every nation, race and religious background. In the terrible aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, some would like to name God as Punisher. Some seem to see in every bad thing that happens to good people the wrath of God. But the God we name is above all the one named by Jesus Christ as Abba/Father/Mother, as a forgiving parent in the parable of the Prodigal Son; as a seeker of those who are lost; as the healer of all our ills.

It seems that the common theme in the African invocation of divine names, and in the Christian Scriptures as well, is that our God is the God of love, who desires only our good. I invite each of you who read this blog, to write your own list of names for God, to allow those names to sink deep into your heart and self-awareness, and to pass them on to your children’s children.

Image: "The I AM Sayings" from John 6-15. Illumination by Thomas Ingmire for The Saint John's Bible. For more information, visit www.saintjohnsbible.org .

Mission to China (1)

September 4, 1930. Mother Louise Walz, prioress of Saint Benedict’s Convent, stood on the dock in Seattle and watched as the ferry sailing to Victoria to meet up with the ship Empress of Japan became smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared. Aboard were six sisters from Saint Benedict’s on their way to Peking (now Beijing), China, to open a women’s section of Fujen University. Benedictine monks had started the university for men; the Vatican asked our community to provide higher education for women.


The community in St. Joseph prayed and discerned. It was the Great Depression and resources were scarce. The community was saddled with a nearly 2 million dollar debt on the new St. Cloud Hospital. Could they afford to take this risk? The vote to do so was affirmative and nearly unanimous. Over 100 sisters volunteered for the mission. One stipulation was made. The sisters’ living expenses would be financed by the motherhouse; funding needed to open and operate the school was to be secured elsewhere. Among the six sisters chosen were four who had college teaching experience.

No one could imagine what awaited these stalwart women. They would open the school to provide a college education for women. They would live through two wars, the Sino-Japanese War and World War II—educating; serving the sick and the poor; and eventually being interned in concentration camps. They would become refugees in 1948 fleeing to Formosa (now Taiwan) to escape Mao Tse Tung’s armies.

The story is heart warming and heart wrenching. It will be the focus of the upcoming exhibit in Haehn Museum located on our monastery campus. The exhibit, 80 Years of Living and Working in China and Taiwan, 1930-2010 opens on March 14 and closes in late December. In future blogs I will introduce you to these amazing women and parts of their story. The seeds of their “living and working in China” have resulted in monasteries of Benedictine women in Taiwan and in Japan today.
You are most welcome to come and tour the exhibit in our monastery museum.
photo: Seated (left to right): Mother Louise Walz, Bishop Joseph Busch, S. Francetta Vetter, S. Regia Zens; Standing (left to right): S. Donalda Terhaar, S. Ronayne Gergen, S. Wibora Muehlenbein, S. Rachel Loulan