Catholic Benedictine Sisters of St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, Ill., blog with inquirers discerning their religious calling to monastic life.
Posted in Benedictine practices, monastic life, religious life, retreat on Jun 10th, 2012
The retaining wall outside the dining room is a highway this morning. Chipmunks of all sizes scamper first one direction and then the other, tails and spirits high. A rabbit lopes along and stops to peer in. Goldfinches dart among the grasses that brush the wall, and purple martins dive at insects above them. High [...]
Posted in Benedictine Sisters, Benedictine practices, Benedictine values, Benedictine vows, monastic life, religious life, retreat on Jun 7th, 2012
That’s a mouthful of a title! Although the path to holiness can be lived out in other ways – marriage, singlehood – we Benedictine Sisters have chosen religious life (St. Scholastica, left, founded the women’s community to follow her twin brother’s Holy Rule, which we follow 1,500 years later). Today, Bishop Joe – a member [...]
Posted in Benedictine practices, forgiveness, monastic life, religious life, retreat on Jun 6th, 2012
The sky could have been painted blue and the trees splashed gold this morning as we gathered for our conference with Bishop Joe. Sparrows, cardinals and jays fluttered about Sister Anne’s birdfeeder, just beyond the podium, beneath the river birch off the patio. Bits of cotton drifted by, stray tufts of dandelion, perhaps, or cottonwood [...]
Posted in monastic life, religious life, retreat on Jun 5th, 2012
Warm lights glow in the dining room as we gather for today’s morning talk. We arrive by wheelchair and walker, on 2 feet and with canes. Some move slowly and deliberately and others rush in, all business. Then quiet settles upon the group and we turn our thoughts inward. We turn our thoughts and open [...]
Posted in religious life, retreat on Jun 4th, 2012
The sky is overcast and growing darker as we gather in the dining room for our morning conference with retired Bishop Joe Charron. He is nearly upstaged by our resident chipmunk as it skitters back and forth along the retaining wall outside. Goldfinches, too, provide a bit of drama as they flit among the tall [...]
Posted in Benedictine Prayer, Benedictine practices, Silence, religious life, retreat on Jun 2nd, 2012
Our busyness comes to a sudden halt this week, as our summer retreat begins. Life will move off the clock. We will be steeped in silence, reflection, prayer and rest. We will watch Sister Ruth’s bold and brilliant lilies dance in the early summer breeze, and listen to the bees as they hum amid the [...]