Catholic Benedictine Sisters of St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, Ill., blog with inquirers discerning their religious calling to monastic life.
Posted in spirituality, using scripture in discernment on Apr 13th, 2013
By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB lst Reading Acts 6:8-15; 2nd Reading Rev 5:11-14; Gospel John 21:1-19 The Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Easter is wonderful, all of it. But let’s focus on one line in particular. The disciples had spent the whole night fishing, to no avail. At dawn they saw a man standing [...]
Posted in Benedictine values, spirituality on Mar 5th, 2011
Postponed last month because of a blizzard, Sr. Helen Carey’s lecture on Spirituality and Work has been rescheduled for Tues. March 8 at 1:40 pm at St. Ambrose University’s Rogalski Center. “Many people experience a disconnect between the values of their private lives and those of their work or workplaces,” she says. Sister Helen suggests [...]
Posted in spirituality on Jan 4th, 2011
As Isaiah wrote, “A little child shall lead them.” How true! Consider the way children treat their artwork. (I watched this for years as a teacher.) You can see just how much they prize it. They get upset if something happens to it or if someone makes fun of it. This is only natural since [...]
Posted in Advent, spirituality on Nov 27th, 2010
Preparing for the arrival of a new infant changes people’s lives. Usually, there is an air of Quiet, Gentleness, Joyfulness, Expectation, Excitement, Hope, Prayerfulness, Helpfulness. The Church’s liturgical season of Advent encourages this by setting aside the 4 weeks before Christmas to help us prepare our hearts for the coming of God.
Posted in prayer, spirituality on Nov 22nd, 2010
Every Thanksgiving I pray/read the following poem written by a friend and co-worker at Lutheran Social Services. We were both working with difficult cases, she with children of abuse. She was tall, slim, with beautiful laughing, blue eyes and short cropped natural curly hair.
Posted in Benedictine Prayer, spirituality on Nov 12th, 2010
This morning the sunrise was a blaze of beauty. It brought to mind the prayer of the psalmist: “At dawn I hold myself in readiness for You.”