Good Zeal

Last night, Sr. Lynn Marie and I drove up to Huntsville to attend a performance of the Brass Band of Huntsville. In the midst of a variety of Christmas tunes and hymns arranged for brass, I was surprised to hear the inclusion of the hymn Lo, How a Rose E’er…

The past couple of weeks I’ve been reading a library book* about the Great Flood of 1927, when the Mississippi River inundated vast expanses of farmland and towns with up to 30 feet of water, flooding the homes of over a million people in 10 states in the greatest river…

There are times when my faith comes up short, and like Zacchaeus I am unable to see Jesus through the crowds of my concerns and through the shortcomings of my own nature. In times such as these I rely on my Sisters to help bear me up, to be trees…

There was a hard poignancy in watching Gusmus, our little frame house out back, being taken down yesterday. It was especially poignant to watch it happen on All Saints Day. This picture kind of says it all – the brilliant and beautiful leaves of autumn seemingly forming an odd counterpoint…

When we cleared every last molecule out of Ottilia Hall a couple of years ago to prepare it for renovation we thought we had completed the Move of all Moves. The building had been continuously occupied for over a hundred years so there was over a hundred years of accumulated…

“A monastery is never without guests.” These words of St. Benedict have certainly been true this weekend! First, there was the small battalion that arrived Friday night for a weekend of retreat. Then there was the throng that arrived on Saturday morning to attend a day-long meeting.Then there were the…

Today I had a few hours away from the Retreat Center office and Sr. Lynn Marie had an unexpected day off from her ministry and so we took an impromptu trip to a lovely park one county over from ours. We packed a picnic lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, apple…

I imagine that the stars in the starry sky must have shared a smile when they first caught sight of the tomato vine that has sprouted through the construction gravel and broken cement between our old and new monastery kitchens. I can imagine them watching together as the vine first…

Our Retreat Center housekeeping routines got a little off track this week. Consequently I spent part of last evening cleaning guest rooms. I dusted with the thoroughness of a Benedictine – up and down, back and forth, with the grain, over and under, not missing an inch of exposed surface…

Last Thursday, four of us flew up north to attend a conference at Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton, SD. Our three-legged flight itinerary from Huntsville to Sioux Falls required that we depart for the airport at 4:15 in the morning. We were set to arrive in Yankton via Sioux Falls…