From May 26 through June 11, 2026 20 Benedictine Sisters from the USA are on a pilgrimage trip to Rome and the surrounding region. Sister Sara Aiden Burress and Sister Minona Anne D’Souza from Sacred Heart Monastery in Cullman are currently on this trip.
I marvel as I see the photos and read about the experiences of our U.S. Benedictine Sisters on pilgrimage in Italy, seeing the important places that helped form St. Benedict and St. Scholastica and our monastic way of life. These are such wonderful opportunities for them to walk the roads and pray in the places where St. Benedict prayed and allowed himself to be led by God. And, I doubt he could have imagined the current worldwide presence of his followers, both women and men, on 6 continents, speaking many languages and enculturating the Benedictine charism in such a variety of collections of humanity.
I have been touched by the pilgrim sisters’ efforts to try to capture what they are experiencing and sharing it with their own communities and families and friends. It is impossible to contain it. It must be shared. They feel so grateful to have this opportunity that they have to share it. And surely their monastic lives are impacted by this wonder, re-discovering their own monastic call and deepening in their monastic vocation, and wanting to spread that enthusiasm, that monastic good zeal with all of us.
Through their sharing of photos and some of their feelings of gratitude and wonder helps me to feel like a pilgrim along with them, vicariously experiencing their pilgrimage of discovery and hope and wonder. And what a gift that is!
In my own travels to Benedictine monasteries far and wide, I am also awe struck at how this monastic life is lived in so many places by so many people, mostly living simply, day to day, praying the Divine Office, singing God’s praises in whatever surroundings they find themselves – from war torn Ukraine to the naturally beautiful places in Africa where there are so many Benedictines to the more ordinary ways (to us it seems ordinary) here in the United States. The witness of communal monastic life is a testament that people can live together, a unity in diversity with many different backgrounds and personalities yet coming together to live and sing and do all the good they can where they are in a simple, yet profound way. Living in peace as sisters is an important witness in our world today.
I also am caught up in wonder as I think of the recent Artemis space mission, hear the astronauts speak of their awe at the beauty of the universe and feeling even more grounded on our planet earth after having had the opportunity to see it from afar. I have enjoyed seeing the astronauts interviewed and sharing their awe and marveling at the deep mystery of the universe. It has also been enriching to read various writers draw inspiration from this space travel and reflect again on Teilhard de Chardin’ study and writings on the evolution of the universe. One writer in Global Sisters Report wrote: “The [astronauts] knew that Earth is not just a place we inhabit but a living gift we are given to evolve. All of this gave them a sense of perspective. Earth looked small, but the human effort behind the space mission was huge. That human effort continues, in space and on earth, and from the perspective of faith, that effort is harnessing the energies of love and, in so doing, transforming the entire earth community.”*
Its times like these that I experience my own littleness in God’s big beautiful world. And how is it that in my littleness I get to experience such joy and awe and energy in meeting Benedictines around the world? Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus.** That in all things God may be praised.
By Sister Lynn Marie McKenzie, OSB
- * Nancy Sylvester, IHM, “Divine Mystery: As Immense as the Universe and Intimate as One’s Breath,” Global Sisters Report, May 26, 2026.
** This Benedictine motto is seen in our chapel above the arch at the front of the chapel.