Partners in Prayer

Last Wednesday was the welcoming and blessing of the 2008-2009 Partners in Prayer program. For 28 years, the Sisters have offered the opportunity for Benedictine students to partner with a Sister for the year. The partners agree to pray for each other and each week the student partner comes over to the Mount and joins us for Vespers and for a meal. This year we even have a prayer partner whose parent was a partner! Below are some of the photos from that night.

The Feast Continues

St. Hildegard Formation Group

This is a video of our group singing the third and fourth verses of the song and playing bells at the community life meeting. It was a great way to introduce our gifts (holy cards and cookies)and to end our feast day. Here are the words to the song.

We Sing Our Praise of Hildegard - words: Edith Sinclair Downing

1998Copyright 2006 Edith Sinclair Downing.

Tune: Kingsfold CMD, English Country Song 1893

We sing our praise of Hildegard,

a woman for all time;

a prophetess who urges us

to seek the light divine.

Her visions came insistently,

sent by her Living Light.

Anointed with the Spirit's power,

she spoke God's truth aright.

We now affirm with Hildegard

we do not live alone,

but are a part of all that is;

each tree, each bird, each stone.

All creatures sing creation's praise;

yet we alone possess

the power to care for Mother Earth,

the power to curse or bless.

We praise the joy that Hildegard found in God's constant care.

She trusted God to carry her,

a feather born on air.

May such a faith inspire us,

give us a breathing space,

that we may let the Spirit's breeze

support us with God's grace.

We celebrate with Hildegard

the greening of the soul

The moisture from the Spirit's breath

can cleanse us, make us whole.

May we now share life-giving love,

help justice find a home,

and by our deeds sow seeds of peace -

prepare for God's Shalom!

Feast of St. Hildegard

Today is the Feast of St. Hildegard von Bingen. St. Hildegard (1098-1179) was a visionary (she saw visions), an abbess (founding her own abbeys), a scholar (she wrote books on natural science, medicine, theology, metaphysics and music), a correspondent (with popes, scholars, kings and queens), a counselor, a linguist, a philosopher, a physician, an herbalist, a poet, an artist, a composer and lyricist (she gave us the earliest recorded music by a woman, including the first Morality play set to music - Ordo Virtutum ). Today would be a great day to look up a few of her writings or to listen to some of her music on the internet. My living group within the monastery is called St. Hildegard. In honor of our feast day, we have planned surprises throughout the day for the entire community. The first surprise was feathers on all the tables in the dining room (see quote above). It caused quite a bit of stir as people sat down for breakfast and tried to figure out why there were feathers on the tables. Another surprise is the holy card above. The front of the card is an icon written by our own Sister Paula. It is just beautiful. On the back of the card is the above quote from Hildegard herself. We printed up enough cards for each of the community members. A third surprise are St. Hildgard's cookies of joy. In a treatise on medicine, she provides a recipe for spice cookies: "Eat them often," she says, "and they will calm every bitterness of heart and mind - and your hearing and senses will open. Your mind will be joyous, and your senses purified, and harmful humours will diminish..." And to top it off - they are really good cookies! Here are a few photos our our living group preparing the cookies for the community.

Mary Elizabth and Cecilia flouring the pans Joan creaming the butter

Susan mixing the dough

Christine sifting the flour

Here I am (with Susan in the back) rolling the dough into cookies

Cecilia and I continue rolling and pressing the cookies

Mary Elizabeth and Cecilia placing the cookies while Christine continues to sift

"These cookies are really great!"

St. Hildegard's Cookies of Joy circa 1157 (Recipe reconstructed and adapted from Hildegard's treatise Physica: Liber Simplicis Medicinæ ) 3/4 cup butter or margarine (1 1/2 sticks)

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves Let butter soften and then cream it with the brown sugar.

Beat in the egg.

Sift the dry ingredients.

Add half the dry ingredients and mix.

Add the other half and mix thoroughly.

Dough may be chilled to make it workable.

Heat oven to 350°.

Form walnut sized balls of dough, place on greased and floured cookie sheet and press flat.

Bake 12-15 minutes (till edges of are golden brown.) Cool for 5 minutes, remove from cookie sheet and finish cooling on racks.

Stay tuned for more surprises to come!!!!

State Fair

This past weekend, Sr. Rosann and I drove down to Hutchinson, KS to staff a booth run by the Catholic Sisters of Kansas. For those of you who have never been to a state fair, it really is a great deal of fun and something you must do at some point in your life. This fair has all the typical fair activities; judging for ribbons (animals, fruits, vegetables, and crafts), carnival rides, shows and vendors. But one unique aspect of this fair is a sculpture made out of butter. It is huge and is shaped after each years theme. This year it involved bunnies and was really something!

While attending the fair, there is this amazing couple who graciously hosts our community. They not only give us a place to stay, but they pack us a lunch and snacks for the day and for our trip home. They are marvelous and we are truly grateful for the wonderful hospitality that we are shown each year!

But back to the booth we staff. Our booth, (see the photo above) has been in existence for many years. Each year sisters from several communities throughout Kansas take a day or two and staff the booth. Our booth is not trying to sell anything, convert anyone, or hand out any specific information. Instead we are offering a ministry of presence and a place for people to write down their prayer requests. These prayers are then distributed to all of the participating communities and we all pray for their needs. We have people from all faiths and all walks of life stopping by and asking for prayers. It is humbling to be able to talk with them about the joys, struggles and issues that they are bringing to prayer and are trusting us to add to our prayers.

Along with the prayer requests, we have a gift wheel. People can spin the wheel to receive a holy card, pencil and/or pen as a free gift. On Saturday, we had over 1400 people stop at our booth and chat with us, spin the wheel and ask for prayers. I enjoy explaining the various pictures on the holy cards to people. Since there were over 20 different cards, often times the card someone won was not a card that they were familiar with, so they asked me to explain the icon or tell the story of the saint. I love telling the traditional stories to people who are hearing them for the first time. I love to watch their reactions and to hear the questions they ask. So as you can tell it was a busy weekend but a lot of fun.

Our New Postulant

Formation Living Group

Well last weekend we had a very joyous day at the monastery. We received a new postulant into our community. Her name is Christine (the one in the green blouse in the center of the photo) and she came to us from Oklahoma. Christine arrived Friday night and after Vespers and Supper, a group of us helped her to get settled into her new room. On Saturday, she spent some time greeting the sisters, started to familiarize herself with the monastery, and then that evening we had a special entrance ceremony in the dining room before the evening meal. The day ended with the community praying Vespers together as we do each and every night.

Being part of the Formation Group, I have the joy and pleasure of being in the same living group with Christine. This means I am blessed with the opportunity to participate in many discussions and classes with Christine. I am very excited!

Donnelly College

This past weekend was another special celebration for our community. Donnelly College (see information below) honored the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica for their services to the College these past 59 years. It was a wonderful dinner and program and the Sisters were very honored to have been a part of this wonderful long standing endeavor. May God continue to bless them all in many ways.

Donnelly College was a joint venture of Bishop George Donnelly, bishop of Kansas City, Kansas, and Sister Jerome Keeler, a Benedictine Sister of Atchison, Kansas. In 1949, they saw the need to make a Christian education available in the urban core where many Catholic Immigrants had settled. Bishop Donnelly gave the building for the classrooms and the Benedictine Sisters provided the faculty. The first year 170 students enrolled for day classes, 45 for evening classes and 35 St. Mary's nurses attended afternoon classes.

As neighborhoods aged and populations trends changed, families with different ethnic and religious backgrounds moved in. The pool of traditional students declined and the college trustees pondered whether to move or stick to the mission of serving the urban community. They chose to remain faithful to the original vision of Sister Jerome and began an endowment campaign to provide scholarship assistance.

Currently the enrollment is about 750, with 32% African American, 31% Hispanic, 20% Anglo American, 11% International, 2% American Indian, and 4% Asian American. About 32 percent of Donnelly's students come from households with less than $13,000 annual income. More than 90 percent qualify for some type of financial aid.

In order to respond to the needs of new immigrants in the area as well as international students, an English as a Second Language program was initiated in 1978. In 1986 Donnelly also began a Basic Education for Lifelong Learning (BELL) program to serve those who had dropped out of high school. In 1988, an Entrepreneur Development Center was launched to help people start their own businesses. In 2001, Donnelly implemented a college extension at Lansing Correctional Facility where inmates can earn an associate's degree. In 2002 Donnelly began a Building Bridges to Success program for people who needed their GED.

Donnelly's mission to serve students who might not otherwise be able to go to college continues today. May God continue to bless this ministry.

For more information you can go to the website http://www.donnelly.edu/