“Hers was the greater love.” - Benedictine Sisters of Mount St

Threshold
A publication of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica
Volume 13 Number 2
Winter 2014
Saint Scholastica of Norcia
480-547 A.D.
“Hers was the greater love.”
From the Prioress
Dear friends,
The following conversation occurred when my
niece, Susan, took her daughter, Samantha Anne, on
her first airplane trip earlier this year:
“So, mom, is the pilot a girl or a boy?”
“I don’t know, honey.”
“I hope it’s a girl.”
“You do? Why?”
“Because girl pilots are better.”
How is it that ideas like that get into the heads of
four-year-old little girls? Her mother is strong, but
not a public advocate for women’s rights. Her father
probably did not teach her that women pilots are
better. Perhaps Samantha Anne is already envisioning her future.
In this issue of Threshold, you will be reading about
many strong women. Sister Sheila Carroll will introduce you to the medieval mystics whose lives have
influenced us throughout the years. You will read
about our four strong silver jubilarians: Sisters Molly Brockwell, Susan Barber, Oanh Pham and Bridget
Dickason, all of whom work in different ministries,
all of whom have had a positive influence in the
lives of so many people they have served. Noted
author and Benedictine oblate, Kathleen Norris,
leader of our annual Oblate Institute, talks about her
experiences here at the Mount and elsewhere. Sister
Therese Elias shares her impressions of the silent
retreat given by James Finley.
You'll also see photos from the dedication of a statue
of St. Scholastica, a gift to Benedictine College from
the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in
honor of our 150th anniversary. The gift was made
possible, in large part, through the generous gift of
Alan and Florence Conrad ('64) Salisbury.
Mount St. Scholastica has been a leader throughout the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and
among Benedictines in the United States in educating the public about the evils and reality of human
trafficking. You will read about how American Catholic sisters introduced Kim Ritter to the atrocities of
trafficking that happens in major hotel chains and
how she has taken the justice issue to new levels of
consciousness and action.
We welcome two new staff members. Renee Porter
is the executive director of Dooley Center. For the
first time we have a social media manager, Melodee
Blobaum, who brings years of experience in social
media at Johnson County Community College. Like
us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mountosb
2 • Mount St. Scholastica
and follow us on Twitter at @mountosb and let us
know if you like the posts.
Currently, our community is in the midst of planning. We are asking ourselves who are we now
and who do we want to be in ten years. With the
assistance of an outside facilitator, Helen Spector
from Portland, Oregon, we have begun a visioning process. Stay
tuned. You will
be hearing more
about this planning
in the next few
issues. Whatever
the outcomes of
the planning, one
non-negotiable
Benedictine component is that we
remain faithful to
our solid prayer
lives, both personal
and communal, as
well as the sacramental life of the
Church. Other
non-negotiable
components are
living in community, spending time daily in silence
and reflection, practicing hospitality and caring for
the earth.
Starting Nov. 30, 2014, and continuing through Feb.
2, 2016, our wonderful Pope Francis has asked that
the Catholic Church celebrate the Year of Consecrated Life or the life of professed religious women
and men. We will highlight in our next issue what
we are doing to celebrate the year. We ask you to
invite women to consider joining our monastic
community, and we ask you to pray with us for new
vocations. We in turn are attempting to strengthen
our witness of what it means to serve Christ as we
live out our own Benedictine witness to be women
of the gospel.
May 2015 find you at peace and working for peace,
joyful and spreading joy, connected to others and
doing all that you can possibly do to care for God’s
earth, its people and creatures, and praising the God
responsible for them all.
God bless you all,
Threshold
Volume 13 • Number 2 • Winter 2014
4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meet our silver jubilarians
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The spiritual journey to mysticism
10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A visit with Kathleen Norris
11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sophia Center retreats
12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Finley on Thomas Merton
13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speaker addresses human trafficking
14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St. Scholastica sculpture dedicated
16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Formation group meets in Atchison
17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benedictines meet in Rome
18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Monastery notes
20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meet Sister Mary Grosdidier
21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New staff
22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Development news
23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Keeler Women’s Center offerings
24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Night of Dreams
25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Resolution on the environment
26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exploring the cremation option
Sisters will celebrate
Year of Consecrated Life
Pope Francis has asked Catholics worldwide to
“Wake up the World” with a 14-month celebration of
the lives of women and men religious. This Year of
Consecrated Life began on the First Sunday of Advent, the weekend of November 29, 2014, and ends
on February 2, 2016, the World Day of Consecrated
life. Its purpose is to “make a grateful remembrance
of the recent past” while embracing “the future with
hope.”
“I am most grateful to Almighty God for the countless blessings that have been bestowed upon the local
Church through the many consecrated women and
men serving in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in
Kansas,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann. “May
this Year of Consecrated Life be an opportunity for
the Church to give thanks, but also to encourage and
invite women and men to consider the call to consecrated life.”
The Mount sisters are planning events to observe the
year. Check our website (mountosb.org), Facebook
(www.facebook.com/mountosb), and Twitter
(twitter.com/mountosb) for details.
28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Obituaries
We invite you to join us in praying for religious vocations to our community:
Threshold is a publication of the Benedictine Sisters of
Mount St. Scholastica for families, friends and benefactors of the sisters. All reproduction rights reserved.
O God, in the past 150 years, you have called women to
pursue a life of holiness and fidelity to the monastic way of
life through prayer, community, and ministry.
EDITOR: Barbara Ann Mayer, OSB
DESIGN EDITOR: Melodee Blobaum
COMMUNCIATIONS COORDINATORS:
Anne Shepard, OSB, and Helen Mueting, OSB
During this Year of Consecrated Life, we give you thanks
for these courageous women who were models of inspiration for many. Their witness of faith and pursuit of holiness have brought much hope to the world.
Mount St. Scholastica
801 South Eighth Street
Atchison, KS 66002
Phone: 913-360-6200
Fax: 913-360-6190
Cover photo: A statue of St. Scholastica just east of
Elizabeth Hall on the Benedictine College campus was
dedicated in October.
Continue to enrich Mount St. Scholastica by calling women to this monastic way of life.
We pray this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and
reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,
forever and ever. Amen
Visit our website at www.mountosb.org
Contact the editor by email at bmayer@mountosb.org
To subscribe/unsubscribe, contact the circulation
manager: Mary Margaret Kean, OSB (mmkean@
mountosb.org)
WAKE UP THE WORLD !
2015 Year of Consecrated Life
Threshold Winter 2014 • 3
Four celebrate silver jubilee
F
our Benedictine sisters of
Mount St. Scholastica in
Atchison have marked 25
years of monastic profession. They
are Sisters Susan Barber, Molly
Brockwell, Bridget Dickason,
and Oanh Pham. The four sisters
celebrated with friends and family
at a Mass in Atchison on July 13,
at which time they renewed their
profession.
In her reflection at the Mass, Sister
Anne Shepard commended the
sisters for being the seed that falls
on good ground to yield a fruitful
harvest.
Top: Sisters who celebrated their silver jubilee in July are, from left, Bridget Dickason,
Susan Barber, Molly Brockwell and Oanh Pham. Below: The four jubiliarians sing their
"Suscipe" —"Receive me, O Lord, as you have promised that I may live; disappoint me
not in my hope" — at the Mass on July 13.
“For 25 years you have been tilling
the monastic land and planting
so many good seeds of unselfish
service and healing of others,”
she said. “In the next 25 years,
our community, our Church, our
world will be looking for you to
continue to till the land. We have
yet to imagine the contents, the
placement, the flowers or blossoms that will feed us and cause
us to grow even more dramatically, creatively, and lovingly than we
are today.”X
Silver, golden jubilees
to be marked in 2015
Six Benedictine Sisters will
celebrate jubilees on July 12,
2015. They are Sisters Susan
Holmes, Esther Fangman,
Mary Elizabeth Schweiger,
Cecilia Olson and Carol Ann
Petersen, who will celebrate
golden jubilees; and Sister
Elaine Fischer, who will celebrate her silver jubilee.
4 • Mount St. Scholastica
Jubilarian has music in her bones
W
by Susan Barber, OSB
hen I was young, I sang with abandon as
I walked to and from school. “Make Me
a Channel of Your Peace” became a theme
song for me. The seeds of my vocation are in this
prayer and in the faith that my parents nurtured in
me by their love and example. I was introduced to the
psalms when I was a prayer partner at Benedictine
College. Upon graduation “Be still and know that I
am God” (Psalm 46:10) demanded a response from
me. I loved the sisters who taught me. I experienced
their love for each other and outreach to the poor
when I lived at Shalom House in the summer of 1984.
And so, I entered Mount St. Scholastica in 1985 after
two years of teaching junior high students. I came
seeking a life of prayer and service as well as a community with whom I could grow in love of God and
neighbor.
During my years in community, I enjoyed several
years of teaching elementary and junior high students before I settled on teaching music. Concurrently
with my teaching, I earned a master's in music from
UMKC, which included a semester at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. There I took
courses in multicultural music, Gregorian Chant, and
liturgy. All of this prepared me for teaching music to
nearly 800 students from 35 countries over the period
of four years in College Park, Maryland. Teaching
included planning liturgies, directing the eighth grade
musicals, field trips to the opera, and countless other
creative endeavors. One morning five-year old Marcello, newly arrived from Mexico, stepped inside my
classroom with his mother and squealed gleefully
when he saw the hand signs for Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-LaTi-Do on my wall. He did not speak English, but he
immediately did the hand signs and sang the scale.
Such is the universal language of music!
When I was asked to come home to the Mount in 2001
to serve as community liturgist, I initially missed the
students, teachers, and diversity of D.C./Maryland
very much. But I discovered that this new ministry
was a wonderful fit for me as I was able to combine
my love of prayer, music, and creative planning within the very heart of our monastic life. The sisters graciously received and welcomed learning new music
and practicing old favorites. Sesquicentennial celebrations and the editing of our prayer books occupied
much of my time the last two years of my ministry. It
has been a blessing and joy for me to serve the community in this ministry for twelve and a half years.
In January 2014, I began a sabbatical which has afforded me time to practice the organ, to study topics in
scripture, liturgy and spirituality at Chicago Theological Union, and to prepare and execute liturgies for the
fourth international symposium of Benedictine nuns
and sisters in Rome, which met in September 2014. I
plan to continue my studies in music, spiritual formation, and liturgy and hope for future ministry at the
Mount or in one of our three sponsored institutions
in Atchison — Sophia Center, Benedictine College, or
Maur Hill-Mount Academy.
My monastic life has provided the soil for spiritual
growth and for broadened horizons within the life
and love of community, Liturgy of the Hours and
Eucharist, and the vows of stability, obedience, and
fidelity to monastic life and practices. I have enjoyed
opportunities for ministry, study, leisure, and renewal.
I am grateful for my family, the rhythm of our monastic life, community, and friendships in community
and outside of community.X
Threshold Winter 2014 • 5
Teacher draws on
storytelling roots
by Barbara Ann Mayer, OSB
S
ister Molly Brockwell grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the second youngest of seven children. Her parents, Mary and Bill, both passed
away this past October in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
A graduate of Benedictine College in 1984, when it
was still on two campuses, Sister Molly was influenced by many sisters including Sisters Irene Nowell,
Connie Krstolic, Jo Ann Fellin, Julia Wilkinson, Sharon Murray, Nicole Engler, and Maria Larkin. After
working as a youth minister in Tulsa for a year, she
entered the Mount community in 1985.
From 1990-96, she taught religion at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, Kansas. For two
years she did graduate studies in Scripture at Catholic
Theological Union in Chicago, which included three
months in the Holy Land. When she returned from
CTU, she worked in the business office at the monastery for two years where she learned to appreciate
how our employees are cared for and become a part
of the Mount family.
She belongs to the St. James knitting group that knits
caps and scarves for the needy. “We have a weekly
bus stop ministry, giving out warm gear to bus riders,” she said. “I love to knit and try new patterns.”
For the past 12 years she taught Scripture at Bishop
Sister Molly was an oblate director for the group in
Ward High School in Kansas City, Kansas. “I’m a stoKansas City, Kansas, for five years and enjoyed workryteller, so I love telling stories from the Bible,” Sister
ing with oblates. “I was so inspired by their living
Molly said. “I come from storythe Rule (of Benedict) in the work
telling stock, especially my dad.” “I am proud of our community,
world,” she said. “I hope to return
to that someday.”
of
our
ability
to
be
faithful
to
who
While teaching at Bishop Ward,
we are, to prayer, to living the
she realized that 50 percent of
She has lived at Peace House in
the students don’t speak English gospel, and to growing in love and Kansas City, Missouri, for the past
at home. She also lived with our
16 years, with six other sisters.
forgiveness.”
two Tanzanian sisters at Peace
— Sister Molly Brockwell “We’re large enough so that when
House for a time and began
someone is gone, we can still pray
to appreciate the difficulty of
and have community together,” she
learning another language. She started looking into
said. “This year we also have a young woman living
English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to help
with us who teaches at Christo Rey and wants to live
her be a better teacher. Last September she began a
in a community.”
master’s program in ESL at Avila College in Kansas
Sister Molly appreciated the support of her BenedicCity, Missouri.
tine sisters during the challenging times of caring for
Sister Molly also works during the day for Assisted
her aging parents. “I am proud of our community, of
Transportation, transporting children to and from
our ability to be faithful to who we are, to prayer, to
school. The children are in foster care, homeless shelliving the gospel, and to growing in love and forgiveters, or have other unusual circumstances.
ness,” she said. X
6 • Mount St. Scholastica
Living the gospel in Kansas City
A
by Bridget Dickason, OSB
s Alfred Lord
Tennyson’s poem
“Ulysses” says, “I
am a part of all that I have
met.” My charge is to be a
blessing to all that I have
met. God has blessed me
with a rich Benedictine
life. There is so much
for which to be grateful:
family, friends, education,
150 years in Atchison, and
more than 1,500 years of
Benedictine heritage.
Born into a Catholic
family of eight children
in Kansas City, Kansas, I
was blessed by the faith of
my parents, William and
Geraldine, and my siblings. My parent’s divorce
and the death of parents
and siblings has offered
many opportunities for
grace in my life. Learning God’s grace in broken lives
is a blessing.
I was blessed to have received a Benedictine education at Sacred Heart Grade School in Kansas City,
Kansas. I was taught by the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica. These sisters so inspired me that I wanted to
join them. The sisters were gone from St. Joseph High
School in Shawnee when I attended, but I found them
again when I attended Benedictine College in Atchison. My liberal arts education nurtured my love of
learning and gave me the opportunity to get to know
the sisters better. I worked and prayed with them for
four years. Sisters Rosemary (Bertels) and Deborah
(Peters) were good mentors. After graduating with a
bachelor's in English and Secondary Education (1984),
I taught English and religion for two years at Bishop
Ward High School. Then I had to find out if God was
truly calling me to be a Benedictine, so I joined Mount
St. Scholastica in 1986.
I was blessed with a wonderful novice director, Sister
Jeanne Marie Blacet, and scholarly novitiate teachers:
Sisters Mary Irene Nowell, Mary Collins, Eleanor
Suther, Joachim Holthaus,
and Judith Sutera They
prepared me to teach as
a Benedictine. I made my
first vows in 1989. Building the kingdom of God
became my calling as a
teacher, later as an administrator, and as a Benedictine sister of Mount St.
Scholastica.
I was blessed to have
taught for over 25 years,
earning my master's in
theology from the University of San Francisco
(1998) and my master’s in
Education Administration
from Benedictine College
(2002). In addition to
Bishop Ward High School,
I taught at Saint Thomas
Aquinas (1989-1991). Then
I taught at our founding
school, Mount St. Scholastica Academy (1991-2003). I
became principal and merged the school with Maur
Hill Prep and served as principal of Maur Hill-Mount
Academy (2003-2006). I finished my high school
teaching at Bishop Le Blond in St. Joseph, Mo. (20062010).
I loved teaching, but while at Bishop Le Blond, I
began my certification studies to be a spiritual director (2009-2012). It has been a blessing to journey
with others as they seek God in their lives. Then God
called me to a new ministry at Keeler Women’s Center. I went from teaching the gospel to living it in the
poorest county of Kansas, my hometown, the “Dotte.”
I am blessed daily by the women we serve and the
wonderful volunteers I work with.
For over twenty-five years, I have been formed, molded, and chiseled by my community, family, friends,
students, colleagues, scripture, and all that I have
met. The Rule of Benedict continues to call me to be
Christ’s face and hands in the world.X
Threshold Winter 2014 • 7
Grateful for family, freedom
S
by Rita Killackey, OSB
ilver jubilarian Sister Oanh Pham feels fortunate
to have had an ordinary childhood in her native
Viet Nam. She and her siblings received a normal
Vietnamese education, including learning to knit, crochet and embroider for the girls. Her devout Catholic
parents practiced faithfully and instilled the Catholic
faith in their children.
“Even though my father was in the army and lived in
Saigon, the city was not yet a war zone,” Sister Oanh
said. “I was not aware of the growing Communist
threat in my country.”
While still in high school, Sister Oanh felt called to a
religious vocation with the native Lasallian Sisters,
who live according to the Christian Brothers’ tradition of St. John Baptist De La Salle, the main Catholic
educators in her native locale. “One day, the Lasallian
group of men and women left on what we thought
was a pleasure outing on a boat,” Sister Oanh said.
“Little did we realize that the trip would change our
lives forever. With just the clothes on our back, we
fled our embattled homeland to seek freedom.”
The ship went first to the Philippines and then to a
refugee center in Arkansas. “The American Christian
Brothers sponsored our group of Vietnamese Lasallians, and I was sent to Fresno, California, where
I completed high school and attended community
college classes, and worked at learning English,” Sister Oanh said. She eventually held various positions,
such as tutoring Vietnamese students in San Jose.
Sister Oanh left the Lasallian order after a few years
in the United States, but still felt a call to religious
life. Now that she would be living in the United
States, she sought to try her vocation in an American
religious order. She learned about Mount St. Scholastica from one of our former Vietnamese sisters.
One of the biggest influences for Sister Oanh to enter
our Benedictine community was the encouragement
of then-prioress Sister Noreen Hurter. Sister Oanh
came to Atchison for a year to learn more about the
Benedictine way of life. After Sister Oanh’s formation
years at the Mount, she lived with our Benedictine
sisters in Topeka, attended Washburn University, and
completed her bachelor's in nursing. As a registered
nurse, she spent several years working at St. Francis
Hospital in Topeka.
But Sister Oanh had a growing desire to bring her
whole family from Viet Nam to the U.S. She made
the decision to leave the community so that she could
8 • Mount St. Scholastica
make enough money to sponsor her family members
to come to the United States. The youngest of her six
siblings was born after she left Viet Nam, so he was
a teenager when they first met each other. Once she
became an American citizen, she was able to sponsor all sixteen members of her family and guarantee
that they would not seek government support once
here. Five nieces and nephews have been born in this
country. They are a loving, supportive and faith-filled
Catholic family who get together frequently.
It took Sister Oanh ten years to reunite her family,
but then after a year, she sought readmission to the
Mount Benedictines. She had a short formation period
and then made her vows. She has continued working
as a night duty nurse at Shawnee Mission Medical
Center. She lives with a small group of Benedictine
sisters in Overland Park, Kan.
In her spare time, Sister Oanh uses the skills she
learned in childhood to embroider tea towels for the
community gift shop. She also uses her expertise
helping other Vietnamese with such things as attending doctor appointments and filling out paperwork.
“I appreciate the hospitality, community life, and
prayer life as a Benedictine,” Sister Oanh said. “I live
by faith and trust in God.” X
The spiritual journey to mysticism
by Sheila Carroll, OSB
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or cease to
exist.” (Karl Rahner)
M
ysticism is an experiential knowledge of
God. The mystic reminds us, forcefully, that
God can never be rendered down to human
intellectual categories. God is always beyond what we
can say. Mysticism is an intuitive grasp of the whole.
God’s presence is something that lies quietly and
seemingly helpless inside of us. It rarely bursts forth.
It is simply a quiet voice. If listened to, it will lead us
to liberation.
Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite mystic, says, “God gives
us a nudge! We place ourselves, standing naked,
before God as we use no words, no thoughts, no images, but wordless prayer to God who desires to meet
us.” In mystical prayer we are touched by a loving
God deeper than language, thought, imagination and
feeling. A mystic is one who has met God and communicates the sense of knowing God directly. It is the
difference between writing about love and writing
about the experience of being in love.
The mystic John of the Cross tells us that we pass
through stages of prayer in our relationship to God.
These stages evolve slowly. Simple prayer is the last
stage. There is a growing desire to see God; there is
an awakening of the inner self. The person has grown
in awareness and tries to live in the present moment.
There is a longing for the face of God. We turn from
the content of prayer directly to the face of
God, to Jesus Christ, to his name, or to
the person of the Father.
We move to prayer beyond words. The longing
is there but the grace of
God may still be missing.
The inner
absorption
in God
does not
keep the
mystic
in-
A retreatant responds
As a United Methodist pastor, I have come to the
Mount on several occasions for Sister Sheila’s seminars concerning the mystics. I was already a fan of
Merton and Nouwen, but thanks to Sister Sheila,
have added Edith Stein, St. Ignatius, St. Francis and
St. Theresa of Avila. … Because of the engaging way
that Sister Sheila presents the stories of their lives,
I was able to connect my call to ministry with their
calls from God to set themselves apart for holy service.
Even more than this, I have gained an understanding
of what it means to be in union with God through
prayer, in a way that has helped me interpret my own
encounters with the divine.
Pastor Kim Benson
side but leads to a greater perception of outward
things which enables the mystic to be one who serves
and helps others often to a heroic degree. The moment of ecstasy for mystics is the moment of God’s
entrance into their lives, which is an experience of
nothing except the gift of God’s love. The mystics are
aware that their experience of God is not merited but
is pure grace. Without God’s sustaining love, we are
nothing for God keeps us in existence.
It is in the mystics and their writings that we discover
God speaking to humans in their own experience of
life. God speaks to us, just as God spoke to Abraham,
Moses, and the prophets. As in times past, God speaks
to individuals and they often enter the transformative
stage. We can also be transformed when we recognize
that their stories are our stories, too.
For the mystics, the reality of God is affirmed but
never cheapened. In one of the most celebrated passages in all of theology this point is made with awesome power: “I have learned to love you late, Beauty
at once so ancient and so new. . .You called me, you
cried aloud to me; you broke my barrier of deafness.
You shone upon me; your radiance enveloped me;
you put my blindness to flight. ... I tasted you, and
now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me,
and I am inflamed with the love of your peace.” (The
Confessions of St. Augustine, X, 27.) X
(Sister Sheila Carroll gives frequent retreat days at Sophia
Center on the mystics, such as Teresa of Avila, Francis of
Assisi, Therese of Lisieux, Julian of Norwich, and Hildegard of Bingen.)
Sister Sheila Carroll, center, visits with two retreatants during the October
mystic retreat.
Threshold Winter 2014 • 9
A visit with author Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Norris is a writer, poet, and
speaker. Many are familiar with her
books, Cloister Walk, Dakota, and
Acedia and Me. She recently spoke at
the Oblate Institute at Sophia Center
on "The Desert and Spirituality."
Sister Barbara Mayer interviewed her
about some of her comments.
Mayer: In your poetry reading,
you draw a close connection
between poetry and spirituality.
Why is this true?
Norris: Something about words
opens one up. Poets take a little
experience and make it memorable. A little thing you’ve noticed
can become a spiritual experience.
Biblical stories are a major source
of contemporary poetry.
Mayer: In your talk you said that
the psalms lead us into a world
we do not yet know. They are full
of wild exotic images. Could you
say more about that?
Norris: C. S. Lewis once said the
psalms don’t need a lot of historical adjustment because they are
about the world we know, one in
which we experience betrayal, violence and the desire for revenge.
While this is true, the psalms are
also about a world we don’t know,
or at least they point us towards
God’s world of wonder and mystery. They contain beautiful strange
images like mountains leaping for
joy and hills clapping their hands.
The psalmist uses metaphors like
these to convey God’s world.
Mayer: When you talked about
the story of the manna in the
Author Kathleen Norris signed a book for Mariavis Fitzmorris, who traveled from Yukon, Oklahoma,
to see Norris at Mount St. Scholastica.
10 • Mount St. Scholastica
desert, you mentioned how the
Israelites wanted to store some for
the future but God told Moses he
would provide enough each day. I
think many of us, especially those
who grew up during the Depression, have a mentality of scarcity,
afraid there will not be enough.
How can we acquire a mentality
of abundance, trusting that God
will provide all we need?
Norris: It is harder if you’ve lived
through extreme poverty. If you’ve
been abused, it’s harder to trust
people. Divine Providence is not
for today only. We started a food
bank at our church. We were
worried that people would be too
proud to use it, but eventually people began coming, mostly senior
citizens on Social Security. When
we decided to serve a hot lunch,
we weren’t sure how to get the
money to do it. Then a TV show
wanted to use our church to shoot
a scene. They paid us enough to
provide a weekly lunch for two
years. This was manna from heaven. Another time a woman came to
our food bank for flour. Florence,
who distributed our commodities,
had only one ten-pound bag on the
shelf. Florence gave her the flour
but worried about having none
left. When she got home there
was a bag on her porch with two
ten-pound sacks of flour. These
are reminders that in God’s world
there is always abundance.
Mayer: You said that with every
death there is some solace. This
is hard to see with innocent lives
being lost through violence, war,
murder, neglect, and poverty.
Where can we find the comfort?
Norris: I was speaking about the
personal level. Seeing people shot
down, it’s hard to find comfort. I
knew a man who died in an accident, but they found out later that
he had a kind of cancer that would have caused a
painful, prolonged death. It was comforting to know
he was preserved from that.
Mayer: I loved your quote from Ann Zwinger, “Dryness promotes the formation of flower buds.” That
seems so contrary to our belief that plants cannot
grow without water. For those who feel like they are
in an endless desert, how do they find the beauty,
the blooming?
Norris: Ann Zwinger, a naturalist who wrote about
the desert of the American Southwest, found that
without dryness there would be no profuseness. In
nature, dryness is not such a bad thing. When dryness
is confirmed in the natural world, it seems more real
when we experience it in our lives. My hope then is
based on something I can actually see, not just my
imagination. God does not lead us into the desert to
abandon us, but to lead us out. Desert experiences are
to help us grow closer to God.
Mayer: In your book Acedia and Me, you differentiate between acedia and depression. Isn’t it difficult
to really know whether it is sloth or real psychological depression?
Norris: Early monastic writers tried to make a distinction between medical diseases and acedia. I tried
to look at my own life. Acedia comes from nowhere
and depression comes from death of a loved one or
some other sorrow. I tried to give people ways to look
at the difference in my book. I asked an abbot what
they did when a young monk showed signs of sadness or sloth. He said he and the novice master would
try to see if it was “garden variety” acedia or clinical
depression. Discernment with oneself and others
helps distinguish between the two. A little change of
routine usually helps with acedia. If it’s depression,
the person needs to see a doctor. But it’s not an easy
distinction.
Mayer: How do you see the role of oblates in relation to consecrated monastics? Are there ways they
can be more mutually supportive of each other?
Norris: A monastery is not designed to be the oblate’s
church. In a monastery an oblate is always a guest. In
a church you are there as a member. Some relationships with monastics become very important, perhaps
through spiritual direction and friendship. But when
you get the community gossip, it’s not good. Outsiders don’t have the right to insider knowledge. X
Sophia Center
Upcoming Retreat Programs
A Getaway for Self-Renewal
Linda Zahner, OSB
January 8, March 5, May 9 Living with Grief of Suicide
Loretta McGuire, OSB
January 22
Enneagram
Therese Elias, OSB
January 23-25
Living in God’s Love
Marie Ballmann, OSB
Thursdays, February 19 to March 26
Lectio Divina:
Listening with the Ear of Your Heart
Micaela Randolph, OSB
March 4-5
Thomas Merton and Anthony DeMello:
Living in God’s Presence
Sheila Carroll, OSB and Gabrielle Kocour, OSB
March 13-15
A Spirituality of Imperfection
Melissa Letts, OSB
March 27-28
Faustina: Mystic, Saint, Visionary,
Contemplative, Messenger of God’s Mercy
Sheila Carroll, OSB
April 16
Ministering to Body, Mind, and Spirit
Linda Zahner, OSB
April 23
Gourd Prayer Bowl Workshop
Melissa Letts, OSB
May 23
The Psalms Belong To You: 8th Annual Oblate
Institute
Irene Nowell, OSB
July 16-19
Silent Directed Retreat
Sophia Center Staff
August 4-9
Threshold Winter 2014 • 11
James Finley:
Merton as guide
to
contemplative
prayer
by Therese Elias, OSB
J
ames Finley, a writer, speaker, and clinical psychologist, gave a retreat on contemplative prayer
in September at Sophia Center. A former monk at
the Abbey of Gethsemani, he learned from one of the
great spiritual figures of our time, Thomas Merton.
During the retreat Finley shared some stories about
Merton as well as his own journey of faith.
One of the stories Finley told revealed Merton’s compassion and understanding. Finley said that when
he was an 18-year-old novice he was sent to Merton,
who was the director of novices. He was shaking
and Merton asked him why he was trembling. Finley
said something like, “You’re Thomas Merton and I’m
scared.” Merton told Finley to come see him every
morning after he fed the pigs and to tell him about the
pigs. Finley told him about when the baby pigs were
born and all the things they did and soon he stopped
shaking.
Finley stressed that awareness is the key to contemplation. “The inner inclination to rest wordlessly in
the presence of God is the dawning of contemplation,” he said. “The dawning of contemplation is the
realization that in some mysterious way, God has
already taken us perfectly to himself.”
Finley spoke of how precious each of us is in the eyes
of God, of the deep affection with which God meets
us at the point where we are most fragile. It is there
that we can enter most deeply into God by maintain-
12 • Mount St. Scholastica
ing what Finley is fond of calling “sustained vulnerability.” Rather than running from our vulnerability,
we embrace it as a place of holiness where God who is
within us, draws us close.
Finley said that many of us suffer from “depth deprivation,” living on the surface of our lives, rarely
entering into our inner experience where we come
before God’s presence. He used the image, borrowed
from Merton, of owning a great and beautiful mansion, but living in a tent in the backyard. This is how
we often perceive ourselves and our lives, unaware
of the richness that is ours through the deeply intimate love of God for us. Because we don’t accept how
loved we are, we go about our lives as if we’re alone
and unloved.
One of Finley’s loveliest and simplest suggested
prayers is one in which we attend to our breath. As
we inhale, we become aware of God breathing into
us saying, “I love you.” Then we exhale, responding
back to God, “I love you.” We continue this wordless
dialogue back and forth, slowly and prayerfully.
Following the retreat one woman said, “He helps me
to believe in what I already know in my deepest self,
that God is truly present to me, loving me without
limit.”
About 100 people attended the retreat. During the
retreat, there were times of silent prayer as well as
question and answer periods. X
Kimberly Ritter:
A woman with a
passion to end
human trafficking
T
he stories were heart-rending. A provocative
12-year-old girl was pictured on a pornography
web site with offers to be available at a local
hotel. Another 13-year-old girl was given heroin so
she would become addicted and need to sell her body
to pay for the drug.
The statistics were horrifying. The average age of girls
and boys in the sex trade is 12-14 years old. It is the
second largest criminal industry in the U.S., surpassing illegal weapons. Human trafficking is a $9.5
billion a year business, putting 300,000 children at risk
in the U.S. alone.
Kimberly Ritter, a meeting planner for Nix Conference and Meeting management and mother of five,
is passionate about helping children caught up in the
sex trade. She was the presenter at the Fellin Lecture
at Benedictine College on Sept. 28, which drew an audience of about 400 with high BC student attendance.
Her passion began when the Sisters of St. Joseph
asked Ritter to book their meeting at a hotel that
did not allow trafficking. She was shocked to learn
how prevalent human trafficking was, even in her
hometown of St. Louis. She now works with hotels to
encourage them to sign the ECPAT Code of Conduct
to combat this trafficking. She is also the director of
Development for Exchange Initiative, a new organization begun by the Nix Corporation to educate and
empower others to end the sex trade.
According to Ritter, pimps recruit victims at malls,
parties, bus stops, and even homes. They use force,
threatening to kill or hurt them; fraud, luring them
with a promise of money and a good life; or coercion,
saying they will harm someone they love. Victims
stay in prostitution either because of PTS (post traumatic stress) or trauma bonding (seeing the pimp
as a "Daddy" or lover figure), she said. Often when
the young girl gets older, she will be used to beat or
punish the younger girls into compliance. Ritter is not
deterred by the fact that many girls she tries to help
go back to the same situation. She believes each prostitute deserves more than one chance to change.
Ritter works with the FBI and police in arresting
those involved in human trafficking. Unfortunately,
prostitutes account for 90 percent of the arrests, and
johns, only 10 percent. She urged her listeners to be
on the alert for signs of lonely young girls with low
self-esteem in their neighborhoods and to talk about
the problem at their schools, parties, and places of
employment.
In 2012, Ritter received the FBI Directors Community Leadership Award and the St. Louis Woman of
Achievement for Human Welfare Award. In 2013, she
was chosen as the Missouri Athletic Club’s Woman of
Distinction. In 2014, she received the Congressional
Victims Rights Caucus Allied Professional Award.
The Fellin Lecture Series is sponsored by the Benedictines Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica each year, a legacy of Mary L. Fellin, an aunt of Sister Jo Ann Fellin. X
Threshold Winter 2014 • 13
St. Scholastica joins Wangari Maathai outside Elizabeth Hall
Statues add beauty, serenity to campus
by Michaela Flax
Benedictine College student
S
urrounding the art and history that is seen and
felt throughout the Benedictine College campus is beauty and serenity. In the last year, two
new statues have been added to St. Scholastica Plaza
outside of Elizabeth Hall dormitory. Right at the
entrance to the campus, this small sculpture garden is
growing, and the addition of the statues of Wangari
Maathai and St. Scholastica add to the beauty and
peacefulness of the campus.
The artist behind the works, Bill Hopen, also created
the bas relief on the wall of the dormitory and the
sculpture group that is located not too far from it.
Hopen has done many works worldwide, and keeping him as the artist for these two additional pieces
makes the continuity and connection of these pieces
even more lifelike.
The statue of Wangari Maathaiwas unveiled on June
14, 2014, in the presence of her former classmates,
friends, some of the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, and many others. Wangari was a 1964 graduate
of Mount St. Scholastica College, now Benedictine
College. After graduating, she returned to her native country of Kenya and established the Green Belt
Movement in 1977. The work done by this movement
helped her to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
2004. The bronze statue that sits at the northern edge
of the plaza encompasses not only Wangari’s personality, but her life’s work as well. The smile upon her
face emanates a joy for life, her faith, and her strength
that is seen in all of the photos of her and in everything she did. The small tree that she holds in her
hands and the larger tree that stands behind her help
to identify Wangari with what she is best known for,
planting trees.
The second and most recently installed statue is that
of St. Scholastica. This statue was unveiled on October
18 during the Homecoming festivities. Many sisters of
Mount St. Scholastica, faculty, staff, students, family
and alumni were present for the ceremony. St. Scholastica, the twin of St. Benedict, played a key role in
St. Benedict’s life, and showed that his Rule of monastic life could be applied to women as well as to men.
She is caught in a moment of teaching with a book in
hand and her staff tucked under her arm. The movement of her clothes and the outstretched movement
of her arm bring the viewer fully into her space. The
roughness of the bronze is much different from the
roughness that is seen in the statue of Wangari. Where
the roughness of the latter is more subtle, the texture
is clearly present in St. Scholastica, giving her a more
commanding feel than the Wangari statue. St. Scholastica demands your attention as she stands above you
and reaches out toward you. The beauty of this piece
is seen in every aspect of her being, from the gracefulness of her movement to the kindness in her face.
Together, these pieces, along with the others of the
plaza, add to the beauty and serenity that can be seen
and felt everywhere throughout the campus. Art is a
part of Benedictine College, both inside and out. The
statues of Wangari Maathai and St. Scholastica in the
forefront of the campus invite students to enter their
space and inspire them to new heights of scholarship
and faith. X
A statue of Wangari Maathai, an alumna of Mount St. Scholastica College, was dedicated last June at Benedictine College.
14 • Mount St. Scholastica
Scenes from the dedication
Top: Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica pose with the statue of
St. Scholastica at the dedication in October. Above: Some members of the
Mount St. Scholastica Class of 1964, who were classmates of Wangari
Maathai, attended the dediction of her statute in June and returned for
the dedication of the St. Scholastica statue in October. Pictured are, from
left, Mary Ann (Sudrla) Wolcott, Ann (McCormick) Norbury, Carolyn
(Bergman) Slaughter, Winnie (Lundy) Nass, Joan (Hahner) Greene, Jodie
(Darby) Reiter, Sharon (Rhodes) Campbell, Harriet (Shumway) Maher.
Above: Sisters Linda
Herndon, Mary Agnes
Patterson and Anne
Shepard unveil the St.
Scholastica statue during
the dedication in October.
Left: Sisters Mary Agnes
Patterson and Anne Shepard pose with sculptor Bill
Hopen.
Threshold Winter 2014 • 15
Formation group
meets in Atchison
by Helen Mueting, OSB
O
n Oct. 10-11, ten Benedictine sisters joined
60 other sisters in attending the Religious
Formation Conference (RFC) at the Atchison
Heritage Conference Center. RFC is a national Roman
Catholic organization serving women’s and men’s
religious institutes, primarily in the United States. Its
service is especially directed toward those in the ministry of formation in their congregations.
Two speakers gave presentations on Saturday. The
first was Richard Gaillardetz, who is the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College and director of graduate studies. His presentation
was entitled “From Center to Periphery.” He focused
on the following quotes from Pope Francis: “Truly to
understand reality we need to move away from the
central position of calmness and peacefulness and
direct ourselves to the peripheral areas. Being at the
periphery helps to see and to understand better, to
analyze reality more correctly, to shun centralism and
ideological approaches… (I) prefer a Church which is
bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on
the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy
from being confined and from clinging to its own
security.”
Gaillardetz told the group that the three centers
religious need to move away from are the “heroic”
center, the “influential” center, and the “obediential”
center. He used Vatican II documents to show this
movement from the “safe center” to the prophetic
periphery. He said that living on the periphery is an
invitation to live on the margins socially, ecclesiastically, and pastorally. Socially, we are a church for the
poor, advocating for the poor, and learning from the
poor. Ecclesiastically, we need to abandon the idea of
ourselves as auxiliaries of the hierarchy but need to
find ways to work with the hierarchy. Pastorally, we
need to not separate doctrine from practice. Insights
from the margins must be returned to the center as a
gift for the Church and world.
The afternoon speaker was Sister Caroljean Willie, a
Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, who has had extensive experience working cross-culturally through the
United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America as a
teacher, teacher trainer, cultural diversity consultant,
and retreat director. She is currently the NGO representative for the Sisters of Charity Federation at the
United Nations and works with microfinancing proj-
16 • Mount St. Scholastica
Top: Sisters Helen Mueting, Marcia Allen, CSJ (president elect of LCWR),
and Barbara Smith converse at the Religious Formation Conference.
Bottom: Sister Susan Holmes, center, speaks to keynote speaker Richard
Gaillardetz, right, with Sisters Nancy Jane Kuntz, OP (Great Bend) and
Betty Suther, CSJ (Concordia).
ects in Africa. Her presentation focused on the story
of her involvement on the periphery as she moved
from her comfort center. She used the image of an iceberg to show how most people see only the 20 percent
of the iceberg which is above water. She said we need
to ask what is under the iceberg. We need to become
more group oriented, to focus on relationships, on our
shared context with others. “Our world is becoming
increasingly conscious of itself as a global, connected
reality in which the good of one is intimately connected with the good of all,” she said. In her work
with third world countries, more of these people are
saying, “No decision about us, without us.”
Those attending the conference from the Mount were
Sisters Marcia Ziska, Barbara Smith, Susan Holmes,
Benedicta Boland, Kathleen Flanagan, Patricia Seipel,
Lou Whipple, Elaine Fischer, Helen Mueting, and
Novice Jodi Hart. X
Sister Susan Barber is liturgist for international gathering
by Susan Barber, OSB
F
rom Sept. 8-18, Benedictine sisters and nuns
from 17 regions of the world gathered in Rome
for the fourth Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum, known as the C.I.B. I was honored to serve as
one of two liturgists on the planning team.
For two years, the planning team
pondered and planned processes, prayers, presentations, rituals,
and liturgies that would reflect the
theme “Listen with the ear of your
heart.” In planning the liturgies
we gave particular attention to the
opening and closing rituals, incorporation of the native languages,
flexibility, and hospitality.
In January 2014, the planning team
met in Rome and stayed with the
Camaldolese Sisters at San Antonio,
just down the hill from Sant’Anselmo, where the symposium was to
be held. We met Father Elias and
Father Methodius at Sant’Anselmo
and made connections with Sisters
Marta and Micaela at San Antonio,
all of whom were instrumental in
helping us with the logistics of the
symposium.
We returned to Rome on Sept. 3 to
renew connections, create the environment for prayer and liturgies,
gather needed materials, and make
final liturgical plans. At the opening
ritual, participants met in the cloister outside the church and processed to their tables inside, singing “Veni Sancte Spirtus.” At the end of the
procession young sisters from each region wove their
way through the group in a blessing dance, led by
Sister Araceli, a facilitator for the symposium. At the
closing of the dance, we sang “Song at the Center,”
accompanied by flute, violin, drum, and keyboard, as
the CIB candle, an earth-globe, the Rule of St. Benedict and sacred scripture were brought forward. Sister
Judith Ann Heble offered a welcome and an opening
prayer.
A ritual of roll call and mutual welcome, a PowerPoint presentation of pictures from each region, and
time for lectio on a passage from the Prologue to the
Rule of Benedict, read in five languages, continued
the opening ritual. We sang the refrain “Obsculta, et
inclina aurem cordis tui” (“Listen, incline the ear of
your heart”), a verse that would collect and center us
many times throughout the week.
The horarium for the week included
lauds, terce, Eucharist, none, and
vespers. Each day the music was
beautifully and prayerfully led by
sisters from a different country or
region. French, Spanish, German,
Italian, Latin, and English were
designated as the main languages
for the Liturgy of the Hours and
Eucharist. Sisters who spoke Swahili, Tagalog, Polish, Korean, Czech,
and Portuguese helped us to pray in
their native tongues also.
A highlight of the symposium was
a pilgrimage to Subiaco. We visited Sacro Speco (the cave where St.
Benedict lived and prayed for three
years), celebrated the Eucharist with
Abbot Primate Notker Wolf, OSB,
and renewed our monastic profession in five languages.
At the closing ritual delegates
offered a blessing for the sisters in
their region, in their native tongue.
Sister Judith Ann gave each participant and guest a beautiful ceramic
custom-made shell inscribed with
the word “obsculta.” The joy, vitality, and friendship shared through
the week were evident in the week’s
photos shared in a beautiful PowerPoint presentation
before we offered one another a sign of peace.
I am deeply grateful to Sister Judith Ann for inviting
me to serve as a liturgist, to Sister Juliann Babcock for
her wonderful partnership and friendship, and to Sister Anne Shepard and my community for gifting me
with a sabbatical which allowed me the time to plan
the liturgies and to be a part of this international experience of Benedictine life and friendship. I share the
hope that relationships among Benedictine sisters and
nuns, between Benedictine women and men, and between Benedictine monastics and the Catholic Church
will continue to deepen in the work of the CIB. X
Threshold Winter 2014 • 17
Monastery Notes
Sister Genevieve Robinson, who
retired from active ministry at the
end of the academic year 2014, has
been appointed to the position of
archivist for Mount St. Scholastica.
She spent 23 years at Rockhurst
University in Kansas City,
Missouri, as professor of history
where she also held the positions
of chair of the history department
and the division of humanities
and fine arts, and director of the
Honors Program. Sister Genevieve
also served as academic dean
of undergraduate studies at
Fontbonne University in St. Louis.
Prior to retiring, she was dean of
the school of arts and sciences at
St. Mary’s University in Winona,
Minnesota.
18 • Mount St. Scholastica
Novice Jodi Hart is a paraprofessional at Visitation School in Kansas
City, Missouri, helping a child with a disability and assisting the teacher
when needed. Although her main focus is one student, she also helps
other students. The education plan for the student is to get him to be
independent and to reach his potential. She hopes to go back to college
to study special education.
In her new study, Sister Joachim
Holthaus pays tribute to the more
than 120 sisters who came from
Germany and Eastern Europe to
become a part of the foundation of
Mount St. Scholastica. Although
information about the early years
is sketchy, her research in the
community archives provides a
glimpse into the sacrifices and
contributions these sisters made
to our monastery. They left their
families and homelands to be
missionaries to America, and left
an amazing heritage to those who
followed.
Sister Rosann Eckart (right) is
now assisting in vocation ministry
part-time and continues to work
in maintenance at the monastery.
She helps prepare materials for
vocation presentations and does
other secretarial work, as well as
participates in vocation days in the
archdiocese. She was previously
working as monastery archivist.
Monastery Notes
Sister Cecilia Olson is team
teaching a course on Benedictine
Spirituality with Father Meinrad
Miller at Benedictine College. This
course introduces the students
to monastic life, the Rule of St.
Benedict and the values inherent
in the Rule and hopefully, opens
the students to ways that monastic
values can speak to their own
lives. Prior to this ministry, she
served in initial formation, first
as scholastic director and then as
initial formation director.
Sister Kathleen Flanagan works
at Benedictine College Library in
circulation. Her duties include
readying materials that instructors
want on reserve, sorting and
distributing the library mail,
keeping usage statistics and
managing the desk with the
student workers. She continues
as monastery librarian, mainly
paying subscription bills and
ordering requested books. She is
assisted in the monastery library
by Sisters Deborah Peters, Mary
Collins, Laura Haug, Mary Benet
Obear and Alice Brentano. Sister Marcia Ziska (right) was appointed director of initial formation
for Mount St. Scholastica beginning Aug. 1, 2014. In this role she
welcomes women entering the community as postulants. Together
with the formation team, she discerns with the woman her readiness to
become a novice. She continues as associate director of Sophia Center
where she is a staff member of the Souljourners program and a spiritual
director.
Threshold Winter 2014 • 19
Disability doesn’t stop Sister Mary Grosdidier
G
rowing up on a farm in St.
Paul, Kansas, Sister Mary
Grosdidier learned early on
to trust people and accept help. In
1940, at age six and a half, she contracted polio which paralyzed her
from the waist down, and spent a
lot of time in and out of hospitals
in Kansas City. Through prayer
and physical therapy (including
“Sister Kenny treatments”–water
therapy and hot packs), her muscles were rejuvenated and she
regained use of her legs.
pendent on others’ help much of
the time. “I couldn’t run or jump
or participate in sports or even do
steps alone,” she said. “But my father’s attitude was ‘try it,’ and my
brothers and sisters challenged me
and let me tag along with them. I
wore braces, yet I figured out how
to do things. I had a wagon and
found a way to make our dog pull
me around. I also learned to ride
horses. I was scared, but I learned
to take risks to be a part of things.
I studied the options and made
orders, she chose the Benedictines
because the Mount was in a rural
area and was close to home. She
had heard good things about the
sisters from the Mount.
Sister Mary taught elementary and
secondary school for 42 years and
was principal for 25 of those years.
Her last mission was in Ottawa,
Kansas. A family there offered
her a motorized scooter when she
left. Upon her return to the monastery, she became office manager
in Dooley Center for six years and
then retired.
A state program
Since then she
called the Crippled
has done misChildren’s Commiscellaneous jobs
sion, which paid for
such as picking
all medical expenses
out nuts, makup to age 21, was a
ing pickles,
godsend to her parcleaning curbs,
ents who had nine
shredding
children. After high
paper, and
school, she wanted to
working at the
go to Webster College
switchboard.
in St. Louis, but the
When young
commission would
people call for
only pay for a college
service jobs,
in Kansas unless there
she lets them
was a special need.
help her clean
“I wrote to Webster
up around the
and they gave me a
monastery.
work-study scholarSister Mary Grosdidier likes to keep the environment clean around the monastery.
“I don’t like
ship so the commission
dirty sidewalks,
agreed to pay for the other exchoices.”
drives, and parking lots, so I startpenses,” Sister Mary said. “They
ed picking up trash and pulling
During her sophomore year of
believed in the importance of
high school, she was put in a body weeds,” she said. “I couldn’t do
educating handicapped children so
any of it without my scooter.”
cast for 11 months to correct as
they could get jobs and not be on
much as possible the curvature of
In her leisure time she enjoys playwelfare.”
the spine and stabilize it. “It was
ing computer games, crocheting,
Although her hospital visits dishot and itchy, but it taught me
reading, visiting, and traveling.
rupted school and friendships, she patience,” she said.
She has made a trip to Europe and
learned independence. “My father
Japan and often visits family memSister Mary thought of becoming
would put me on a train to go to
bers in parts of the U.S. “Through
a sister in grade and high school,
Kansas City, and someone would
the generosity and kindness of
but wanted to go to college first.
meet me there to take me to the
so many, I can go places and do
One of her teachers in college
hospital,” she said. “When I was
things,” Sister Mary said.
suggested she try library science
about 12, I learned to navigate the
because teaching would be too
Her advice for people with disabilbus system in the city and be on
hard. She taught a year in St. Paul
ities? “Acknowledge your limitamy own.”
and discovered she could do it. Aftions. Accept help. Trust people. Be
On the other hand, she was deter checking out various religious
grateful for all your blessings. “ X
20 • Mount St. Scholastica
From hall monitor to Dooley administrator
B
efore she was old enough
to work, Renee Porter volunteered in a nursing home
in Easton, Kansas. In high school
she became a “hall monitor” at the
home, changing sheets and emptying bed pans. During college she
also worked at a nursing home.
Before becoming administrator
of Dooley Center, she worked at
Manor Care in Topeka and Country Care in Easton, Kansas.
“I love working with the elderly,”
Renee said. “My college advisor at
the University of Kansas encouraged me to major in behavioral
science, and I am grateful. I use it
every day in my work with the residents. When someone is having
problems, I try to find out the root
cause instead of putting them on
medication right away. “
When the position opened up at
Dooley Center, Renee jumped at
the opportunity. “Dooley is wellknown for its reputation as one of
the best nursing homes,” she said.
“I also liked that it was small and
in a religious setting. ”
Renee enjoys interacting with the
residents and the staff and hearing
their stories. Sometimes they are
funny. Once when she told one of
the sisters she couldn’t keep the
bird food in the refrigerator, the
sister was upset. “I apologized,
and she told me I should apologize
to the birds,” Renee said.
She hopes to continue moving
forward with the emphasis on
personal care rather than institutional care. For example, the aides
get to know what residents like
to eat, sometimes eggs or peanut
butter, and they make it available,
she said.
One of her challenges is human
resources. “It’s hard finding the
balance between being personal
and following protocol,” Renee
said. “It’s important to be both
caring and to follow the rules.”
Renee and her husband Ben and
three daughters, Bailey, Brooklyn,
and Sadie Lynn, live in Winchester,
Kansas. Her older daughters love
to come to the Mount. Bailey, who
is six, did her math homework
with Sister Joyce Meyers once. She
asked her mother if she could do
her homework with the sisters every night because “Sisters are way
cooler than you, Mom.” Brooklyn,
who is three, thinks the monastery
is a castle and all the sisters are
princesses. X
Mount hires social media, digital communications manager
by Judith Sutera, OSB
T
here’s a new employee at
the Mount for a new need
in the community’s public
relations. Melodee Blobaum is
busy friending, tweeting and all
the other tasks of a social media
manager. She came from Johnson
County Community College where
she was the internal communications writer/editor. Before that,
she was a reporter and editor for
The Kansas City Star and a freelance
writer while her son Andrew was
growing up.
Asked about her connection to the
sisters, she recalls, “My first contact was nearly 20 years ago, when
I came with a Lutheran women’s
group for a retreat. I later entered
the Souljourners program, and
those experiences introduced me
to the remarkable women here. I
was charmed and inspired by their
hospitality, wisdom and grace.”
Blobaum is responsible for planning, creating and executing
Mount St. Scholastica’s digital
communications with pictures,
video and stories. “We have amazing stories to tell here, from the
stories of the sisters themselves to
news about programs at Sophia
Center to the lives changed by the
Keeler Women’s Center. In the
digital communications era, with
the availability of websites, blogs,
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
YouTube, we can tell those stories
directly to the people we want to
reach without having to wait for a
reporter to call.“
So naturally, she has a message
for Threshold readers. “Like us on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/
MountOSB and get engaged with
our posts. We love to read your
comments and we love it even
more when you share our posts
with your friends. Follow us on
Twitter at @mountosb.” X
Threshold Winter 2014 • 21
From the Director of Development
Partners in ministry
Dear Friends,
One of my ministries in the community is to work
with the Tanzanian Benedictine Sisters Judith Kapinga
and Gemina Munyuku. I have witnessed them grow
so much in knowledge and self-confidence over these
years. Journeying with them has been very rewarding
and exciting for me. If all goes as planned, they will
graduate from Benedictine College in May 2015, and
return home to work among their people with the sisters of their community. Both are majoring in theology
and hope to teach and work in the ministry of faith
development among the young people of Tanzania.
Your help makes this and many of our ministries
possible. We are able to reach out in service because
of your partnership with us through your donations
of time, money, and your prayers for us and for our
ministries. All of you support us, and because of your
help, we are able to provide services to many people
in the Atchison, Kansas City, and St. Joseph areas.
Without your support, many of our services and ministries could not continue. For this I thank you from
the depths of my heart.
(Top) Sister Mary Agnes Patterson, left, hugs Sister Gemina
Munyuku after Munyuku spoke at the Night of Dreams. (Bottom)
Sister Judith Kapinga addresses the crowd at Night of Dreams.
Our prayers are our best way to thank you. You can
contact me at 913-360-6215 or patterson@mountosb.
org to request prayers. God bless each of you.
Mary Agnes Patterson, OSB
Director of Development
Mount Legacy Society
The Mount Legacy Society recognizes donors who have remembered the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica as beneficiary of a planned gift. It is a privilege and honor for the sisters to be named as a beneficiary
in your gift planning. Thank you for considering such a gift. For information, you are invited to contact Sister
Mary Agnes Patterson, director of development, at 913-360-6215 or patterson@mountosb.org.
The following donors are new to The Mount Legacy Society since our last Threshold.
Mildred A. Barkley+
Linda Lager Jones Family
22 • Mount St. Scholastica
John H.+ and Clara Crawford+
Frances M. Schoenfelder+
Water With Blessings
receives award
W
ater With Blessings
(WWB) has been awarded the prestigious
Clarence E. Moore Award for
Excellence in Voluntary Service Organization, given annually by the
Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) and the PAHO Foundation. This award recognizes the potential of the unique WWB model
for addressing critical public health
needs in the Americas.
The PAHO Award acknowledges
that WWB meets and exceeds the
criteria for best practices in water intervention projects, through
a unique program that equips,
empowers and entrusts women as
agents of transformation in their
communities. Water With Blessings is a nonprofit
community headquartered in Louisville, Ken., with years of highly
regarded experience in the field
of water intervention aid. Their
mission is “Clean water for God’s
thirsty children.” They partner
with mothers and missioners in 21
developing countries.
Sister Barbara Smith participated
in a Water With Blessings mission
experience with Benedictine College students last spring in Honduras which brought water purifiers
to women who did not have access
to potable water. She and Sister
Linda Zahner will be traveling to
Honduras with Benedictine College students this spring.X
Volunteer Kathy Marincel of Kansas City, Mo., right, helps Maria learn English.
Keeler Women’s Center
Empowering women through education, advocacy, personal and spiritual
development. We partner with professional volunteers and agencies to offer
a wide variety of programs and services to women and men from throughout
the metro area.
Our current offerings include:
Education
Loss and grief groups
Parenting classes
Women’s empowerment series
Nutrition classes
Self esteem groups for women
Workshops on Healthy
Relationships
Support groups for women with
addictions
Financial literacy classes
Support groups for survivors of
domestic violence and sexual assault
Education programs for healthy
living
Classes for daily living
Theatre troupe with drama therapy
Support group for women recently
incarcerated
Basic literacy
A women writers’ group
Help learning English
A monthly book club
Knitting, crocheting, quilting and
crafts
Advocacy
Help with job searches
Massage
Assistance with resume preparation
Workshops on professional etiquette
and life skills for employment
Assistance for men and women
seeking resources in the metro area
Weekly outreach to women in the
Wyandotte County Detention Center
Spiritual Development
Spiritual direction
Weekly bible study and faith-sharing
group
Seasonal retreats
A monthly Holy Women series
Personal Development
Daily prayer
Counseling
algunos programas se ofrecen en
español
Counseling for survivors of torture
913.906.8990
www.keelerwomenscenter.org
Threshold Winter 2014 • 23
Night of Dreams
Supporters
dream big
for Mount
ministries
W
e learned three things about
Mount St. Scholastica supporters at the annual Night
of Dreams event in November:
• A little bad weather won’t stop our
supporters from showing up in
record numbers for an event to benefit the Benedictine Sisters. More
than 650 people reserved seats for the event, and nearly
all braved snow and frigid temperatures to attend.
• Bidders didn’t have to ask “Where’s the beef?” during
the live auction, which raised in excess of $19,000 for
our ministries. A side of Jersey beef sold for $1,700;
the amount was doubled when donors Jerry and Sue
Spielman of Seneca, Kansas, offered a second side for
the same price.
• Generous hearts are abundant among our supporters,
who pledged $63,830 for the Dooley Center, Sophia
Center, Keeler Women’s Center and education of our
Tanzanian Sisters during the “Fund a Need” auction.
An additional $50,000 has been pledged as a matching
donation. Total income after expenses was $283,230.
“The Night of Dreams is a success because so many sisters,
volunteers and oblates work together,” said Sister Mary
Agnes Patterson, director of development. “The guests
have a great time and are so generous in contributing to our
ministries. Many people are involved to make the evening
a blessed event for all.”
Cathy Carr of Lincoln, Neb., won the grand prize drawing
for a new car or $15,000 cash, and chose the cash prize. Carr
said she couldn’t believe she won – the only other drawing
she ever won was for a turkey.
Sister Anne Shepard said she appreciates the financial
support. But, she said, there’s an even greater value for the
Night of Dreams: the opportunity for supporters and sisters
to connect, renewing old friendships and making new
ones.X
24 • Mount St. Scholastica
Top: Ken Conroy raises his bid card during the Fund a Need portion
of the live auction at Night of Dreams. His wife, Gloria Murray, is at
his left. Center: Carol Rodgers, left, visits with Sister Anne Shepard.
Bottom: Brian and Susan Yockey and Martha Holle were first-time
attendees at the Night of Dreams.
LCWR Resolution 2014
Transitioning to Renewable Energy Sources
(This resolution was adopted by the Mount community on Nov. 1, 2014)
Resolution
Rooted in the oneness of our love for God and our love for God’s creation, we commit ourselves to use our
spiritual, social, and educational resources and our public credibility to promote the national transition from
fossil fuel energy sources to renewable energy sources as quickly as possible.
Rationale
We are facing an imminent threat to the health and well-being of our planet and all its species due to sand mining, mountaintop removal, loss of wetlands, fracking in 26 states which has already led to the loss of billions of
gallons of fresh water, and the construction of hundreds of miles of new pipelines to carry hazardous extracted
liquids through rural farmlands and residential areas. As we encounter increasing public pressure to achieve
national “energy independence” through new extractive fossil fuel technologies, it is time to commit ourselves
to moving away from fossil fuel energy sources to systems built on renewable energy sources, such as solar,
wind, water, and geo-thermal power. We believe that Earth does not belong to us but we belong to Earth. We
cannot remain bystanders as extractive industries destroy our environment and its resources. We reject an economic system that promotes wasteful consumption of energy and the other gifts of God’s creation.
Actions we are taking
1. We are divesting our investment portfolios of fossil fuel investments and increasing investments in
renewable energy sources.
2. We are installing over 150 solar panels (shown below) on the roof of Dooley to provide solar energy.
3. We have hired a waste disposal company which incorporates extensive recycling.
4. We are working toward using only nontoxic laundry soap, cleaning materials, and toiletries.
5. We are working with schools to increase their awareness of global warming and its consequences and
of sustainable actions they can implement.
6. We are planting vegetation which enriches the soil and provides food for bees and are avoiding the use
of dangerous pesticides and weed killers.
Threshold Winter 2014 • 25
Reasons for the cremation option
by Mary Collins, OSB
“T
exts that linger, words
that explode.” This
phrase describes well
the experience the Mount Sisters have had with the liturgical
phrase, “Dust you are and unto
dust you shall return.” The liturgical texts linger as we return to
them each Ash Wednesday. They
began exploding slowly a decade
ago when Sister Elaine Fischer, our
building and grounds manager,
brought to our attention that the
Mount cemetery had room for two
dozen more burial plots on even
ground. At the time there were
more than 150 of us who would
need a place to be interred. A decision had to be made soon about
land use.
We could expand the cemetery
south by removing an apple
orchard and green fields to use
the land for additional graves
in perpetuity. But we were also
hearing ecological concerns some
sisters were voicing about flexible
land use. Could we use available
cemetery space for smaller burial sites? It seemed timely to look
into practices associated with the
interment of created remains from
the viewpoint of Catholic faith and
spirituality. So we began to reflect together over several
years. Some community members were
familiar with the
practices already in
use in their families; others were
bewildered just to
think about it.
Sister Chris Kean,
our licensed professional mortician,
taught us about
customary practices
of embalming and
burial, and about
our freedom un-
26 • Mount St. Scholastica
der Kansas law in matters related
to the use of private cemeteries.
She broadened our education by
informing us – stretching beyond
our comfort zones in many cases
– about the working of crematories. Suddenly those familiar
Ash Wednesday words began to
explode. What did we hear when
the words proclaimed as words
of blessing – “unto dust you shall
return” – might speak to a new
situation?
We brought in a priest liturgical
theologian who was consultant to
the United States Catholic Bishop
Conference as they were modifying Catholic funeral rites of committal for use when cremation was
practiced. Meanwhile Sister Elaine,
our master wood worker, designed
and manufactured (literally hand
made) a simple and dignified box to
hold an urn with the cremains of a
sister to be used in the developing
rite of committal. Liturgists were
developing the committal rite to fit
our circumstances.
When it was time to decide – expand the cemetery or use the available land for burial – Sister Anne
Shepard proposed that
we keep the choice
focused by identifying two options.
Did a sister want
the community to give
her a traditional burial in
a customary cemetery
vault immediately after the funeral Mass?
Or did she
choose
to be
cremated
after
the funeral
Sister Elaine Fischer, below left, sands a box that
will hold an urn containing cremains. Each box
is hand-finished (top). A finished box is shown in
the lower photo.
Mass, with her cremains committed to the bare ground in a simple
wooden box? Each of us went on
record with her choice.
This year on All Souls Day the
Mount Sisters celebrated a twostage rite of committal with the
ashes of Sister Rosina Baumgartner. She was the 612th Mount sister
to be buried in our hillside cemetery, more than a dozen whose
cremains have been interred. How
did it go? The community assembled for midday praise in St. Lucy
chapel and then processed to the
cemetery, with the prioress carrying the simple box with the urn.
At the cemetery it was reverently
placed in the bare ground as the
community prayed and sang. One
by one sisters placed handfuls of
earth to fill the small grave. Our
final verbal call-response exchange
was: “Remember that you are dust
… and unto dust you shall return.”
The word is true, yet we await together God's final summons to
the fullness of life to come. X
Into eternal rest
Sister Mary Ann (Mary Leo)
Fessler, OSB
March 2, 1934 -- August 21, 2014
Wherever Sister Mary Ann went,
there was joy and laughter. It came
from a sense of deep appreciation
for life, which began for her in a
large farm family in Wien, Mo. She
entered the Mount community after
high school and became an elementary teacher in schools in Missouri,
Kansas, and Colorado. In 1980, she
went to Panama, Iowa, and was able
to affirm her great love of rural life
by becoming a founding member
of Covenant Monastery in Harlan,
Iowa, where she was oblate director
and did pastoral ministry after her
20 years of teaching there.
She had the ability to make every
child in her classroom feel valued
and could bring out their best. In
community, her kindness and generosity made every sister feel valued
as well. She accepted her return to
Atchison and her infirmities with
faith. She continued to be a model of
gratitude to those who assisted her
and expressed gratitude to God for
her life.
Sister Sharon Holthaus, OSB
April 1, 1922 -- August 23, 2014
Only two days after Sister Mary
Ann’s death, the community lost
Sister Sharon Holthaus. She too was
a farmer’s daughter, born in Baileyville, Kansas. She worked one
year as a secretary before entering
the Mount Benedictines in 1941 and
became a primary teacher. After only
a few years, she joined the Mount’s
mission to Mexico City. There, at
Colegio Guadalupe, she taught high
school girls for 17 years, and her success was evident by the number of
them who sent condolences and reminiscences at the time of her death.
She returned not only to the States,
but to her home town in the 1970s,
doing pastoral ministry in the Nemaha-Marshall area with a team of
five sisters. Teaching high school
and doing pastoral ministries filled
the rest of her active years. After
returning to the Mount in 1989, she
served as director of the laundry, did
miscellaneous services, and enjoyed
crafts. She was always concerned
with her many relatives and proudly
displayed their pictures and greetings. It was clear that the feeling was
mutual when large numbers of them
filled St. Scholastica chapel for her
funeral. She lived and died quietly in
great faith and fidelity.
Sister Rosina Baumgartner, OSB
March 9, 1922 -- October 15, 2014
Sister Rosina spent most of her life
in Atchison, and her heart was never
far from its people. First among these
people were her family members,
many of whom still reside there. She
knew the sisters all her life, with her
father employed by the abbey and
her aunt (also Sister Rosina) among
the community’s earlier members.
She received a Benedictine education
and went on to become a teacher and
organist herself. Vatican II excited
and inspired her, and she became
deeply involved in ecumenism, liturgy and RCIA.
With a passion for social justice, she
was an early member of the local
ministerial alliance and helped start
a hunger task force. She used her
enthusiasm, organizational skills,
and tenacity to try to draw everyone
she met into service for the needy
and marginalized. She did not let the
increasing frailty of her later years
deter her from speaking to others
about social concerns, playing the
organ for Dooley Center liturgies, or
caring about those near and far who
were in need of her fervent prayer.
Threshold Winter 2014 • 27
The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica
wish you abundant blessings
and peace for the New Year.
Mount St. Scholastica
801 S. 8th Street
Atchison, KS 66002
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