Harmony Vol 2 Issue 3 - Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

BENEDICTINE SISTERS of perpetual adoration
June 2008
‘A sign and a symbol’ of the risen Lord
Osage monastery becomes lay ashram
A new beginning was witnessed as
sunlight spilled through the windows into the Osage chapel during
its closing Eucharist as a Benedictine ashram and settled upon the
packed audience of Sisters and
friends.
While the BSPA formally closed
the Sand Springs, Okla., community
on April 20, it will continue as a
not-for-profit ashram called OsageForest of Peace and provide contemplative renewal programs and
projects to assist the poor.
“The ashram will continue but
under lay leadership,” Prioress General Ramona Varela, OSB said.
“Our vision for providing a prayerful atmosphere with an openness to
all people is being passed on. Our
work there is accomplished.”
Father Jim Connor, OCSO, presided over the Eucharist and said,
“Bless us especially on this day as
we celebrate the history and the future of this Forest of Peace. It has
been a source of grace and of life to
many over these 30 years.”
During the ceremony, Sister
Ramona symbolically transferred the
Osage property by presenting a key
to Robert Doenges, board president
for the lay ashram.
Other board members include
Balbir Mathur, John P. Douglas,
Father Brian Pierce, OP, and Sister
Pascaline Coff, OSB, who will reSee OSAGE, page 2
Father Jim Connor presides over
the closing Eucharist at Osage
Monastery on April 20.
Arizona students attend Tucson’s
Monastic Experience
The Tucson community hosted a Monastic Experience
for five University of Arizona students in April. During the
weekend they learned more about commitment, discernment, the Divine Office and Lectio Divina, as well as other
prayer forms such as the practice of the present moment
and adoration. Pictured are students (front row, from left)
Krista, Danielle, Melanie, Tamra and Elizabeth, and (back
row, from left) Kim Zeeman, Postulant Clarisa Cutaia,
Novice Nancy Gucwa and Tucson vocation director Sister
Sophia Becker, OSB. †
Page 2
June 2008
Sister Joan Catherine Perridge observes Golden Jubilee
Sister Joan Catherine Perridge,
OSB celebrated her golden jubilee
of monastic profession on April
29 with her community in Clyde,
Mo.
She worked in the private sector
once again but continued her discernment. She soon learned about the
Benedictine Sisters during a retreat.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sister
Joan enjoyed life in a close-knit
family that included seven children.
She attended school with the
Sisters of Mercy and was told
early she may be destined for religious life.
“Nothing on the East Coast
spoke to me. I went to Clyde and
knew it was just right for me,”
Sister Joan Catherine said. “The
attraction for me to this community was the balance of work and
prayer. I have grown in prayer and
love our life more each year.”
She entered in 1955 and made
her first monastic profession on
March 13, 1958. During her years
as a Benedictine Sister, she
worked in the correspondence
department, as a bookkeeper and
portress, and in the altar bread
department.
After taking a year off after high
school to help her family, she
went to work as a secretary for an
advertising firm on Madison Avenue in New York City. However,
the idea of religious life still
tugged at her heart.
“I thought that I had let the
Lord wait so long,” she said. She
decided to enter a Carmelite community at the age of 23 but left
shortly after, realizing their way of
life didn’t match her religious calling.
The priest leading the retreat encouraged her to visit the community.
Sister Joan Catherine Perridge
“It is difficult for me to express
what a life such as mine, hidden in
God, is all about,” she said. “I am
grateful for my faith and the vocation that I am sure will lead me to
that life for which we are destined,
through death to true life in
God.” †
Osage monastery holds closing Eucharist
Continued from page 1
main at the ashram until next year to facilitate the transition.
“It has been my joy to serve and share with our Benedictine lay oblates who so love Benedict’s Rule for their
own spiritual journeys,” Sister Pascaline said. “With the
emergence of Interfaith dialogue I found both our
Benedictine way and the ashram lifestyle poignantly
appropriate.”
The Osage monastery, founded in 1977, served the
Congregation by its example of simplicity of life and
obvious focus on living a life of prayer and hospitality
to all.
“The place has a life of its own,” Father Jim said during the closing ceremony. “Perhaps the pain and the
sorrow of this transition are, in a way, a part of that suffering and dying of the son of Mary. But it is done so
that he might rise anew, that life might come forth
from this place to be continued on through those who
will remain here or come here in the future. This place
stands as a sign and a symbol of what the risen Lord
remains to be for all of us.”
For more information about Osage-Forest of Peace,
call (918) 245-2734 or e-mail [email protected]. †
June 2008
Page 3
Putting out the Welcome mat
Several members of the Knights of Columbus
from the Tucson, Ariz., area have been busy this
spring with repairs to the exterior areas of the
Benedictine Sisters’ monastery.
To provide additional safety, the volunteers
tackled the project of installing parking berms
and striping the black top of the lot located north
of the monastery, Sister Sophia Becker said.
“The St. Monica’s council, led by Joe Aycock
and Tom Lugo, along with the help of Doug
Cameron in obtaining the parking berms free of
charge, have begun setting the berms out, riveting
them into place with rebar and striping,” she said.
“We now have many handicapped parking spaces
closest to the sidewalk and parking berms for safe
parking in our lot.”
Future plans also include painting light fixtures
and obtaining signs to help with traffic flow. †
Volunteers with the Knights of Columbus (right)
have helped make appreciated repairs and additions to the parking lot of the Sisters’ Tucson
monastery.
Wrapping up repairs at healthcare facility
Restoration work after an
Easter fire has been completed on Our Lady of Rickenbach, the healthcare facility
that serves the Benedictine
Sisters’ congregation in
Clyde, Mo.
A blue tarp covers a portion of the Sisters’ healthcare facility (above) where several of the roof’s
trusses had to be replaced following an Easter fire.
weeks. They moved back
into their rooms in late May.
“We held a picnic for the
people who were so helpful
to us during the fire and
went over and beyond duty
to help us in every way,”
The March 23 fire damaged Prioress General Sister
several of the roof’s trusses Ramona Varela, OSB said.
and created water damage
For information on how
throughout the building. to assist, please call (660)
There were no injuries, and 944-2221. †
the residents were moved to
the main house for nine
Page 4
June 2008
Clyde honors trio for monastic anniversaries
Spring ushered in a celebration
for a trio of Benedictine Sisters
during a jubilee ceremony in April
at Clyde.
Sisters Jean Frances Dolan, OSB
and Lioba Hanley, OSB celebrated
their golden jubilees of monastic
profession and were joined by Sister Jane Heschmeyer, OSB who
was honored for her silver anniversary.
While all three were called to religious life with the Benedictine Sisters and dedicated themselves to
contemplative prayer and the
Eucharist, each took a different
path in getting there.
With a great-aunt who had become a nun, Sister Lioba was familiar with and interested in religious life but not drawn to her particular community.
“But I knew there was something
special about that life,” Sister Lioba
said.
As a teenager, she played sports,
went to movies and dances and
hung out with her friends. She
spent her summers at her family’s
home at the lake. It was at St. Celestine’s in Elmwood Park, Ill., outside of Chicago that she would
meet a young girl named Jean
Frances.
They played in the same
neighborhood as children. As the
years passed, they attended Trinity
High School in River Forest, Ill.
While different interests meant different classes, they still managed to
share an interest in religious life.
Drawn to a contemplative and
prayerful life, Sister Lioba made
The Clyde community hosted a trio of jubilee celebrations on April 4 for
(pictured from left) Sister Jane Heschmeyer, Sister Lioba Hanley and
Sister Jean Frances Dolan.
plans to enter the Benedictine Sisters before telling her friend of her
decision.
“I took Jean Frances to (thencommunity) Mundelein for a visit,”
Sister Lioba said. “As soon as she
walked in the door, she nudged me
and said, ‘This is it. This is where I
want to be.’ The spiritual connection that drew us together as children led us both to the Benedictine
Sisters.”
For Sister Jean Frances her interest in religious life began when she
was only 4 years old.
“I announced I wanted to be a
nun when I grew up because the
nuns lived with God,” she laughed.
“My mother insisted I would
change my mind when I got older,
but I never did.”
While in high school, she confided in her chaplain that she was
considering a vocation as a contemplative sister. He gave her a
brochure about the Benedictine
Sisters, but one look at the cover’s
photograph of the beautiful chapel
and she changed her mind and returned the brochure.
“I was thinking of a more simple
order. The sisters’ chapel was too
fancy for me,” she laughed. “Then
the chaplain asked me, ‘Are you
entering for the Lord or for the
place?’ I answered, ‘The Lord,’ and
he handed the brochure right back
to me.”
She left her home near Chicago
and along with Sister Lioba entered
the Benedictine Sisters in 1955.
They each made their first monastic profession on March 13, 1958.
During her years as a Benedictine, Sister Jean Frances spent time
at many of the congregation’s
monasteries.
See TRIO, page 5
Page 5
June 2008
Knights donate to Sisters
The Knights of Columbus have raised
$12,590 through various fundraisers to
benefit the Tucson, Ariz., monastery.
Pictured at the check presentation are
(from left) Martin Ronstadt, Kelly Bequette, Tucson Prioress Sister Lupita
Barajas, OSB, and Joe Wypych.
Photo courtesy of The New Vision, Tucson,
AZ. †
Trio celebrates jubilee
Continued from page 4
“My family jokes – Join the Monastery, See the
World,” she said. “I’ve loved the transfers because each
was a new adventure. You are changed by every place
you go and everyone you meet.”
“I experienced something that day. There were no
words but a strong interior sense that God wanted me
to consider religious life,” she said. “It all just came as
softly and naturally as an autumn breeze.”
She currently serves as the congregation’s director of
oblates, lay people of any faith drawn to the Benedictine
life who adapt monastic practices to their own lives.
Her parish priest helped her explore options with
regards to active or contemplative communities but it
was the life led by the Benedictine Sisters that attracted her the most.
“I meet these beautiful people who are sincere in sharing their desire for something deeper in their lives,” Sister Jean Frances said. “To walk with them has been such
a gift and one of the biggest joys of my life.”
Sister Lioba has served the congregation in a variety of
ways such as a pastoral minister, in the finance department and formation and now works in the low-gluten
altar bread department.
“I enjoy making the wafers because I like how much
they help people. I unite with them in prayer,” she said.
Unlike Sisters Jean Frances and Lioba, the Lord took a
bit longer to call Sister Jane to religious life. It was on
the banks of a river in Germany on a glorious autumn
day that Sister Jane felt a call to religious life.
A college graduate who was backpacking her way
through Europe, she had not thought much about monastic life until that very moment.
She entered in 1980 and made her first monastic
profession on Aug. 20, 1983. She received degrees in
sociology and psychology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in addition to monastic studies at St.
John’s University in Collegeville, Minn.
She serves as a general councilor for the congregation and was also instrumental in helping develop the
sisters’ low-gluten altar bread.
While they traveled a different path, they each found
a home, a sacred place, that they discovered by listening to God with their hearts.
“We are a microcosm of society at large,” Sister Jane
said. “Among us you’ll find incredible talent, wisdom,
knowledge, skill, strength, weakness, health, illness,
compassion, joy and sorrow – the scope of human
existence. God has called us to live this life together
because he wants to do his work in this particular
group of people.” †
Page 6
June 2008
‘Awesomeness’ of adoration drew Sister Mary Esther
Benedictine Sister Mary Esther Elbert, OSB, 96, died April 11, 2008, in
Clyde, Mo.
She was born Sept. 4, 1911, to Michael and Clara Belle (Kanappel) Elbert in Sedro-Woolley, Wash.
After graduating high school at 16
she attended Holy Names Normal
School in Seattle. When her older
sister entered the Benedictine Sisters,
she became interested in their contemplative life and dedication to the
Eucharist. She entered in 1932 and
made her final monastic profession
on April 22, 1939.
Sister Mary Esther once said, “I
just knew I wanted to be a bride of
Christ. I am grateful for the beauty
of our monastic homes and the
peace and quiet that has helped our
seeking closer union with Jesus and
one another. I recall the awesomeness of adoration, especially at night
when in the quiet stillness and semidarkness God seemed so near.”
During her years as a Benedictine
Sister, she lived in the Congregation’s
communities in Mundelein, Ill., San
Diego, Tucson, Ariz., and St. Louis.
She served in a variety of ministries
including work in the printery, the
altar bread department, garden, library, maintenance and the reception
room. She was as a chronicler, a
councilor, an oblate director and
worked with the Benedictine Guild
and as a pastoral minister.
She was preceded in death by her
parents; two sisters, Sister Mary
Johanna Elbert, OSB and Josephine
Elbert Smernoff; and three brothers,
Paul, Anthony and Bernard Elbert.
Sister Mary Esther was known for
her joy and her appreciation of
beauty in nature, in life and in others.
She was generous, gracious and
loving. Now one with the Lord
whom she adored, she delights in the
fullness of joy and beauty. A Mass of
Christian Burial took place on April
Sister Mary Esther Elbert
14 in the Adoration Chapel,
Clyde, followed by burial in Mt.
Calvary Cemetery, Clyde.
Memorials can be sent in care
of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. †
Altar Bread department undergoes equipment improvement
As part of their commitment to quality, the Benedictine
Sisters have raised the bar in their production of altar
breads.
“We have added new equipment to streamline our quality control area,” said Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza, altar
bread manager. “It is now a faster process, so we hope to
be able to increase production in the future.”
The Benedictine Sisters are the largest religious producers of altar breads in the nation and the only approved
providers of low-gluten communion wafers. †
Page 7
June 2008
Gift from God: Sisters provide prayer support for Australian youth
It helps to have faith and friends, even if those
friends are half a world away.
“Until recently, we have had very little happening in
the area of youth ministry here,” he said.
Although happily married for 17 years with two
beautiful children, Matt Ransom, a deacon of the
Diocese of Cairns in Queensland, Australia, is drawn
to the contemplative life.
So Deacon Matt hopes they will be inspired by attending World Youth Day in July in Sydney, Australia.
More than 125,000 people are expected to attend the
six-day event, which brings together young people
from around the world to celebrate and learn more
about their faith.
“My involvement in charismatic renewal led me to
an intimacy with God in prayer, which is awesome,”
he said. “The contemplative life provides an opening
to that same intimacy.”
During a “moment of great darkness in ministry” a
few years ago, he found himself in need of a little extra inspiration. So he sent an e-mail message to a variety of Benedictine communities around the world
searching for prayer and intercession.
The reply he received from Benedictine Sister
Dawn Annette Mills, OSB helped answer more than a
few prayers. It established a correspondence that lasts
to this day.
“The intercession has created an openness and an
ease in ministry that was not there before,” he said.
“When there is prayer happening, when hearts are
opened, it is a lot more fruitful.”
Deacon Matt keeps in touch with the Sisters and
often sends prayer requests,
especially in regards to the
youth of the relatively poor
diocese.
Deacon Matt Ransom (far
right) is grateful for the
Benedictine Sisters’ incredible prayer support to
help his students and
other young adults in the
Diocese of Cairns in
Queensland, Australia,
prepare for this summer’s
World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia.
Learn
more about their
endeavor at www.cairns.
catholic.org.au/wyd2008/.
The Diocese of Cairns has gathered a contingent of
140, which Deacon Matt calls “huge” for his region.
“We hope the experience serves as a catalyst for a
youth renewal. That from this event, youth groups,
ministry in schools, youth outreach and services will
grow and develop,” he said. “Hopefully we will see
our youth returning to church and to vocations in the
priesthood and religious life.”
Gearing up for the event has been an exhaustive effort of rallies, fundraising and pre-event festivities.
“It takes a lot of energy, and the Sisters have been an
incredible gift from God,” Deacon Matt said. “There
is absolutely no way we could have gotten to this point
without the great prayer that has happened.” †
Page 8
June 2008
Tucson community hosts jubilee celebrations
A home of prayer centered
around the Divine Office and
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was like a guiding star that
led Sister Joy Ann Wege, OSB to
the Benedictine Sisters decades
ago.
“To make the robes, altar cloths and
other items of worship is a beautiful
service to the Church,” she said. “This
is a beautiful way of life, if God calls
you. It is full of such dedicated, loving
people who are a joy to be with, to live
with, to pray with and to share with.”
In the years since, monastic life
has evolved and changed but
there remains one constant for
her.
As a child, Sister Reparata’s family
moved often across the United States.
The young girl loved reading and classical music and danced ballet. It was during her pre-teen years that she first felt
the call to religious life.
“It has sometimes been challenging, sometimes affirming but
always, always a gift,” she said
after celebrating her golden jubilee of monastic profession on
March 29 in Tucson, Ariz., along
with Benedictine Sister Reparata
Hopp, OSB who celebrated her
60th jubilee.
“I fell in love with Jesus when I was
in the sixth grade,” she said, “but I was
not a Catholic so it took me seven more
years to get to the point where I could
become a nun.”
She joined the Catholic Church in
1943 and soon read an article about a
A St. Louis native, Sister Joy
Ann had been attending a local
college and working as a secretary in an optometrist’s office
when she first heard God’s call
to religious life. Having always
been attracted to a vocation, she
learned of the Benedictine Sisters
through a brochure and was
drawn to their contemplative life
of prayer.
“That struck a chord in my
heart. That was what I wanted to
do – to pray,” she said. “I felt it
was the best way I could serve the
Church and the world in much
the same way as the Little Flower
(St. Therese of Lisieux).”
Sister Reparata wrote the Benedictine Sisters about her interest
but was told to wait a bit longer in
order to make sure the new convert was indeed serious about her
calling.
So she enrolled in a Catholic
college, underwent further education about the faith and made
wonderful friends who shared her
enthusiasm for religious life.
Her time was well-spent and
cemented her calling. She entered
the Benedictine Sisters in 1946
and made her first monastic profession in 1948.
Through the years she spent
time at the congregation’s communities in Clyde, Mo., Mundelein, Ill., and Kansas City, Mo. She
has been at home at the Tucson
monastery since 1993 where she
answers prayer requests for the
correspondence department and
manages the subscription listings
for the congregation’s magazine,
Spirit&Life.
“The Eucharist is the center of
our lives and the source of the
deep fidelity of God’s loving
presence among us,” Sister Joy
Ann said.
She entered in 1955 and made
her first monastic profession on
March 13, 1958. The Congregation sent her to nursing school in
St. Louis, and she worked in the
health care facility for 17 years.
Today she is at home in Tucson,
serving as nurse to her fellow
Sisters and making liturgical vestments.
young woman who had made her
vows in a Benedictine community
dedicated to perpetual adoration.
Sister Joy Ann Wege (left) and Sister
Reparata Hopp were honored in March
for the anniversaries of their monastic
professions.
“Even before entering the
Catholic Church I had a desire to
serve God,” Sister Reparata said.
“I was drawn to the Blessed Sacrament – the Real Presence – and
felt this was the type of life I
would like, the secluded life of
prayer and work.” †
Page 9
June 2008
Giving in the Benedictine Spirit
May 10 marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Benedictine
Sister Mary Carmelita Quinn, OSB.
She served 12 years as the highest superior in the Congregation,
directed the spiritual life of the Sisters and contributed much to the
material building of the community.
She sent Sisters to the Benedictine Institute of Sacred Theology
and other schools, forming the
next generation of leaders.
She also rejoiced to see the
growth of the altar bread work,
knowing that the work of the Sisters’ hands would become the
Body and Blood of Christ and
food for millions.
Currently, we are the largest religious producer of altar breads in
the United States and the producer
of the only low-gluten altar bread
approved by the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
She emphasized that acceptance
of the little inconveniences in daily
life obtained graces that we humans could not imagine.
Our founder, Mother Mary
Anselma Felber, OSB, and Sister
Mary Carmelita were of like mind
in promoting Eucharistic Adoration and the contemplative life. If
you would like to share in the legacy of these stalwarts of Eucharistic Adoration, please visit our Web
site at www.benedictinesisters.org
or call (660) 944-2221.
Sister Mary Carmelita encouraged
our involvement with Spirit & Life
www.spiritandlifemagazine.com/.
Donations in support of our
contemplative life and apostolic
works may be made to any of our
The Sisters remember her many
exhortations to fidelity, to prayer
for priests, for married couples and
families, and for the entire world.
Learn more online
Main Web site www.BenedictineSisters.org
Shop online www.MonasteryCreations.com
Listen to prayer services www.MonasteryPodcast.org
Send an E-card www.MonasteryNotes.org
Spirit&Life www.SpiritandLifeMagazine.com
For Oblates www.BenedictineOblates.com
The Sisters’ discovery of low-gluten
altar breads is an important part of a
legacy left by women like founder
Mother Mary Anselma Felber and
Sister Mary Carmelita Quinn.
monasteries or online
www.benedictinesisters.org.
at.
Your gift will support our life of
prayer, and our prayer will be the
gift we offer in return to support
you and your loved ones.
God bless you!
Sister Wilmarie Ehrhardt, OSB
Meet our Planned Giving guides
To learn more about the benefits of giving and how to do it wisely,
please contact a member of our planned giving team.**
Sister Valerie Stark, OSB
Treasurer
660/944-2251
[email protected]
Sister Wilmarie Ehrhardt, OSB
Coordinator of Planned Gifts
660/944-2271
[email protected]
Our legal name is Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration
**Specific information is available from
your own qualified financial/tax advisor.
June 2008
Page 10
General Chapter Assembly 2008 set for June
The Benedictine Sisters will hold their twoweek general chapter assembly beginning June 1
in Clyde, Mo.
harmony is the online newsletter
published by the Benedictine Sisters
of Perpetual Adoration.
The theme for the General Chapter of 2008 is
Eucharist: Adored and Lived in a Time of Transition. The Sisters will discuss several topics including constitutional changes, long-range planning and the election and installment of a new
prioress general and three-person council who
will each serve six-year terms.
31970 State Highway P
Clyde, MO 64432-8100
660/944-2221
To learn more about the newly elected leadership, please visit www.BenedictineSisters.org in
late June. †
Conferences & Workshops
Vocations Conference
Publisher
Sr. Ramona Varela
Prioress General
Editor
Kelley Baldwin
Director of Communications
Editorial Board
Sr. Virginia Anne Argenziano
Sr. Josetta Grant
Sr. Bede Luetkemeyer
Sr. Colleen Maura McGrane
Harmony is published six times
each year.
Sisters Sophia Becker and Ruth Starman attended the regional meeting for the
If you would like to subscribe to
National Religious Vocation Conference in April in Leavenworth, Kan.
Religious Treasurers Meeting
this free publication, please
e-mail Kelley Baldwin at
[email protected].
Sister Wilmarie Ehrhardt chaired the regional Conference of Religious
Treasurers meeting held in April in Wichita, Kan.
Please send all correspondence to
Kelley Baldwin at [email protected].
Summit Conference of Church Ministries
Sister Virginia Anne Argenziano attended the convention for the National
Association of Catholic Personnel Administrators in April in Orlando, Fla.
Soap Makers Guild Meets
Sister Cathleen Marie Timberlake took part in the 11th annual meeting of the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild in
April in Burlington, Vt.
Vocation Directors Workshops
Sister Ruth Starman attended workshops on canon and civil law issues and immigration law sponsored by the
National Religious Vocation Conference in May in Washington, D.C.
Theology of the Body Seminar
Sister Lynn Marie D’Souza and Postulants Clarisa Cutaia and Mary Hastings attended Christopher West’s
Theology of the Body presentation in May in Kansas City, Mo.
Formation Meeting
Sister Rita Clair Dohn and Novice Nancy Gucwa attended the Novice and Directors Institute conference in May
sponsored by the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Norfolk, Neb.
Interreligious Dialogue
Sister Katherine Ann Smolik attended the Gethsemani Encounter III gathering for the Monastic Interreligious
Dialogue in May at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. †