The bluebirds have returned for the season! Robins, the harbinger of spring have also arrived. The jonquils and daffodils are blooming, the trees are budding and the sisters have started working in the vegetable garden. Spring has arrived at Holy Wisdom Monastery and on what is now known as Wisdom Prairie.

“In the spring, we orient ourselves toward God’s creation – the sunlight, warmth and rain – after being inside all winter. A new season bursts forth,” said Paul Boutwell, groundskeeper and restoration ecologist.

Sandhill cranes strolling up to the Mendota Prairie overlook.

In addition to the welcome sight of the bluebirds, the prairie meadowlarks have returned. “They have a really unique song which is used for mating or to let other birds know where their territory is located,” explained Paul. He recently encountered a great horned owl which flew from its perch in a tree to the ground in front of him. It extended its wingspan trying to scare Paul away. Prairie birds often nest on the ground, including the sedge wren and the yellow-throated warbler.

Many of the birds are moving north to Canada at this time of year and make a stop at Wisdom Prairie until the weather warms up further north. Bufflehead ducks enjoyed Lost Lake for two weeks in April. With the lingering cold weather and snow up north, migrating birds may be here awhile longer than usual. The prehistoric-looking sandhill cranes can be heard often making their loud trumpeting call.

An Eastern bluebird gathers nesting materials.

In addition to all the bird sightings, the 13-lined ground squirrels, also called Wisconsin prairie dogs, have emerged from hibernation. They look much like a chipmunk only bigger and enjoy standing on their back legs to get a better view of their surroundings. Deer, fox and coyote are also more active now that the weather has warmed up.

Paul has worked at the monastery since 1990 and has been through both droughts and rainy seasons. The drought that Wisconsin experienced last year was the worst he has seen. “It’s hard to know what will happen with the prairie plants. It could weaken some of the plants so they don’t come back or they won’t have as much resilience as before.”

Paul added that some of the perennial prairie flowers didn’t produce seed last year because of the drought. “Birds, animals and insects depend on the seed source for food.” Paul said there is a huge relationship between all of the species. “There’s a co-dependency, a symbiotic relationship to help support each other.”

With the almost six inches of rain received in April and the several inches of snow in March and April, the drought has officially ended. Paul said that new growth will happen in many areas of the prairie, though he noted that some of the wetland plants around the two water detention basins constructed near the monastery might not come back because of the drought. Invasive species such as canary grass and garlic mustard could start to take over in these open areas.

In May the prairie is still dormant. If you get down on your knees and look closely you could see some green under the tall brown grasses. “The prairie doesn’t really get going until June,” explained Greg Armstrong, development associate. “You should simply enjoy observing the changes that take place at this time of the year. The prairie is just beginning to green up with new growth peeking out from the death of last season.”

The sisters at Holy Wisdom Monastery are devoted to the prairie and care for the earth practices for the long haul. The ongoing prairie restoration work of nearly 100 acres provides a benefit to nearby Lake Mendota. Wisdom Prairie helps prevent soil erosion and run-off into the lake because of the deep root system of the prairie plants. The prairie acts as a filter and can absorb seven inches of rain per hour. The rain water carrying polluted run-off from nearby farms is filtered through the prairie and enters the lake much cleaner.

Spring is a great time to visit Wisdom Prairie. Guests are encouraged to take a walk on one of our four nature trails and witness the miracle of spring. Most likely you’ll see quite a variety of flora and fauna if you take the time to look.

Community Workday volunteers head out to remove invasive plants from the prairie surrounding Lost Lake.

Spring is the perfect time to visit Holy Wisdom Monastery for a personal or group retreat. Contact Jamie Dunbar atjdunbar@benedictinewomen.org, 608-836-1631, x100. If you would like to volunteer on Wisdom Prairie, consider attending one or more of our monthly Community Workdays, May 18, June 22, July 20, August 20, September 21, October 19 and November 2, 2013. Sign up online or contact Jill Carlson at jcarlson@benedictinewomen.org, 608-836-1631, x108.

Share this:

The sisters’ commitment to caring for the earth has deep roots in our Benedictine spirituality. Having made a promise of stability, we seek to work for the good of the place where we live. This refers to both the people and the land which is our home. Benedict tells his community members to care for the tools of the monastery as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar. By this he lets us know that all things are holy. Such a mindset leads us to care for creation by reducing, recycling and reusing whatever we can.

A monk has written that the first book of God is creation and the second is Scripture. Benedictines know that one of the first places people encounter the divine is through creation. The sisters take care to maintain the monastery grounds as a quiet place where retreatants are free to walk, sit and meditate. By doing so they may discover their connection with the holy and with themselves as part of creation.

Benedictines also have a commitment to beauty because, again, we may encounter God through beauty. The magnificence of a sunset over the western trees, the wind rippling through the tall prairie grasses or the sound of the red-winged blackbirds calling to one another may awaken a sense of wonder and praise in us.

Working in the vegetable gardens, on the prairie or in the orchards keeps us grounded in our creatureliness. Such manual labor provides a balance to sitting at a computer or studying and is an aid to staying in the present moment. We hope you will join us in our commitment to caring for the earth.

Hershey Mallett (left) and Stephanie Borger (right) work with
Sister Lynne in the vegetable garden during last year’s Volunteer
in Community.

In addition to volunteer opportunities (Community Workdays) mentioned above which are open to all, we offer two longer-term volunteer programs where single, Christian women can experience life in community, assist us in our mission to care for the earth, and take their experience of Benedictine life with them into their daily life.  Volunteer in Community offers single women a 2-4 week experience during the summer, and Benedictine Sojourners provides opportunities lasting 6-12 months. Contact Sister Lynne Smith, 608-831-9305 for more information.

Share this:

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society co-producers Jeffrey Sykes and Stephanie Jutt bring their “chamber music with a bang” to Holy Wisdom Monastery on June 13, 2013 for the annual Prairie Rhapsody benefit concert. Photo by C&N Photographers.

We are pleased to announce that Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society  (BDDS) will bring their act to Holy Wisdom Monastery on Thursday, June 13, 2013 for the annual Prairie Rhapsody benefit concert. We are excited to see this come to fruition after being in conversation with BDDS about the possibilities since 2011!

BDDS performs throughout the Madison area in June of each year, bringing their “chamber music with a bang” performances to venues such as Overture Center, Stoughton Opera House and the Taliesin. We look forward to hosting BDDS for the benefit concert the night of June 13, 2013, and are pleased that the musicians are staying with us, eating meals with the sisters and rehearsing in our space the week of June 10-17, 2013. It is an honor to share the space with them in this way. We hope that after long days of rehearsing together, they venture out onto our nature trails and create some harmony with the native plants and wild animals that make up our prairie habitat.

The concert on the evening of Thursday, June 13 promises to be a bang. All money raised supports the sisters’ care for the earth ministries at Holy Wisdom Monastery, which includes prairie restoration efforts on our grounds. The evening starts with appetizers at 5:30 pm and a silent auction full of wonderful items tied to food, the arts, and care for the earth. The music begins at 6:30 pm and ends with complimentary chocolates provided by Stam Chocolaterie of Middleton.

Guests at a previous Prairie Rhapsody enjoy refreshments at the edge of the prairie. Photo by Gregory Bleck.

Purchase tickets on our website for $50 per person ($25 tax deductible) or download this registration form and return it to Benedictine Life Foundation, 4200 County Road M, Middleton WI 53562. Space is limited, so please register as soon as possible!

This concert is possible because of all the generous support from our sponsors. We are especially grateful to American Printing Company who joined our efforts this year and provided complimentary graphic design services for all of our 2013 fundraising events at the monastery.

A complete list of our Prairie Rhapsody benefit concert sponsors includes:

• Alliance Benefit Group
• American Printing Company
• Chocolaterie Stam
• D.R.S. Ltd.
• Meicher & Associates, LLP
• Meuer Art & Picture Frame Co.
• Phoenix Consulting
• Gail and Dan Shea
• Richard Wagner
• Mary Zaborski, Merrill Lynch Green Bay

Share this:

David Fisher enjoys removing invasive plants
at Holy Wisdom Monastery to keep the native
landscape thriving. Photo by Kent Sweitzer.

David Fisher has been instrumental in removing woody invasive species in the prairie for the past two years. His largest project includes removal of a 20 foot high x 40 foot long hedge comprised of honeysuckle and buckthorn, two woody invasive species which take over if left to grow. David has made this his mission and volunteered in weather extremes ranging from 5 to 100 degrees. “He works no matter what the weather is in removing invasive species,” Sister Mary David Walgenbach said.

 
The impact that David makes helps our prairie become even more environmentally sound. “Because of the close proximity to the north shore of Lake Mendota, the prairie acts as a filter to prevent run-off from entering the lake. The healthier the prairie is the more it prevents run-off. Because invasive species crowd out the growth that we want to encourage, the removal of the invasive growth is much needed,” said David.

David embodies the spirit of volunteerism by leading others. He runs his own business but still finds time to volunteer 60 or more hours per month. While he mostly works alone, he’s also introduced several friends to Holy Wisdom who have pitched in to help remove invasive brush.

Our prairie attracts local prairie enthusiasts who walk our four nature trails as well as the retreat and meeting attendees who spend time here. If the prairie looked overgrown with invasive species, it would not be as welcoming and beautiful to enjoy. David’s work affects all who visit Holy Wisdom Monastery.

For more information on how to volunteer at Holy Wisdom Monastery,  visit our website or contact Jill Carlson at 608-836-1631, x108.

Share this:

I am walking into the sun. I am struck with this thought as I am temporarily blinded on my way to the monastery this morning. I am by no means experiencing a dramatic post-resurrection vision like Paul on the road to Damascus; it is just that the sun has been such a rare sighting since my arrival at Holy Wisdom Monastery in early April. It is now May.

Spring is finally here, I think. And after a little over a month I am cheerfully settling into my Sojourner Year (though still arriving over the long term – see my introductory reflection, A New Thing).

Amidst the rain and chill day after day (and visions of the cherry blossoms blooming back East) I do not become too discouraged. I “know” all will be well. In terms of changing seasons of the year, and my life for that matter, I have been assured again and again by observing Nature’s faithfulness. I am also heartened by the community around me as we tell stories of past anomalies in the weather – and the minor or major storms of our lives, which we survived. Though troubled by a longer winter that is delaying the farmer’s need to plow and plant, local Wisconsinites and monastery visitors witness to the resilient human spirit.

The creatures on the monastery grounds join the chorus of hope. On the occasional but rare clear and bright day in the past month, I have observed heightened activity among the trees and on the lake. The birds’ movements seem more excited; their calls more insistent. I delight in watching the ducks take flight from one side of the lake to another, and then cruise down and glide almost playfully across the water’s shimmering surface. I confess that in the moment I imagine the child in me sliding in bare socks across the expansive monastery floor. No, I haven’t done this, and please, don’t you dare me. I do allow a skip in my step for the remainder of my walk across the grass, which is sparkling with a single dew drop upon each and every blade.

I am in sync with my surroundings and all that is aflutter. Wake up! Come forth, arise! See, this is a new day. I Am with you. Sing with Me your particular song. Prayer has gotten into me before I even enter the Oratory, where I join other humans to sing God’s praises.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”          – Julian of Norwich

(This month during Midday Prayer, Benedictine Women of Madison commemorated the life of Julian of Norwich, the 14^th-15^th century Christian mystic who authored Revelations of Divine Love.)

Share this:

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

28 April 2013

FIRST READING

Acts 11:1-18

The earliest Christians were Jerusalem Jews.  The major theme of Acts is the story of how, under the urging of Peter and Paul, the church decided to convert gentiles.  (May I remind you that the term “gentile” means anyone who is not Jewish?)  In our reading, we hear how the Jerusalem church was shocked to hear that Peter had been converting gentiles.  They called him to return, and today we hear his defense.  He begins with the fascinating vision he had of being told by God to eat meat prohibited in Jewish law.  Then he tells of how he was called to the house of Cornelius, a centurion (officer over a hundred Roman soldiers), who had had a vision of an angel who told him to fetch Peter.  (The story had been told in the previous chapter.)  As Peter preached to the family, something happened, perhaps a trance fell on them, or they began speaking in tongues; the text says only “the Holy Spirit fell upon them.”  After such a sign that God was with this family, Peter was happy to baptize them.

SECOND READING

Revelation 21:1-6

We are close to the end of Revelation.  John is allowed to see the renewal of life that initiates the new era.  From heaven descends the new Jerusalem, like a bride, an image that always puzzles my imagination.  Then God takes leave from the scene, announcing his new dwelling among men in the holy city, his care of them, his renewing the entire world.  There yet remain brief dramas of measuring and illuminating the holy city and the revelation to John of the river of life and the tree of life.  Our next two readings will be taken from the final verses of the prophecy.

Share this:

April 28

Acts 11:1-18, Rev. 21:1-6, John 13:1-31-35

Doesn’t it feel like we are living in a new heaven and a new earth?

Now that we have had several consecutive days of sunshine and warm weather, the relentless succession of gray cold rainy days are becoming a distant memory. Spring is finally here!

It is one thing to look out the window and see blue skies, green grass, crocuses and daffodils.

It is another thing to go outside, soak up the sunshine, smell the newness, clear out the flower beds, walk the Farmer’s Market. Sit on the back porch and watch the birds.

One year I noted in my garden journal on April 14 that it was 80 degrees and I was digging out dandelions. We are not there yet, but it is coming.

I am a theologian, not a scientist. I have often pondered as I walk around the Capitol at the Dane County Farmer’s Market, how it is that daffodils come first and then tulips. Why don’t we get sunflowers in the spring? Flowers know when it is their time to bloom. Must be something about their DNA. There is an orderly succession, we see it year after year.  Very predictable.

A new heaven and a new earth, is what this year’s long awaited spring feels like.

A new heaven and a new earth, all things made new.

This is the pinnacle, the high point of the book of Revelation.

It is transformation

It is intimacy, God and God’s people are one, like the intimacy of a bride and bridgegroom..

It is our deepest longing, our thirst for God, being quenched, satisfied.

This new heaven and new earth:

What is it? Where is it? When is it? How is it?

Jim Marion writes in Putting  on the Mind of Christ:

The spiritiual path is a path of transformation. For the Christian this means a work of Divine Grace, another name for the Holy Spirit who guides evolution from within. As Ken Wilber writes, “As for transformation itself how and why individuals grow, develop and transform is one of the great mysteries of human psychology. The truth is, nobody knows….We remain mysterious beings in a mysterious universe, a universe that is gradually becoming more and more conscious through us.”

How this new heaven and new earth comes about is a mystery.

Our other two readings, one from Acts, the other from John, give us some clues.

Jesus instructs his disciples during their last meal together:

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Live as I have lived. Love as I have loved. Know your oneness with God and all human beings.

In Jim Marion’s words again (page 9)

At that Last Supper he also gave us his “new commandment” …How did Jesus love us? His love for us was based on this same no-separation nondual vision of our inner substantial union with God and each other….we must come to the same level of consciousness that Jesus displayed.

Never before in the recorded history of God’s people have we been called to imitate another. Moses never told his people to follow his example, the prophets never ask us to imitate them. But Jesus does: love one another as I have loved you.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta is perhaps the most well know example of what it means to live and love as Jesus did:

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
― Mother Teresa

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

Mother Teresa lived and loved as Jesus did.

Peter’s visit with the Gentiles is another window into this new heaven and new earth.

The law strictly forbade interaction between Jews and Gentiles. A Jew became unclean associating with Gentiles or eating some of their foods.

The law was a tape drilled into the Jews probably from their birth. Difficult to erase!

So, of course, Peter is criticized by law abiding Jews for visiting Gentiles in the city of Joppa.

Rather than give a lengthy theological argument about why he did what he did, he tells his story

He tells his critics off having a vision or dream that repeats itself three times. When something happens three times, you pay attention!

He tells them of the nudging of the Spirit,

the synchronicity of three people showing up at his house to take him to Caesarea

He tells his critics of the message of an angel to the man that Peter is taken to. Angel-code word for a dream.

He tells his critics of the Holy Spirit visiting the Gentiles  just as on Pentecost.

All these events converge and Peter has been changed, he is not the same person, he experiences the world and God differently. The same nondual vision….the Gentiles are not separate unclean people, they are like him, visited by the Holy Spirit, loved by God.

The faithfulness of two people, Peter and the Gentile person, brings about a seismic shift. There is no going back.

This is the new heaven and new earth.

One way of understanding the struggle in the church over the last few decades is that some people truly understand that the church is inclusive, the gifts of God are for all, not just a few, that there are no second class citizens, there is no separation between me and the other or between me and God.

But in many traditions this is too threatening and there has been a retrenchment to the Law, the authority of Scripture is cited rather than the freedom of the Spirit. Law takes precedence over the power of story.

In my own denomination, the Mennonite Church, the struggle since the 70’s was first over whether women can be ordained, then whether divorced people can be ordained and most recently about the inclusion of GLBTQ people.

A new heaven and a new earth

Transformation.

Loving and living as Jesus did.

Intimacy with the God who is nearer to us than our breath.

Our thirst to know God is quenched because we have been fully known.

May the coming of spring, a transformation that is unfolding before us, be a reminder and invitation of the transformation that can take place deep within each one of us.

Amen.

Let us pray

That we would be faithful to the nudgings of the Spirit in our lives, we pray

Risen Savior, here our prayer.

To live and love as Jesus lived and commands us:

Risen Savior, hear our prayer.

That you, the Living Water, would quench our thirst we pray;

Risen Savior, hear our prayer.

For what else shall we pray?

And we remember quietly those we wish to pray for as well as those mentioned in our book of Intentions.

Risen Savior, hear our prayer.

Today’s passages are of newness

A new heaven and a new earth

A new commandment

And the new out pouring of the Spirit on the Gentiles.

Share this:

Hello from Trish Stefanik, the newest Benedictine Sojourner. I have arrived. At the monastery, that is; I have a long way to go to acclimate to a new part of the country, get to know a whole new community of people and enter into a new way of life. Not to mention, learn what light switch turns on what light, where the dishes and utensils are kept in the kitchen, and how to get around the oratory, offices, buildings, the prairie and a new town. Whew.

Yes, arriving will take time. I am very grateful that the sisters and the monastery staff, according to the Rule of Benedict, advocate the practice of patience, perseverance and humility. And that they are in community to support each other, including me now, in that practice. By sharing some of my experience on occasion with you the readers and friends of Holy Wisdom Monastery, I hope to offer a view of monastery life from the eyes and heart of someone desiring to love God and learn from others.

I am a single woman, raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, who lived in and near Washington DC for the past 27 years. I have been enriched by spiritual community and work with Sojourners, a community and magazine of faith in action for justice; various churches; the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Paulist Media Works; the Servant Leadership School of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour; the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation; a West Virginia wilderness retreat community, Rolling Ridge; and Friends of Silence, which encourages prayer and contemplation.

Looking back, one thing seemed to naturally lead to the next to bring me to this new thing. I desire to listen, reflect, and take action to be a part of God’s creativity and evolving creation. I continue here enthusiastically. And I begin again.

Share this:

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

21 April 2013

FIRST READING

Acts 9:36-43

In Acts, Chapter 9, Peter brings about two miracles, the second of which you will hear about today.  Both result in many conversions to “the Way.”  Throughout Acts, miracles lead to faith.  Yet in the gospel of John, the risen Christ says to doubting Thomas, “have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (20:29).

It is significant that Peter stayed with a tanner.  In Jewish law tanners were unclean because they worked with animal carcasses.  Aside from law, raw animal hides are vile.  They stink and attract vermin.  Peter chose to stay in the very pit of society, an act of love toward humanity.  Yet the church he helped to establish flourished largely because people of wealth supported it.  See the recent work by Peter Brown, Through the Eye of the Needle:  Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West 350-550 AD.

SECOND READING

Revelation 7:9-17

Revelation was written to give courage and comfort to Christians who were threatened by their Roman rulers.  In 64 CE, the Roman emperor Nero blamed the Christians for the great fire of Rome, setting off vast numbers of arrests usually resulting in death, often by horrible tortures (described by the Roman diplomat and historian Tacitus in Annals .XV.44).  Peter and Paul are thought to have died in these persecutions.

In our reading, John is still in the throne room of God.  A great crowd of people dressed in white robes appears before God, and one of the elders explains to John that they have “come out of the great ordeal,” meaning they have died under torture, still loyal to their Christ.  In a wonderful metaphor of washing their robes in the blood of the lamb, we are told they have been forgiven their sins.  Now God will care for them and “will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Share this:

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

14 April 2013

FIRST READING

Acts 9:1-20

Today we hear the remarkable story of the conversion of Paul.  In Acts, Paul (his Latin name) is sometimes called Saul (his Greek name).  The name “Christian” had not come into being; instead the movement is called “the Way.”  There also are two other accounts in the Acts of the conversion, both told by Paul (22:1-29); 26:1-23).  Paul had been a leader of the Pharisees who persecuted Christians and had been in charge when they stoned to death St. Stephen (7:54 – 8:3).  In his dramatic conversion, Paul had an experience of seeing and speaking with Christ.  He later held that this put him on a par with the Twelve, who, of course, had seen and conversed with Jesus; on this ground, Paul claimed the right to the title of “apostle.”

SECOND READING

Revelation 5:11-14

The author-narrator named John (not John the evangelist) is shown God on a magnificent throne guarded by four creatures, one something like a lion, another like an ox, a third like a man, and a fourth like an eagle, yet each has six wings and is covered with eyes, “eyes all around and inside” (4:8).  God’s throne is flanked by smaller thrones for twenty-four elders, and in their midst stands a slaughtered lamb with seven horns and seven eyes “which are the seven spirits of God” (5:6).  A myriad of angels surrounds these and all burst into liturgical hymns of praise with every creature of the universe joining in.

Share this: