Like Ric, I have been traveling–only north, not south, to Upper Michigan, not Alabama. And since I fittingly read chs. 50 and 51 of the Rule on the road, I interpreted them in light of my two weeks on “vacation”–which going to my homeland isn’t, really. Not at least when an uncle ends up in the ICU, and you are preaching a sermon during your trip (about Jesus’ own desparate need for vacations–see John 6), and you are zipping about across hundreds of miles (the UP is very long across) to see once more myriad worlds of families and friends. And on top of that, your brother bundles in unexpectedly (because of your uncle), driving 36 hours straight from Winnemucca, Nevada with his wife and their three youngest kids and two dogs. Continue Reading
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Vacation Notes: June 24
Breakfast at the Microtel in Gardendale, Alabama is a real wake-up, a brittle break from my ordinarily sheltered, stained-glass routine. Truckers with the rural, southern linguistic twang so familiar to me from childhood and adolescence have a very different perspective on current economic and political concerns than that of my midwestern, middle-class community. I’m tempted to recoil, to take my English muffin and coffee back to the quiet isolation of my room, but somehow I manage to smile at my insecurities, take a breath and enjoy the banter around me. Continue Reading
Discoveries about Hospitality
This summer I have been asked three times to open my home to others to live for one to three weeks. Each time I have said yes. The third time–still coming up–I will be away while a family of five from England stays in my house (hopefully with no damage to the two year old in my not-especially-childproof home of many bookshelves). But with the first two visitors, I was reminded how good it can be to have a housemate, and how a long history of sharing a house leaves you with a muscle that springs easily into use again. Continue Reading
A Monk at a College Reunion
Last weekend I attended my 20th college reunion (at Carleton College in Northfield, MN). Since graduating classes are small by university standards (there were about 400 people in my class of ”89), students tend to know–or at least recognize–a fair number of their classmates. And since reunions include other class years as well, you can get a feel for the well-known stars of other classes, especially when they make featured presentations.
Rock and Sand
My days are sandy this summer–fluidly flowing from place to place and task to task, moving back and forth like the tide from this town where I live. I”ll be in and out all summer, more than usual, for a variety of largely joyful reasons. However, this does mean that my reflective work (researching and writing) is done in the places I am staying out of town–where the needs of my house and bills and errands cannot distract me–while when I am at home (as I am for two more days) there is nothing to do but catch up on the laundry and the mail and the yardwork and myriads of other practical matters.
Kerry Ligtenberg and Saint-hood
Kerry Ligtenberg is a pro baseball model of Benedictine stability in the modern transitory norm. I got to see him pitch the Sunday night before Memorial Day when he closed the game for the St. Paul Saints against the Sioux City Canaries. He did so quickly and with style: two strikeouts and a pop fly out to end the game.
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Spirituality of Illness
Sr. Sheila McGrath talks about how illness can bring hidden blessings in this video.
Good & Bad Ignorance
Zen Buddhists and the Dao de Ching speak of a good kind of ignorance–the kind that is comfortable having a beginner”s mind, approaching each situation as one in which we have something new to learn, and being comfortable with this fact. In biblical terms, good ignorance is part of the virtue of humility.
Pentecost Sunday
By Sr. Catherine Cleary, OSB
How can you go away and yet stay? But this is exactly what happened to Jesus at Pentecost. Jesus’ going to God in his death is not a going away from the disciples but a coming and staying with us in a new way. The new way is symbolized by how Jesus encounters the disciples. After his death even though the doors are locked, Jesus appears in their midst. His new presence is not bound by physical limitation and as Thomas finds out, not properly known by physical inspection. Continue Reading
Sr. Estelle Ternus, OSB
Sister Estelle Ternus O.S.B, 102, of St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, died Sunday, May 10, 2009 at the Monastery. Continue Reading
Benedictine Oblate Musings 