Lisle Benedictine Women Vol. 38 No. 1 Sacred Heart Monastery June 2015 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork. Ps. 19, 1 Message from the Prioress... What is your story? What events in your life brought you to where you are now? What did you learn from various parts of your story? We have just completed the Easter Season where we have been reenergized by the stories of the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus and his encounters with many of His disciples. They also have their stories. Here at Sacred Heart Monastery we have been telling our stories. As you may well be aware, we have been having a “Tuesday Night with the Sisters” during this Year of Consecrated Life. These evenings have been prepared by our Vocation Advisory Council which consists of three Benedictine Sisters and three lay women. In January, we viewed and discussed a documentary film entitled God is the Bigger Elvis. It is the story of actress Dolores Hart “retreating” at Regina Laudis Abbey in Connecticut for a rest from her busy, stress filled acting life. Ultimately, despite a successful career of acting and while being engaged, this Come and See experience led her to enter that cloistered community. Mother Dolores Hart and the sisters in her community shared their stories. Viewing the movie and reflecting on my story, I again realized the importance of a Come and See experience. Coming from my home town in Colorado to visit the Benedictine Sisters at Sacred Heart in Lisle convinced me of my vocation. It has been a life enriching decision. In April, several of our sisters shared with our Tuesday night guests their stories of finding the Benedictine way of life meaningful. The concept of a Come and See experience is not new. However, after viewing this documentary, I asked the sophomore and senior religion teachers at Benet Academy if they would show this film to their students and then allow me to come and share my story. I encouraged the students to spend 36-40 hours, sometime during their high school or college career, visiting a religious community or participating in a diocesan program where they could be given the opportunity to Come and See. I believe this opportunity would help them not only to better understand and appreciate consecrated life, but also to be open to a possible call from God to dedicate their lives to God in religious life. I encourage all parents to encourage your sons and daughters to take advantage of a Come and See experience as well. Additionally, you should know that we have guest houses available for a short stay for some quiet time. We have a colorful spacious campus, a sacred space called Sacred Heart Chapel for private prayer and or daily Mass where you can meet us, tell us your story and we can tell you ours. Should you be interested, call (630 750 6010) or email us [email protected] for available guest house opportunities. May the stories found in Sacred Scripture, and the stories we share with each other draw each of us to a richer relationship with God, self and others. 2 questions for the Sisters, and appreciated the Celebrating 2015 honesty and joy shared by them. the Year of We welcomed Dr. Bren Murphy from Loyola University and her film, A Question of Habit in May. This award winning film illustrated that Consecrated Life the pop culture images of a Sister do not reflect the lives and ministries of the Sisters of When Pope Francis declared that a year long the 21st century. celebration be held in honor of consecrated life, the Vocation Advisory Council began their We’ll take a break in June while the Sisters are plans for the Monastery. It was decided to host on retreat. Tuesday Night with the Sisters and a series of programs was developed. Join us for a two part showing of Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America, on July 14th We began in January with God is the Bigger and August 11th. This film was produced by Elvis, a documentary about film star, Dolores the LCWR and invites us to “discover a world Hart. She left Hollywood and joined the few have seen, but millions have shared”. cloistered Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut. She says of her vocation: “The Dr. Christine Fletcher from Benedictine abbey was like a grace of God that just entered University will celebrate the birth of Mary on my life in a way that was totally unexpected - September 8th with images of art through the and God was the vehicle. He was the bigger ages. Elvis.” Lively discussion followed the viewing. October’s program is being developed, but In February, we welcomed Fr. David Turner, mark your calendars for the 13th. OSB from St. Procopius Abbey. Fr. David shared his power point presentation on St. On Sunday, November 15th, the Diocese of Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was a Joliet will sponsor an Open House at St. Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, mystic, Procopius Abbey and Sacred Heart Monastery. and one of the most influential figures of the We invite you to come starting at 2:00 until 12th century. All agreed they wished to learn after Vespers at 4:45 to hear our story, view more about her life and works. our presentation, and pause for prayer in our chapel. Charles Brummel joined Sister Mary for the Lenten Morning of Reflection in March. Charles All Tuesday programs begin at 7:00pm and are is a retired humanities teacher from Benet held in our Chapter Room. We hope you will Academy, and lives with his wife, Cathy, at join us beginning in July. Villa St. Benedict. He shared the art, historical development and theology behind the major types of crucifixes. The morning concluded with Sister Mary's reflection on the Theology of the Cross. “Everything you always wanted to know about religious life, but were afraid to ask” brought together a panel of Sisters who spoke about realizing and living out their vocation to the religious life. The audience had thoughtful 3 TREASURED HISTORY AND TRADITION In this chapter of our story, we introduce you to an earlier Benedictine foundress, in the person of St. Erentrude of Nonnberg Abbey. We are all somewhat familiar with at least five of the outstanding Benedictine women Saints - Ss. Scholastica, Hildegarde, Gertrude, Mechtilde and Walburga. A recently- published book, Medieval Women Monastics, Wisdom’s Wellsprings, by Miriam Schmitt, OSB, Linda Kulzer, OSB and Mary Michael Kaliher, OSB, has taken on the task of familiarizing us with seventeen others. I’ve chosen to touch briefly on one of these seventeen and her connection with our monastery. Sacred Heart Monastery here in Lisle, traces its roots to St. Joseph’s Convent (now closed) in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania. St. Joseph’s, in turn, traced its roots to St. Walburga’s in Eichstatt, Germany. This is the point where we commonly stop in the history of our roots. But the book, to which I referred above, takes us back to the sixth and seventh centuries with its aim to acquaint English-speaking monastics with their roots in the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic expressions of Benedictinism. From the beginnings in Norcia and Monte Cassino, Italy, women’s monasticism flourished and in the sixth and seventh century spread to Germany. St. Erentrude, and the abbey she founded, are of particular interest to American Benedictines who can trace a connection from Nonnberg Abbey to its daughter house, the Abbey of St. Walburg in Eichstätt. This Bavarian abbey is the founding monastery of several Benedictine women’s houses in the United States. Abtei Nonnberg 4 Much of what we know about St. Erentrude comes from the early accounts of her uncle, St. Rupert. Rupert moved to the Salzburg region and helped to develop the salt springs found in this region (which resulted in the name of Salzburg). Wishing to found a monastery there, Rupert received help to do so from the Duke and Duchess of Salzburg. With this aid, he founded the monastery of St. Peter at Salzburg. The Duke and Duchess then proposed the founding a monastery for women and soon had one built to the southeast of Salzburg where an Old Roman fortress once towered on the hill that later became known as Nonnberg (the mountain of nuns). Rupert placed Erentrude as its head. Nonnberg was the oldest Benedictine women’s foundation on German soil (later Austrian) and one which in recent decades has gained fame as the home of Maria von Trapp, from the Sound of Music. She was a novice here and returned for her marriage to Captain von Trapp. Erentrude and her companions lived and worked here, loved and appreciated by all. When she died on June 30, 718, her remains were placed in a grave in the rocks. She was honored by miracles soon after her death, and as early as the ninth century, she was recognized as a saint. The office of her feast praises her for her great love for children which she passed on to her spiritual daughters as a holy inheritance. It also cites her maternal goodness toward the poor and injured whose wounds she dressed. The Lectionary of Canisius indicates that when she knew her death was near, she “ruminated” on these words from the Psalms: “It is good for me to cling to God, to place all my hope in God.” Canisius indicates that she received Viaticum, made a perfect confession, entrusted the nuns under her care to God, “and with torches lit went to meet her spouse full of good works and almsgiving.” 5 Queen of Heaven Monastery VISIT FROM THE COPTIC ORTHODOX SISTERS - On Christmas afternoon, the Coptic Orthodox Sisters who purchased our former monastery on Squires Lane visited.