Judith Valente's Blog: Mindfulness in the Age of Twitter - Posts Tagged "south-dakota"

With all the chaos and confusion swirling around our country, I was fortunate enough this past week to have several experiences that have filled me with hope. My speaking engagements brought me to four places in two states where I encountered people who are helping to make America good.

My first stop was The Upper House on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Upper House is a private institute founded by UW alumni Stephen and Laurel Brown to inspire students, faculty, staff, clergy, community members, and local professionals to work for the common good. The motto of The Upper House is “Think, Be, Do,” a recognition that our actions emerge from our character — the being we become by cultivating an interior life.

It was heartening to visit a public campus where gospel values are discussed not in a didactic or doctrinal way, but as a way of recognizing that caring for one another is the one best hope for our world. The executive director of The Upper House is John Terrill, someone I’ve long admired for his work connecting faith-based ethics with the work world. The program curator is Melissa Haunty, an energetic young woman experienced in bridging the arts and faith.

Because of John and Melissa, I was able to speak in this public space about “Monastic Wisdom for the 21st Century.” My talk drew an audience of people from different religious backgrounds and stages of life. It was a testament, I believe, to how so many of us are looking at what is happening in our country and drawing closer to the timeless monastic values of community, consensus-building, hospitality, humility, simplicity, prayer and praise.

My next stop was Holy Wisdom Monastery just outside of Madison. Twenty-five years ago, some Benedictine sisters had the vision of creating an ecumenical monastic community where single Christian women – both Catholic and Protestant – live, pray, and work together, following the gospels and monastic Rule of St. Benedict.

The Holy Wisdom sisters have a special ministry of care of the land. They have restored 100 acres of prairie on the land the monastic community owns that also includes a glacial kettle lake, woods and wetlands. Their stone monastery is a wonder of eco-friendly technology. Holy Wisdom is an oasis of peace and natural sanctuary just outside the city. It is also an example of why Benedictine monastic life has lasted 1,600 years. It has endured by adapting unchanging to the changing needs of every age.

Later in the week, I arrived at Mother of God Monastery, which rises like a great white mirage on the South Dakota prairie. I was invited to give a series of conferences on some of the main themes of the Benedictine Rule, including “Waking Up,” “Seeking the True Self” and “Esteem for silences.

The sisters originally came to Watertown, South Dakota, to teach, but their main mission in recent years has been to return to St. Benedict’s original vision of monastic life as encompassing prayer, spiritual guidance, and work within the monastery. It is of great comfort to know these sisters stop in the middle of whatever they are doing three times a day to pray for our country and our world. They pray for our political leaders, for the people who feel alone, the people who are ill, who need work, who will die today.

Visiting a Trappist monastery for the first time, Thomas Merton once said, “Now I know what has been holding the world together and keeping it from cracking into pieces.” I felt that way hearing the beautiful sung prayer of these Benedictine sisters in South Dakota.

It is also difficult to put into words the warm hospitality you experience at Mother of God Monastery. On my first visit there, my husband and I drove up to the monastery at night. Out of the darkness emerged this tiny woman in a hooded coat accompanied by a Husky dog. It was Sister Emily Meisel. She approached us with her arms extended. It was the first time we were meeting, and I will always remember that gesture of welcome. Since then, I’ve modeled that gesture many times in welcoming people to my own home for the first time. Thank you Sister Emily.

A song the sisters sang at Mass this morning, “I Will Choose Christ,” says so much about them: “I will choose love, I choose to serve, I give my heart, I give my all to you.” If you have a chance to pass through Watertown, South Dakota, do stop in and say hello and express gratitude for all these sisters have contributed to the people of the Dakotas. Even better, attend one of the many spirituality programs Sister Emily offers at the monastery’s Harmony Hill Retreat Center.

My last stop today will be a meeting with students of Mount Marty College’s Watertown campus who have been studying The Rule of St. Benedict with the help of my book, How To Live: What The Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning and Community. The students will be presenting their creative projects that illuminate the Benedictine values of community, listening, awareness of God, hospitality, caring for creation, stability in a moving world, lifelong learning, and work. I’ll write more about that in a future column.

I’d like to leave you today with a comment from my dear friend Denise Morris of Fargo, North Dakota, who attended my conferences this weekend. Denise said she thought the 2016 election caused an eruption of the negative energy of envy, greed, anger, and racial and class divisions that had been roiling for many years under the surface.

Now that this energy is out in the open, perhaps we can decide what kind of nation we want to be. Denise asks: “Are we going to choose this negative energy, or work for good?” An important question to ponder this week and for long after.