The Rule of Benedict calls the community to service to each other. While a sister's assigned work or ministry might lead to her to teaching, nursing, pastoral care, or other paid ministry, her service to her Benedictine sisters is understood to be a celebration of mutual obedience and good zeal.
"Obedience is a blessing to be shown by all, not only to the abbot but also to one another as brothers, since we know that it is by this way of obedience that we go to God. Therefore, although orders of the abbot or of the priors appointed by him take precedence, and no unofficial order may supersede them, in every other instance younger monks should obey their seniors with all love and concern. Anyone found objecting to this should be reproved" (RB 71: 1-5).
"Just as there is an evil zeal of bitterness which separates from God and leads to hell, so there is a good zeal which separates from vices and leads to God and to life everlasting. This zeal, therefore, the sisters should practice with the most fervent love. Thus they should anticipate one another in honor; most patiently endure one another's infirmities, whether of body or of character; vie in paying obedience one to another. No one following what she considers useful for herself, but rather what benefits another; tender the charity of sisterhood chastely; fear God in love; love their Abbess with a sincere and humble charity; prefer nothing whatever to Christ. And may He bring us all together to life everlasting" (RB 72)!
With these words of Benedict and the needs of our sisters in mind, our intrepid Garden Sisters dressed themselves in boots and bluejeans and headed out to the cornfields. Our visiting student sisters also joined the labor. The hard work of walking the field and picking corn was punctuated with joyful banter and laughter as the sisters filled the pickup to the brim with fresh sweet corn. When the last bucketful was balanced on the truck, the sisters returned to the monastery for a break. They were greeted with anticipation and cool water.
"And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty should require that they themselves do the work of gathering the harvest, let them not be discontented; for then are they truly monastics when they live by the labor of their hands, as did our Fathers and the Apostles. Let all things be done with moderation, however, for the sake of the faint-hearted" (RB 48: 7-9).
As soon as the husking note was posted, sisters donned their aprons and joined the hallway filled with heaps of corn to be husked. The sound of husks ripping became a background to the sharing of stories and memories.
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The tradition of working together to care for the needs of monastery continues. Only two weeks after her entrance, Postulant Terry found herself tucked among the sisters and up to her elbows in corn...and listening to the stories across the generations. We invite you to join us in our lived tradition of mutual service, prayer, and laughter too.
Blessings,
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