We're All Student Sisters

Greetings,
Our sisters' work in Catholic education began in Switzerland with our founding monastery!  The Benedictine Sisters at Maria Rickenbach built their convent on the musenalp mountainside, and in 1864 began a school for girls with the condition to exempt ten places for children in need, even the children of Niederrickenbach (the village below) were taught there.

One of our first works as a new community in America was also education.  Early sisters responded to the call of God and Bishop Martin Marty to teach on the Fort Yates Standing Rock Indian Reservation.  The Swiss sisters from the Alps arrived on those windswept plains as early as the late 1870's to begin this missionary work in the Dakota Territory.


These pictures are now preserved through the State Historical Society of North Dakota
as a part of the Frank B. Fiske Photograph Collection1952. 
Sewing Room Credit:  http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/u?/uw-ndshs,249

Today, we continue to serve as teachers, professors, principals, and tutors on many levels in Catholic schools and colleges.  Our educational outreach has always stretched across the barriers of distance, language, and culture to support those seeking to learn.  In 1962 the sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery began a new way of supporting education; we invited student sisters from religious communities across the ocean to learn with us.

The first sisters came from South Korea, the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters.  Later the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady Help of Christians were joining us from Tanzania, the Daughters of Mary came from Uganda, and the Missionary Benedictine Sisters joined us from throughout their international order.  During the past 50 years, approximately 30 sisters have shared our Benedictine life while attending Mount Marty and nearby colleges.  Their degrees and interests have been varied:  music, nursing, sociology, education, philosophy, and much more.  Each sister seeking to improve not only her own life, but also the ministry and service of her community and native country.



Since beginning this educational ministry, sisters from the monastery have begun to reach out internationally as well.  The prioresses occasionally travel to our Olivetan Benedictine sisters and their Korean community.  Our procurator met with the Benedictine sisters of Our Lady Help of Christians in Tanzania to learn of new ways we could collaborate with their growing community.  Others of our sisters have joined the Alliance for International Monasticism in teaching throughout women's religious communities in Africa.

This sacred time of living in community has been more than offering an opportunity for the student sisters, we've become students and learned much through their generous sharing of traditions.  The Holy Spirit sisters from Tanzania celebrated music and dance with the sisters.  We laughed and danced, but never quite found the rhythm that naturally flowed through their spirit.  Our Olivetan Benedictine sisters have been sharing their traditional Korean foods for years, but it is their exquisite artistry and music that have become the treasured treat.  The stories of their faith and vocation have enriched our own faith and challenged us to keep growing in our Benedictine call to seek God in all things. 

Blessings,



Greetings,

As my community celebrates and remembers Saint Hildegard for her teaching with the many gifts of the spirit that she shared with the Benedictines and the faithful of her time, the Church in the United Kingdom celebrated the gift of Catholic education with Pope Benedict XVI.

The Pope's reflections on his gratefulness for Catholic educators and the continued need for Catholic schools recognized all the many sisters, brother, and lay educators that have spent their lives teaching others.

Blessings & Enjoy...

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
TO TEACHERS AND RELIGIOUS
Chapel of St Mary’s University College

I am pleased to have this opportunity to pay tribute to the outstanding contribution made by religious men and women in this land to the noble task of education…and to all the dedicated men and women who devote their lives to teaching the young, I want to express sentiments of deep appreciation. You form new generations not only in knowledge of the faith, but in every aspect of what it means to live as mature and responsible citizens in today’s world.

As you know, the task of a teacher is not simply to impart information or to provide training in skills intended to deliver some economic benefit to society; education is not and must never be considered as purely utilitarian. It is about forming the human person, equipping him or her to live life to the full – in short it is about imparting wisdom. And true wisdom is inseparable from knowledge of the Creator, for “both we and our words are in his hand, as are all understanding and skill in crafts” (Wis 7:16).

This transcendent dimension of study and teaching was clearly grasped by the monks who contributed so much to the evangelization of these islands. I am thinking of the Benedictines who accompanied Saint Augustine on his mission to England, of the disciples of Saint Columba who spread the faith across Scotland and Northern England, of Saint David and his companions in Wales. Since the search for God, which lies at the heart of the monastic vocation, requires active engagement with the means by which he makes himself known – his creation and his revealed word – it was only natural that the monastery should have a library and a school. It was the monks’ dedication to learning as the path on which to encounter the Incarnate Word of God that was to lay the foundations of our Western culture and civilization.

Looking around me today, I see many apostolic religious whose charism includes the education of the young. This gives me an opportunity to give thanks to God for the life and work of the Venerable Mary Ward, a native of this land whose pioneering vision of apostolic religious life for women has borne so much fruit. I myself as a young boy was taught by the “English Ladies” and I owe them a deep debt of gratitude. Many of you belong to teaching orders that have carried the light of the Gospel to far-off lands as part of the Church’s great missionary work, and for this too I give thanks and praise to God. Often you laid the foundations of educational provision long before the State assumed a responsibility for this vital service to the individual and to society. As the relative roles of Church and State in the field of education continue to evolve, never forget that religious have a unique contribution to offer to this apostolate, above all through lives consecrated to God and through faithful, loving witness to Christ, the supreme Teacher.

Indeed, the presence of religious in Catholic schools is a powerful reminder of the much-discussed Catholic ethos that needs to inform every aspect of school life. This extends far beyond the self-evident requirement that the content of the teaching should always be in conformity with Church doctrine. It means that the life of faith needs to be the driving force behind every activity in the school, so that the Church’s mission may be served effectively, and the young people may discover the joy of entering into Christ’s “being for others”.

Before I conclude, I wish to add a particular word of appreciation for those whose task it is to ensure that our schools provide a safe environment for children and young people. Our responsibility towards those entrusted to us for their Christian formation demands nothing less. Indeed, the life of faith can only be effectively nurtured when the prevailing atmosphere is one of respectful and affectionate trust. I pray that this may continue to be a hallmark of the Catholic schools in this country.

With these sentiments, dear Brothers and Sisters, I invite you now to stand and pray.