"the Moonpies and the Tang"...

Singer/songwriter, Kate Campbell, performed a benefit concert for the ministries of the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia AND I MISSED IT! Yup. Kate came to our house and spent four days with our community. Her performance Saturday evening (October 11th) was a great success. There are now about 100 new Kate Campbell fans in Northern Virginia. If you hear Kate once, you’re never the same.

Why am I writing about this event several weeks after the fact? Someone who loves me bought me my very own copy of her new CD, “Save the Day.” It was waiting for me on my bed when I arrived back at the convent on Wednesday morning. I put the CD in as soon as I got to the office yesterday and got out the headphones so I could really crank it up (and not cause chaos in the classrooms nearby.)

I fall in love with every album (I still say “album” because I remember records). Each collection is particular – each reflects Kate’s inner life and the things that inspire her on her journey. “I’ve always written stories about people and everyday living,” Kate writes on her website. http://www.katecampbell.com/ Maybe this focus on the everyday is what appeals so strongly to a monastic heart. I have used Kate’s music in pastoral settings. As a community we meditated on “In My Mother’s House” during a reconciliation service constructed around the parable of the Prodigal Son. Women in discernment with our community have listened to “The Prayer of Thomas Merton” – a word-for-word setting of Merton’s intimate conversation with GOD. They have been moved by both the timeless words and the beauty of Kate's music.

Most often, I have listened to Kate’s songs alone in the car - she's my traveling companion thanks to my iPod Mini. Some songs make me laugh out loud. "Back to the Moon" suggests that we left the moon "too soon." Musing on a potential journey back, Kate suggests packing "the Moonpies and the Tang." These wonderful references date me, to be sure, and make me smile. Other songs bring refreshing tears. This new collection is already becoming part of me. Favorites? It’s day-2 but I’m pretty sure that “More Than One More Day,” and “Sorrowfree” are engraved on my soul. Ask me next week and there will be others stuck in my bones. These songs are more than music – even more than poetry. They are lectio on life itself. And, if my timing's right, I’ll see Kate on November 6 at “Ashland Tea and Coffee” and thank her in person for the gift of her music in my life and ministry.

Blessings and love to you all...

- Sister Vicki

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NOT the norm...

I've been out of reach for two days - off writing a retreat at our house in the Blue Ridge Mountains. No phone calls, e-mail or Internet there. The good news is, GOD blessed that effort to focus and I've come back to Richmond with most of the retreat program "in the can."

My monastic life is not the “norm.” I’m on the road a good deal of the time both for vocation ministry and community responsibilities. I travel to exotic places like Louisville, KY, Collegeville, MN and Fort Smith, AR for meetings. I say “yes” to anything and everything if it means an opportunity to talk to people about our way of life: high schools, spirituality groups in local parishes, CCD classes, RCIA cohorts in both dioceses, retreat days through our own Pastoral Center and for our Oblates. And, I am currently “on mission.” I live at our convent in Richmond with Sisters Andrea and Charlotte. So, on top of my regular state of “busy”, I find myself moving between two offices. The time I do spend at the monastery is often filled with things that have to be done there. I don’t often get to just “be” at home.

The truth is most monastic lives are much more “stable” than my own. This reality has challenged me to view our promise of stability in a new light. Are we simply promised to a place? A certain patch of Virginia clay that we’ve loved and protected for 140 years? Is it the monastery we live in? A cinder block construction that stands on the site of the original house? Or is it the people? The 32 women who have promised to love and guide me and the ones who haven’t arrived yet? If a natural disaster struck Bristow, VA (GOD forbid!) and all that we knew on those 120 acres was taken from us, how would our promise of stability shake out in the dust? Yes, I love the land and Chapel where all my promises have been made. More than these, though, I love the community who has shown me the face of Love. I love the women I call my “sisters” and I’m ready to love the ones I’ve never met. The promise of stability calls me to an identity. It doesn’t matter where I go or what I do. What matters is that I remember who I am – a Benedictine Sister of Virginia. My monastic heart is grounded in the precious relationships I have with my sisters – living and in glory. My life is part of something so much bigger than a house or a piece of land. It is grounded in Christ who dwells richly among us in Word and Rule. My monastic life looks a bit different right now, but my heart is where it’s always been – with my sisters. And I have become increasingly “at home” with this version of my monastic life. The trick is trying to be exactly where I am on any given day and never forgetting that wherever I go, my community goes with me. And, if I ever forget who I am and what I’ve promised to become, I know my sisters will call me back to my better self. The promise goes both ways and maybe that fact is the source of peace I feel in my heart today.

Blessings and love to you all...
- Sister Vicki

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The Divine "Economy"...

The First Reading today is taken from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians [1:11-14]. In this pericope Paul describes the gift of the Holy Spirit as, “the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption”. This economic language seems odd to me, but given the recent events on Wall Street, perhaps Saint Paul will help us to focus on our greatest treasure – salvation through Christ JESUS. The Spirit, Paul teaches us, is GOD present to us here and now – in the midst of all that is human. But, the gift of the Spirit is only the beginning of the blessings poured out on us through Christ. There is no debt to pay – no balance due. We owe nothing for the gift of eternal life except grateful love. In death – our own death - we will come to know the fullness of life – “our inheritance” by grace. Sometimes, this is all too much for me – too wonderful to comprehend. But, I know that when I contemplate my own redemption, it frees me to love more deeply. When I remember that death has no power, I am, for just a breath, eternal. Such is the depth of GOD’s love for us in Christ. We are…and we remain in Him by the Spirit’s power…until the last “installment” is made and He comes again in glory.
Blessings and love to you all…

- Sister Vicki

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Commas change everything...

This morning I read about Saint Hedwig (1174-1243): “Born in Bavaria at age 12…” Huh? I missed a very important comma. “Born in Bavaria, at age 12 she married…” What a difference a little comma can make. Of course no one can be born at age 12. It did, however, start me thinking about old souls – people who are wise beyond their years. You know the kind of people I mean. Sometimes, they are born very serious. They seem to know things about life that change their capacity for childhood.
Sometimes, we come to adult wisdom early because of the events of our lives – a death of a parent when we were young, a serious illness in the family, or a trauma of some kind. Sometimes, this early wisdom is not the result of a painful event. Sometimes, it is just part of our personality – a necessary characteristic for our particular spiritual journey.

My seven-year-old niece, Molly is a serious soul – a grown-up self in a 2nd-grade body. She understands things about people. She absorbs every feeling in the environment and carries deep concern for everyone in her heart. Molly is VERY responsible. She wonders about things – things most 7-year-olds don’t consider. I used to worry about her serious nature and then decided that she is exactly who GOD made her to be. When I am in awe after we’ve had a very adult conversation, I smile and praise GOD who is so particular in our creation. Then, from time to time, Molly will be 7 – just 7. And, I enjoy those moments, too.

AUNT VICKI: Molly, how many babies do you think you’ll have when you’re a mommy?
MOLLY: Two or three, I think. The rest I’m going to leave at the hospital.

Am I an “old soul?” Who knows…I certainly have always taken MYSELF way too seriously. Maybe it does “take one to know one.” Let’s thank GOD for the people in our lives who know so much about life – sometimes way before the rest of us – and ask GOD to balance the privilege of wisdom with plenty of joy along the way.
Blessings and love to you all…

- Sister Vicki

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"The harvest is great"...

“O, the harvest is great, but the laborers are few. Let us go, let us go into the fields.” This powerful refrain, sung in the style of the African Spiritual, began our days together at the NRVC Convocation 2008. Nearly 500 Vocation Directors from as many congregations, met in Louisville for five days of workshops, keynote speakers and shared prayer. The refrain above was composed especially for our gathering by Janèt Sullivan Whitaker – one of OCP’s most talented liturgical musicians. Janet was our leader of song and cantor throughout. Somewhere between Thursday night and Friday morning, it came to me why her voice seemed so familiar. Janèt is a regular recording artist on OCP Sampler CD’s – the discs sent to liturgists with the new missal each year. We discovered a hymn on one of those CD’s for our Easter Vigil. It is a setting of Exodus 15 – the song of the Israelites as they passed through the Red Sea. It is a powerful, passionate piece to which several women recreate the dance of Miriam. One of the first things I want to do when I get home, is look that puppy up in the hymnal and see if Janèt is the composer as well as the voice that brought that sound to life.
This was, first and foremost, a prayerful gathering. One of the highlights (f0r me,) was the Solemn Vespers we celebrated on Friday evening. We walked in procession, two-by-two, from the hotel to the Cathedral of the Assumption. I wish you all could have seen it…and the faces of those stuck in traffic because of us. There was a wonder in the faces I saw and real curiosity. The local police were especially helpful at the intersections. The pilgrimage was only five blocks, but for 500 nuns, priests and brothers; it was a slow moving train! There, at the cathedral, we joined the Archbishop of Louisville who represented the local Church and prayed with us for GOD’s blessing on our ministry.
There are many learnings from this trip. Our first keynote, Rev. Donald Senior, CP, a biblical scholar recently appointed to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, spent all of Friday on the theology of “call” in the writings of Saint Paul. Our Sunday keynote, Sister Maria Cimperman, an Ursuline sister and theologian, explored the meaning of “thresholds” in religious life – places of exceptional meaning and, usually, some sacrifice. It will take some time to unpack all of this wonderful material, and, some prayerful reflection.
I attended a FANTASTIC all-day workshop on marketing for vocation ministry. I learned at least six new things in the first two hours – we certainly got our money’s worth. Another half - day workshop on reaching the “You-Tube” generation was also illuminating on several levels. The impact of technology on vocations cannot be underestimated or used indiscriminately. (I am writing this blog entry at 30,000 feet – somewhere between Atlanta and Richmond. Let’s hear it for laptops!)
The pace of this convocation is unrelenting. Most religious (myself excluded) are introverts. Five days filled with dawn to dusk programming is usually too much for most. It’s even a bit too much for me. But I am always energized by reconnecting with Benedictine Vocation Directors who attend. And, I meet wonderful men and women of other congregations who love the ministry as I do. (OK, maybe most don’t love it quite as much as I do.) There is so much more to tell, but one of the nicest things about this gathering was having my friend, Sister Mary Catherine, of St. Ben’s Monastery in MN, as my roommate. We split the all the bills and spent our one, precious “free” afternoon together. It’s great when economics can justify a HUGE personal blessing.
Well, we’re going to land a bit early, I think. Time to power-down and watch the clouds open up to reveal the grand, old city of Richmond. I’ll be back at the convent by 7PM, I think. Do look for a new post on Thursday and Friday of this week. (Trying to make up for lost time with my cyber-friends!) My comings and goings are always blessed by your prayers. Thank you for your patience and your continued interest in our monastic life.
Blessings and love to you all…

- Sister Vicki

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Off to Kentucky...

Tomorrow morning I leave for a week-long meeting in Louisville. The National Religious Vocation Conference sponsors a bi-annual convocation for vocations ministers from every religious order. It's an opportunity to learn, to network and to encourage one another in this challenging, grace-filled ministry. I will be taking a break from "Monastics On A Journey" to focus my energy on the work that awaits me at the convocation. I ask your prayers for safe travel and for GOD's special blessing on all who will attend the meeting. I return on 10/14 and expect to be back on-line the next morning. Until then...

Blessings and love to you all...

- Sister Vicki

"Don't worry, be happy"...

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has declared this the year of Saint Paul. Popes can do that, you know. (Actually, Sister Veronica and I were at the Church of Saint Paul-Outside-the-Walls, in Rome last winter, when Pope Benedict formally opened the Pauline year. It was wonderful to pray with the Pope and, even more, to pray at the tomb of Saint Paul, himself.)

This year is an opportunity to reflect on Saint Paul’s enormous contribution to the Christian faith. Paul’s insights, born in his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, help us to process the gospel from the perspective of the resurrection. In his letters to the early Christian community, Saint Paul tried to address their problems, struggles and uncertainties as they tried to make sense of this new faith. These letters are meant for us today. They remain full of truth and good wisdom. This letter to the people of Philippi is one of the most beautiful of Paul’s letters. But it begins with a nearly impossible suggestion: “Brothers and sisters: Have no anxiety at all…”

Wow, no anxiety? This is 2008. This is America. We have raised anxiety to an art form. We need only watch a few TV commercials to see that we worry about everything: plaque on our teeth, gray hair, losing bone density and the healthy function of our digestive tract. Still, there are very serious things to worry about: crisis on Wall Street, good people being put out of their homes, finding a job or selling a house in this economy and who will be our next president.

Anxiety is normal – part of being fully human. So what is Saint Paul suggesting? I think Saint Paul is telling us that faith in Christ should make a substantial difference in our daily lives. “Make your requests known to GOD.” Paul writes. Say your prayers…tell GOD what’s bothering you just like you talk to your best friend. If we do that each day, “Then the peace of GOD that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Blessings and love to you all...

- Sister Vicki