A Bouquet of Love...

Q: When are fake flowers better than real ones? A: When they are made by every child in our elementary school.

Sister Joan Ann's funeral was a moment of grace for both Linton Hall School and our monastic community. Nearly 500 people gathered in our school auditorium for the liturgy. Our brother, Fr. Godfrey Mullen, OSB, flew in from Saint Meinrad to preside with the prioress. The parents prepared and ordered enough food to "feed the 5000" afterward. The walls of the gym were covered in construction-paper flowers - a bouquet of love for Sister Joan Ann. We have never had a funeral quite like this - never had a long trail of people follow the sisters right to the grave. What moved me the most were the children - the small ones in their LHS uniforms, clinging to their parents and to us for comfort. What a gift those parents gave to them in allowing them to bring their grief to school that day. What a priceless opportunity to bring every feeling to prayer and be comforted by the power of the liturgy itself. How good to allow them to see that death is part of living - not an enemy, by a friend who returns us to our true home. For many of those little people, it was their first experience of loss. As I watched them chase each other around the gym at the luncheon, I felt a rightness about it all. Their grief will turn to joy and happy memories of a Benedictine sister, who truly loved them all, will replace the sorrow. Sister Joan Ann will continue to love them from her place in God's glory. Love IS stronger than death for we who believe. That is the lesson I hope they never forget.

Blessings, love and gratitude to all who have shared these days with us...

- Sister Vicki

Real "shock and awe"...

In the Holy Rule Saint Benedict urges us to “keep death daily before [our] eyes.” On Saturday morning, the Lord came for Sister Joan Ann. This unexpected departure has made us all reflect on the precious gift of each new day and the fragility of life itself. Though we are in shock right now, there will be joy as we lay her to rest on Wednesday. We will, by grace, be able to praise GOD for the gift of Sister Joan Ann and the gift of eternal life that is hers in Christ. It is the Paschal Mystery in miniature – loss, grief and the surprise of real presence and resurrection. I have new respect for those poor apostles who wandered about in a daze on the road to Emmaus. Hope, seemingly extinguished, returns as their hearts burn in His company. So, too, our hearts will burn with risen love as we return our sister to her true home in the heart of God.

The thing I can’t seem to get over is the witness that Sister Joan Ann has given me in her dying. She lived her last morning as she lived every other. Sister was up “before GOD” at 4:30 AM. She had coffee and breakfast in a darkened dining room as many of us had our precious Saturday sleep-in. Then, as she has done every day for the past fifty-some years, Sister Joan Ann gave herself to prayer. Sisters passed her doing lectio in the Brown Parlor that morning – her fidelity a quiet witness to our monastic way of life. Then, after giving the first hour to GOD, Sister Joan Ann went to her office and began the day’s work. In the blink of an eye, Joan Ann went into the arms of JESUS. As we recover from the shock of her leaving, may we be in awe of a monastic life well-lived. May we, like Sister Joan Ann, "prefer nothing whatever to Christ and may he bring us all together to life everlasting (RB 72.11-120."

Blessings and love to you all...

- Sister Vicki