Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Holy Name Monastery

Ash Wednesday

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Ashes of death on our foreheads,
seeds of hope in our hearts. 
As we begin the journey, beyond the cross,
let us remember,
God prepares us for life, not for death,
for resurrection and not for crucifixion,
for love and not for hate.
In a world where death holds us bound, and violence seems to reign
in thought and deed,
may this journey of Lent get us ready
to be God’s good news
of hope and wholeness,
peace and reconciliation,
and resurrection life.
Christine Sine

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Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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This Sunday can fall either before Lent or after the Easter season, so it is not often celebrated.

THE GOSPEL IS A STRONG CHALLENGE to the lifestyle that prevails in most of our cities in the so-called developed world.  Jesus puts it bluntly: “You cannot at the same time be the slave of God and “mammon.” What Matthew is pointing out is that since human beings are not self-sufficient, we are dependent on something outside ourselves. It should be God, not the material goods we own.  Matthew concludes by reminding us to use our “one day at a time” confidence and remember that we are in God’s loving care. The graces we need will be there when we need them.  We can’t stock-pile graces for a rainy day.

What is in question is our attitude towards “things.”  Lent is a good time to review  the contents of our closets and other possessions.  Jesus is teaching us that our only real security is total trust in God.  We have to make a choice between God’s vision of life and a preoccupation with possessions. That involves different goals and visions of what is most important in life.  We can wear a veneer of Christian practice, but it won’t penetrate below the surface of our skin.

Jesus preaches something akin to “holy indifference” toward material goods. It should be obvious that some material things — like food and clothing and shelter — are necessary for daily living and everyone has a right to have these things.  The attitude of ‘holy indifference’ is not to be confused with an attitude of not caring about anyone or anything.   On the contrary, a person who practices holy indifference cares much and deeply and says ‘yes’ only to what is needed.

In the ordinary run of things, worry is a waste of time and psychic energy because it’s all about being uneasy about what might happen and will probably never happen. (Father) Tony de Mello quotes the Buddhist axiom: “Why worry?  If you don’t worry, you die; if you do worry, you die.  So, why worry?”    Fr. Tony continues: “Be yourself.  Be here.  Be now.”  God has provided you with everything you need right now to be happy.”  Our lives would be transformed if only we could really take Jesus’ advice: “Do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself.”

If you tend to be a worrywart, Jesus has a remedy for you.  He says, look at the birds of the air and the flowers in the field.  They do nothing except be themselves and God takes care of them.  People are often so busy regretting the past or fretting about what MIGHT BE in the future that they can’t enjoy life.

Sounds so logical but you and I both know that everyone here worries about something. Some of us probably only worry every now and then. Some of us could win the prize for the world’s “expert worrier”. If we find ourselves with nothing to worry about, we worry that there’s nothing to worry about… so we worry until we figure out what that “nothing” is.  Right?

You know, worry is almost always about assuming control over things.  That’s a control that God never meant for us to have. Assuming control for the future is just not part of what we’re designed to do. Jesus says, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?”   We don’t have that kind of power.   But we can come into the peace of “the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields” when we are content with just being a human being and stop trying to be God.  “Let go, let God!”  This Gospel lesson reminds us that we are called to trust in God who knows what we need and when we need it.  We are called to believe that God will give it to us, when we need it.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Prepare ye that way for the good Lenten experience.

God bless!

 

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 49:14-15         Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Gospel:   Matthew 6:24-34
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Founder’s Day – 136 years and counting

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136th Founding Anniversary

Each year on February 28th we mark one more year celebrating the accumulation of years that the Benedictine Sisters of Florida have lived the words of the reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (Chapter 3).  “As God’s chosen ones, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  Bear with one another, let peace rule your hearts, live in harmony, teach and admonish one another in wisdom, and never forget to be thankful for what God has done for you.”
We are grateful for all that God has done for us throughout these 136 years since our Founding Sisters ventured forth from Pittsburgh, PA. to Pasco County Florida.  I ponder changes that have drifted “under the bridges” in those years.  Some came quickly to mind: opening and withdrawing from schools – all still a credit to our transition skills as they continue in some form to serve the founding purpose.  Some changes were welcome and settled in easily; some sat uneasy on the Sisters shoulders as they, responded to “the call of our times”.  This included changes in attire, changes from Latin to English, all the changes after Vatican II, and the cycle of the rise and fall of hemlines.
Then I got really curious and went on-line, typed in “year in review” from the 1890, taking big steps through the 20th and 21st centuries in clusters of approximately ten years.
In the first decade after the Sisters first day on the job in Florida (1890) The U.S. Congress designated Yosemite a National Park; Grover Cleveland won the U.S. presidential election, becoming the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms; Thomas A. Edison finished building his first motion picture studio; a decline in the New York stock market triggered the Panic of 1893 and first  Monday of September was designated a legal holiday; and Klondike Gold Rush began in Alaska.
1900 – 1920s the Oreo cookie was first introduced, SOS was accepted as the universal distress signal, the first crossword puzzle was published, traffic lights were introduced; World War I began; there was an influenza epidemic and prohibition began.
Women were granted the right to vote; the lie detector was invented; The Reader’s Digest was published; Talking Movies were invented; the first Olympic Winter Games were held; flapper dresses came into style; bubble gum hit the market; penicillin was discovered and the car radio was invented.
In the 1930s the Empire State Building was completed; the US officially got a National Anthem; air-conditioning was invented, the Loch Ness monster was first spotted; the Golden Gate Bridge opened; the helicopter was invented; the first commercial flight flew over the Atlantic and World War II began.
In the 40s our Sisters were busy handing over the administration of parish schools in New Orleans, Olfen, Texas and Slidell, Louisiana.  This freed them to open new parish schools in Florida and to continue staffing summer catechetical programs in parishes where there were no Catholic schools.  In their spare time the Sisters, continued attending night and summer degree courses.  In the world around them, they may not have noticed that nylon stockings hit the market, the jeep was invented, T-shirts, ballpoint pens, computers, Polaroid cameras, the microwave oven, the bikini was introduced.
In the 1950s the first credit card was introduced, the Korean War began, color TV and car seat belts were introduced, and the polio vaccine was created.  The first McDonald’s opened, Velcro and TV remote controls were introduced.  Hula hoops and Lego toys were introduced and The Sound of Music opened on Broadway.
In the 1960s, the Peace Corps was founded, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis, the first Catholic president was elected and subsequently assassinated, the Beatles became popular, the Star Trek TV series aired, the first heart transplant was performed, and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
In the 1970s, computer floppy disks, pocket calculators and VCRs were introduced.
Moving quickly through the 80s and 90s, the Rubik’s cube became popular, the first woman was appointed to the US Supreme Court, personal computers were introduced, the first American woman rode a space shuttle and we witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall.
These are only a few of the highlights that I picked out… there were many, many more historic events.  When we get our “seasoned” members talking about memories of the “good ole days” they may tell us about learning to drive on a tractor, how much cars have changed … and don’t forget to ask them why Mother Rose Marie bought PJs, rather than nightgowns, for all the sisters after experiencing a hotel evacuation order one night in New Orleans.  What a sight they must have been to the onlookers below: 5 women scantily clad in white nightgowns scampering down the fire escape.  The next morning Mother Rose Marie bought every Sister a pair of PJs for when they traveled.  (Reminds us of Benedict’s admonition to supply each member going on a journey with clean underwear!)
From 1929 – 1959 the sisters operated St. Benedict’s Prep school for boys.  Holy Name Academy provided day and boarding programs for girls from the first days in 1889 until 1964.  Shifting gears, we built new dormitories and a cafeteria to provide services to Saint Leo College students.  In 2014 we made the courageous decision to “begin again” the great adventure of the Benedictine Sisters of Florida – build a new house across the highway.
In our 136 years in Florida our community members have lived with 13 religious superiors.  Now, that alone is endurance!  And, they have had multiple careers.  To name a few: classroom teacher, principal, mission superior, CCD teacher and coordinator, teacher and “mom” at Good Counsel Camp; procurator, worker in various aspects of our guest ministries, archivist and keeper of artifacts and the chronologies.  They’ve been Hospice volunteers, provided service in health care, laundry and kitchen staff, seamstress and coif maker; choir director and sacristan; artist, calligrapher, musician, and champion crafter.  For any I’ve overlooked, rest assured that God got it in the Good Book.
But how, you may ask, in God’s great world, did I get here from there?  In the Gospel recently we heard Peter say to Jesus: “Lord, we have put aside everything to follow you.”   Many years of vowed commitment sit right here in this chapel.  In the midst of an ever-changing church and world.  We offer an example of flexibility, perseverance and stability. Faithfulness to lectio and community exercises shows us that they know where their life in God is sustained.  Their interest in everyday happenings shows their love of learning.  Their many friends within and outside the community clearly pays tribute to our Sisters’ sense of Benedictine hospitality.  If you listen keenly, you hear some other stories that could be told, like the Ajaxed apples, the chief of the oddballs and the day, when we first began wearing “regular” clothes, when one Sister paraded before us to show off her outfit.  She was all ready to go out for a Jai- Alai game with a full-length slip hanging below her shirt out over her new slacks!
In conclusion, Sisters, heed Scripture: continue to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God through him.”
Please join us in prayer as we celebrate our 136th anniversary of the day Benedictine Sisters from PA arrived in San Antonio (Pasco County) FL … now located in St. Leo, FL – Florida’s first incorporated township.
Thank YOU for being in our “Fan Club”
God bless
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Give to everyone that asks.

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We live in a society that seems to have forgotten much of this Gospel message.  Children come to believe there is a trophy for every event in life.   They have forgotten – if they ever knew – the thrill of running for the sheer joy of feeling the wind on their faces, a hug from a parent – a loving squeeze without words that conveys, “I am so proud of you!”

All-too-quickly many lose (and sadly never rediscover) the warm, fuzzy feelings of self-satisfaction that was once a natural reaction to success  – that gleeful, almost smug smile the first time they stood alone, took their first step… when for the first time, to the consternation of the adults, they opened a child-proof container, hammered the first nail into mom’s precious table or exhibited their wonderful drawing with indelible pen on the living room wall…no one could be prouder of an achievement!

School children vie with each other to make donations to a collective cause.   Why?  Because they are learning the virtue of mercy?   Or because they get a “free dress” day at school?

Jesus tells us: Give to everyone who asks; treat others as you’d like to be treated; don’t take back what you gave as gift; give God the credit due for the generous urges you feel toward others and the charitable thoughts that squelch the unkind words that try to spring thoughtlessly past our lips.

Jesus advises us: Give your cloak AND your tunic – not just your warm coat (since you have another at home) but also the shirt off your back.  Today Jesus might challenge us – Why is your closet stuffed with blouses you haven’t worn since before you lost weight – or gained it?  It is quite unlikely you’ll never wear them again.  But what about that DAYSTAR customer, or that lady from the Sunrise women’s shelter who is going for a job interview?  Your blouse would fit her perfectly and add an ounce of confidence to her self-esteem.

Jesus reminds us, when we invite company for a meal not to wait for a return dinner date.  Don’t ask: whose turn is it to pick up the tab this time? He says to lend freely without expectation of repayment.  And when you respond generously to the impulse to do good – what caused that desire to arise?   Be slow to assume it is due to anything you have done.  Remember Jesus says “even sinners lend to their own kind.”  Give, and gifts will be given to you – in good measure, tamped down, packed tight, so your vessel can hold every tiny possible grain of blessing – full to overflowing – spilling over into your life and influencing all around you.

But there is a condition – if you are stingy, stinginess will be yours.  But, If you give without measure, generosity will be yours.  So how will you measure your kindness – by the teaspoon, tablespoon or a cupful?  By the minute, by the hour it might take you?  You know that you have 24 hours in a day.  That’s a 168 hours each week, (true not all are waking hours). That’s time in excess of 8,000 hours a year!  How flexible will you be with these God-given hours?  Will you respond to an imposition on your time – Now?  Tomorrow?  Next week?  Or with a prayer that the request will be forgotten?  Or will you give with open hands and heart – freely, without measure?  Jesus promises us: “the measure with which you measure, it will in turn be measured out to you.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23         Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 15:45-49
Gospel:   Luke 6:27-38
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Help Us Rebuild Our Aquaponics Greenhouse!

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Dear Friends,

As of February 6, 2025 we have gratefully received $9,819 from you our donors. Our plan as previously written in our winter Tide newsletter was only a rebuild of the greenhouse structure and hydroponic portion.

That was four months ago when we felt the loss more intensely. In October, we saw evidence of tornado activity with twisted materials. The storm did NO damage to the fish tanks, nor to the three filtration components and system operation, even though pipes, air and electrical conduits were broken. In contrast, in 2017 Hurricane Irma as a powerful category 4 that did no harm but blew right over the round roof without so much as a tear in any plastic.

Taking all this into consideration, we re-evaluated and will again bring tilapia into the aquaponic system. We hope to begin again very soon—next month?  To all who have supported us during these past 10 years, we gratefully accept any contributions you are able to make so we can again sustain ourselves and customers with nutritious food.

The description and cost estimate from Aquasol International of items, materials and labor  for the rebuild is as follows:

Description                                                               Materials              Labor

1 Remove damaged GH structure                                                           $1,250

2  Repair end walls                                                       $1,000                $1,000

3  Install new GH bows, purlins                                  $13,000                $5,000

4  Install new greenhouse hip strut                                  $500                   $750

5  Install side curtains                                                   $1,500                 $1,000

6  Install double layer poly film  w/blower                     $1,200                $1,000

7 Install aluminet shade cloth                                         $850                  $500

8 Repair broken and or damaged air/water lines            $250                  $500

Sub-Total                $18,300             $11,000           $29,300

9  Install evaporative cooling panels                                $5,000               $2,500     (optional)

10 Install evap cooling exhaust fans                                 $3,200                 $750    (optional)

11 Automatic Fish Feeders                                                 $400                  $250    (optional)

Sub-Total                     $8,600               $3,500           $12,100

                                                                Total                   $26,900             $14,500          $41,400

Items 9-10 — evaporative cooling panels are mounted on an end wall; thermostat regulated and circulate air from exhaust fans to allow lettuce and vegetables to grow during the summer. In past years, lettuce grew from October until April.

Item 11– automatic fish feeders can be installed if wanted at a future time.

Kindly make checks payable to Benedictine Sisters of FL   for:      Aquaponics greenhouse rebuild

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