Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

journey

Pentecost Sunday – A Tale of Journeys

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The Scriptural selections we’ve heard this Easter season are an annual reminder of Jesus’ “journey” stories.  We recall His appearance to Mary in the garden, His “beaming up” into and vanishing from the upper room where his mother Mary and the disciples had gathered, the meeting on the road to Emmaus, Jesus’ “here again, gone again, come again” ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

In this, our 135th community anniversary of our founders’ journey from Pennsylvania to Florida, I invite you to join me in taking a long backward look at the “journey history” of our community.  The reflection is longer than usual but remember, it covers 135 years.    It is evident that we and our Florida Benedictine ancestors have made many and varied journeys.  We’ll start with Benedict and Scholastica who skipped happily along the hilltop path from their home in Norcia, Italy. Perhaps they stopped in to visit with the hermits who lived in hillside caves along the path on their trip to their grandparents’ summer house on the outskirts of town.  When still a young boy Benedict journeyed to Rome for classical studies.  Before long, he journeyed into the hills for a little sanity.   A few years later, Benedict’s followers – and Scholastica’s too – traveled from Italy to Germany, England, France, Switzerland, and Austria – and from there in 1852 to the United States.  You probably know the story of the monk shouting at Abbot Wimmer that his “wagon load of trouble” (the Benedictine Sisters arriving from Eichstätt, Germany) had been spotted on the horizon approaching the abbey in Latrobe.  Like spotty fires that can’t be contained, Benedictine women’s houses sprang up across the continent.

Our own history brings a “wagon load” of five Sisters from Pennsylvania to San Antonio, Florida. It wasn’t long before the Sisters were operating schools in their own home, in the local parish and three miles down the road in St. Joseph.   Over the years, our Sisters would journey each school year to/from places as far away as Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.  They also they made a mark for our community in Miami, Miami Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Ocala, Sarasota, Venice, Lakeland, Apopka, Dade City, Zephyrhills, and San Antonio, New Port Richey, St. Joseph and right here in St. Leo. For many years every June the Sisters brought all their worldly possessions back to Holy Name Convent.  They never knew for sure where they’d be “missioned” the next school year.  Before it was in vogue, this practice was a built-in system of “spring cleaning” and downsizing.

During the summers, the Sisters continued on their journeys to complete, or extend, their educations.  To name a few places I know about, they traveled to Cullman, AL, Notre Dame, St. John’s in Minnesota, Belmont College, New York, Louisville, Yankton, South Dakota, Barry College in Miami, the Mount Saint Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, Wisconsin and St. Louis.  Sometimes they packed up a few necessities along with two habits and headed up the road to Good Counsel Camp where they squeezed in 2-week sessions of religious education for children that did not have the advantage of parochial schools.

In addition to staffing parish schools, Sisters packed into cars – sometimes with volunteer drivers – to teach weekend catechism classes in Floral City, Brooksville, New Port Richey, Eustis, Arlington, Ponte Vedra, Masaryktown, Belleview, Reddick, West Ocala, Fruitland Park, Gainesville, Clermont, Dade City, Zephyrhills and the Girls’ Reformatory in Ocala.   I’ve never checked out the veracity of this story but I’ve heard that there was one Sister who used to travel to weekly college classes with her typewriter on her lap finishing up an assignments.

All this journeying from home to classrooms to college to camp to parish halls were mini-versions of the grand moves, the memorable journeys, that immersed travel in our Florida Benedictine genes.  The move from Pennsylvania to the mission territory started with five valiant women.  There followed in the years to come the move of the monastery building from the San Antonio plaza to the top of the hill overlooking Lake Jovita.  In 1959, we saw the demolition of the wood-frame convent and the rise of a structure made of concrete and steel.  And, then there were the years of discernment that concluded with our decision to move body and soul in 2014 across the highway to the structure we now call home.

And, you’ll recall we’ve moved not only our persons – we’ve moved buildings to our property. This included the barracks buildings delivered for a boys’ school, a canteen for the academy girls, cabin for Camp Jovita, and building for the day care.  We can point to where these buildings used to be: the kindergarten and coif room, the laundry at the lake, Scholastica Hall, barns, the home economics house, the bus shelter, a hitching post on Hwy 52 and basketball courts where we hosted chicken dinners and danced around the May Pole.

Journeys are not a new phenomena for Florida Benedictines. For some of us a journey is an adventure; for some it is a dreadful thought.  For all of us it can be a great risk, a scary thought, or a step into a future that unfolds as we walk the path God holds out to us.  When we took our first journey from womb to the light of day, we were completely naked, vulnerable, squalling and fighting the loss of the comfort of 24-hour warmth, unending nourishment, periods of activity and times of quiet floating.  Journeys are nothing new for any of us!

In conclusion, for today, I suggest you think about some of the journeys you’ve taken – moves when you were a child, the move to join our community and the journey that our Sisters of happy memory have traveled to their eternal home.   May they rest in peace!  Recall Gregory Norbert’s hymn, “Journey Ended, Journeys Begun” that we sang during our good-bye procession through Marmion-Snyder halls down to the cafeteria for our final meal there.  We pray: O God of the journey, show us the path to life.  Angels of God, lead us along our path.  Amen.  Alleluia!

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

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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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“I Teach You How to Fish for People”

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Day after day it was the same thing; the same sea, the same nets, the same boat, the same back-breaking chores with the same companions.  Day after day it was wind, water, fish, sore muscles, tired bodies.  They’d grown up watching their father and their grandfather, maybe their great-grandfather and uncles do the same thing every day – imaging their future folding out before them.  Cast the net, pull it in.  Cast the net, pull it in.  If you were not casting the net, then you were sitting in the boat mending the nets or on the dock preparing the bait.

While we may not fish for a living, we do know about “preparing bait, mending and casting nets.”  Some days, like life for commercial fishers, it seems like nothing changes.  One gets tempted not to expect anything to change. We think: this is the reality; it’s just the way it is and the way it’s going to be.

But then we hear Jesus’ invitation: “Follow me!”  It’s an invitation to new life.  It’s a knock up the side of the head – an eye-opener.  When Jesus said, “I will make you fish for people,” he was describing the transformation of our own lives, not simply a promise of new vocations.  Jesus promises to be our personal AAA, our roadside service.  He offers us a map, an itinerary, a destination.  But it’s not only an invitation – it’s an invitation AND a promise.

It’s an invitation is to an inner journey, a journey into the deepest part of our being.  It’s not about planning and organizing, making lists, or packing camping gear or backpacks or suitcases.  It’s not a vacation invitation.  It’s not about gathering stuff.  It’s about leaving things behind.  The Scripture says: “Immediately upon hearing Jesus’ invitation they left their nets behind and followed him.”  Imagine the look of puzzlement on Zebedee’s face at finding himself alone in the boat.  His boys didn’t simply leave what they were doing; they left their father and the tools of their livelihood: their boat and their nets.

That’s the hard part for most of us.  More often than not our spiritual growth involves some kind of letting go.  We never get anywhere new as long as we’re unwilling to leave the shore where we are.  So what are the nets that entangle us?  What are the little boats that contain our life?  What do we need to let go of and leave behind so that we might follow Jesus?

People who enjoy fishing are patient people.  They cast their line into the water then wait – and wait – for a fish to nibble the bait.  Some fish are picky about what will tempt them.  If you ask a person who likes to fish what is the best bait to use, the answer may be “it depends.”  What kind of fish they are trying to catch?  Sometimes it is the color of the lure on the line that attracts a fish.  Sometimes it’s the actual bait.  Sometimes it can be a “fly,” a lure fashioned out of thread and small feathers to look like a fly.

Jesus told his disciples that he would teach them how to “fish for people.”  He showed all of us that the way to do that is to have God’s love in our own lives, evident between us and to share it with others.

A variety of motives influence people to exchange their old lives for new ones.  What convinces a “seeker” that it’s worth leaving behind life as they know it?  Most of us know from our own and each other’s vocation stories, it’s the relationships we witness and experience within a community much more than our ministries that prompt new-comers to “test the waters.”

We, (individually and as a community), can put our full energy into the production all kinds of “lures” and “bait” … retreats and workshops, attractive vocation materials, holy cards, videos, websites and other social media … but that’s only part of what Jesus meant when he promised to teach us how to fish for people.  But, keep in mind that vocation – to any and every state in life – a GIFT!   And, remember fishing from our boat requires that each one has to do her assigned task of mending the nets, casting the line or preparing bait … no slackers allowed.  And, all of us have to row in sync lest we tangle oars or go in perpetual circles.  Look to Jesus – how did He fish?  He taught, He gave witness, He invited; He did not disappoint, He was (and is) faithful to His word.

So, what kind of witness do we need to be constantly giving?  What do we need to leave behind (individually and communally) to convince an observer that our community is worth a further look?  It’s an exceptional challenge in these pandemic times.  But the phone calls and email messages; the ZOOM Oblate Meetings, the videos on our website, the personal letters, the eblasts from our Advancement Staff keep our readers coming back.  In current lingo, the “soft touches” are ways to seal the friendships and supportive interest that last a lifetime.  What is the bait, the lure that will prompt more questions, extended visits, developing relationships and finally prompt a vocation Seeker or an Oblate candidate to have the daring to say, “This is where I feel God is calling me; I’m willing to follow His lead, to leave all behind for the sake of Jesus’ call, with these Sisters (whom I now call my own) here at Holy Name Monastery.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

First Reading  Jonah 3:1-5,10                   Second Reading  1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Gospel Mark 1:14-20
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Mary and Elizabeth Rejoicing

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It is appropriate in the season of Advent that we consider the role of Mary in God’s plan of salvation.  Mary’s faith enabled her to recognize the work of God in her people’s history and in her own life.  Her openness to God allowed God to work through her so that salvation might come to everyone.   Because of this, Mary is a model and symbol of the Church.

The story on the fourth Sunday of Advent is about two pregnant women, the first one 6 months along is already experiencing the movement of the child in her womb.  The baby leaps when her cousin calls out to her.  This is a story of utter delight of a meeting of mothers and infants.  The babies, John and Jesus – both of whom got their names directly from angels of God.  They were to be friends and fellow prophets, recognized each other when they were still in the womb.

First, we hear about Mary and her journey.  When left her Mary eagerly goes dancing over the hills (well, maybe not quite “dancing” after all the distance she traveled was close to 50 miles).  Did she tell anyone on her way about the angel, the message or why she was hastening to her cousin?  I’m guessing she might have shared her experience and her concerns with her mom, Anne.

Rushing to share her secret with her cousin, Mary found another surprise: old Elizabeth was expecting a child of her own!  God was up to something big here!  Elizabeth greets Mary with full recognition of the roles that they and their unborn children will play in God’s plan for salvation.  If we were to continue to read the verses that follow in Luke’s Gospel, we would hear Mary respond to Elizabeth’s greeting with her song of praise, the Magnificat.  Both women recall and echo God’s history of showing favor upon the people of Israel.

To me, in this part of the Nativity story, Elizabeth is the star of the show and we do well not to overlook the significance of Elizabeth’s role in our salvation history.  She is the “amazed saint.”  She is exemplary in her response to her baby’s movement in her womb.  She is so in tune with her own body, she appreciates that something new and wonderful is going on here.  Elizabeth then broke out in joyful exclamation!  “Why am I so favored?”  Hers is humble amazement at being able to participate directly in God’s plan.  How muted Zechariah must have wished he, too, could sing with his wife over Mary’s news!  We who have a role in God’s plan should share this wonder.

Some of you may recall Fr. Simeon sharing a one-minute nugget of a Fourth Sunday of Advent homily in which you’ll find these lines:

 

Two women, cousins.

Girls giggling gladness, dancing delirious dream,

Marveling mystery, barely hearing –

 

He ended with this question: “Can God enter earth if there are no women?”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading  Micah 5:1-4            Second Reading   Hebrews 10:5-10
Gospel Reading  Luke 1:39-45              Intention   Christmas Novena
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What Is Your Journey Question?

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In last week’s Gospel, Jesus emphasized that there is no way to predict His final coming to each individual.  He reminded us that we must remain vigilant and ready to receive our God and Savior at any time.  Now, in the weekend’s Gospel Jesus talks about the same concept this time using economic metaphors.  As he describes it, before the master leaves on a journey, he entrusts to his servants with various “allowances.”  He discerns the amount of the gift according to each servant’s ability.  But, you know the story.  Upon his return, he finds that the first and second servants have doubled their money, and, thus, both recipients are rewarded.  The third servant, however, afraid that he would lose his allowance, only conserved what he received.  He risked nothing; he did not even deposit the money in a bank to earn interest.  This servant is chastised, his money taken back and instead given to the servant who brought the greatest return.

We can’t be reminded too often that our gifts, or talents, are given to us for the service of others.  If we fail to use these gifts, God’s judgment on us will be severe.  On the other hand, if we make use of these gifts in service to others we will be rewarded and entrusted with even more responsibilities.  Sadly, some people deliberately fail at a job or chore they don’t like so they won’t get asked to do it again.

What about us and our talents?  Do we let dislike of a job, or the threat of failure, or someone else’s critical eye hold us back from exercising a God-given talent?  Or a more mundane question: We get an earthly allowance each month – do we bury it or use it for the good of others so it keeps moving forward, good upon good…

Benedict teaches us several lessons about “journeys.”  He speaks most directly to, and about, those who go on the journey … He doesn’t pass out money to those left to tend the vineyard, but he certainly leaves them a legacy.

Beginning with the opening words of his Rule one can sense a journey motif.  Benedict bids us: “Listen! The labor of obedience will bring you back (“coming back” requires a journey, doesn’t it?)  You’ll come to him from whom you have drifted…”  “Let us get up then (he says) at long last, (journey from the land of our dreams) for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: “It is high time for us to arise from sleep… run (speed along on your journey) while you have the light… go out (leave the familiar territory you call home) to seek workers in the multitude of the people ….”  Listen to Benedict: “moving on in your journey of faith, (and life in the monastery) “You will say, Here I am Lord.”  And, then he tells us how to prepare for our journey: “Clothed with faith and the performance of good works, let us set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide…. Be just in all your dealings, speak the truth from the heart and do not practice deceit or listen to slander.”

Beyond the Prologue of the Rule, Benedict offers guidance for our conduct on the voyage of life.  After giving us an overview of what we will need in our toolkit, Benedict hastens us on our journey when he tells us: RUN on the path of God’s commandments, never swerving.”

By the time Benedict wrote chapter 67 one can tell he’s had some experience with monks who journeyed afar from the home monastery.  We know that Benedict, in his youth, has escaped “big city life.”  So he wanted to protect his monks from the evils and temptations of the prevailing society.  Notice he does not say … those who go on a journey.  Rather, those who are sent on a journey.  Those at home are to remember the absent ones in prayer … which means the gathered community may have “counted” noses” but not for the sake of taking roll but to pray for their confreres safety and protection from temptation.

I have to smile when I read what Benedict cautions next.  He certainly knew human nature: “no one should presume to relate what was seen or heard outside the monastery.”  Sounds to me like he’s witnessed some cases where “curiosity killed the cat.”  Benedict didn’t want stories of the world to creep in and cause dissension or dissatisfaction with the home experience to rankle or upset his community.  Times haven’t changed much over the passing years, we still need to on guard that we balance chartable interest in each other versus the drive to know every intimate detail about what was seen or heard by the other.

Benedict is solicitous of his monks on a journey that they not appear embarrassingly shabby.  He makes provision that they be LOANED underwear (that’s right with their long tunics their everyday wear might not have included underwear).

In line with the admonition to pray always, Benedict reminds his monks on a journey to keep an eye on the sun … listen for the bells from neighboring abbeys announcing prayer times.  … so, (Benedict reminds them) though at a distance too far to join the community they might “observe the prescribed hours” as best they can.  Thus, probably began the custom of the Angelus … the dialogue between Angel Gabriel and Mother Mary, a modified version of Sext (or Noon Prayer) that could be memorized so as not to neglect their “measure of service.”

The Rule closes with this journey-question: “Are you hastening toward your heavenly home?  Then keep this little rule … as you set out for loftier summits of the teaching and virtues we’ve mentioned.” Then Benedict echoes his message first heard in the Prologue with this promise: “under God’s protection” (together) we “will reach” our heavenly home … this is the self-same promise Jesus extends to us in the Gospel: Because “You were faithful in small matters … come, share your Master’s joy.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time   Sunday, November 19, 2017
First Reading  Selected verses Proverbs31   Second Reading  1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Gospel Reading  Matthew 25:14-30
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These Were Benedictine Women With A Dream!

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St. Leo Township 125th Anniversary

July 9, 2016

 

20160709_140120We preserve our stories because we want never to forget that the opportunities we have today were not simply lavished upon.  They were purchased at the great price of travel from home; cold, cracked work-worn knuckles; study by the light of midnight oil; stomachs that ached with hunger; raking, hoeing and watering groves and gardens – saving, scrimping and salvaging.

What firm faith and incredible courage our founding sisters must have had!  The records in the Pittsburg archives remind us of how adventurous and of the bravery of these young sisters who in 1889 set out for a long journey into the unknown.  There were clearly told if the venture did not work, they were not to return to Pennsylvania.  An examination of the papers shows us that of the five women who signed their severance papers on the evening of February 22, 1889, one never made it to Florida.  However, one of the Sisters who had served as a witness, must have decided overnight to join the mission band – she is named in the group of our five founders.

Imagine what daring it took to venture south into a faraway place.  These were Benedictine women with a dream!  In 1889 Rome considered the church in America “missionary territory.”  In relative terms, the slaves had only recently been freed.  Had our Sisters ever seen a person of color in their northern neighborhood?  Surely not an Indian and most assuredly not an alligator!

There is some evidence that the pioneer band traveled from Allegheny County (PA) to the Benedictine house in Covington, KY – then southward by train which would have deposited them in south GA or north FL.  It seems safe to me to guess that someone from San Antonio would have met the Sisters at the train to bring them in wagons or on horseback down along what is now Hwy 19 and 41 – parts of the Seminole trail.  Perhaps they met cattle drovers bringing their herds to Tampa or Punta Gorda.  By the time they reached San Antonio, traveling through the Florida wilderness – in February, probably not too many mosquitoes but surely they’d have heard or seen black bears and panthers, “Strange” birds, and had run across a snake or two…

On Thursday, February 28, I bet they breathed a sigh of relief to at last be among people they may not have personally known but whose northern cultural practices and manners, whose speech patterns were similar to their own.

Next day, March 1, being a Friday, and most probably a Lenten Friday, would have been a day was meat was NOT on the menu.  The sister would have partaken of very little, if any, breakfast.  They’d have prayer the Little Office of the blessed Virgin, an abbreviated for of the Divine Office they’d back home.  And as we know from our annals: “the great work was begun.”  Perhaps they had a main meal of fish fresh caught from Lake Jovita?  Evening came, and morning came, their second day in the mission land called “Land of the Flowers.”

The Sisters first home was a three-story wood-frame hotel which was located on the city park in San Antonio.   In 1911, the building was moved on logs to a location parallel to the shore of Lake Jovita in St. Leo.  In 1960, the “new” monastery building, which is now called Benedictine Hall and owned by Saint Leo University, replaced the original wood-frame building which the Sisters and academy boarders had called home for 71 years.

By March 11, less than two-week after their arrival, the Sisters had opened Holy Name Academy for girls and were teaching in St. Anthony School and St. Joseph School.  From 1929-59 they operated St. Benedict Preparatory for young boys.

In their history since 1889, the Sisters have served as town mayors and commissioners. At Saint Leo University, they have served as administrators, instructional staff, board members, campus ministers, directors of residential life and director of library services, archivist, clerical staff and food service managers.  From 1962 until 1997 they provided housing for university students.  Florida Benedictine women have staffed schools in Texas and Louisiana.  In Florida, they have been teachers and school principals, and worked in parish ministries, in San Antonio, St. Joseph, Lecanto, Jacksonville Beach, Miami, Quincy, Sarasota, Ocala, Lakeland, Venice, Beverly Hills, Apopka and Tampa.

The Benedictine Sisters have conducted summer religion programs at three diocesan camps.  They taught in summer Bible camps in DeLand, Plant City, Leesburg, Bartow and Naples, Florida.  Weekly religion (CCD) classes were taught by the Sisters in cities where they staffed schools and in Floral City, Brooksville, New Port Richey, Eustis, Arlington, Ponte Vedra, Masaryktown, Belleview, Reddick, West Ocala, Fruitland Park, Gainesville, Clermont, Dade City, Zephyrhills and at the Girls’ Detention Center in Ocala.

At the turn of the 20th century they attempted the founding of another motherhouse in Quincy, FL (which did not thrive) and within 10 years they had been invited to start a house in the Diocese of Birmingham, AL.  A year later 5 of “us” from FL joined with 5 Benedictine sisters from Kentucky to found the Benedictine convent in Cullman, Al.

At the present time, the Florida Benedictine Sisters continue to work on public, private and parochial school boards, and at Saint Leo University.  Individual Sisters are volunteers and serve on the boards of Catholic Charities, the Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity, Sunrise Spouse Abuse Shelter, Hospice, St. Vincent de Paul Society, soup kitchens and thrift stores.  Some of the Sisters minister within their community in administration, recruitment and formation of new members, business affairs, hospitality and retreat ministries, direct services to the poor, food service, horticulture.

And, now here we are at day 46,516 in the 127th year of our history – yes we were here before St. Leo was St. Leo Township!  And the Sisters have continued to happily be residents of St. Leo for all 125 years of the town’s incorporation.  And the GREAT WORK goes on.

As long as there are gaps between our ideals and our reality, there will always be great work to be done.  Our founding sisters, and the women who followed them into community, knew that they probably would not live to see all the changes they promoted.  Little did they know the hotel-turned-convent they so carefully hauled to the shores of Lake Jovita would be demolished in 1961, a new priory (as it was called then) erected and eventually sold to Saint Leo University.

We face challenges our foremothers could not have imagined.  And, our “daughters” will face challenges unimaginable to us.  This is part of our Florida Benedictine women’s experience – we still remember in the beginning our founders were told: if it doesn’t work, don’t come back.  We work to compassionate and caring, to preserve the earth and steward our resources, to keep faith with our founding ideals and to enflesh them into a reality worthy of those who will inherit what we build today.

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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