Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

The Rule

Saint Scholastica’s Feast Day

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The feast day of Saint Scholastica (480-543), twin sister of Saint Benedict, is today February 10th.  Considered the patron saint of Benedictine women and education, her life, like her brother’s, was centered on love and peace.  At a very young age, she devoted herself to God and established a convent about five miles from Benedict’s monastery.  They enjoyed a close relationship, meeting yearly to discuss spiritual matters.

As you may recall, the Benedictine Sisters of Florida refer often to Saint Benedict’s The Rule.  His vision of how to live in community begins with the words “Listen with the ear of the heart.”  The story of what would be Benedict’s last visit with his sister Scholastica illustrates how strong the communication link or dialogue can be between God and His people.  Scholastica, feeling somewhat unsettled, wanted her dear brother to stay the night on this particular visit.  Though she implored him, Benedict insisted on the necessity of returning to his monastery.  Saint Scholastica prayed to God who listened and within minutes, a roar of thunder and heavy rain made it impossible for her brother to leave.  It would be the last time the siblings would share precious time together.  Saint Scholastica died three days later.

The Benedictine Sisters of Chicago remind us that January 24th is the memorial of Francis de Sales who is known as the great saintly communicator.  In that vein, Pope Francis wrote on the 56th Annual World Day of Communications about “Listening with the ear of the heart.”  The Pope’s message reads “From the pages of Scripture we learn that listening means not only the perception of sound, but is essentially linked to the dialogical relationship between God and humanity.”

We pray fervently that our patron Saint Scholastica, cradles our hearts so that we truly listen with heartfelt compassion always.

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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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This parable is challenging to explain but, it came from the mouth of God’s Son so it must be important for us to grapple with. What might Christ be saying to us? Here is what I heard – colored by the recent readings from chapter 2 of Benedict’s Rule on the Qualities of the Prioress. The Gospel tells us if we can’t be trusted in little matters we certainly cannot be trusted with great ones. If you are not a leader in a Benedictine community it may be easy to breeze through chapter 2 with an attitude of ho, hum – that’s for them – glad it’s not me.

To say that Benedict lays down high standards for the superior may be an understatement. He places the chapter on leadership qualities early in the Rule, only after he defines the type of monk he is writing for. So we know he is writing about the qualities of the leaders of the “strongest kind of monastics” – the ones who have chosen to live under a Rule and a monastic leader.

I am thinking Benedict left it unsaid in Chapter 2, but he sprinkled exhortations regarding leadership for all the members elsewhere in the Rule. Benedict echoes Jesus when he presses home the “the person who is dishonest in very small matters will also be dishonest in great ones.” It does not require a great leap to apply this maxim to all of us – the youngest in community to the eldest. It seems to me Benedict is waving a banner before our eyes of what we each need to be so that a call to leadership does not include an abrupt change of lifestyle. Benedict knew from his own experience that the leader’s role in community is time-limited. He himself had experienced the call to leadership and call to a hermit’s life. He must have foreseen, perhaps with a nudge from his twin sister Scholastica, that the monastic must be prepared in all aspects of her life to move in and out of leadership roles. If the individual member does not engage in a lifelong endeavor to develop the attitudes, skills and qualities that Benedict laid out for the superior, (guess what?) an election or appointment to a leadership position will not ipso facto endow a saintly disposition. If a person has not learned to be accountable for her own actions (or at least tried to be), and to be solicitous for the welfare of those in her charge (as a teacher, principal, supervisor, kitchen manager, sacristan, chief floor scrubber, head nurse….), an imposition of hands or a community blessing, or even the bishop’s blessing will not infuse saintliness: responsibility, accountability, compassion or mercy.

You may remember the lesson of the geese who fly in V formation? As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird following it. Combined, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if the individual geese flew alone. Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation. When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position. The geese in the formation honk from behind to encourage those in front to keep up their speed.

Note that Benedict does not let the “honkers” off the hook. In speaking of the qualities of the abbot, Benedict intersperses words to the “monks in the pews.” If the prioress is to call the community or individuals to account, the member must be docile to listen. If the prioress is to be a shepherd, the sheep have to be willing to be corralled and led. It’s impossible to lead if no one follows.

Benedict reveals his keen insight into human nature when he talks about the cast of characters who can be gathered into one community. He reminds the leader, and by inclusion, all the members, to “accommodate and adapt themselves to the character and intelligence of their Sisters.” In conclusion, Benedict smiles upon the leader consoling her that she does not lack resources. He quotes Psalm 33: “Those who fear God lack nothing.” In helping others, the leader achieves the amendment of her own faults. Benedict does not mention, but I bet he knew, the gratifying support the prioress or the abbot, (or leaders of any sort) daily receives in unpretentious, quiet affirmations.

Like the story of the geese, in monastic life when the leader gets sick or is shot down (with arrows or words), individual members drop out of formation to help, protect and reaffirm the leader until she is either able to again take the lead or fly in formation with the other members. Jesus reminds us in this parable that, in the end, it doesn’t matter when you came into community, even when you came into the church. The reward for putting your hand to the plow will be the same: a day’s work in the kingdom for God’s daily wage … the last, the same as the first. It’s been that way for all eternity. You’ll find when you get there (I’m guessing) that your view from the mansion God is saving for you is just as magnificent as that of Moses or Adam and Eve or your favorite saints – everyone’s mansion has a “throne-side view” of heavenly glory.

 

P.S.  World Mission Sunday

World Mission Sunday is scheduled for the weekend of October 18-19, 2025, and this year’s theme is “Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples.” During this Jubilee Year of Hope, the theme is most appropriate, and all are called to engage in missionary work in one form or another, thereby bringing hope to those in despair. This annual worldwide collection helps to provide aid to 1,124 dioceses that cannot sustain themselves because they are too poor, young, or actively persecuted.

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Amos 8:4-7         Second Reading:  1 Timothy 2:1-8
Gospel:   Luke 16:1-13
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Because you were faithful in small matters…

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Because you were faithful in small matters…

come, share your Master’s joy.

Like the Master in this Gospel, St. Benedict teaches us “journey lessons.”  We sense a journey motif from the opening words of Benedict’s Rule when he bids us: “Listen! The labor of obedience will bring you back (“coming back” requires a journey, doesn’t it?)  “Let us get up then (he says) at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: “It is high time for us to arise from sleep… (come from the land of your dreams) …run while you have the light… go out 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’.”   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.”

By the time Benedict wrote Chapter 67 one can tell he’s had some experience with monks who journeyed far from the home monastery.  We know that Benedict, in his youth, had escaped “big city life.”  So, he wanted to protect his monks from the evils and temptations of the prevailing society.  Those at home are to remember the absent ones in prayer for their confrere’s 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.”  Benedict didn’t want stories of the world to creep in and cause dissension or dissatisfaction to rankle or upset his community.  We need to be on guard that we balance charitable interest in each other versus the drive to know every intimate detail about what was seen or heard on the other’s journey.

Benedict is solicitous of his monks sent on a journey that they appear neither embarrassingly shabby nor be clad in “rich folks” clothing.  He charges the superior with checking that hemlines are a decent length and the members’ clothing be suited to the weather.   And, it’s obvious that times were different when Benedict walked the earth.  He makes provision that the members be LOANED underwear from the wardrobe that is to be laundered and returned after the trip.

In line with his admonition to pray always, Benedict reminds his monks when they are on a journey to keep an eye on the sun and listen for the bells from neighboring abbeys announcing prayer times. Benedict reminds them though at a distance too far to join the community, they should “observe the prescribed hours” as best they can.  Thus, probably began the custom of the Angelus.

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.”  Benedict, in his own unique way, shares Paul’s message to the Philippians: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”   Benedict adds this promise: “Under God’s protection” (together) we will reach our heavenly home.”  That’s the same promise Jesus makes to his trustworthy followers: Because “You were faithful in small matters … come, share your Master’s joy.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Have a pleasant Thanksgiving… give thanks for all that has been and open your heart to all that will be…give another a reason to rejoice on this day.

 

First Reading:   Proverbs 31         Second Reading:  1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Gospel:   Matthew 25:14-30
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Leadership

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This parable, like many of Jesus’ folksy stories, is challenging to explain.  “Make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth… “  (Luke 16:9)  But since it came from the mouth of God’s own Son it must be important for us to grapple with.  Our application is shaped and colored by the Scripture readings we had this past week and the section of the Holy Rule read each day at Evening Prayer.  (Chapter 2 Qualities of the Superior)

The Gospel tells us if we can’t be trusted in little matters we certainly cannot be trusted with great ones. Now don’t go figuring that you are not a leader in a Benedictine community because each is a leader in her own realm. It could be tempting to breeze through Benedict’s Chapter 2 with an attitude of “ho hum” – that’s for her, glad it’s not me and I hope she is listening.

To say that Benedict holds high standards for the superior may be an understatement.  Notice he places the chapter on leadership qualities early in the Rule, only after he defines the type of monastic for whom he is writing.  We know he is writing about the qualities of the leaders of the “strongest kind of monastics”; the ones who have chosen to live under a Rule and a monastic leader.

Benedict may have left it unsaid in Chapter 2, but he sprinkles exhortations about qualities of leadership for all the members elsewhere in the Rule.  Benedict echoes Jesus when he presses home that the “person who is dishonest in very small matters will also be dishonest in great ones.”  It does not require a great leap to apply this saying to all of us – the youngest or newest in community to the eldest and more seasoned member.

Benedict is waving a banner before our eyes of what each of us always need to be so that a call to leadership does not cause an abrupt change of lifestyle.  Benedict knew from his own experience that the leader’s role in community is time-limited.  He himself had experienced both a call to leadership and a call to a hermit’s life.  He must have foreseen, perhaps with a nudge from Scholastica, that the monastic must be prepared in all aspects of her life to move in and out of leadership roles.

If the individual member does not faithfully engage in a life-long endeavor to develop the attitudes, skills, and qualities that Benedict lays out for the superior, guess what?  An election or appointment to a leadership position will not ipso facto endow a generous, caring disposition.  If a person has not learned to be accountable for her own actions (or at least tried to be), and to be solicitous of others, an imposition of hands, a community affirmation, or a bishop’s blessing will not infuse the gift of saintliness.

Do you recall the lesson of the geese who fly in “V” formation?  As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird following it.  [Drivers on I-75 try to take advantage of this dynamic by traveling in the tail wind of a semi.]  Combined, the whole flock of geese adds 71% greater flying range than if one flew alone.  Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels drag and resistance and quickly gets back into formation.  When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.   The geese in the formation honk from behind to encourage those in front to keep up their speed.

Benedict smiles upon the leaders in community, consoling them with the fact that they do not lack resources.  He quotes Psalm 33: “Those who fear God lack nothing.”  In helping others, the leader achieves the amendment of her own faults.  Benedict does not mention, but I bet he knew, the gratifying support the superior receives daily in unpretentious, quiet affirmations from individual members.  Like the story of the geese, when the leader is “shot down” by illness, or by words or attitudes in monastic life, individual members drop out of formation to help, protect, and reaffirm the leader until she is either able to again take the lead or fly in formation with the other members.

Jesus reminds us in the parable in the Gospel that, in the end, it doesn’t matter when you came into community, parenthood or ministry of any sort.  The reward for putting your hand to the plow will be the same: a day’s work in the kingdom for God’s daily wage.  The last will receive the same as the first.   It’s been that way for all eternity.  We’ll find when we get there (I’m guessing) that our view from the mansion God is saving for each of us is just as magnificent as that of Moses and Adam and Eve and our favorite saints: Everyone’s mansion has a “throne-side view” of heavenly glory.

 

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading  Amos 8:5-7     
Second Reading  1 Timothy 2:1-8
Gospel Reading  Luke 16:1-13
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Saint Benedict’s Day – March 21st

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Saint Benedict’s Day

 

Young Benedict was a seeker of Truth.  A well-kept, well-fed young man from a prosperous family, he attended university in his quest for the Truth.  But what he found there neither answered the questions he had nor satisfied his longings.  The life of hedonism that surrounded him there only disgusted him and left him bruised and empty.  He had searched for the meaning of life in an academic environment without success.

We thank God that Benedict did not give up on his search for life’s meaning on the day he abandoned his studies.  Instead he walked away from everything he had known to look elsewhere.  He constructed a solitary existence, far from the distractions of human society, to search for life’s purpose.  Alone, he besought God’s merciful presence, and God answered him.  When others came to him in the hope of joining him, he did not turn them away.  He recorded his experience as a spiritual mentor and his guidelines for the monastic life in his Rule.  We, the Benedictine Sisters of Florida, are the happy heirs of St. Benedict’s legacy.

Benedict’s life-long search for God required tremendous courage, faith and perseverance.  His willingness to leave his beloved solitude in order to share his wisdom with others was an act of self-sacrifice and generosity.  On this feast of St. Benedict’s passing to his heavenly home, let us ask God for a measure of those same qualities.  Let us prefer nothing to the love of Christ, and may He bring us all to everlasting life.  (RB 72:11)

~by Sister Eileen Dunbar, OSB
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Saint Scholastic Day

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Saint Scholastica’s Feast Day

The feast day of Saint Scholastica (480-543), twin sister of Saint Benedict, is today February 10th.  Considered the patron saint of Benedictine women and education, her life, like her brother’s, was centered on love and peace.  At a very young age, she devoted herself to God and established a convent about five miles from Benedict’s monastery.  They enjoyed a close relationship, meeting yearly to discuss spiritual matters.

As you may recall, the Benedictine Sisters of Florida refer often to Saint Benedict’s The Rule.  His vision of how to live in community begins with the words “Listen with the ear of the heart.”  The story of what would be Benedict’s last visit with his sister Scholastica illustrates how strong the communication link or dialogue can be between God and His people.  Scholastica, feeling somewhat unsettled, wanted her dear brother to stay the night on this particular visit.  Though she implored him, Benedict insisted on the necessity of returning to his monastery.  Saint Scholastica prayed to God who listened and within minutes, a roar of thunder and heavy rain made it impossible for her brother to leave.  It would be the last time the siblings would share precious time together.  Saint Scholastica died three days later.

The Benedictine Sisters of Chicago remind us that January 24th is the memorial of Francis de Sales who is known as the great saintly communicator.  In that vein, Pope Francis writes on the 56th Annual World Day of Communications about “Listening with the ear of the heart.”  The Pope’s message reads “From the pages of Scripture we learn that listening means not only the perception of sound, but is essentially linked to the dialogical relationship between God and humanity.”

We pray fervently that our patron Saint Scholastica, cradles our hearts so that we truly listen with heartfelt compassion always.

Continue Reading