Falling into Grace

Lynne Smith, OSBUncategorized Leave a Comment

During Lent we often consider what discipline we want to practice to bring us closer to God, our neighbor and ourselves. I have found that life tends to give me the practice to follow each Lent. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been reflecting on and seeking to cooperate with a kind of transformation that wants to happen in me. This Lent, my life has been calling me to give up an old identity as victim and take on a new identity in God. Thomas Merton used the phrase, “a hidden wholeness” to describe the identity in God that …

New books in the library—April 2024

Nancy SandlebackLibrary Leave a Comment

Enrich your mind and spirit—visit the monastery library! April 2024 The monastery library added the following books to its collection: Armstrong, Karen. Sacred Nature. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2022. Delio, Illia. The Not-Yet God. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2023. O’Murchu, Diarmuid. Ecological Spirituality. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2024. Punsalan-Manlimos, Catherine. “Why We Can’t Wait.” Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2023. Torvend, Samuel. Monastic Ecological Wisdom. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2023.

April phenology

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie, Phenology 1 Comment

By Sylvia Marek Phenology is a science focused on observing and recording biological events from year to year and their relationships to the change of seasons and climate. These are the “normal” phenology events we expect to see here and in the Madison area this month. We would love to hear about what you are seeing on the grounds of Holy Wisdom Monastery. Please comment on this post with what you are observing, where at Holy Wisdom and the date you observed the event. No month ends or begins overnight. Events can be a few weeks early or late. “For …

Colleen Hartung’s Homily from Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024

Nancy SandlebackHomilies Leave a Comment

Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024 Bearing Witness: What is left for us to do Colleen D. Hartung Palm Sunday at HWM is high ritual framed by a bountiful proclamation of the Word. We expect it.  It is part of our ritual pattern.  But I realized for the first time as I was researching and sorting through this abundance for today’s homily that our tradition of juxtaposing the readings of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with the reading of the Passion is not a universal practice across Christian denominations.  After figuring this out, I did a quick survey of my neighborhood …

Open yourself up to new experiences at Holy Wisdom Monastery

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie, Hospitality, Justice, Prayer & Worship, Sunday Assembly, Volunteers Leave a Comment

Our mission is to weave prayer, hospitality, justice and care for the earth into a shared way of life. Here are some of the ways we invite you to live our mission with us. Prayer Holy Wisdom Monastery offers opportunity for spiritual growth every day of the week. Offerings include engaging in communal prayer, spending time in nature, attending a program or joining one of our spiritual communities, Oblates of Holy Wisdom Monastery, Center for Clergy Renewal or Sunday Assembly. Hospitality Our Benedictine tradition of hospitality means that all people are welcomed here as Christ. We invite you to experience this …

Patti LaCross’s Homily from March 17, 2024

Nancy SandlebackHomilies Leave a Comment

Six months of remotely watching the bombing, displacing, and starving of Palestinians in Gaza has been exhausting: How much more can they survive? How can the whole world watch this horror and not stop it? And when it ends, how can life, and eventually hope, be restored? It’s an unfathomable challenge. Yet people of all faiths and cultures throughout millenia learn that hope is necessary for life to continue. In the aftermath of the Babylonian conquest and destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah witnessed the terror he had warned of: the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem destroyed, the Israelites crushed and removed …

David McKee’s Homily from March 3, 2024

Holy Wisdom MonasteryHomilies 1 Comment

Third Sunday of Lent March 3, 2024 Exodus 20:1-17 1 Corinthian 1:18-25 John 2:13-22 Well, it’s been a difficult few weeks trying to come up with something meaningful to say this morning about our readings.  It’s one of those times when there doesn’t seem to be any common thread that ties the texts together; or at least I couldn’t find one.  Faced with that fact, I found myself attracted to the passage from Paul’s letter to the Christ-followers in Corinth.  Still, after reading a bunch of commentaries on the text, and pondering and taking notes distractedly for many hours, I …

New books in the library—March 2024

Nancy SandlebackLibrary Leave a Comment

Enrich your mind and spirit—visit the monastery library! March 2024 The monastery library added the following books to its collection: Bourgeault, Cynthia.  The Heart of centering prayer.  Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 2016. Cassidy, Laurie, ed.  Desire, darkness, and hope.  Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press 2021. Hewett, Beth.  Grief on the road to Emmaus.  Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2023. Irwin, Kevin.  Ecology, liturgy, and the sacraments.  Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2023 Kim, Seung Chul.  The Center is everywhere.  Eugen, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2022 Koosed, Jennifer L.  Judith.  Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022. Lane, Dermot.  Nature praising God.  Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022 Lohfink, …

New savanna: seeded!

Amy AlstadCare for the Earth, Volunteers Leave a Comment

Submitted by Amy Alstad, director of land management and environmental education This Wednesday, a group of 30 volunteers and coworkers gathered to plant the newly-cleared oak savanna. Thanks to many helping hands, the task of planting 1.5 acres went quickly and was infused with a lot of joy and celebration. The work of the past three months has involved cutting, treating, hauling and burning a huge volume of buckthorn, honeysuckle and other invasive shrubs to restore the open, sunlit structure of a true oak savanna. Once cleared, the space was ready to receive the seed mix made up of 70+ species …

March phenology (the awakening season)

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie, Phenology 3 Comments

By Sylvia Marek Phenology is a science focused on observing and recording biological events from year to year and their relationships to the change of seasons and climate. These are the “normal” phenology events we expect to see here and in the Madison area this month. We would love to hear about what you are seeing on the grounds of Holy Wisdom Monastery. Please comment on this post with what you are observing, where at Holy Wisdom and the date you observed the event. No month ends or begins overnight. Events can be a few weeks early or late. “For, …