In This Place Your Word is Planted
This year marks my third year serving as director of Campus Ministry at the College of Saint Benedict. At its heart, this work is a vocation rooted in community, one that is formed not in isolation, but in relationship. Each year, our ministry is blessed by nearly 20 student campus ministers, young women and men who arrive with faith seeking understanding and a deep desire to serve. Many come without prior experience in ministry, often unsure of what they have to offer. Yet through the encouragement of the sisters and lay ministers alike, they begin to recognize and name their gifts and claim their place in the life of our Church.
To describe the relationship between the sisters and CSB Campus Ministry, I return often to the words of Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium: “Everyone can share in some way in the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community.” Here, this spirit of radical hospitality is not just spoken; it is lived. The sisters embody it daily through their presence, welcome and faithful accompaniment in the lives of many of our students.
Every Sunday evening of the academic year, this life together becomes especially visible. Our students gather early for our 6 p.m. Mass in Sacred Heart Chapel; the Gathering Place begins to joyfully awaken. Voices rise in choir rehearsal, sacristans prepare the altar with gentleness and the chapel slowly fills with anticipation. Amid it all, Sister Elaine Schroeder, the monastery’s liturgy director, arrives, offering wisdom, encouragement and the steady guidance born of years of faithful service in her vocation. Her presence is an anchor. She teaches our students, and me, that liturgy is an invitation for all to serve.
Throughout the year, our collaboration with the sisters unfolds in many ways, shaped by the rhythms of the liturgical calendar and the realities of our current world. During Advent and Easter, the Blessing of Minds continues to be a cherished tradition, offering students peace as they approach final exams. In moments of grief, too, we lean on one another. Following the difficult passing of Pope Francis, the sisters stood alongside our students, many of whom were nervously preparing to enter the Church through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, in a candlelight vigil. They offered then and continue to offer us now their prayers and the invaluable gift of presence.
Most recently, we were blessed to collaborate on a prayer service for the common good, responding to the grief present across our local and wider Minnesota community. Planning alongside Sisters Kerry O’Reilly, Mara Faulkner, Delores Dufner and Hélène Mercier was a true gift. Their wisdom, keen relationship with words spoken, written and sung and spirit of deep listening reminded us that Benedictine life is not only rooted in prayer, but in accompaniment — walking gently with one another through uncertainty. Together, we sought to witness a truth at the heart of our tradition: “No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead what he judges better for someone else” (Rule of Benedict 72:7). In this shared work, we were reminded that to uphold the common good is to honor the dignity of every human person, and to do so with care.
The journey of our students is not separate from the realities of the world. As students they experience friendships, grief, loss and the complexities of change. Yet here, within this Benedictine community, the Word of God is not only planted, but also tended with care. The sisters model a way of being marked by stability, listening and love that inspires our students as they discern the vocations to which they are being called, in service to one another. In the words of Sister Delores Dufner: “Let your planting not be wasted.”* The care, joy and faithful presence of the sisters ensure that the seeds planted here take root. With lamps still burning, they show us the way and our Bennies, in turn, carry that light forward in hope.
Cindy Liliana Gonzalez, M.A.M., M.Ed.
*“In This Place Your Word Is Planted” is a hymn written by S. Delores Dufner.
This article was featured on page 8-9 in the spring 2026 issue of Benedictine Sisters and Friends.
