Mary Jane (John Marie) Slaney, OSB Saint Benedict’s Monastery St. Joseph, Minn. October 26, 1923 – June 18, 2020 Sister Mary Jane (John Marie) Slaney died on June 18, 2020, at Saint Scholastica Convent, St. Cloud, Minn. A private service will take place at Saint Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, on Monday, June 22, 2020. A […]
In the mid 1800s, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote, “The Word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today. And even if it were blazoned forth with all the panoply of noise so that it could be heard in the midst of all the other noise, then it would no longer be […]
Tonight, as I set into place the 440th piece (give or take) of a 1,000-piece puzzle, something triggered deep within… Tonight, it’s the color of my soft pink sweatshirt and the warmth of the light in the loft that seems to do it. Grandma comes to mind. It was as if her heart brought love […]
In my mid-80s and in our 99th day of sequestration from COVID-19, I dare not remove myself from the death of George Floyd, the hearts broken and inflamed, the cries and outrage of people who want liberation from the knee of hundreds of years of oppression. The psalmist tells us God hears the cry of […]
Only days before we went into lockdown, I was asked to move from my lovely one-bedroom apartment in campus housing to a room with a bathroom in the monastery. The plan called for fumigating and cleaning the dorm spaces to accommodate the coronavirus patients, if needed. I was given the “entire weekend” to move 17 years […]
Congratulations to the Spirituality Center, a recipient of one of two Community Partnership Awards from Literacy Minnesota. This award is given to organizations that have developed successful partnerships with literacy programs, enhancing services to learners. The Spirituality Center has been hosting adult English classes two times a week since 2017, and the success of this […]
Saint Benedict’s Monastery is still closed to visitors, but that doesn’t mean you can’t buy some of your favorite items from Whitby Gift Shop. Beginning Saturday, June 13, items from the gift shop will be available for purchase and curbside pick-up! If there is something you would like to purchase, call the gift shop at […]
On each of the first two Sundays in May, there were over 250 obituaries in the Minneapolis newspaper, and many of them ended with the words that a memorial service or celebration of life would be held “at a later date.” In recent weeks, it has seemed that everything about my life has been postponed […]
This letter was written by Sister Susan Rudolph, prioress, and shared with the monastic community. We invite you to join us in prayer. Dear Friends, Once again, I stand with our Benedictine community listening with the ear of my heart to the pain of another shameful death of a human person, our black brother, George […]
Do you believe in the power of prayer? Last November, I learned the power of a specific prayer my family has been saying for over 30 years. Here is the prayer: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you very much, I beg you to please spare the life of the unborn child that I have […]
