Volunteering for Justice
How do you spend your day off from work? Most people spend the day cleaning, shopping or relaxing. Not Theresa Witte — she spends her day off volunteering. She also […]
Entries by Emily Vranesh
Sacred Scholarship in Studium
Studium, a program of Saint Benedict’s Monastery, was founded in 1992 to enable sisters to use their gifts and professional training and to provide a setting where retired sisters might […]
A Visual Theology
Among the 7,000 or so items in the Haehn Museum are the makings of countless exhibits, yet the most famous and inquired about are the needlework pieces. Many are adorned […]
Reach Out or Outreach?
The sisters at Saint Scholastica Convent, our retirement facility in St. Cloud, Minn., have a whole range of community groups that reach out to them: elementary, high school and college […]
Noticing Opens Possibilities
The dreaded time had arrived. The mortician escorted my family to my dad before relatives and friends entered to say “goodbye.” I stood back from the casket. I didn’t want […]
Tidbits From the Past
St. Benedict’s Rule urges the abbot or prioress to seek counsel from the community members — for, as he wrote, “The Lord often reveals to the younger ones the wisest […]
Weavers of Wisdom
“Listen … incline the ear of your heart’ (Rule of Benedict, Prologue 1). With this warmest of invitations, speaking to the desires of Christians in every age, St. Benedict begins […]
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 […]
Benedictine Wisdom at TEDxStCloud
In October 2025, Sister Michaela Hedican and Mary Bruno, local artist and owner of Bruno Press, a letterpress print shop in St. Joseph, Minn., took the stage at TEDxStCloud for […]
Groundbreaking Discernment
“Suddenly.” “Out of the blue.” “Unexpectedly.” These are words that are not usually applied to Benedictines who, by virtue of their way of life, reflect and deliberate. They also are […]
