February 2019 If we lose love and respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

♥

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope. ♥

Have enough courage to trust love one more time, and always, one more time.

–Maya Angelou

The sisters received a valentine with these quotes about love, written by Maya Angelou, from long-time friend Barbara Battin and thought you would appreciate them as well.

Sisters & Sojourners

Summer Stewards

The sisters at Holy Wisdom are initiating a new program this summer for women ages 18-35. Women spend 10 days living at the monastery participating in prayer, meals, prairie restoration and garden work. If you are interested in exploring spiritual practices and care for the earth, this may be the program for you.

Participants will experience:

Community living and prayer Prairie and oak savanna restoration with local experts

Garden to table living: growing, harvesting, preparing vegetables Spiritual practices: mindfulness, meditation, contemplative art and more.

Room and meals are provided. Registration fee: $50 (scholarship available). Apply by June 21, 2019.

For more information and to apply, click on the button below. Contact Denise West, OSB for more information at denisew@benedictinewomen.org or 608-235-0764.

Learn more and apply

Sunday Assembly

Lent is coming soon!

All are welcome to join us on March 6, 2019 for our Ash Wednesday Midday Prayer with distribution of ashes in the oratory, or our Ash Wednesday Evening Service at 5:30 pm in the assembly room. A light supper will follow the evening service, with soup prepared by the monastery chef. Sunday Assembly members will bring salad, bread, cheese or dessert to share. Sign-up sheets will be available soon in the gathering area for food, set up and clean up. Lenten Lunches return for 2019

Suffering is a dominant theme in the Christian tradition during Lent. In this Lenten series, we will explore the theme of suffering in the major faith traditions of Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam to support our journeys of spiritual understanding and transformation. Join us for one or more lunches on Wednesdays from 11:45 am-1:30 pm. Register below one week before the lunch(es) of your choice.

March 20 – Christianity led by ELCA Bishop Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld March 27 – Islam led by Samba Baldeh April 3 – Buddhism led by Paul Knitter April 10 – Judaism led by Rabbi Renae Bauer

Taizé Prayer during Lent

Prayer in the style of Taizé is a rich contrast of silence and singing. Attend our Lent Taizé prayer service on March 22, 2019 from 7:30-9:00 pm in the oratory.

Anointing of the sick

Join us in the oratory after worship on March 24, 2019, from 10:20-11:00 am, as we offer a special prayer for healing. All are invited to participate in this special liturgy. The prayer that we offer is for all of us seeking God’s help, and for us to pray with and for those in our community who place themselves in God’s loving care.

Register for a Lenten Lunch

Odyssey Going Behind Bars

March 28, 2019; 5:15-7:45 pm Led by Rev. Jerry Hancock and Jean Feraca Register by March 21, 2019

Can you teach Socrates in prison? Should you? The highly successful UW-Odyssey Project took an unexpected turn last year when Jerry Hancock and Jean Feraca dared to bring a college-level arts and humanities program into Wisconsin prisons.

Rev. Jerry Hancock, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, entered the ministry after working for more than 30 years in the criminal justice system. In February, 2006, Jerry became the Director of the Prison Ministry Project. The Project is an outreach ministry of the United Church of Christ.

Jean Feraca is an award-winning journalist, writer, and public speaker whose skills as a communicator became renowned as Wisconsin Public Radio’s premier talk show host. In 2003, she co-founded UW-Madison’s Odyssey Project as an educational experiment designed to transform the lives of adults living in poverty.

Attend Sacred Citizenship

Oblates

Celebrating 20 years: oblates for the future

by Mary Kremer, Oblate class of 2003

Our retreat celebration to mark the 20th anniversary of the oblate community will be July 12-14, 2019. A lot has happened since the members of first class of oblates made their promises in 1999 and there are certainly many more oblates than there were at that time. This retreat will provide time for us to meet some of the new members we may not know and to reconnect with some we have not seen for a while. There will be panels, a liturgy for oblates on Saturday night, an anniversary cake, of course, and a focus on the future!

In October, 2018 three oblates from Holy Wisdom, Mary Hoddy, Marj Nixon and Chris Todd, traveled to Cottonwood, Idaho to attend a symposium entitled “Oblates for the Future.” Forty-one professed monastics and oblates from 20 monasteries across the country attended the symposium. In her presentation, Teresa Jackson, OSB stated, “Benedictine life is alive, thriving, exciting, growing, reaching out to give meaning to a world that is so hungry for the presence of God that most people no longer have the language to name the hunger.”

(Pictured: Oblates created an anniversary “cake” for the 15th anniversary celebration in 2014.)

The information from the symposium was shared with the sisters at Holy Wisdom in November. It was discussed at the Convergence of Circles in January and it will be shared with the oblate community at this anniversary celebration. It is an exciting peek into the future—one you won’t want to miss! So in addition to lots of committee updates and reconnecting, we will celebrate us as we go forward with spirit. Mark your calendar now for the 20th Anniversary Celebration, July 12-14, 2019.

It's not too late to register for The Spiritual Practice of Friendship

March 22-24, 2019 Led by Oblate Brad Lutz Open to the public

Looking at our experience, Scripture and the Rule, we will consider that friendship is more than being friendly—it is a spiritual practice that opens us to the workings of God’s grace. Our sessions will include time for reflection and sharing as well as didactic.

Register for retreat by March 8

Friends & Supporters

It's like a double feature

Do you remember double features? You purchased a ticket and paid for the butter popcorn and huge soda at the refreshment counter. Very quietly you try to open the candy bar you brought from home before the chocolate melts in your pocket. Then you settle in for an afternoon or evening of watching two movies for the price of one. What a deal – two for the price of one!

Matching gifts are like a double feature for us at Holy Wisdom. We receive the initial gift and then it is doubled by a business or corporation! It’s like two for one!

A matching gift is easy to do and doubles your impact. Check with your employer to see if they will match your gift to the monastery. Sometimes businesses will even match the gifts of their retired employees. That’s generous!

Before you settle into your next double feature (or binge watch at home), do some homework and take advantage of your employer’s matching gift program. Now sit back and enjoy that popcorn . . .

If you want to make a gift now, just click the button below to donate. Thanks for your support!

Make a gift!

The Friends want you to join them The Friends of Wisdom Prairie is a community of people who help maintain and restore the land at Holy Wisdom Monastery through donations, volunteer activities and by learning how to care for the earth. Each year around this time, the Friends ask everyone interested in supporting the restoration efforts of the monastery to join their community. Memberships are good for one year and cost: $15 for students; $30 for individuals; $40 for families. Help make a difference!

Join the Friends in 2019

Learn about caring for the earth at the first dinner lecture of the year

Environmental Ethics of Indigenous Cultures of Wisconsin led by Patty Loew March 20, 2019; 5:30-8:00 pm

Enjoy dinner at the monastery and learn about the environmental ethics of the first people of this land. Patty Loew is a Professor of Journalism at Northwestern University and Director of Native American and Indigenous Research.

Register by March 6

We remember

Our thoughts and prayers are extended to the families and friends of the following:

Deloris Buss, who passed away on February 3, 2019. Deloris is the mother of Ecumenical Center for Clergy Spiritual Renewal co-director Jerry Buss. Jerry’s father, Gerald Buss, passed away in December 2018.

Barbara Voltz, who passed away on December 17, 2018. Barbara was a friend to Holy Wisdom Monastery and Sunday Assembly.

We celebrate the gifts they shared and rejoice in the promise of eternal life.

New on our website

Living in community blog

Reflections of the Feast of St. Scholastica by Sister Lynne Smith

Sojourner diary Preferring Christ by Rachel Olson

Read the latest homilies February 10 by Sister Lynne Smith January 27 by Leora Weitzman January 20 by Paul Knitter

New books in the library February new books in the library by Nancy Sandleback

Nature happenings Phenology (nature happenings) by Sylvia Marek

Calendar

For a listing of events taking place at Holy Wisdom Monastery, visit https://holywisdommonastery.org/events

You can change the view of the events from a month view to a day or list view by clicking on the arrow in the VIEW AS box in the top right corner of the calendar screen. You can also view other months by clicking on the EVENTS IN box in the upper left corner of the calendar screen, going to the month and year you want, then clicking on the FIND EVENTS button.

February

17: Sunday Assembly Children's Ministry, 9:00-10:00 am 17: Kids on the Prairie, 10:30-11:30 am 24: Hospitality and Car Pool Sunday 24: Children's Liturgy of the Word, 9:00-10:00 am

March

2: A Day Away: Balance retreat for women, 9:30 am-5:00 pm, register by 2/22/19 3: Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus 3: Sunday Assembly Childcare Ministry, 9:00-10:00 am 6: Ash Wednesday, Midday Prayer at 11:45 am; Evening Service at 5:30 pm & light supper 10: First Sunday of Lent 10: Children's Liturgy of the Word, 9:00-10:00 am 12: Luke House 17: Sunday Assembly Childcare Ministry, 9:00-10:00 am 17: Kids on the Prairie, 10:30-11:30 am

17: Sunday Assembly Council, 10:30-11:30 am 20: Lenten Lunches: Christianity led by ELCA bishop Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld; register by 3/13/19 20: Friends of Wisdom Prairie Dinner Lecture led by Patty Loew; register by 3/6/19 22-24: The Spirituality of Friendship, oblate retreat open to the public; register by 3/8/19 24: Children's Liturgy of the Word, 9:00-10:00 am 24: Anointing of the Sick, 10:30-11:15 am in the oratory 27: Wisdom Prairie Workday, 9:00 am-12:00 pm; register by 3/26/19 27: Lenten Lunches: Islam, led by Samba Baldeh; register by 3/20/19 28: Sacred Citizenship: Odyssey Going Behind Bars; register by 3/21/19 30: Exploring the Contemplative Life: Lenten Retreat; 9:30 am-3:30 pm; register by 3/9/19 This co-ed retreat is designed for people new to contemplative practices, as well as people interested in taking special time during the Lenten season for prayer and reflection. We will share a mixture of personal prayer and group discussion times. This retreat is held at Holy Wisdom and open to the public, but not sponsored by Holy Wisdom Monastery. To register contact: christina@foundry414.com 30-31: A Weekend Away retreat for women; register by 3/15/19 31: Hospitality and Car Pool Sunday

Holy Wisdom Monastery 4200 County Road M Middleton, Wisconsin 53562 United States (608) 836-1631