This year’s calendar features stunning pictures of the tapestries that hang in our Abbey Church. They were woven for us by Frau Walburga, OSB, at our motherhouse in Germany for our chapel in Boulder in the early 1960s. Woven of hand-dyed and handspun wool, they depict the “Mysteries of Mary,” something like but not quite identical to the mysteries of the rosary. The calendar also gives the days of the Church’s liturgical days and seasons, together with days commemorated by the Order of St. Benedict, as they are observed at our Abbey.
You can order a calendar from the Abbey Gift Shop, either by telephoning us at 970-472-0612 or by ordering online (see below). The prices listed for one, two, or three calendars include tax, shipping and handling.
On October 25, our Sister Immaculata appeared on the Chris Stefanick Show to talk about the joys and challenges of the Benedictine life. Click here to watch!
Sister Immaculata and Chris share a laugh about how nuns can’t “defriend” each other on social media
A reflection for the Solemnity by Mother Maria-Michael Newe, OSB
What made the saints? What unifies them is that they all strove to seek God’s will. That is the most important point that unites the saints – the will of God. It takes the grace of God to do His will. We are called to seek it at all times and to remember with confidence that God only wills good things for us, He wills the very best. We have the ability to choose His will or not. Can you surrender completely and hand something to God and say, “What do you want me to do? What is your will for me?” That is what the saints did, and not just once, they made it a lifelong practice.
Saint Benedict is so adamant about us giving up our wills, our pushiness, our desires, our way of doing things, our vision of who we are, so that we can know God’s vision of who we are. Self-will is so strong that if we don’t learn to recognize it and to intentionally do God’s will instead, we’ll always be fumbling, we’ll never be steady. God’s will is steady; God’s will is stable.
One way of discerning God’s will is that what we’re asked to do will require us to depend on Him. You need the grace to do God’s will. And that’s what the saints did so well. They depended on God for everything. They asked God for everything. The Saints were so confident in the help of God. They never tried to do it alone.
I recently read that in the process of canonizing a saint, the person is declared “Venerable” after the Vatican Congregation determines that the Servant of God lived a life of heroic virtue. Heroic virtue doesn’t mean a person was perfect or sinless, but that she worked aggressively to improve herself spiritually and never gave up trying to be better or grow in holiness. That means we’re all candidates! As Benedictines, we take a vow of conversion – no wonder there are so many Benedictine saints. It’s what we do every day. We get up and try again. We keep trying because we want to, we want to be holy, we want to belong to God, we want to sing His praises. We want to intercede for the world. We want to live for Him. We want to care for what He loves, and we want to live with Him forever. Those are the ingredients of a saint right there.
So don’t grow slack. Seek God’s will. He seeks you and He desires only our good, only our good. Pray for the will of God for each other. Join your will with God’s and will it for another and you will be saying the best prayer you could say for anybody.
Thank you for being faithful to end, for persevering and for struggling when it was hard. Thank you for loving when it is hard to love, because that means that God is doing it for you. Let’s celebrate the Saints and ask them for help. Reach up and ask them. And then maybe 200 years for now, this feast of All Saints will be our feast too. I wish it for all of you.
“The Solemnity of All Saints is “our” celebration: not because we are good, but because the sanctity of God has touched our life. The Saints are not perfect models, but people through whom God has passed. We can compare them to the Church windows which allow light to enter in different shades of colour. The saints are our brothers and sisters who have welcomed the light of God in their heart and have passed it on to the world, each according to his or her own “hue”. But they were all transparent; they fought to remove the stains and the darkness of sin, so as to enable the gentle light of God to pass through. This is life’s purpose: to enable God’s light to pass through; it is the purpose of our life too.”
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”
John 14:1-3
This Gospel is so precious. I love to think about how in heaven, all evil will be forgotten, because evil cannot be in heaven. There will be a holy amnesia. You won’t remember anything evil that has been done to you.
It’s like when you’re working with people with dementia, and they greet you with a big, “Hello! How are you? It’s so good to see you!” no matter who you are. Isn’t that sort of a touch of heaven? It’s a touch of heaven when nothing evil is remembered.
And even those who have hurt us, when we get to heaven, we will be able to greet like our best friends. “How good to see you…”
So holy amnesia is a beautiful thing – we can even try to do it today.
Every year on October 12 the holy oil from Saint Walburga’s tomb in Germany begins to flow, and it continues until her Feast Day on February 25. Due to the testimonies of many people who have experienced God’s healing power after anointing themselves with the oil and asking Saint Walburga to pray for them, it seems that this quote from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux may also be applied to our patroness:
“I wish to spend my heaven in doing good upon the earth.”
Photo of Saint Walburga’s crypt at the Abtei St. Walburg in Eichstätt, taken by one of our Sisters who travelled to Germany for the Abbatial Blessing of Mother Hildegard, OSB. The images on the walls are memorial plaques depicting miracles attributed to Saint Walburga, donated by patrons in gratitude for her intercession.
A reflection on Luke 10:38-42 by Mother Maria-Michael Newe, OSB
It ran through my mind today that Martha was not able to listen to Jesus when serving because she was so mad at Mary. She wasn’t hearing a word He said—she was too busy thinking, “Look at her, she just sits there all day, and I have to do this, I have to do that, look at how unfair it is!” We can recognize this pattern in our own lives: doesn’t it happen that when we’re angry, disturbed, not happy with life, we are not longer able to hear Christ? Our conversation is one-sided, because we’re just complaining to Him, like Martha did. We need to stop and listen, too. If we don’t, we can let disturbances steal our peace of heart, steal our focus, and have say over what’s important in the moment. It takes a lifetime to figure out the answers to the questions, “Why do I give this thing such importance? Why do I let it steal my peace of heart and mind? Can I just let it go?” There are some things we need to address, and there are other things that maybe we need to just let go.
Pictured below, Sisters prepare the meal and wash the dishes without grumbling or complaining!
On September 11, the eve of the day on which the Church commemorates the “Holy Name of Mary,” our Sister Mary was clothed with the Benedictine habit. What a glorious day it was!
Two days later, a wildfire broke out from a lightning strike on our neighbor’s land, and we spent the day preparing to evacuate. Thankfully, due to the amazing fire fighting squad (on foot and in the air), who worked tirelessly through the night, we were able to safely stay in our monastery. We were also blessed by many friends and oblates who reached out to check on us and let us know that we could stay with them if we needed to leave. Praise the Lord for surrounding us with so many good people!
It was a great gift that we did not have to evacuate, because Sister Assunta’s Vow Renewal was set to take place on the next day, September 14, The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. After six years here, she has now renewed her vows for another year, bringing her one step closer to her Solemn Profession.
In honor of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrated this month, one of our Sisters wrote this reflection:
A Rock Beneath the Cross
You have said
To plant in fertile ground
With rich, nutritious soil,
In order to take root
And bear fruit;
But then You go and
Contradict Yourself,
Because I’ve seen
Trees growing out of rocks,
For nothing is impossible
For You…
And it’s a good thing, too,
Because I am like that rock,
Stony, hard, unloving,
Critical, rigid, cold,
But still You give me hope
That if I only keep saying,
“I only want You,
And to love like You,”
Then You will accomplish
A miracle in me,
And a tree will grow
From this rock…
And I think of Moses
Striking the rock,
And water pouring forth,
Just like You were struck
By me on the Cross,
And blood and water
Poured out love and mercy
Upon this very rock
Who struck You…
So there is hope
For this heart of stone,
Because beneath your Cross,
Watered by Your blood,
Anything is possible,
And even a fruit-bearing tree
Can grow.
I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
On August 15, 2021, The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, Sister Maria-Raphaelle and Sister Fidelis made their solemn profession of monastic vows. The Holy Mass was presided over by The Most Reverend Samuel J. Aquila, who delivered an eloquent homily about his “dear daughters” being the salt and light of the world, in imitation of the Blessed Mother. It was a day of great rejoicing, and a blessing for our community.
A reflection on following Christ and not looking back, by Mother Maria-Michael Newe, OSB
We hear about Abraham procuring a wife for his son Isaac, and how he tells his servant, “never take my son back there for any reason” (Genesis 24:6), that is, into to the homeland where Abraham was from, because God had promised him a new land. I think we need to take that message for ourselves as well. Don’t go back. Don’t disbelieve God’s word to you. Everybody’s journey is different, and God is the only one who can follow each one’s journey, because He’s the one who has given it. He has a specific plan for you, and it’s real. He has a specific work for you. You have to follow through with the vocation He has called you to. Once you say yes and take a step forward, don’t step back. It’s not about you—it’s the work of God in you. So don’t look at yourself all the time, because that can get really discouraging—look at God! Look at the work He is doing in you. Don’t stare in the mirror; instead, open the window. It’s beautiful out there!
I found a quote in Venite Seorsum: Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns, about the spiritual exodus that is required of each one of us:
“From the dawn of the Chosen People’s history, Abraham is depicted as being called to leave his country, his family and his father’s house, while the Apostle repeatedly teaches that the same calling was the beginning of a long mystical journey to a homeland which is not of this world. What in this way was merely prefigured in the Old Testament, becomes a reality in the New…The Word of God delivered us from the domination of darkness (cf. Col. 1:13), that is from sin, and through His death (cf. John 13:1; 16:28; and Heb. 9:11-12, 10:19-20) He set us on the return road to the Father, who ‘raised us up with him and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Eph. 2:6; cf. Col. 2:12-13, 3:1). Herein lies the true-essence of the paschal mystery of Christ and the Church.”
This exodus is true in a particular way for those whom God has called to the contemplative life, those whom He has set aside for Himself. God really does say to those He sets aside for Himself, “I ask you to leave everything, and to follow Me.” It doesn’t matter if home is 10 miles away or another country. Is it hard? Of course it is. But it becomes easier as you get older and heaven becomes closer. Over time you begin to let go of things more and more, and even when someone you love is dying, you have the sense that it’s okay if God takes her, because you know you’re going to see her again.
So the Exodus really is for every single person. Everyone experiences and lives through some sort of Exodus in their lives. But it’s nothing to fear, because you are fed the whole way on the manna. God is Father, and He is a very good Father. He will take care.
Illumination by a nun from the Abtei St. Walburg in Germany
