A Holy Woman

In the fourth chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict, it is written, “Keep death daily before your eyes.” One tool for practicing this dictum in the monastery is the necrology board that is located on the wall outside the choir chapel. This board lists the names of all the members of Mount St. Scholastica who have died since the community was founded in 1863, and alongside each name is a number. In front of the necrology board is a box of numbered tiles, and each day, we are invited to draw a number and pray for the deceased community member whose name corresponds to that number. In this way we stay connected to community members who are now part of the communion of saints and remind ourselves that our names, too, will one day be listed on the board.

The newest name that will be added to the board is that of Sr. Benedicta Boland, who died on Thursday evening, September 29. Sr. Benedicta had been in poor health since I joined the community, so I didn’t have much contact with her; however, we were connected through prayer, because she was the designated “pray-er” for the Marywood living group. My final encounter with her was on the Monday before she died, when she saw me in the hall and beckoned me into her room. Some of her friends from Oklahoma had attended the autumn prayer service that I planned, and she wanted to thank me. As she took my hand firmly and smiled beatifically, I felt enveloped by holiness. I’m not alone in that feeling, because in every reminiscence of her, I hear the phrase, “She was a holy woman.”

At morning prayer the day after Sr. Benedicta died, our very first chant was the following invitatory by Bernadette Farrell: “Your words are spirit and life, O Lord; richer than gold, stronger than death. Your words are spirit and life, O Lord; life everlasting.” Truly, the Word that lived in Sr. Benedicta is stronger than death, and through that Word, she has found life everlasting. Later at mass, we sang My Soul is Thirsting by Bob Hurd, which includes the lines, “Your love is better than life itself; you are the God who upholds me. You are the God whom I seek. In your presence I will feast and be filled; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.” Sr. Benedicta’s spirit was singing with us, and although we will greatly miss her physical presence among us, we rejoice that she has taken her place at the table with God, for whom she was thirsting.