The Monastic Village

My friend Martha recently made her first overnight visit at Mount St. Scholastica, and she was amazed at how everyone’s skills and talents are put to good use—for example, in tending to our myriad of plants, maintaining bee hives, being companions to Dooley Center sisters, making handcrafted items for the gift shop, and keeping the cupboard stocked with cough drops. “It’s like a village,” she said.

I discovered the truth of that statement when I misplaced my May issue of Give Us This Day and my book Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim, which Martha and I used one morning during her visit. I attempted to retrace our steps, checking everywhere from the gift shop to the game room to numerous bathrooms to my compartment in the hallway to Martha’s guest room to my desk to my prayer space. Several sisters reminded me to pray to St. Anthony, and Sr. Rita Claire told me to pray to Sr. Mary Cosmos, now deceased, who used to pray to her own mother when she misplaced items. That seemed like a good idea, because at this point, it seemed like the books could be anywhere in the cosmos.

Ultimately, I posted a “Lost” notice on the community bulletin board, and sure enough, Sr. Rosann remembered seeing the books at the entrance to St. Cecilia’s—a spot on Martha’s tour that I had overlooked. It does indeed take a village to find a lost item in the monastery.

Although losing the books was a frustrating experience, it gave me some valuable insights about community life: it’s okay to ask for help, we have a web of people we can pray to for assistance, and having lots of sets of eyes can be very useful at times. It also made me realize how much I have come to rely on Give Us This Day, a sign that I have finally been able to integrate lectio divina practice into my daily prayer.

What had been lost has been found, with a few new insights to boot. May the village rejoice with me!