Reflection for the Golden Jubilee
July 11, 2010
Sister Delores Doleza, OSB

by S. Anne Shepard, OSB
Prioress

My sister-in-law, Ann, was in a bind after my brother died. She had a six year old that she had to transport to school each morning and was trying to arrange a ride with someone dependable. One of her coworkers volunteered her retired husband, Hans, a quiet German- the opposite of her outgoing Irish father, Bill. After a few days of driving with Hans, my niece Lauren started to cut pictures out of her coloring book and out of the newspaper. When asked why she was doing this Lauren replied that the man was way too quiet in the car, probably because he was sad, she mused, and she thought that if she brought pictures, especially of sports, she would get him to talk. It worked. And every day she had something new to show him in the car. She was doing lesson plans at an early age. One day Hans approached Ann in tears. He read a birthday card that Lauren made him. Inside she wrote “I love you with my whole heart, with my whole soul, and with my whole mind. Thank you for taking me to school.” Hans was so moved by her words. Ann, however, was a little hurt. She missed my brother and thought Lauren forgot about him. But she asked Lauren about the card. Lauren looked at her in a matter of fact way and said. “Mom, did you listen to the reading at Mass? That’s what Jesus told us to do. Love God with our whole heart and our whole soul and with our whole mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. That’s what our teacher said was important.”

Today we join Sister Delores as she celebrates fifty years of monastic life. We know that she has taught just about everyone in Seneca, or at least touched their families. Like Lauren, the students of Delores know the greatest commandments. She has influenced many in their formative years as primary students, giving them the instruction in God’s love and mercy that she learned first in her own home and then as she has lived it in community. She lays a foundation in scripture, in curiosity and reverence of God’s creation, in discipline, in forming words and making sentences, in learning prayers and learning how to pray and most of all in loving one another with the gentleness and forgiveness of our God.

The second part of the gospel story that we heard this morning is the familiar one of the Good Samaritan. If we were honest with ourselves, we would have to acknowledge that sometimes we have overlooked the Christ in one another. We are invited to reflect on the times in our lives when we have wanted to go or have gone to the opposite side of the street rather than help one in need.
We move away when someone disagrees with us.
We move away if we do not know the person.
We move away when we don not want to be interrupted or when we are tired.
Yet those of us who profess to be Benedictines, who profess to commit to the monastic way of life are invited to community, to prayer, to watching out for one another.
We rely on each other to remind us to stop, listen, elevate one another by our words and deeds.
We count on the community to provide for all that we have.
We love with a chaste and ongoing love that reaches out to neighbors, friends and the hardest part of all to those who we deem enemies.

We celebrate with you today Delores on this feast of St. Benedict because we are grateful for your fidelity to our Benedictine community these fifty years. You have experienced so many changes in the Church, in schools, in parish life, in the world. From manual typewriters and chalk to computers and smart boards, from Latin Mass to English, from the “Dick and Jane” series to much more interesting and inclusive primers, from convent superiors to house coordinators, from wearing a full habit to wearing simple clothing, from food served in bowls for eight to a salad bar, and so forth. Life has changed. But what has not changed, except to deepen, is your love for God, your fidelity to the divine office and to personal prayer, your staying connected to members of the community, your love for the church, your love of nature and appreciation of your roots as a rural daughter from the fine state of Nebraska.

Thank you for your witness of fidelity. We, the Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica value it, the church needs it, and your students will remember it.

Happy Feast!