Threshold - Spring 2004

All Good Gifts
Barbara McCracken, OSB

Stewardship has many meanings. In the average parish it refers to sharing time, talent and treasure. Many equate stewardship with the feeling, “Oh-oh, here comes another special collection.” We Benedictines, however, have a somewhat different take on stewardship. Many of us think first of how this monastery would not be here at all if it were not for the initial and ongoing generosity of so many local parishioners, relatives, friends, oblates and other donors. Without them, Mount St. Scholastica could never have come into existence or thrived.

Our perspective on stewardship in our contemporary monastic life as American Benedictine women is spelled out in a 1980 statement of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses, entitled Of All Good Gifts. It asks, “How can we live humanly, sanely and justly on this planet?” This is one of those Gospel inspired “thought” questions that challenge us to learn more, think in new ways and sometimes take risky actions. In doing this, we like to think that our current community living might somehow serve as a model for the future.

In such a prophetic stance, not many of us are trying to reform the powers that be, as much as that is always needed, in both church and state. We are more inclined, at least when we are at our best, to model or “build a new society in the shell of the old.” While that comment was made in the last century by Peter Maurin, who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement with Dorothy Day, Peter may well have had his inspiration from St. Benedict.

Benedict did not try to reform Rome. Rather he tried instead to make the Gospel concrete by gathering some strangers who were willing to commit themselves to each other in order to try to live the Gospel model in a more radical, concrete way than was the norm in his time and place. In writing the Holy Rule Benedict gave his monks the ideal, the practical outline, the right attitude that we need today for responsible stewardship.

The goods of the monastery include the things we need for our various ministries, from cars and computers to books and blood pressure kits. As Americans, we, too, probably have too many material things, but we do try to remember the Holy Rule’s admonition that, “Whoever fails to keep the things belonging to the monastery clean or treats them carelessly should be reproved.” (RB 32:4)

Stewardship is about taking care of the goods of the monastery but, even more, it is about the old question, “How then shall we live?” As the current followers of Benedict we try, while preserving and stewarding the best of the past, to live now as if the future had already arrived. Of course, we Benedictines never do this perfectly, but for some of us it is great fun to try, especially for those of us who like to take risks.

One way to live the Gospel now is to witness to the non-violent Jesus by opposing the violence of hatred and war. We ask ourselves, “Can we as a monastic community reclaim our prophetic voice for peace? Can we challenge the Church to proclaim it? Can we resist the forces leading us to new wars?”

Another of our basic ideas is to use what we have been given for the good of all. We know that each person has gifts, as does each collective of persons. Through the affirmation and personal challenge we receive in community living, we find ourselves pushed to find, develop and use our sometimes hidden gifts. Some of us find new gifts in middle age or even later, gifts that serve our community and the Church.

Over the centuries we have come to believe that the gifts Benedictines steward include contemplative vision and community. Few would argue that these gifts are not needed now in our stressful, violent world.

Contemplative vision means to see with the heart of Christ. This requires conversion, one of our vows. To help us live this, the monastery is set up to “create an environment conducive to mindfulness: awareness of God, self, one another and the sacredness of creation.” In summary, the community lives out its “contemplative vision through prayerful hospitality, reverent use of created goods and a nonviolent lifestyle.”

To let the word of God penetrate our sometimes resistant, stubborn hearts we try to foster our values of Eucharist, lectio divina, celebration of the Church’s liturgy of the hours, prayer, solitude, and silence. Benedict tells us in his rule to let all things be regarded as “vessels of the altar” (RB 31:10). This contemplative vision is related to the proper use of resources.

Stewarding what we have, so much of it given to us, and the rest the result of the work of the hands of past and current members, is a responsibility that we take seriously. Our early practices of using precious resources like water, electricity and paper have been instilled into each generation of sisters down to the present day. Now we consciously conserve on heating fuel and gasoline, the very oil over which today’s wars are fought.

Recently for this community it has also meant some difficult and painful decisions which we hope are the right ones, not only for ourselves but as we look to the years ahead. In our planning and actions now, stewarding is also with an eye to the next generation of sisters who will still be stewarding, praying, creating the beautiful, and serving the people of God.

(Sister Barbara is a former teacher and former member of the Catholic Worker community in Kansas City, Kansas. From there, she ministered in the Archdiocese of Kansas City Kansas, for thirteen years doing peace and justice work. Currently she is living at the monastery and thriving on manual labor.)