Threshold Winter 2006

Love of Learning Expands Horizons, Builds Bridges
by Paula Howard, OSB

From airlines to computers, technology has broadened the definition of learning for the sisters at Mount St. Scholastica. As these changes continue to strengthen their love of learning, new bridges span the spaces between believers of different faiths and between people of different backgrounds.

Cybertechnology may seem a strange partner for the Old Testament, but Sister Irene Nowell makes them work together. Students need not come to Atchison to receive the wisdom of this noted scholar, recently elected president of the Catholic Biblical Association. Each semester she teaches a graduate course online for the School of Theology of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. Courses include Psalms, Pentateuch, Prophets, Old Testament Wisdom Literature, Reading the Bible with Benedict, Reading the Old Testament, and Women of the Old Testament.

Sister Irene says she finds this experience enriching and she gets to know the students much better online than she thought she could. She also finds this a good teaching environment. “Every student has to respond to the material every week,” she comments. “No one can, as it were, sit silently in the back of the room. So I know weekly how much they are understanding, and I can add to and correct their insights.”

The students also learn from each other, since they may read and comment on the responses of other students. She observes that another plus for this kind of teaching is that she can stay home and share in community life.
The sisters in their early years of formation at the Mount also use web-based courses to enhance their study. Last semester, all of the sisters in first profession took a semester course of graduate theology without ever leaving the Mount.
Using airlines instead of airwaves, two sisters have extended teaching horizons this past summer by sharing their expertise in teaching and in accounting with Benedictine sisters in Africa. They would agree that they learned at least as much as they taught.

Language and Living

Under the sponsorship of AIM (Alliance of International Monasticism), Sister Patricia Seipel, with Sister Margaret Liang of Sacred Heart Monastery in Cullman, Alabama, spent more than six weeks last summer in Tanzania, Africa. Their main goal was to encourage, affirm and enhance the sisters’ spoken/conversational English.

Sister Patricia found the best learning times were in life experiences rather than in the classroom. As she joined the sisters in pounding salt, grinding maize, shelling beans, or watering plants, they practiced English, and she attempted Swahili, of course. She also came to know them as “strong women with a deep and strong love for God and commitment to community.” Though lacking in material goods, they know how to enjoy life and they are generous.

She observes that our differences are minimal. “To experience how African Benedictines live their lives,” she says, “has challenged me to appreciate and enjoy the gifts of life, but not to cling to them, approach life with open hands, ready to receive God’s gifts and also ready to share the gifts I have received.”



Sister Patricia tries her hand at winnowing grain.

Tanzanian sisters are elated with the electronic keyboard which Sister Patricia brought them as a gift from the Atchison community.

Left, the bell tower at the formation house of the Chipole sisters

Finance and Accounting

Another African opportunity came in late summer when Sister Rose Marie Stallbaumer, with Sister Michael Mack of St. Benedict Monastery in Pittsburgh, Penn., took part in the African Bridge Project sponsored by the Federation of St. Scholastica. Their task was to visit six African Benedictine communities in Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania and to assess and assist them with financial record keeping.

Sister Rose Marie observes that, although all six of the communities they visited struggle with finances (never more than 12 wage earners even in communities of 400 or more), their monasteries are the center of the villages. They provide education from kindergarten through secondary to adult education in trade schools for carpentry, tailoring, shoemaking, masonry, electricity and plumbing. They type, print, and bind books for schools. They provide medical care through health and dental clinics, dispensaries and hospitals. They administer AIDS centers and orphanages, and go into the villages as catechists. They make church vestments, candles and altar breads. Because of the efforts of the Benedictine communities, improvements are also brought to the villages in transportation, purchasing power, electricity, and water.

“Our African sisters are amazing women!” Sister Rose Marie comments.” If there is a need, they figure out what to do so that they can meet that need for themselves and for others. They give of themselves so generously and graciously to the villagers and all who come to them. It was truly a joy and a blessing to spend time with them.”

Bridges to Communication

Several sisters have taken the opportunity to attend Spanish language immersions in Mexico. This past summer, Sister Molly Brockwell spent six weeks in Cuernavaca, staying withthe Misioneras Guadalupanas de Cristo Rey at their retreat center.Sister Molly explains why this time was so important for her. “Teaching at Bishop Ward High School, in Kansas City, about 25% of our families speak at least some Spanish in the home.I don’t really need the Spanish for the students, but many of the parents are far more comfortable in Spanish than in English. It dawned on me one time during conferences, that many of the parents are very intimidated by the prospect of coming to talk to their kids’ teachers, even the English-speaking parents.How much more intimidating for those whose first language is Spanish. My español muy feo (“really ugly Spanish”) is an invitation for them to speak less than perfect English and not be embarrassed.It’s also an acknowledgement that they are working hard to function in a secondlanguage and that I know first-hand it isn’t easy!I have been so happy this year to be able to greet parents in Spanish, exchange some basic information about their student’s progress, and muddle along in a mix of two languages.It has really opened up the communication, and conveyed a welcome and appreciation to the Spanish-speaking families.”

Sister Molly with her Benedictine hostesses at Cuernavaca

Closer to home, several sisters have expanded horizons for themselves and others by building bridges between believers of different faiths and people of different backgrounds. Sisters who minister at Keeler Women’s Center, at Happy Hearts, and with Sophia Center’s Souljourners program are only three examples.


Sister Rita Killackey (left), a canon lawyer with a degree in Spanish, handles marriage cases for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. She worked on her Spanish this summer and made contact with Mexican counterparts to enhance her cultural understanding. She is shown with oblates of the Benedictine Sisters in Torreon, Mexico.

Bridges to Success

Under the direction of Sister Carol Ann Petersen, Keeler Women’s Center in Kansas City, Kansas, spans the gap for people of many different backgrounds. Most of the women who come lack resources: they are poor, have little education, and almost all have had limited experience in learning important life skills. Partnering with volunteers and other non-profit agencies, women are offered the help they need to reach their goals. Financial help comes through budgeting and job training courses. Emotional help is given through counseling and self-esteem courses. Spiritual help is offered through prayer and spiritual direction. Physical help comes through the “Ask a Nurse” program and massage therapy. The center also organizes support systems and supplies role models.

Educational Bridges

Another example of spanning the gap between failure and success is the program where Sister Laura Haug spends her time and effort with high school “drop-outs and put-outs.” Besides special help to pass the General Equivalency Diploma (GED) exams, Happy Hearts provides training in job skills, parenting and employment practices. Sister Laura says the real sense of accomplishment comes at graduation when students, ages 17 to 60, receive their high school diplomas, or bring in their first pay check.


Learning Center students march to the graduation many of them thought they might never have.

Ecumenical Bridges

Sister Micaela Randolph is director of Souljourners, an ecumenical program begun in 1994, with support from the the Episcopal Dioceses of Kansas and Hollis Lutheran Renewal Center, as well as the Mount Community Center. Since then persons from many denominations have served on the advisory committee, faculty, and staff. Students in the program become certified as spiritual directors and may earn college credit. Forty-eight students have graduated from the three-year program, which currently enrolls thirty-two.

Sister Micaela observes that emphasis is on a balanced curriculum of prayer, the forming of community, both within the group and with the Benedictine sisters, intellectual stimulation, practical skill-building and role-playing. Students meet for a two-day session each month and also have a one-week summer residency led by Margaret Guenther. The first year’s classes focus on religious history and faith traditions. The second year, students learn about human development and psycho-social issues. The third year, they participate in a supervised practicum.
Sister Cecilia Olson, a student in the program, says she was drawn to participate in the program to strengthen her listening skills and deepen her ability to companion others on their faith journey. She remarks that one cannot be part of this program without “spending a fair amount of time reflecting on one’s own faith journey, one’s call to be genuine and authentic and one’s willingness to swallow a generous dose of humility.”




Sister Antonia Ryan (right) is one of many instructors who bring their expertise to the Souljourners at their monthly sessions.

Sister Micaela looks on as Margaret Guenther, renowned spiritual director, author, and mentor to the program, blesses a graduate at last year’s commencement.