Winter 2009

From the Prioress, Sister Anne Shepard, OSB

Peace cannot be limited to a mere absence of war, the result of an ever precarious balance of forces. No, peace is something built day after day, in pursuit of an order intended by God, which implies a more perfect form of justice among men and women.
Pope Paul VI, The Development of Peoples, 1967, #76

One of the most quoted sayings on Christmas cards is “Peace on Earth.” Often, inside the card, we read messages that express wishes that the holidays be peaceful and the new year full of blessings for the reader of the card. How soon the nation, and perhaps we Christians, forget the message of peace as we paid homage in December to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. As Pope Paul VI said in the quote above, peace is not seasonal, it is daily and it is known primarily in the work for justice for all men and women.

We enter a new year with new challenges to our work for justice. As we leave the Christmas season and begin, in our Church’s language, “ordinary time,” we are struck with the fact that it is anything but ordinary time for way too many ordinary people, who remain so long without jobs. It is not ordinary to have a fear of more troops being deployed for causes that are puzzling at best. It is not ordinary to have the death tolls go up due to victims of abortions, street killings, war, capital punishment and terror attacks. And it is not ordinary to think that our God intends disaster and injustice.

Our task as Benedictine women here at the Mount is to try, day after day, here and in the workplace, to be women of peace, women who work for justice, women who are concerned about a just world order at home and overseas.

• We pray daily for peace, often multiple times a day.
• We practice non-violence in our actions and words to one another.
• We strive to be just to all of our employees in salaries and benefits. We cut back on our own personal and living group expenses to be in solidarity with them.
• We support in our works the efforts of those who teach those children, men, and women who live below the middle class status.
• We counsel those who cannot afford professional fees.
• We extend medical care and nursing services to those otherwise not assisted.
• We visit the homes of people who are dying, people whom some have abandoned.
• We write to our congressmen and women asking them to stop the killings in all areas listed above.
• We sign our names to petitions to end wars, end abortions, end unlawful occupations, end unlawful imprisonments, end torture.
• We advocate for systemic change of systems that are unjust.
• We recruit volunteers to lead people to a healthy independence, to change their lives from that of victims of abuse and fragmentation to that of wholeness.
• We host scores of youth and young adults and invite them to pray with us and converse with us about things that matter to them.
• We educate Benedictine women in Brazil and in Tanzania knowing that their knowledge and skills will be used to free their communities from ignorance and poverty.

In general, we try, but we know we can never do enough. Our work will continue. “Peace,” says Jesus, “is my gift to you. My peace I leave with you.”

Ordinary time. Ordinary people. Day by day we strive to be just.

Pax is the Benedictine motto, the challenge before us. All men and women deserve peace.

May we all cherish the gift of peace and support just efforts.

Happy New Year.
Sister Anne Shepard, OSB
Prioress