Reflection on My Volunteer Service at Queen of Angels Monastery

I’ve been trying to come up with a way to describe my experience with the sisters at the monastery, and the three best words to sum it up are simplicity, spiritual direction, and silence.

Tom has already given you a taste of our time there. For me, having my life ordered by the liturgy of the hours helped in prioritizing my time. Having made the commitment to live in community with the sisters meant that I would rise each day early enough to attend Morning Prayer --- 6:30 every weekday. This and the other prayer times simplified the order of my day. Having time within the prayer services for reflection also made it easier to connect with God in a spiritual way.

To hear the bell ring before each service gave me a sense of continuity in a deeper way than I have ever felt as a teacher (even with all the school bells), yet I saw the connections between life at the monastery and life at my school in a new way. We often talk in education as being a “learning community.” I return with a profoundly new perspective on how deeply one can experience community.

I said earlier that I am bringing back with me “spiritual direction.” This really isn’t new, because Tom and I have been meeting with Marie Juncker for most of this year in spiritual direction as a couple. I return with a deeper appreciation for the benefit and --- yes ---the need for having someone in my life who can help me discern the direction my spiritual life is taking.

I had the privilege of spending my four weeks helping at Shalom Prayer Center, the retreat center at the monastery. Several of the sisters are trained as Spiritual Directors, and I often greeted the people arriving for their spiritual direction appointments. I also helped Sister Joan set up the introductory materials for her next class of trainees, as Shalom offers a two-year training program in spiritual direction.

Additionally, I was blessed with an hour of spiritual direction with Sister Joe. I admit I was skeptical that there would not be much benefit doing this with someone I barely knew, but with Jesus Christ as our common denominator, it was amazing how spirit-filled and insightful our discussion was.

The Saturday after we began our service, Tom and I were invited to attend a day-long retreat on “Prayer of the Heart” with Sister Dorothy. This is an ancient prayer practice of sitting in silence, being “present to God.” Its focus is not to listen, but to “be.” I cannot put into words the sublime joy of sitting with a group of people in silence, with God allowing my inner self to open to Him and experience being in His presence as His beloved child.

Another time I experienced silence was during the prayer services and the Eucharist. The pacing of the responses always allowed for a silent period of reflection between the psalms, between the prayers, and after both the sermon and communion. I had ample time to connect with God and be present with Him beyond the words and the music.

As the days, weeks and months pass, I hope that there will be more opportunities to share with you about our time at Queen of Angels Monastery.

Judith

A TASTE OF MT. ANGEL

To relate a month-long, life-changing experience in two minutes is impossible so I’ll give you a tantalizing Taste of Mt. Angel Imagine living in community for a month with 35 Spirit-filled Benedictine nuns, aged 32 to 93, some who have lived together for over 50 years at the monastery. Some were previously married and have adult children and grandchildren. Many had active professional lives, mostly in the field of education.
Only one still wears a traditional habit, the others wear casual street clothes and “dress up” clothes for Mass on Sunday. These blessed women have taken vows of stability, poverty, chastity and obedience and live their lives as “brides of Christ” serving our Lord Jesus in a myriad of ways in the little Oregon community of Mt. Angel. The basic Benedictine rule is one of “ora et labora”, prayer and work, and their lives are centered on this rule.
They run a prayer and conference center, a homeless shelter, a migrant farm workers temporary residence and a food, clothing and furniture distribution center. They grow much of their fresh produced and in season can fruits and make jams for the winter. Many of them do hand work which is sold in the bookstore of the conference center to help support the monastery.
The rhythm of the days begins with Morning Prayer and Mass followed by breakfast which is eaten in silence except on weekends and Feast Days. Mornings are spent in various duties and assignments with Noon Prayer before lunch. More work and rest follows in the afternoon with Evening Prayer before dinner. An hour of community recreation including cards, jigsaw puzzles, hand work and just visiting precedes Compline, the prayer service which brings the day to its close at eight in the evening. Since their days usually begin at 5 or 5:30, most retire early.
The hours of prayer consist of the chanted or spoken psalmody, usually antiphonally interspersed with long periods of blessed silence. I came to treasure those times of silence in prayer and found my heart opening in ways that I’ve never experienced before.
The sisters accepted us with warmth, love and deep appreciation for our time of service with them and constantly showered us with the blessings and joys of their deep friendship. My little bit of heaven there became the kitchen, where I spent the entire month as an integral part of the culinary prep team.
Leaving Mt. Angel was painful and we continually relive our daily experiences with those blessed sisters already sure that we will return soon to walk their journey with them.
The quiet constancy and depth of their faith has in turn helped deepen my faith and shown me a new way to live in the world but still be not “of it” and I have been blessed a thousand-fold by this amazing experience.

Tom