REGINA: What are your thoughts about the role of the tradition in the church in these turbulent times? Should we be optimistic about
the future?
Sr. Scholastica: I agree with what Pope Benedict said, the Church is alive and young! We see it day in and day out with the zealous young women who have entered our way of life, and see monastic life as the solution for our troubled times. Even in the practical living of the Rule, Benedictines have over and over again faced the problems of the times around them and undertaken interior renewal by going back to the last thing that worked. The Benedictine order, like the Church, continually humbles herself to turn back and reflect, not to press on in frenetic action in hopes that something will change by taking on a faster pace. It reaches back only to find the time-honored tools to rebuild the future, strengthened by the example the saints of the past have left behind for us. We have a deep connection through continuity, through living up to their ideals.
Mother Abbess Cecilia: The two things young women often comment on are our seriousness with regard to the Divine Office and approach to monastic life, and the massive amount of joy they sense when they are with the Sisters. We all feel very much called to plant contemplative Benedictine religious life here in the Midwest in its ancient, original and traditional expression. It seems to “catch on” with the almost daily vocation inquiries.
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