What a difference a year makes! Last November the builders began putting the walls and steel structure of the new monastery building in place. It's hard to believe that one year later everyone is moved in and Sunday Assembly has worshipped in the space for almost three months.         
          The official dedication of the monastery building took place on November 15 and it's appropriate to pause and reflect on the many construction workers, volunteers, committee members, co-workers, designers, engineers, bankers, donors, government officials and fundraisers who were involved in the project. Literally thousands of people touched this project in some way.
          Thanking each individual personally is impossible. Yet each one deserves our heartfelt thanks. Thank you for applying your skills. Thanks you for caring. Thank you for looking out for everyone's safety. Thanks for your suggestions. Thank you for your financial support. Thank you!

            If you've heard the words nature, purpose, structure and function at a parish council, school board or curriculum committee meeting, chances are very good that Sister Barbara Dannhausen, OP (Order of Preachers), was involved in defining their organizational structures. All over Wisconsin and beyond, schools, churches, boards and religious communities have benefited greatly from the strategic planning skills of this Sinsinawa Dominican, but none perhaps as much or as long as Benedictine Women of Madison (BWM).
           During the early 1980s, Barbara worked with our sisters to assist in defining the focus of the retreat and conference center. Later in the 1990s, during a time of considerable discernment about the future of the sisters' community, Barbara helped articulate the community's charism (presence) and define an organizational structure that grew to become the Board of Directors of Benedictine Women of Madison. more

"Why can't
I turn the lights off?"
     
           This is a question I've frequently heard when touring the new monastery building. Usually we're just leaving the food service area and one of our energy conscious guests asks this question. The answer I offer is that I forgot to point out the large solar tube in the center of the room. Solar tubes direct outdoor light down a reflective tube to brighten interior spaces. Even on a cloudy day there is enough solar lighting to make people think the lights are on. more

 
           What does gratitude mean to you? To me it means I'm thankful for the stranger who came along and helped me dig my car out of a snow bank last winter. And I'm grateful for every day I spend with my mother, even though she tries my patience from time to time. I'm sure she said the same thing about me when I was a teenager.
           When I was told the topic was gratitude for this issue, I looked through the library and came up with one single title on gratitude/gratefulness. Brother David Steindl-Rast wrote a wonderful book, entitled Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: an Approach to Life in Fullness. The first sentence of the synopsis of the work on the back cover says, "All prayer is essentially an act of gratitude." Ah, ha!
           With that thought in mind, I went back through the library and discovered over a hundred books on prayer and prayers. They include William A. Barry's Paying Attention to God: Discernment in Prayer and Mary Margaret Funk's Tools Matter for Practicing the Spiritual Life and George D. McClain's Claiming All Things for God: Prayer, Discernment, and Ritual for Social Change.
           If you are grateful and interested in prayer as an expression of that gratitude, come check out the monastery library or purchase these books through Good Shop. Choose Benedictine Women of Madison, then Amazon or Barnes and Noble and a donation will go to the monastery just for using Good Shop. print article