Dear Friend,

I am a tad old-fashioned when it comes to calendars. Every autumn I buy a neat, clean, spiral-bound calendar for the coming year. I resist using the electronic calendar that, I’m told, would quickly sync my daily schedule between phone and computer. Referring to my paper calendar is one less occasion to be distracted by the barrage of buy, subscribe, click, like, and share messages that endlessly pop up on my screens. Those messages can easily divert us from what it means to be truly human, to love God, and to live well with others and our earth. 

Christmas and the Advent weeks leading up to this great feast are also antidotes to distraction that the liturgical year gives us. These seasons invite us to focus more on gratitude for what is rather than losing ourselves in a world of glimmering screens.

“Christmas is the commitment to life made incarnate. It is the call to see God everywhere and especially in those places we would not expect to find glory and grace. It is the call to exult in life…the obligation to see that everything leads us directly to God,” writes Sister Joan Chittister. “The moment we begin to really celebrate Christmas, to look at everyone and everything as a revelation of God, to say ‘thank you’ for them, …racism would be over, war would be no more, world hunger would disappear, everything would be gift, everyone would be sacred.”

Now that would be a Christmas gift worth celebrating! 

It is also what we strive for in our Benedictine monastic life. What we desire is to make the God-life incarnate, to do as St. Paul urges us in his letter to the Colossians, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” (Col. 3:15-17)

What if at every turn our screens shouted, “See God everywhere!” “Let peace fill your heart!” and “Be thankful! Be thankful!” rather than buy, click, and like? 

Until that day, we do what we can to bring God to birth in our world. Gathering three times a day in the monastery chapel for prayer sustains us, and we share a daily psalm and reading from the Rule of Benedict on our website for those who cannot be with us. With your collaboration and support, we can accomplish good work through our ministries and the sisters’ involvement with people and organizations who share our values. We welcome guests to share life with us in visits, short and long, knowing that we are truly members of one body. We tend our fragile earth, and we continue to work for a just peace at all levels of human community.

We count on your help in all of this. If you can, please use the enclosed envelope or visit eriebenedictines.org to make a donation that will help us send life-giving and holy messages to our world.

With gratitude,

Stephanie Schmidt, OSB 
Prioress, Benedictine Sisters of Erie

P.S. Please click here to make a donation if you can. If you received our letter in the mail and have already sent a donation, thank you! Christmas blessings to you and your loved ones!