Chicago benedictine monastery

Today, the school building, auditorium, and athletic fields continue as a public charter school for neighborhood children. The Benedictine Sisters of Chicago also taught in several Chicago parish schools, and mission schools in several locations in Colorado, including St. Scholastica Academy in Canon City which served as a day and boarding school for young women from until it closed in In the s the community diversified its work and urged members to discern the needs of the times in making ministry decisions with the Prioress and Personnel Board.

In the ensuing years, Sisters became involved in civil rights, community organizing, developing supportive housing, prison ministry , and more.

Dating from at least the s, the monastery itself aided immigrants and refugees from Germany, Vietnam, El Salvador, and Ethiopia as well as African and Korean Sisters in Chicago to attend university. The activist sisters also partnered with other organizations that serve people on the move at a vulnerable time.

Since , the monastery has been enrolling women and men as Oblates , who live out the Rule of Benedict in their day-to-day life as single or married people. They participate in ongoing formation, liturgical, social, and ministry life of the monastery as possible. While Oblates live throughout the country, most are concentrated in Chicago and in Pueblo Colorado.

The monastery welcomes neighbors to participate in Sunday and Feast Day liturgies or through private retreats. For those interested, Sisters offer spiritual direction, pastoral counseling, massage therapy, and spirituality workshops at the monastery, while other Sisters serve as educators and in pastoral roles at local parishes. The chapel is the scene of daily prayer for the community. Joseph Court is an infirmary built for the care of elderly sisters in The infirmary chapel is also a gathering place for daily community prayer.

The Labyrinth created in by Oblate Dan Raven on the northwest grounds of the campus, offers a peaceful setting for contemplation. Click here to learn more. We also made improvements to our Bed and Breakfast, including painting some of the rooms.

Click here to read the article. To read more, click here. We would like to take this joyful occasion to ask you for prayers for the community, and that God may continue to bless us with more vocations. Father Brendan and Brother Gabriel headed off to Scotland for a fraternal visit to the Pluscarden Abbey one of the Benedictine houses in our congregation and home to former Abbot Visitor Anselm Atkinson, OSB where, with other monks and nuns from our congregation, they attended several lectures on monastic life.

During an interview on Relevant Radio this Saturday, Prior Peter explained in detail to program host Dan Cheeley the history of our monastery and the reason for its location in the city. To listen to the interview, click here to visit our SoundCloud account. Today marked our annual Corpus Christi procession with neighboring St.

The weather was beautiful and it was nice to see the large attendance for the procession. Afterward, the monks hosted a small reception in Oblate Hall. The new icon continues the altarpiece composition begun with the beautiful Deisis icon, also created by Vladislav. The new icon was mounted today, just in time for the Solemnity of Pentecost. On May 14, a video recording of Solemn Vespers was made in memory of Matthew Geiger, a friend of the community who had lived in one of the guesthouses while a graduate student some years ago.

We ask that you join us in keeping Matthew, his wife Emily, and his family in your prayers. To view the video, click here. As part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the archbishop had designated 32 parishes and shrines as jubilee pilgrimage sites.

By walking through the Holy Door of these sites, the faithful gained a Plenary Indulgence offered by the pope. Our monastery was listed among these sites and consecrated the south door of the narthex of the church during Mass on December 13, To experience and obtain the Indulgence, the faithful were called to make a brief pilgrimage to the Holy Door as a sign of the deep desire for true conversion.

In preparation for the season of Advent, the monastery hosted Master Iconographers Vladislav Andrejev, creator of our beautiful Deisis icon, and his son Dmitri Andreyev, as they conducted a week long icon-writing workshop.

The 20 students who attended, split into two groups beginner and advanced , learned the technique of this ancient and traditional liturgical art-form. For pictures, click here. Brother Gabriel has taken first vows, ending his two-year Novitiate. During the liturgy, he was vested in the long scapular a sign of his becoming a Junior of the community , and received the Rule of St. Benedict from Prior Peter, as a symbolic gesture signifying his will to accept the yoke of stability, obedience, and fidelity to the monastic way of life.

God willing, in the next three years, he will make solemn profession in which he will promise to live out these vows for life, within the Monastery of the Holy Cross. We ask you for your prayers for Brother Gabriel and the community, and that God may continue to bless us with new vocations.

Our new choir stalls have been installed. The renovation began with approval of the construction last summer by the monastic Chapter, and was completed with the installation of the stalls by New Holland Church Furniture this past week.

Although we hope to continue renovation, construction of the choir was a priority because of its practical and symbolic importance. The choir signals the place where consecrated persons engage in daily prayer for the Church and the world. The new construction clarifies our monastic charism and helps us to live it more faithfully. The new choir has thirty-two seats to provide adequate seating at solemn liturgies, and provincial and congregational meetings in Chicago, as well as for new vocations.

We are grateful for the many donations we have received that made the choir possible. For photos of the construction process, click here. Brother Timothy has made his solemn profession and is added to the rank of solemnly professed monks. Abbey Caskets has been supplying us with hand-made caskets for twelve years. This will help to keep prices low and to expand the range of casket designs and materials available.