Ora et Labora

One of the better known Benedictine mottos is "Ora et Labora" (pray and work). There is much teasing in communities that the day is filled with prayer and work except for the times of eating and sleeping. Many of our older Sisters still remember their times of "recreation" that were filled with needle work, mending, or peeling vegetables--hardly leisure to our 21st century minds.

There is a wholesomeness to working together and praying together. On those occasions when we all do projects together things seem to get done much faster and we get to know one another in a much different way. There are many lessons about community life that can be learned by doing things together--some learn the value of patience, others the trait of compromise, we learn to slow down from the more methodical and to work quickly from the young. We all learn something.

As we approach Spring and Easter, may there be an openness in me to learn something new from every encounter.

Sr. Catherine, OSB