Two Benedictine Sisters from the US are in Australia for a month-long visit during which they will give a series of retreats and workshops across three states, focusing on the connection between Benedictine spirituality and eco-spirituality, reports The Good Oil.
Sister Judith Sutera OSB and Sister Elizabeth Carrillo OSB are members of the Monastery of Mount St Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas.
Visiting Benedictine Sisters (from left) Elizabeth Carrillo and Judith Sutera enjoying the sights of Sydney. Photo: Sister Michelle Reid SGS/The Good Oil.
Both first-time visitors to Australia, the Sisters said they were enjoying the summer temperatures in Sydney. “We heard that it’s 2° Fahrenheit at home, so we’re very happy to be here in the warmth,” Judith said.
Judith has Master’s degrees in counselling and monastic spirituality, and serves as an Oblate Director for her community, along with being a writer, speaker and retreat director. Her most recent book is St Benedict’s Rule: An Inclusive Translation.
Elizabeth has a Master’s degree in religion and the environment. She is a board and staff member of the Centre for Deep Green Faith, which provides offerings that blend eco-theology with eco-spirituality grounded in the Christian tradition.
The Sisters began their time in Australia with some sightseeing in Sydney as well as a guided tour of the Wivenhoe Conservation Area at Cobbitty on Sydney’s southern outskirts.
The Wivenhoe land, which runs along the banks of the Nepean River, was acquired by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan in 1910. In 2012, they began the process of setting aside some 164 hectares of land on their 260-hectare property for ecological restoration.
The site has two BioBanks, which total 84 hectares, where the New South Wales Government’s Office of Environment and Heritage, through the Biodiversity Conservation Trust, provides funds for the gradual restoration of the land.
“It was wonderful,” Judith said. “What they’re doing there is amazing. People drive by there every day and have no idea what that kind of work means for the planet.”
While in Australia, Judith and Elizabeth are offering their workshop to all interested people, including Oblates, in four locations: Jamberoo Abbey in New South Wales, Tarrawarra Abbey in Victoria, Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre in Ormiston, Queensland, and the Sisters of the Good Samaritan Congregational Centre in Glebe, New South Wales.
Entitled ‘Contemplating a World Restored: A Benedictine Approach to Ecological Conversion’, the workshop highlights the connection between contemplation and ecology.
In addition to the workshops, Judith and Elizabeth will be leading the Benedictine Sisters at Jamberoo in a week-long retreat as well as leading the Sisters of the Good Samaritan and others in retreats in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland on the theme, ‘A Single Ray of Light: A Benedictine ethos of Creation Care’.
“The program for the retreat is that I address a Benedictine value in the morning session,” Judith said. “For example, I might talk about hospitality and the interpretation of hospitality in the Rule of Benedict.
“In the afternoon, Elizabeth will address the idea of how we extend that hospitality beyond the human community, how those values should help to inform our relationship with other levels of creation besides just the monastery and the human community.”
Elizabeth said the concepts of living simply within a monastic community and treating all things as though they were vessels at the altar (RB 31:10-11) can easily be expanded to include all of creation.
“Where I like to go with tweaking out the Rule is looking at relationships, for example, from Chapter 3 of the Rule, where it talks about calling the community for Council,” she said.
“If you broaden those circles of who community is, well what does that mean, to bring in the earth community for Council? To bring in the broader voices of landscapes that are feeling the effect of climate change, the creatures that are being displaced. What does it mean to bring their voices to the table of decision-making? It’s that sense of broadening who we consider community to be.”
Judith said she was looking forward to meeting up again with some of the Sisters who had previously visited Mount St Scholastica Monastery, and sharing her knowledge and experience with all those she encounters during her time in Australia.
“I’ve been blessed to be able to study the Rule a lot and interact with a lot of different communities,” she said.
“During a retreat, we do a lot of cross-pollinating – where something that’s an issue in one community is also an issue in another community. We do a lot of conversation around the present and the future, looking at the question of how are we shaping our monastic life going forward?
“Because we all know there are fewer religious than there used to be, and yet there are all kinds of other forms of monastic life and people following the Rule of St Benedict. “It’s a time of a lot of change and, hopefully, I can facilitate growth and, in the end, just say what God wants me to say.”
Elizabeth said she hoped to support the good work already being done in Australia’s Benedictine communities in the areas of eco-spirituality and caring for creation.
“I was inspired learning about the environmental initiatives and the central place that ecological conversion has for the Good Samaritan Sisters and their directives and mission statement,” she said.
“I want to do what I can do to support that, to bring my studies to that, and not just the academic side of it, but also to support and experience the felt sacredness of creation as this living icon of God.
“My portions of the retreat will be looking at the eco-spirituality aspect, and then also have an experiential type of practice to share with the community and, hopefully, give people a different tool, maybe a different prayer style, one that is about really forging those connections with creation.”
This article by Debra Vermeer was published in the February edition of The Good Oil, the e-publication of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan.