Retreat Reflections

St. Gertrude’s Monastery

Cottonwood, Idaho

by Cheryl Broetje

November 2009

Standing proudly on a high plain near Cottonwood, Idaho, in a still largely under-developed,rather remote region of the state, is St. Gertrude’s… a real, working, 4-5 story monastery. It is home to some 50 Benedictine nuns, who just celebrated the 100th anniversary of their presence in that place. In the cemetery in the forested hill behind them lie 150 or so others who have lived out their lives in this place for a century. Their presence is felt as their names are listed on large banners in front of the altar in the chapel where the sisters worship and pray each day.  

Because the sisters believe that the experience of solidarity within human community must be recovered, and along with it an ethic of the common good, they have opened their community to retreatants. Hence, our group from The Center For Sharing was able to hold our board meeting and retreat in their new “Spirit” center, a beautiful, multi-story residence hall, with single or double beds in each room, complete with their own bathrooms and a rocking chair from which to look out of huge windows, many of which overlook the Camus Prairie with the mountains bordering Montana and the twinkling lights of Grangeville in the distance. And, the sisters offer bountiful meals of home-made bread and down-home cooking.

I found their history fascinating, and full of light for our own path. Originally the Benedictine order of nuns came to serve European Catholic immigrant families who had settled in that region of Idaho. Their need for education and health care served as the clarion call by the order to come, found and run schools and hospitals in order to serve their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It was a new response to the Spirit by this order of nuns, allowing them to enter into unanticipated ministries, based on the context of what was happening in the world at that time of history.

To do it, they had to leave the cloistered life they had lead as European Benedictines. As they have steadfastly followed God’s call, they have often been doubted by both their church leaders and those they served. But they have kept on, unafraid to live on the cultural margins of society and at the edge of established ecclesiastical structures and authority. In fact, they believe there is a unique spiritual wisdom that comes from living life on the margins of society, allowing them to be about the work of moving from fear to love.  There are five dimensions of living monastic wisdom that offer a way of responding to the present in the pursuit of  creating and nurturing right relationships:

 ( from Wisdom From The Tradition, 2006)

In the past couple of decades, the St. Gertrude’s community of nuns sensed that God was doing yet a new thing. Through their spiritual disciplines of prayer, lectio divina and contemplation, and

work experiences in the greater community, they discerned that their response should be to sell off their hospitals and schools, and direct their energy in a new area: that of opening  their

community to offer hospitality and a ministry of presence to the increasing number of people who find themselves on a spiritual quest for a deeper connection with God and Christian community.

The monastic way of life nurtures discomfort with whatever values of the dominant culture are incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Monastic prayer fosters love of the biblical word of God. In this way it dismantles whatever negative cultural consciousness permeates our world and seeps into our attitudes and aspirations.

Because they feel that they too, are touched by the individualism of our day, they must strive to be an emotionally healthy and vital community in order to extend hospitality to contemporary seekers hungering for hope and meaning. Only as communities ready to extend forgiveness and reconciliation to one another can we promote reconciliation among people and communities living and working in hostile and alienated settings.

The rule of Benedict, written in the 6th century, is the source of the living spiritual tradition that informs the lives of Benedictine women as they accompany others through the transitions of shifting cultures. At the beginning of the 21st century radical shifts in social, political, economic, cultural and religious realities are once again stirring interest in traditions of the past as people seek wisdom in order to live well now.

Benedict’s Rule begins with the invitation to “listen carefully”. He cites the psalmist who says, “if you hear God’s voice today, do not harden your hearts” (Ps. 95) to help them listen for God as they devote themselves to the lectio divina (divine reading of scriptures) and the lectio of life, the faithful and prayerful attending to our personal and shared experiences.

We have held several retreats there over the years. What I took away from our visit this time, is:

And, I believe that if we are listening well, the spirit of Jesus will take us to the margins of society (just as it continues to do for the nuns of St. Gertrude’s) where the spirit of Jesus can always be found waiting for us…in the hungry, thirsty, homeless, refugee, illiterate, lonely, abused or addicted…and we mysteriously find ourselves in some new way,  being “healed by their wounds”.