Everyday Sacred, Everywhere Beauty: Readings From An Old Monks Journal, a new collection of Sister Mary Lou Kownacki's blog posts will be released in September. In hundreds of personal blog posts at Monasteries of the Heart she chronicled current events, reflections on her decades as a nun, stories of friends, poetry recommendations and profound insights on life’s purpose and mortality, including her own journey to her death from cancer on January 6, 2023.

When Erie Benedictine Sister Marian Wehler and Mercy Sister Tina Geiger, who minister together in Catholic Rural Ministry, presented a Tanzanian village’s need for “Life-Saving Water” to students in Lucinda, Clarion, and Oil City Catholic Schools during Lent last year, the students were eager to help. In a few weeks they collected over $1,250 for the villagers and this was matched by adults donations. Soon more donations poured in until more than $7,000 was raised for the “Life-Saving Water” by October 2023 when the project was to begin. Sister Marian lived and taught at a Catholic high school in Tanzania for seven years and has visited different countries in Africa on multiple occasions and so knows first-had of the need.

Sarah Joy Gaines, the first 2024 Joan Chittister Writer-in-Residence, spent the month of April living at the monastery and working on a proposal for a book about reclaiming the sacredness of the body. The proposal is also the culmination of her work on a Master's in Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice. “The book is the product of my graduate studies, inspired by my decade of experience in the wellness industry and my journey of healing my relationship with my body. We live in a world that teaches us to focus on how our bodies look — that our physical appearance is what gives us value. Along the way, we lose sight of the power and wisdom of our bodies. We forget that the body is divine itself. The book intends to guide people to reconnect with that sacred essence, innate within us all,” she said.

Monastic Formation Director Sister Ann Muczynski attended the North American Benedictine Vocation Formation Conference (NABVFC) Symposium in Schuyler, Nebraska, in April. She was one of twenty-seven Benedictine sisters in attendance. Sister Ann (far right) was elected Vice Chair of the Core Team 2024-2028. She will work with the other five sisters on the core team planning the future of NABVFC programs including the Novice and Director Institute and the Benedictine Sisters Workshop and Retreat. There are fewer sisters in initial monastic formation and therefore these kinds of programs directed toward new members will require creative revising.

Gannon Day of Caring Students, all members of the Gannon Women’s Soccer Team, offered their services for several initiatives of the Care for the Earth Committee in April.

The community blessed Sharon McSweeney as she completed 14 months in the Benedicta Riepp Monastic Experience Program and prepared to return home taking with her the love of her Benedictine sisters and a Benedictine perspective on life. "Being surrounded by like-minded women has been the most treasured part of my being here," she said.

Rabbi William G. Hamilton will deliver the fourth annual Art and Spirituality lecture at the monastery on Wednesday, May 22, at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Hamilton will speak on, "Doing The Impossible: The Art of bringing Spiritual Goods to Life." The 2024 lecture by Rabbi Hamilton is free and open to the public.

Consumerism is so prevalent in our lives that sometimes we do not realize how this is shaping our actions and world. By focusing on three areas of enormous consumption we may become more mindful and re-evaluate our daily purchases namely, the use of single use plastics, fashion/clothing, and home décor.
Single use plastic bombards our everyday purchases, groceries, food packaging, and water bottles to name a few. Water bottles are rarely recycled and some scientists question if recycling can even happen, or even work. Plastic is not biodegradable, and it does not decompose. Since World War II, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced. Currently we have 150 million metric tons of plastic in our oceans; it is predicted that by 2050, we will have more plastic than fish in the oceans.