With great pride, joy, and gratitude we celebrated with five of our sisters today as they observed special anniversaries of their monastic profession. Sisters Assunta Highbaugh and Dolorosa Hasenour commemorated their 75th anniversary; Sister Adele Weyer observed her 70th anniversary and Sisters Mary Matthew Baehl and Margaret Carolyn Kissel their 60th. Sister Mary Matthew is currently in a health care center in Evansville as she undergoes cancer treatments and was unable to be present for the ceremony. However, our prioress Sister Kristine Anne Harpenau, and several other sisters visited her this afternoon and had a simple jubilee ceremony, during which she renewed her monastic profession.

With outstretched hands, in a gesture of prayer and total giving, Sisters Dolorosa Hasenour, Assunta Highbaugh, Adele Weyer, and Margaret Carolyn Kissel (standing at far right) chant the Suscipe. For a combined total of 340 years, our five jubilarians have given themselves in service to the Church and society.

In a ceremony today, eight individuals made a commitment to a special affiliation with our Benedictine community as Oblates of St. Benedict or Oblate candidates. Sister Kristine Anne Harpenau, prioress, officiated at the ceremony. Oblates of St. Benedict are men and women from all walks of life who associate with a Benedictine religious community in order to enrich their own spiritual lives, using the Rule of Benedict as a guide.

During their time of preparation for becoming Oblates, the candidates, with the support of their sister companions, study Scripture, the Rule of St. Benedict, and Benedictine spirituality as it relates to today’s society.

Mary Lou Bassler reads her Oblation, her commitment to be guided by the teachings of St. Benedict throughout her life, insofar as her state in life permits, and to remain faithful to her association with the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand. “I promise to dedicate myself to the service of God and humankind according to the Rule of St. Benedict, insofar as my state of life permits.” Sister Maura Beckman, Mary Lou’s companion during her period of preparation as an Oblate candidate, and Sister Kristine Anne Harpenau witness to Mary Lou’s Oblation.

At Evening Prayer today, we honored and celebrated the memories of our sisters who died within the past year — Sisters Juliana Scheessele, Mary Noel Franchville, Annelle Libs, and Gemma Gettelfinger. As the name of each sister was called, family members lit a candle in her memory. After the “Vespers of Remembrance,” the families joined us for our evening meal, where we continued to share around the table.

Sister Betty Drewes helps Paul Gettelfinger, brother of Sister Gemma, light a candle in her memory.

Spirits from the past made their appearance in Ferdinand during the town’s 10th annual Primitive Days this weekend. Spirits of Ferdinand, which presented a version of Ferdinand’s early history, was performed as a walking tour of the town with the audience moving from location to location as characters narrated and re-enacted scenes. The spirits of the four founding sisters of Monastery Immaculate Conception — Sisters Benedicta Berns, Xaveria Schroeder, Rose Chapelle, and Clara Vollmer — appeared walking through the monastery cemetery, carrying bricks in their scapulars (a sleeveless outer garment that hangs from their shoulders). Part of monastery folklore, which may be true in this case, is that in the evenings the sisters helped carry bricks from the brickyard in Ferdinand up the hill to the monastery when the church was being built so that the brick layers would have their supplies ready to begin the next day. 

Sisters Teresa Gunter, Gail Hamilton, Paula Wolff, and Doris Schepers donned habits to portray the pioneer sisters who established the monastery in Ferdinand in 1867. The town and the monastery have been an integral part of each other's history since that time.

Today was a very significant day for our monastic community. We sisters, along with family and friends of Sister Catherine Marie Duenne, gathered to witness her profession of perpetual vows — her perpetual commitment to the Benedictine way of life as lived by the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, Indiana. The ritual of monastic profession as outlined by St. Benedict in his Rule almost 1500 years ago is rich with symbols and meaning.

Sister Catherine Marie signs her vow document and places it on the altar, signifying the offering of her entire self on the altar of sacrifice. At the end of the ceremony, Sister Kristine Anne Harpenau, prioress, takes the document from the altar to be placed in the archives. At the time of Sister Catherine's death, the document will be placed in her casket as a symbol of her fidelity to her perpetual commitment.