or centuries, as Benedictines we have known that one’s spirit can best be unleashed for the service of humankind through the stability of community and the strength and guidance of prayer. That tradition has faithfully served our efforts to seek in ways that allow us to minister to the needs of those around us. To know that is to recognize what it means to be Benedictine. To experience it is the opportunity to feel what it is like to Unlock God’s Powerhouse. “From prayer we gain our wisdom and what God’s will is for us individually and as community.” Beginning in 1874, five Benedictine sisters from Maria Rickenbach in Switzerland answered the invitation from the newly formed Conception Abbey in Missouri to come to the heart of America to teach. In 1880, Mother Gertrude Leupi and four others sisters arrived in Maryville,
Missouri. Less than a year later the sisters found themselves answering a call from Fr. Martin Marty, OSB, a pioneering missionary among the Sioux Indians, to come to the Dakotas to teach at the Standing Rock Agency at Fort Yates, North Dakota. “Stability of community gives us a sense of security. That frees us to be faithful to our own life and the people we serve.” In the spring of 1883 Mother Gertrude was persuaded by then Bishop Marty to move the Motherhouse to the Dakotas, first to Maria-Zell, South Dakota (still Dakota Territory at that time) and in 1908 permanently to Yankton, South Dakota. Times and conditions were very difficult in the early days for us Benedictines in the United States, but with apostolic zeal for the Gospel and the monastic vigor of the Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery, we went about our work. “In community we are like pieces of artwork – we chisel on each other a lot. Expectations that we create challenge us.”
We first taught Native Americans and staffed parochial schools. Later we built our own educational and health-care institutions. Our history involves teaching in 31 parish grade and 10 high schools, as well as a community sponsored high school and college. We also, provided healthcare administration and staff in five community-sponsored hospitals. We have taught catechetical and vacation schools as well as conducted a well-known ecclesiastical arts department for making vestments for churches in national and international locations. Our altar bread department has served many parishes throughout the region. “Everything that we do is in the name of community and guided by prayer. It is that tradition that defines our ministries.” For more than 120 years, 493 Benedictine Sisters have experienced what has been a long tradition of ministry and service to the needs of the people of the Dakotas and surrounding states. However, most importantly, we have enjoyed sharing our lives, knowing the peace and joy that comes from seeking God together on our journey to the Kingdom.
SISTER ROSALEEN DICKES HOMETOWN: Fordyce, Nebraska EDUCATION: BA degree - elementary education/business; graduate study - pastoral ministry CURRENTLY: Director of Pastoral Care; staff chaplain Avera Sacred Heart Hospital/Sr. James Care Center PREVIOUSLY: Elementary teacher, choir director, religious education coordinator, elementary principal, assistant prioress, personnel director WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME TO “BE BENEDICTINE.” “Living each day with a deep sense of gratitude for God’s presence among us. Being deeply anchored/rooted in this familycentered monastic community, sharing life with one another, with those we serve, and with family/friends.”
SISTER PATRICIA ANN TOSCANO, OSB HOMETOWN: Omaha, Nebraska EDUCATION: MA in music and liturgy, BA in music education CURRENTLY: Monastery Music Director PREVIOUSLY: Music teacher & consultant, liturgy director, theatre music director, prison volunteer, music camp director WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME TO “BE BENEDICTINE.” “For me, to be Benedictine is to try to live the ordinary in an extraordinary way: to keep my heart present to the God of Love, and to convey that Divine Love in all my actions.”
iving in community enables us to find mutual support in our search for God. It gifts us with the elements necessary for personal discernment: the solitude and silence to listen to the word of God, time and place for lectio, and sisters with whom to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours.
“willingly” to holy reading. We are privileged to pray them daily and allow them to soak into our bones. “Without realizing it, prayer seeps into our lives and language. It becomes a part of you without realizing it.” Through communal prayer, we hear the Word of God in the voices of our sisters. The alternation of word and silence prepares us to hear God’s voice in the reading and gives us courage to call upon Him. “The formal times of prayer are sustaining. The dailiness of prayer gives it meaning and shapes how I view life.”
“Prayer is a uniting force within our community. Prayer calls us together as a group. It helps build community.” Together, in our daily Liturgy of the Hours we hear the voice of God. The psalms make up the major portion of our monastic prayer. They are God’s word to us. They are Christcentered. “Prayer time is like putting fuel in your engine, it gives you focus.” Through the psalms we hear the voice of God in human words. As Benedictines we are to listen
Privately, we take time daily for lectio, that is, spend time reading and contemplating the Word of God.
“Prayer is a way of being. A way of grounding yourself and thinking that can help you work through the messiness of life.” Holy reading is to be leisurely and restorative, so that we come to know the Scriptures by translating them into our own experience. “When you say, ‘Lord I can’t do this, and ask what do you want me to do, what do you want me to say?’ It seems like the words and direction are usually there.” When we pray, we claim the responsibility for the well-being of all. “I am so grateful to be a woman of prayer. Their words spring to mind in moments of need.”
s Benedictines we are stewards in a stable community of place, heart and purpose. Out of a faithful and shared experience of life comes the steady impulse to growth and development, for ourselves and others as well. “I knew I needed to be a part of something that was bigger than me. That something was here, living in this lifestyle, with these women. It is something that lets me go outside of
myself and expand my thinking into a bigger sphere of understanding and yet in a family environment.” Benedictine monastic life is seen as a service which gives the community a center and calls forth the gifts of its members. “No matter what is happening in your life you can always rely on community to support you.”
Our Benedictine model of shared life shows that people can live in peace, and it offers time-tested and essential elements for building up the human community of participation, respect for persons, and meaningful work. “We have an environment here that is filled with mentoring. I love to visit with the older sisters. With 60 – 70 years of wisdom they don’t give advice, per se. We just talk and pray together. They’ll share from their
SISTER BONITA GACNIK HOMETOWN: Pueblo, Colorado EDUCATION: B.S. Mathematics; Master’s Degrees Computer Science & Mathematics; Currently, a doctoral student Computing Technology in Education CURRENTLY: Teaches computer science and mathematics at Mount Marty College; Monastery webmaster; board member, Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital PREVIOUSLY: Software design & development, senior programmer National Center for Atmospheric Research WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME TO “BE BENEDICTINE.” “To be fully human, to be fully alive, to be all that I can be!”
own life what worked. Little nuggets of wisdom fall out.” In Benedictine life each person has a voice and vote in setting policy, and a commitment to contribute to the common good. Benedictines participate in building community; we are not bystanders. “The other sisters encourage you, ‘You can do this,’ even when I think that I can’t.”
As Benedictines, we use our intellectual, spiritual and artistic gifts for the benefit of society. We take a personal responsibility for shaping the human community. “It’s such a gift to have prayerful people in your life. It’s not just what we do, but the presence that you feel out there, the impact we have, and all of the people that we touch. I’m truly inspired by something bigger then myself.”
For the Benedictine, ownership is always in a community context. We are shaped by the sharing of spiritual and material goods so that the accumulation of possessions will not form a wall against each other. All is available for the sake of the kingdom. “Someone once told me the difference between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea is that the Dead Sea has no outlet. If you keep things to yourself you will never be fruitful.”
SISTER DENETTE LEIFELD HOMETOWN: Petersburg, Nebraska EDUCATION: MBA, BA in business administration and accounting CURRENTLY: Accountant at Sacred Heart Monastery, organist and minister of ritual PREVIOUSLY: Auditor for the Department of Agriculture LEADERSHIP POSITIONS: President and Treasurer of Conference of Religious Treasurers, Member of Board - National Association of Treasurers of Religious Institutes and Sacred Heart Monastery Finance and Investment Committee. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME TO “BE BENEDICTINE.” “To be Benedictine is to seek, listen, and respond to the God around and within me.”
ver the years the sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery have continued to answer the call to serve God’s people as the needs of the church emerged. As Benedictines we support ourselves by the work of our hands. Work is seen as a share in the creative activity of God. Every one of us is expected to make some contribution to the common good. This contribution results from the recognition and development of each person’s talents. “You never know what you would have been like if you had not entered community, but I know educationally, personally and spiritually I’ve grown as a Benedictine.” We do not choose a particular ministry in order to seek God. Rather, because we are seeking God we minister to the needs of people. “We look around and discern what needs to be done. We embrace the needs and the technology to deliver the best.” Currently, the community of the Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery engage in various ministries including sponsorship of, Mount Marty College - a four-year liberal arts college and the Avera Health
Systems - a multi-institutional health system; parish and diocesan ministry; grade and high school teaching; pastoral care; social service; liturgical arts; retreats and spiritual direction.
done with care and ought to produce life-giving goods and services that are needed by others. Our daily schedule is based on the assumption that with ingenuity, group effort and self-sacrifice our community’s income will reach a level of sufficiency.
“I’m deeply inspired when I look at all who are affected by our institutions and I see the impact we make with our ministries. I know I can do things, but we can do more. A real feeling of esprit de corp.”
“Everything we do is in the name of community. It is the community that asks me to do my ministry.”
In September 2000 the community entered into a co-sponsorship agreement with the Presentation Sisters in Aberdeen to ensure quality Catholic healthcare in the entire region through Avera Health. The community recently reaffirmed its commitment to rural service, to pray for farming families and to stay involved in rural concerns. An office of outreach has been established to address the social needs of our time and place. “As a religious woman I have found satisfaction in my work through the opportunity to serve and the ability to make a difference. Isn’t that what everyone is looking for?” We find fulfillment in the value of work itself. We feel work should be
The purpose of work is not unlimited productivity and profit, but providing service for others, opportunity for personal development and a simple mode of life. While the balance of that, leisure, is regarded as essential to our contemplation and personal growth.
SISTER CAROL JEAN VANDENHEMEL HOMETOWN: Woonsocket, South Dakota EDUCATION: Bachelors Degree - English education & speech theater CURRENTLY: Teaches English and debate at O’Gorman Senior and Junior High Schools. PREVIOUSLY: Worked in our gardens, cared for elderly, and baked bread. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME TO “BE BENEDICTINE.” “I seek to be more aware of God’s presence in my community. As I become more aware of God in my sisters, family, students, and colleagues I become more Benedictine.”
rom the tradition that has faithfully served our efforts to seek God we look forward with joyful anticipation of a future of hope and opportunity. “Benedictines have been around for 1,500 years. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 50.”
prayer to carefully evaluate our ministries of today and to identify those needed in the future. “Through our newly constructed Retreat Center we’ve created the space for the expanding ministry of spiritual renewal, by providing the people, resources and technology needed for it.”
Through community we continue to be committed to a monastic way of life; living and acting together; sharing at a common table; and taking care of one another. We will always be a Eucharistic community that brings Christ to each other.
As community we are blessed with the wisdom of age, those among us who carry forward the traditions in their hearts. We also recognize the vitality of the newly arrived and welcome their exuberance and potential for the future.
“Community allows us to change ministries without having to wonder how we are going to pay the bills in transition.”
“I have the security that I will always have friends, a place to work and sleep, and most importantly, lifelong purpose.”
Through our ministries we will continue our commitment to service through professions such as education, healthcare, parish ministry and social services.
We know the strength of community begins with providing individuals with an environ-
Though no one can predict the future, we venture forward with a clear vision of how we will get there. Grounded in the stability of community we adapt to change, guided by
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ment to explore and encounter God. As individuals we comprise a community which will succeed when the voice of the Spirit is listened to and acted upon, together. It is through our vow of stability that we commit to this place by our visible presence and witness. It is through our vow of obedience that we bond together and effectively organize to serve the Church. It is through our vow of conversion of life that we remain faithful to our commitment regardless of the challenges of the times. These vows constantly renew our passion and intensify our efforts to seek God, now and forever. These vows reaffirm what it means to be Benedictine. These vows allow us to continue the experience of what it is to Unlock God’s Powerhouse.
ooted in our rural heritage and growing in relationship with God, we live a life of community, prayer, work, and leisure by which we serve God and God’s people. We invite you to discover what it means to be Benedictine. We challenge you to experience the fulfillment and faithful joy felt when you Unlock God’s Powerhouse.
BENEDICTINE SISTERS Find out more at our website www.yanktonbenedictines.org. VOCATION DIRECTOR SACRED HEART MONASTERY E-MAIL: vocations@mtmc.edu 1005 WEST 8TH STREET YANKTON, SD 57078 (605) 668-1011