I was reading this article on a new daily prayer site from the Benedictine Sisters of Erie and thought I would check it out. On the bottom of their prayer page is:
Let prayer change you. Do something:
Read a book about the life of a modern day saint�Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Caesar Chavez, for example.
The Pope has canonized 464 people during his pontificate and he can’t even get one on their short list for modern saints.
They also have retreats that let you “Walk and dance our outdoor labyrinth in celebration of summer days” also “contemplative walking” and “movement prayer.” I wonder if I can do contemplative walking on my treadmill, that would kill two birds with one stone.
Then I read that Joan Chittister, OSB was part of this community and it all fit into place. Previously she was going to attend a Women’s Ordination Conference in Dublin, Ireland and the Vatican wrote her superior to keep Sister Joan at Home. The prioress refused the Vatican’s request and wrote a letter back to them. All but one nun in the community signed the letter. The superior’s statement explaining her reasons for disobeying the Vatican is a most extraordinary document. It was “out of the Benedictine tradition of obedience,” she says, that she formed her decision. Sister Christine Vladimiroff is still the prioress of this community.
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Funny…one of the Sadlier CCD teacher’s manuals has these same “saints” in a litany for the use of the class. Cesar Chavez, pray for us????? Sheesh. But that’s not really surprising, since the primary author of that series is a liberal feminist laicized priest.
Prefer nothing to the love of Christ, and the love of Buddha, and the love of Caesar, and the love of Allah, and the love of my new age guru….
It is a sad trend I see too often in Benedictine circles.
Pity. St. Benedict is one of my favourites.
About 82.9% of Roman Catholic saints are Benedictines about whom nothing is known but that they were vicar to the Holy Abbot Baldonus before becoming abbot themselves. Proposing saints to the Church is certainly an act out of the Benedictine tradition, and you could do worse than Caesar Chavez. In fact, I fully expect the Erie Benedictines to do worse.
“About 82.9% of Roman Catholic saints are Benedictines about whom nothing is known but that they were vicar to the Holy Abbot Baldonus before becoming abbot themselves.”
Tongue-in-cheek?
The hilarious thing is that Dorothy Day would have had Chittister and the Benedictines flayed alive as soon as looking at them.
One of the great myths is that Day was some kind of hippy dippy rebel. Far from it. Her traditional piety–including reverence for the Latin Mass, the Rosary, obedience to and respect for church authority–was at the core of her being and work.
As is the “spirituality” of the Vladimiroff Benedictines, true.
Just compare their fruits.
HI,
I know you have freedom of speech, but you guys are just plain rude. Lets thank god for all the 1,000s of great priests. Also we don’t worship saints, but we ask them to pray for us. Prayer never hurt anyone.
Sincerely,
Lydia -age 14-
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