Not long after arriving in Rome last January, 2017, our Abbot President Guillermo Leon Arboleda Tamayo asked me if I could offer retreat conferences in English later in 2017 to the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in Rome. The Motherhouse of the sisters is in Tutzing, Germany, but their Prioress General and her staff are based in Rome. A very international community, with priories of their sisters in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, they number one thousand three hundred professed members.
The Generalate of the “Tutzing Sisters,” as they are usually called, was begun in 1970 on the outskirts of Rome. Called “Casa Santo Spirito,” it is very near the “Roma Aurelia” train station and easy to get to from the center of Rome. About thirty sisters are assigned to Casa Santo Spirito, either to assist the Prioress General in her work or to help run the house of hospitality they maintain at the Casa or to do studies in Rome.
The Tutzing Generalate is a modern, sprawling, two and three-storey building in the center of several acres of land that form a beautiful fenced-in park of lawns, flower and vegetable gardens, with winding paths of brick, stone, gravel and grass, tall pine, palm, and other trees, shrubs, hedges, statuary and fountains. It seems an ideal place to live, as in the case of the resident sisters, or to make a retreat or hold a conference, which regularly happens there. The Casa has thirty-three guest rooms that can accommodate up to sixty at a time. The property is certainly quiet and conducive to mediation and enjoying God’s creation.
The Congregation of Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing began in 1885, in collaboration with and at the same time as the monks of the Congregation of Saint Ottilien in Germany. In the case of both of these Benedictine groups, their goal was and is to carry the Good News to people who have not yet heard of Christ or who need support in living the Gospel life. This missionary work first began in East Africa, but gradually spread to many parts of the world. In the process of expansion, women from numerous countries joined the sisters and today some twenty-six countries are represented in their international community.
Today the work of the sisters includes health care, education, evangelization and hospitality. In the United States they have priories in Nebraska, California and New Jersey. They continue to get new vocations, but are also faced with fewer women entering than in the past and are an aging Congregation. Nonetheless the sisters are blessed with many young vocations, especially coming to their priories in Africa.
I gave conferences to the Tuzing community at Casa Santo Spirito near Rome from December 26th last year until January 4th of this year. In addition to giving two conferences each day, I also presided at daily Mass and gave a short homily.
My experience of giving retreats over the past thirty years is that I almost always find ample time for rest, prayer, reading and walking. All of these are important to me to “keep on track” and not waste away! Hence, retreat time for a community also becomes a retreat time for me. Deo gratias.
The time of retreat at the Tutzing Benedictines was refreshing for me, and while not perfect weather, there were some days of sunshine and pleasant temperatures. I can’t complain, since Italy often has cold weather in December and January.
During the days of retreat I received an email from my first grade (1959-60) teacher, Mother Mary Genevieve, SHCJ, with the obituary of my eighth grade (1966-67) teacher, Mother Mary Gemma, SHCJ, who died on December 2 last year. Mother Mary Gemma was 90 years old at the time of her death and an inspiration to all who were her students. She gave me some words of advice when I saw her in Philadelphia at the Holy Child sisters’ motherhouse before I flew to Rome last January: “Christian, just one day at a time.” I have tried to follow that advice since arriving in Rome, and some days I do it better than others. That advice became my New Year’s resolution for 2017.
For 2018 my resolution will be something from Mother Mary Gemma’s obituary. After Vatican Council II, Mother Mary Gemma eventually returned to her baptismal name, though still remaining a sister of the Holy Child Jesus, and was known during the last fifty years of her life as “Sister Elizabeth.” She was described in her obituary, written by her religious community, as able to “always and immediately find the good in everyone and everything.” That sums up her style very well and has become my New Year’s resolution for this year.
For the Tutzing Benedictine sisters’ retreat last December and this January, I had decided to give the fourteen half-hour long conferences on basic monastic topics, including the Benedictine vows of obedience, stability and conversion of life, and also the topics of prayer, the psalms, the Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, silence, good zeal and hospitality.
When I read the winter newsletter of the Tutzing Benedictine sisters, before we began the retreat, I found this: “It is the strong desire of very many of the sisters to reorient themselves more strongly in the spirit of Saint Benedict through a deeper study of the Rule and by seeing the Rule as the way appropriate for us to live the Gospel.”
Retreat conferences are not for “study,” but more a form of reflection for renewal in living the monastic life. I hope the talks given were encouragement for this impressive Congregation to go forward in the life as followers of Saint Benedict and the tradition that has developed over the centuries for those who live a monastic way of life.
During the retreat the usual round of prayers in common in the morning, at midday and the evening, along with daily Mass, were carried out. These sisters sing much of the Divine Office in Italian, with some Latin for hymns and responses. All the music is Gregorian chant and done in a very prayerful and dignified manner. As a somewhat who appreciates and studies Gregorian chant, I was very impressed by the quality and prayerful style of praying the Office and Mass by these sisters. One sister always accompanied the chanting with the organ. This helped support the tone and pace of the singing.
The Mass each day during the retreat was in English and that was partly because they have a group of their simply or temporarily professed, seven in number, residing with the Generalate community for a year. These seven are from various countries and not yet comfortable with Italian, which they are nonetheless learning. They will be in Rome as part of their formation in the Benedictine life at their Generalate until late November, when they return to their respective priories in Africa, Korea and Brazil.
At the end of the retreat, on January 4th, I returned to the center of Rome, renewed in body and spirit, to carry on with my life and work at Sant’Ambrogio in the Eternal City.
