Lunch & Learn: Gratefulness: The Porter of the Monastery

Chapter 66 of the Rules of Benedict places a wise, old monk at the entrance of the monastery who welcomes guests with the kind words, Thanks be to God or Your blessing please. Fr. Michael opens this chapter for us to cultivate a porter spirituality. That is, to cultivate gratefulness

Strangers No More: A Film on Monastic Interreligious Dialogue

Among the many interreligious activities undertaken in the years following the publication of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on interfaith relations, those initiated by contemplative religious orders have been among the most successful and the most advanced. In France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Morocco and the United States, Christian monks and nuns meet and share life experiences with Buddhists, Hindus, and Shiite and Sufi Muslims. The film “Strangers No More,” produced by Lizette Lemoine and Aubin Hellot of “Films du Large” in Paris, highlights the work done by the international monastic organization Dialogue Interreligious Monastique/Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIMMID) for over 40 years. This program feature a screening of the film and a panel discussion with three Benedictines who have been active in the work of DIMMID. Click here to view the trailer. Panelists: S. Hélène Mercier, OSB, a sister of Saint Benedict\u27s Monastery, is director of Initial Formation and of Women in First Monastic Profession at her monastery and executive director of the North American Papal Commission for Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. Fr. Michael Peterson, OSB, a monk of Saint John’s Abbey and chaplain at the College of Saint Benedict, is president and chairman of the board of the North American Papal Commission for Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. Fr. William Skudlarek, OSB, a monk of Saint John’s Abbey, is secretary general of Dialogue Interreligious Monastique/Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and associate editor of Dilatato Corde, an international journal rooted in the Christian monastic experience of interreligious dialogue. Moderator: Susan Stabile, J.D., is professor of law and faculty fellow for spiritual life at the University of St. Thomas and author of Growing in Love and Wisdom: Tibetan Buddhist Sources for Christian Meditation. To make an accessibility request, call Disability Resources at (651) 962-631

Cultivating Compassion:Insights Drawn from Buddhist and Benedictine Practices

Ajahn Jotipālo and Fr. Michael will share practices from their respective monastic traditions that they have found helpful for cultivating inner peace and a life of compassion. They are convinced that these can be helpful to students and others who are struggling to experience peace and to be compassionate in their lives. Committed as they are to interreligious dialogue, both monks will also discuss what they have learned from each other’s monastic tradition about peace and compassion . Ajahn Jotipālo is a Theravada Buddhist monk of Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, with which he became affiliated in 1998. Since then he has also stayed at Theravada Buddhist monasteries in Thailand, Canada, and New Zealand. A graduate of Wabash College in his home state of Indiana, he later worked in sales for six years and on staff at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts before becoming a monk. Ajahn Jotipālo has been involved in interreligious dialogue with Benedictines and other Christians for many years, and he is a resident scholar this academic year at the Collegeville Institute where he is working on a project titled “What can Buddhist Artistic Traditions Learn from Christian Iconography?” Fr. Michael Peterson, OSB, has been a Benedictine monk since 1996, first affiliated with Blue Cloud Abbey in Marvin, South Dakota, until its closing in 2012, when he transferred his monastic vows to Saint John’s Abbey. He is the abbey’s oblate director, the sacramental chaplain at the College of Saint Benedict, and the chair of the board of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, a group of Benedictine and Cistercian monastics engaged in interreligious dialogue with members of other religions, especially with Buddhists monks and nuns. He regularly leads retreats and conferences and he serves in many pastoral assignments throughout the Diocese of St. Cloud. Danica Simonet (CSB \u2719) majors in peace studies, with an individualized concentration in forced migration, and she is pursuing minors in both German and philosophy. A former member of the CSB Senate, Danica has been working as a student interfaith leader with the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning since the fall 2017 semester. She also serves as co-director of Extending the Link, a group of CSB/SJU students who produce documentaries to ignite social change