On August 9, 2025, Sister Jeanne Ann Weber was installed as the 15th Prioress of St. Scholastica Monastery. During the simple yet meaningful Installation Ritual, Congregation President Nancy Bauer formally transferred the authority of the office of Prioress. A festive celebratory meal followed, attended by the Monastic Community, friends, and family.
On July 11, 2025, Sister Marena’s Hoogland made her perpetual monastic profession as a member of Annunciation Monastery. Sister Marena’s family and friends from Wisconsin attended. Sister Marena has been a part of Annunciation Monastery since 2017. She teaches seventh grade math at St. Mary’s Academy in Bismarck. Over 50 of her former students and colleagues were in attendance.
Sister Nicole Kunze, Prioress of Annunciation Monastery, delivered the Founders’ Day Convocation reflection at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on November 21. The college also conferred an honorary degree to Sister Nicole at the ceremony. Saint Vincent College was founded in 1846 and is the first Benedictine college in the United States.
Benedictine Sister Lisa Maurer, a member of St. Scholastica Monastery, Duluth, MN, is one of seven finalists for the 2024-2025 Lumen Christi Award, the highest honor given by the Catholic Extension Society. St. Scholastica is one of the ten member monasteries of the Monastic Congregation of St. Benedict.
Sister Lisa is an assistant football coach at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth where she shows up regularly for football practices and games. She encourages the student athletes to embrace four core values: hospitality, stewardship, respect, and justice. According to Dr. Barbara McDonald, the president of the college, “Many of the players consider Sister Lisa their prayer partner and spiritual advisor, and she makes it a habit of checking in with the young men, particularly those who may be struggling with personal issues.”
The Lumen Christi Award is given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve. According to the Catholic Extension Society, “Sister Lisa Maurer coaches college players on football and faith.”
Sister Lisa is also the director of mission integration and formation for Duluth Benedictine Ministries, a Ministerial Public Juridic Person established in 2022 to sponsor the apostolic institutions of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery.
The 2024 Haehn Museum at St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, MN, is welcoming visitors to its exhibit. This year, we are featuring the works of four of our nature photographers: Sisters Carleen Schomer, Karen Streveler, Linda Dusek, and Nancy Bauer. For many years, the beauty of the earth has motivated our sister photographers to use hours of patience and skill to capture the glory of God’s creation bursting gloriously all around us. The major message of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si also motivates the pictorial message of our artists, and quotes from that work and psalms accompany the photographs in the exhibit. It is arranged as a self-tour, so come and linger with us.
“Each creature reflects something of God.”
Laudato Si
Karen Streveler, OSB
“Nature is filled with words of love.”
Laudato Si
Linda Dusek, OSB
“The Lord rejoices in all his works.”
Psalm 24
Nancy Bauer, OSB
“Nature is God’s visible garment.”
Laudato Si
Carleen Schomer, OSB
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us, the power of your love that we may protect life and beauty. Fill us with your peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
Pope Francis
Seated in front: Sister Beppo Wang and Sister Maria Hsu. Middle three at left: Sisters Austin Chang, Eucharistia Chen, Paula Nguyen. Middle three at right: Sisters Jose Tung, Julianna Chua, and Stella Pan. Back row: Sisters Emmanual Hsiang, Rosalyn Tsai (prioress), Hildegard Hoang, Misericordia Chao, Agape, Cordis Chen, and Gratia Nguyen
讓我們睜開眼睛，看見來自上帝的光，睜開耳朵， 聆聽來自天上的聲音。
Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven.
Perpetual Monastic Profession Sister Misericordia
Receive me, O God, as you have promised, and I shall live.
First Profession
Sister Hildegard
用心傾聽
Listen with the ear of your heart
使神在凡事上得榮耀。
That in all things, God may be glorified.
Front Row: Sister Raphaela Cady, Sister Melissa Cote, Sister Marena Hoogland, Sister Paz Vital. Second Row: Sister Nicole Kunze, Sister Lisa Maurer, Sister Jacqueline Leiter, Sister Idelle Badt. Third Row: Sister Gretchen Johnston
Nine sisters from the Monastic Congregation of St. Benedict attended the gathering of 55 and Under Sisters at Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton, South Dakota.
St. Scholastica Monastery celebrated the perpetual monastic profession of Sister Jayne Erickson on July 11, 2024.
Sister Jayne entered St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth as a postulant in 2019 and made her first profession in 2021. At her perpetual profession, Sister Jayne sang a hymn she composed, “I am yours, Lord.”
Before entering monastic life, Sister Jayne was a youth and children’s minister and elementary school teacher in Minnesota and Iowa. She recently completed studies to be a Life Coach.
On Sunday, April 14, Sister Susan Hutchens, OSB, was re-elected as Prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island. Sister Susan is the fourteenth prioress in the monastery’ s 150-year history. The prioress election was beautiful and spirit-filled.
Please join us in congratulating Sister Susan!
With joy and gratitude
The Benedictine Sisters of St. Mary Monastery
Prayer of St. Benedict
Gracious and holy God, Give us wisdom to know you, Intelligence to understand you, Diligence to seek you, Patience to wait for you, Eyes to behold you, A heart to meditate upon you, A life to proclaim you, To the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen
On April 6, 2024, Sister Catherine Nehotte was re-elected to serve a second 5-year term as prioress at St. Paul’s Monastery. She is pictured here with Sister Nancy Bauer, President of the Monastic Congregation of St. Benedict. That in all things, God may be glorified!
