“I know well the plans I have in mind for you.” The
words from Jeremiah, read by Benedictine Sister Andrea Westkamp, greeted
attendees at the groundbreaking for the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia’s new
monastery Dec. 5.
Traditional American tunes performed by the Linton Hall School
Fife and Drum Corps energized the festivities as friends and supporters from
Northern Virginia and Richmond, local officials, clergy, and Benedictine
religious women from Emmanuel Monastery in Baltimore attended the ceremony and
reception.
“We sisters come to this moment with gratitude and a real spirit
of humility,” said Sister Cecilia Dwyer, past prioress of the Benedictines. “It
is with this humility that we accept with grateful hearts all the help and
effort that has been put into this project, knowing that our compassionate God
has plans to give us hope for our future.”
Sister Joanna Burley, prioress, sprinkled the building site with
holy water. The sisters and members of the Jubilee Campaign Committees put
their ceremonial shovels in the ground, marking the beginning of a new era for
St. Benedict Monastery.
The new monastery, designed with Benedictine values in mind, will
provide a contemplative monastic living space, adequate rooms for ministries,
facilities for the sisters as they age, and be environmentally sustainable.
Sister Cecilia spoke about how the new monastery, envisioned since
2008, came to fruition through the sisters’ strategic plan. Laughing, she said she
often told the sisters, “ ‘We have to get a shovel in the ground in this 125th
anniversary year.’ And we just made it.”
