Installation of Sister Tonette Sperando as prioress of Sacred Heart Monastery in Cullman AL On Being Prioress – the art of kite flying

In his Rule, St. Benedict has 2 chapters specifically dedicated to the abbot/prioress:

chapter 2 on the qualities of the prioress & chapter 64 on the election of the prioress. However,

Benedict teaches about the role of the prioress throughout the Rule. Perhaps the most

important thing said of the prioress is that she holds the place of Christ in the monastery. (RB

2:2 and 63:13) The role of the prioress is considered to be an all-pervasive role, and the Rule of

St. Benedict itself cannot be understood without a clear vision of this role. [cf. RB 1980,

Appendix 2 on the abbot]

Our constitution, called CALL TO LIFE, says of the prioress that her “most important

service to her community is to unite it through Christ in his Spirit. In dialogue with her sisters

and thru teaching by both word and deed, she performs her ministry as a mediator of Christ’s

presence in the community.” (CN 32, page 25) That’s a pretty tall order, and one that can be

daunting. But it is doable because all of the members are called to be mediators of Christ’s

presence to one another in the community as well as to all whom we meet. This is especially

true of the guests received in the monastery who, St. Benedict teaches, are to be received as

Christ. [I hope all of you here today feel received as Christ. That is our intention and wish.]

I have done an informal, unscientific poll of Sisters from various monasteries in our

federation, asking them what they think are the most important qualities for a prioress to

possess. They said things like: she LISTENs; she loves the Sisters and loves each Sister; she has

a compassionate heart; she is one who can take account of the specific strengths and

weaknesses of each sister and, in the words of St. Benedict, that “she arranges everything so

that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak have nothing to run from”; she is

never too busy for her sisters; she is open; she trusts the sisters; she is gentle, loving and

respectful; she is not overly suspicious but expects the best from the sisters; and she teaches by

example in both word and deed.

You might ask: What does all of this have to do with the art of flying a kite? You could

ask our new prioress; but I will give you my own thoughts, based on the image that came to

Sister Tonette during a recent retreat:

Let us compare the community to the kite and the prioress to the kite flyer.

Why does one go fly a kite? For relaxation; for fun; for a lesson in aerodynamics; learning how

a vehicle, in this case a kite or a community, can move along as smoothly as possible; and

learning the best way to steer the kite in light of aerodynamics. I learned that one who studies

aerodynamics is calls an Aerodynamicist. So perhaps a prioress is, at least in part, an

aerodynamicist!

A kite flyer can launch a kite, but it is the wind that provides the lift that keeps the kite aloft and

allows it to make its graceful swirls and loops in the sky. Yet if the kite starts to lose its loft and begins to

tumble slowly toward earth - whether through a stillness in the wind or a loss of tension in the string - it is

the kite flyer who helps keep the kite aloft, restoring tension in the line by reining in the string just a bit or

breaking into a gentle run to generate a breeze, skillfully working with the kite and the wind and the

tension and the pull to keep the kite soaring. Compare this to what St. Benedict says in Chapter 2 of the

Rule: “She must vary with circumstances, threatening and coaxing by turns, stern as a taskmaster,

devoted and tender as only a mother can be. . . She must know what a difficult and demanding burden

she has undertaken: directing souls and serving a variety of temperaments, coaxing, reproving and

encouraging them as appropriate.” RB 2:24, 31]

For the kite, the kite flyer is the bridge between earth and sky, on the one hand setting the kite

loose in the breeze, freeing it to be drawn where the wind draws it; and in the moments when it loses its

precarious balance on the breeze, the kite flyer helps the kite find the breeze, the Spirit, again. On the

other hand, the kite flyer is an anchor, keeping the kite connected to the earth, not letting the kite float

away in the air. And for us in the monastery, the anchors that keep us rooted are the Scriptures together

with the Rule of St. Benedict. Perhaps it is the kite string spool that is the Rule which guides the

prioress’s hand in guiding the community, allowing the members, indeed, urging the members, to be held

aloft by God’s Spirit

The kite flyer must balance gravity and loft, pull and drag, to maintain an exquisite tension that

allows the kite to be gracefully at home in both earth and sky (in both community/ministry/Church as well

as in personal prayer and growth). St. Benedict speaks of that delicate balance in our life between Ora

et Labora, prayer and work; and balance in our life is not easy. It is almost always precarious, much like

a child learning to walk. It is balance the child learns in walking. But it is balance in our lives that we must

keep learning day after day after day, never giving up.

Let us be mindful that the prioress and the community members all must do what

Benedict instructs in the very beginning of the Rule – to listen with the ear of the heart.

Benedict also speaks of the members’ and the prioress’s being ready to give up their own wills

and to be armed, so to speak, with the “strong and noble weapons of obedience” (RB Prol 3).

They are to prefer nothing whatever to Christ. Benedict then prays that prioress and members

may go together to everlasting life. (RB 72:11)

St. Benedict also says: “It is love that impels them to pursue everlasting life; therefore,

they are eager to take the narrow road . . . They no longer live by their own judgment, giving in

to their whims and appetites; rather they walk according to another’s decisions and directions,

choosing to live in monasteries and to have a prioress over them. (RB) Benedict speaks of “the

ready step of obedience” (RB 5:8) to prioress and members alike. The disciples’ obedience must

be given gladly, for God loves a cheerful giver. (II Cor 9:7)

In these days we don’t often speak of obedience. But the Latin root word of obedience

is the same as that for listening. All of us, prioress and Sisters, indeed all members of the

Church, all of us here, are called to listen with the ear of the heart to the Word that God calls

out to us (whether that word is spoken or shouted or sung by our Church, clergy, family, our

friends, strangers, and those we happen to run into). If it is God’s Word spoken, we must listen,

we must obey, and love with that same heart all whom God places in our path.

Lynn McKenzie, OSB

June 6, 2015