This weekend, April 25-26, is Sr. Joan Chittister's 90th birthday. In what follows, Judith Valente revisits and celebrates the life of this most beloved Prophet of our age—Sister Joan Chittister.
Every age has its prophets. They are the ones who impart a wisdom that speaks not only to the current age but addresses the ages. One of the truly prophetic voices of our time is Benedictine Sister and prolific author Joan Chittister. Sister Joan, who turns 90 this weekend, probably has done more than any other spirituality writer of our time to help those of us in living the frenetic, secular world become what I call “everyday contemplatives.”
Her life and contributions deserve not only our gratitude, but our celebration.
Many of us found our way to Benedictine spirituality through her more than 25 books on “The Rule of St. Benedict.” In them, she plumbs the timeless wisdom of a text written some 1,600 years ago for people living in monasteries, yet whose words continue to guide those of us in every age seeking to live the Benedictine values of listening, community-building, hospitality, humility, simplicity, service, prayer and praise in daily life.
If you have been fortunate enough to meet Sister Joan in person, it was likely an unforgettable experience. I cherish each of the times I was able to be in her company.
The first time I saw her I actually knew little about her. I went as a reporter for PBS-TV to cover a conference organized by the peace organization Pax Christi USA. She was the keynote speaker. I don’t remember exactly what she talked about, but I never forgot her presence or the powerful way in which she spoke, which caused the audience to jump up when she finished in a sustained standing ovation.
The next encounter was through her books, “The Rule of St. Benedict: Insight for the Ages” and “Wisdom Distilled from the Daily” when I was first discovering Benedictine contemplative spirituality. Afterward, I had the good fortune to be seated next to her at a dinner given by a TV program I worked for in Chicago.
At the time, I was in the midst of writing a memoir that became “Atchison Blue: Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home and a Living Faith” about my extended stays at Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Atchison Kansas.
That evening, Sister Joan gave me some of the best advice I’ve received as an author. She told me to take myself out of my usual surroundings and go somewhere we I could focus only on the book. I just wish I had been smart enough to take her advice more often!
I subsequently spent several days with her at her monastery, Mount St. Benedict in Erie, PA, for a profile I reported for PBS-TV. She was less interested in talking about herself than taking me to see the many ministries her monastic community was sponsoring in Erie, including a children’s art center, a soup kitchen, and a community garden.
She was proud of the fact that the building that once housed the girls’ academy her sisters had to close had been converted into a center for helping newcomers and immigrants to Erie.
“Our purpose is to present the most humane, spiritual, moral, communal model of life for a world in chaos around us — to be an island of care and cohesion,” she told me during our interview.
Even as she entered her senior years, she kept up a grueling schedule. It included writing regular columns for National Catholic Reporter, authoring an average of a book a year, and leading groups on pilgrimage.
I met up with her again in Rome at the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates (oblates are lay associates of monasteries) where she gave a keynote address. Slowing was not a word in her vocabulary.
One of her books is about aging, interestingly enough titled, “The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully.” In it she writes: “It is important that age be no impediment to the magnet of life in us. But life is not about breathing only. Life is about becoming more than we are, about being all that we can be. Whatever we are doing, however old we are.”
She confessed that she was perhaps too young to be writing such a book, as she began working on it when she was “only seventy.” She reserved the right to amend it in the future. One can hope.
“Age comes only to the truly blessed,” she writes in “The Gift of Years.” We have been blessed to have this marvelous woman with us for 90 years. May she bless us for years to come. May she continue to have “the gift of years.”
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