PHOTOS | Surrendering with Gratitude: Sister Maria-Benedicta, OSB, professes final vows at Abbey of St. Walburga
- Guest Contributor
- 5 minutes ago
- 6 min read
The new Benedictine nun, a Colorado local, makes vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and stability in the Order of St. Benedict, committing to live a joyfully countercultural vocation of prayer and work for the Church and the world.
By Grant Whitty
Nestled in the rocky hills 20 miles northwest of Fort Collins, a Benedictine nun, donning her work habit, joyfully swept the cement pathway leading towards the Abbey of St. Walburga.
“I am almost done sweeping,” she exclaimed. “Then you can walk across the path free of dirt!”
She was just one of many Benedictine nuns hard at work preparing for the community’s big celebration on May 1. Inside, other nuns scurried about, preparing the chapel, placing candles, ironing altar linens and printing programs for the day’s special liturgy.
By the time the mid-morning light began spilling in through the upper windows of the chapel, the nuns had finished their preparations and were lined up behind the cloistered side of the chapel doors. At the end of the procession stood Sister Maria Benedicta O’Brien, with a candle in hand, for it was her wedding day, that is, the day of her solemn profession as a Benedictine nun of the Abbey of St. Walburga in Virginia Dale — the fifth such profession in as many years in the growing community.
A Local Beginning
A daughter of the Archdiocese of Denver, Sister Maria-Benedicta spent her youth in a bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking neighborhood in northwest Denver. She and her family attended the nearby Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, where her father worked as a janitor, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Littleton, where her father played organ and she sang in the choir.
After graduating high school, she “attended college at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, and then returned to Denver after graduation to get a nursing degree,” Sister Maria-Benedicta told the Denver Catholic. “I spent 11 years as a nurse, primarily in the Cardiology Department at Children’s Hospital Colorado.”
(Photos by Grant Whitty/Denver Catholic)
A Generous ‘Yes’
Customary to the rite of solemn profession, Sister Maria-Benedicta sat outside of the sanctuary, while her fellow nuns processed in, taking their seats in choir stalls on either side of the altar. Included in the procession were the community’s abbess, Mother Maria-Michael Newe; Bishop Steven Lopes of the Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter; the Abbey’s chaplain, Father Matthew Hartley; and other priests and deacons who are friends of the community.
After the Gospel was proclaimed, Mother Maria-Michael stood and called Sister Maria-Benedicta forward as a candidate for vows by singing in Latin: “The one who follows me does not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Sister then processed into the sanctuary with a candle in hand, also singing in Latin, before being seated in the center of the sanctuary. Sister sang: “And now I follow with all my heart: I fear you, and seek to see your face: Lord do not disappoint me: but treat me according to your kindness and the multitude of your mercies.”
Bishop Lopes then took to the pulpit and preached to both Sister Maria-Benedicta and those present on the virtue (and vow) of obedience.
“Obedience is a profound listening. Here we have a bride [Sister Maria-Benedicta] listening to the voice of the Bridegroom, Jesus. So too the Bride of Christ [the Church] must listen to the voice of the Bridegroom,” the bishop said. “Obedience is essential for discipleship and builds the Church. When we are obedient to the Lord, it will always be joyful.”
A Faith-Filled Obedience
It was that same obedience to Jesus that Bishop Lopes spoke about that would eventually bring Sister Maria-Benedicta to this Abbey and her vocation at large.
“In my young adult years, it was so clear in my mind that I had a vocation to get married and have a family, that I never stopped to consider religious life,” the newly professed nun explained. “In my mid-30s, I was desiring a deeper intimacy with God, so I chose to do an Ignatian retreat-in-daily-life. … During that time of retreat, I was committed to making an hour of prayer every day, so, driving home from a road trip one weekend, I stopped at the Abbey of St. Walburga for my time of prayer.”
Joining the nuns that night for Compline or Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church’s official prayer of psalms, antiphons, canticles and Scripture readings, she was “captivated by the beauty of their life spent hidden away praising God” and “felt a deep desire in [her] heart to return there and live the rest of [her] life as a bride of Christ.”
As she continued to discern God’s will, she strove to hear his call clearly and to respond generously.
“I feel like my process of becoming a nun at the Abbey hasn’t been so much about discerning God’s will, but rather simply obeying what he told me so clearly!” Sister Maria-Benedicta shared. “Our Lord did not tell me, ‘I want you to be a nun somewhere; you can look around and see what order would best fit your personality and desires.’ No! It was more like he was saying, ‘Will you follow me here? Yes or no?’ I felt that every time I would leave from a short visit to the Abbey, it seemed that Jesus had more of a conversation to continue with me there.”
A Holy Marriage to Christ
The rite continued with the examination, litany of saints and solemn profession. Sister Maria-Benedicta responded to questions from Mother Maria-Michael, confirming her desire for vows. She then lay prostrate before the altar and tabernacle while the Litany of Saints was sung. Finally, she stood before all present, with her hands in the abbess’ and professed her vows of stability, coversatio morum (fidelity to the monastic way of life, including poverty and chastity) and obedience. She then signed her printed vows on the altar and kissed the altar “as a sign of her gift of self to Christ” — a rare moment in the life of the Church, as kissing the altar is typically reserved for ordained priests and deacons.
After the bishop prayed the prayers of monastic consecration over the newly professed sister, he then blessed the monastic insignia. The abbess adorned Sister Maria-Michael with the cuculla and veil, and the bishop, as a successor to the apostles, presented the ring and wreath as a sign of the sister’s marriage to Christ.
Like the Rite of Marriage, the Holy Mass continued into the Liturgy of the Eucharist and Sister Maria-Michael was able to receive her spouse in the Eucharist, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Much like the Nuptial Blessing, a special blessing in the wedding Mass, the bishop imparted a special blessing over the newly professed nun before the close of the Mass. Standing side-by-side, Sister Maria-Benedicta and Mother Maria-Michael recessed out of the sanctuary into the cloister where Sister, Mother and all the solemnly professed nuns prayed together for this new Bride of Christ.
A New Name
As for her new religious name, Maria-Benedicta, the sister was pleased to receive it from Mother Maria-Michael.
“There are so many reasons I love my name! If you pray or sing the Hail Mary in Latin, you will proclaim, ‘Ave Maria … Benedicta tu in mulieribus,’ that is, ‘Hail Mary … Blessed are you among women.’ Since Benedicta means ‘blessed’ or ‘blessing,’ I think of how much the Lord has blessed me,” she told the Denver Catholic. “But I am in particular struck by the Catholic Catechism’s definition of blessing God as ‘Adoration and surrender to the Creator in gratitude.’ I think that really describes a foundational aspect of our Benedictine vocation.”
A Flourishing Community and Vocation
Sister Maria-Benedicta now fully and permanently joins her community of nearly 30 nuns, with more in formation, where they spend their days praying and working (ora et labora, as their charism states) in the community originally founded in Boulder in 1936 by Benedictine nuns fleeing Nazi Germany. It was elevated to the status of an abbey in 1989, and the nuns later relocated to Virginia Dale in 1997, where they live today. Mother Maria-Michael Newe has been abbess since 2003.
Together with her sisters, Sister Maria-Benedicta lives a hidden but vital vocation of service in the Church: that of loving Jesus Christ first, foremost and always. Looking back after her solemn profession, she can’t help but feel grateful for the discernment and vocation, and encouraged others to follow God wherever he might lead.
“I’ve been happily surprised to discover that doing what God asked of me makes me happier on a much deeper level,” she concluded. “St. Benedict says several times in his Holy Rule that the monk (and nun) must ‘prefer nothing to the love of Christ.’ For me, this meant that I had to sacrifice pediatric nursing to give myself over completely to God. But I have found that there is a deep foundation of peace that comes from giving up trying to understand, and simply obeying God and resting in his mysterious and beautiful will.”
