Do you have concerns about the happenings in the world today? Learn to apply this 12th Century Doctor of the Church's wisdom on spirituality, natural medicine, the arts and happy living.
On this day, September 17, 2025, St. Hildegard of Bingen’s feast day, please celebrate with me with these excerpts from past interviews about saints, health, music, Benedictines, and St. Hildegard.
Today, I also want to say a big thank you to the great interviewees who have contributed to St. Hildegard’s Wisdom thus far. My prayers for them are for a joyous day and good health. St. Hildegard of Bingen, pray for us!
Please find below selections from the past interviews, and links to the full interviews:
Why we pray to the saints: I’m already praying to God, but there’s something in us, because we’re social, communal beings, and we’re members of the body of Christ. We were not individually saved as much as we’re saved as a community because the body of Christ is a community. It’s natural for me to reach out to another Christian, another Catholic, and say, “Hey, can you pray for me?”…that is something we all naturally do on some level. Well then, that’s what we’re doing with the saints. We’re doing the same exact thing, and the only difference being that they’re already in heaven…they’re the living body of Christ…they’re closer to God, just objectively speaking. And so…just as we’d ask, another human being to intercede for us. We’re asking our friends in heaven to intercede for us.
How we can be simple saints: …you think there (has) to be tons of…simple saints, meaning simple people that lived an extremely holy life, but they didn’t produce enough flair for somebody to push their canonization process…they’re still a saint. It’s just they haven’t been officially declared by the church to be a saint…the message of the gospel is rather simple. Ultimately, you have to become like children to enter the kingdom of God. Every soul in heaven has become like a child. What’s a child? It’s someone who is humble, completely dependent on God, surrendering to God, consistently doing what God’s asking… Listen here to the full audio recording.
My initial attraction to St. Hildegard was through her music. I came across her work during my undergraduate studies. Upon hearing it, I was instantaneously mesmerized. It did what it does for so many — it seemed to still time, lifting the soul, mind and heart toward the transcendental…
The more I listened, the more I realized its goal was not to make the listener ‘feel’ anything particularly. It was not ‘emotional’ or ‘sentimental’. It did not try to sound sad or happy, anxious or excited, but rather invited the listener to something deeper than feelings alone….
Eventually, it dawned on me why: it was and is music for prayer. This music, directed to God and seemingly inspired by Him, is beyond feelings and time — ‘eternal’ in its quality…. How auspicious that that should be the very monastic order to which God was calling me. This is why St. Hildegard is both a spiritual mother with whom I not only share a deep love of sacred music, but also a sister in the consecrated life; both of us children of St Benedict. Read the full interview here.
As I got more into writing in the space of Catholic spirituality, I started reading more and began revisiting Hildegard…I got into gemstones and gemology from a contemporary perspective. I found the historical perspective really fascinating…I’m a fellow of the Gemological Association of Great Britain…
What Hildegard’s writings about gemstones say to me is that I wish she could live today because she would just be at the cutting edge of whatever discipline she chose to apply herself to. She knew that these materials were precious and part of God’s creation. So she wasn’t deviating from Catholic faith. But you know everything reflects creation, God’s creation.
These things are here because of God. And so the admiration that she had for these minerals, we definitely should see today.
If they would have had the instruments that we now have, the testing capabilities that we have, how much further Hildegard could have taken it! Read the full interview here.
Iwona Bednarz-Major, Founder, Director at Stone to Flesh
Healing is rarely immediate; it’s a process, much like peeling back layers to uncover the vibrant health we were designed for.
I always align the healing of a human heart with its surfacing issues, and with physical symptoms.
While some people experience rapid shifts—whether through miraculous prayer or a profound lifestyle change—and enough of them do—most of us require patience and persistence.
Prayer indeed is primary, infusing hope, grace, and supernatural healing into every step. Whether healing comes instantly or over years, what matters most is walking the journey with faith, wisdom, and a willingness to adjust as needed. Read the full interview here.
There are always times in our lives when we are pushed to change our point of view and attitudes in a lot of areas…I trust in God, and God sends us challenges to “grow”.
Sure, Hildegard’s food will help you to improve your body condition, but if you will be constantly stressed, it will impact your life in the long run.
Today’s medicine is excellent at solving health issues, cancer, dangerous health situations, etc. However, when it comes to solving chronic conditions, Hildegard medicine can step in. Read the full interview here.
The basics of Benedictine spirituality is always seeing the positive or the good in everything. That God is present in everything. And in the good, there’s always the beauty. There’s a big emphasis, like Hildegard is very, very big on beauty.
And joy. And so that’s part, as Benedictine, as sisters who follow the Benedictine spirituality, we’re very big on beauty and a positive outlook on life. That there is always a reason and God is always present. We try to experience God in every single thing we do and make it palpable in our lives.
At least for me personally, and I know in my community as well, we’re big on the role of silence in our lives, which is very Benedictine. Because it is in silence. It’s a silence prayer. I know there are different levels of prayer, but personally that’s where I find I can attune to God’s presence more, in silence. Because silence is the language of God.
And another thing about Benedictines is hospitality. These are the words of Saint Benedict, that you treat each stranger, or your visitor, or your guest as if they are Christ. That’s why we’re big on hospitality. Read the full interview here.
My faith plays a very significant role and shapes how I run my business, how I practice naturopathy, and my personal life. My faith via daily walks with God and his friends (saints and angels) helps me to feel complete.
Rejuvenates the way I see things (spirituality).
Creates positive relationships with nature and others and myself.
Makes life more meaningful and purposeful.
Ensures that I am loved despite my imperfections (unloved is the root cause of many diseases), which in turn promote my health in body and soul. Read the full interview here.
She declares, that “I must honestly say that I love Hildegard. From an herbalist’s point of view, she is the one that specifies the plant as itself, as it is.” Hildegard specifies the energy of the plant, then she describes it and its impact on human health. And she follows that up with recipes. Petra says, “If someone is sick and you know their symptoms, you can then pair them with the right remedy from Hildegard. They take the remedy and gain their health back.” Petra admits, “I’ve tested it many times. There’s only one reason why they wouldn’t get healthy again. That’s only the case when God doesn’t want them to get healthy.” That’s something that St. Hildegard emphasized and is in her books.
Petra concludes, “Health is about what you eat, how you eat it, your environment, the people around you, and your way of life. So this is Hildegard!” Read the full interview here.
St. Benedict was born around 480 AD. He founded the Benedictine Order and wrote the Rule of St. Benedict, as a guide to monastic life. He performed many miracles. The St. Benedict Medal can be worn for protection against evil, and used to bless your home, and is used by priests during exorcisms.
One miracle attributed to St. Benedict is when a group of monks weren’t very happy with his presence in their monastery. Instead of just asking him to leave, they poisoned his wine during dinner. When Benedict raised his glass, it instantly shattered. A miracle indeed. Benedict was spared, and he quickly realized that God had saved him from the bad wine. He told his fellow monks that a simple discussion would have been a better route, but he honored their wishes and left peacefully.
St. Hildegard wrote a short piece called, An Explanation of the Rule of Benedict where we learn more about her views on monastic life in regards to St. Benedict.
But on this day celebrating St. Benedict, we can also learn how St. Hildegard, a Benedictine Abbess, felt about wine and beer.
Hildegard said that, “Wine heals and cheers a person with its great heat and great power.”
“Beer thickens a person’s flesh, and gives his face a beautiful color, because of the strength and beneficial juice of its grain.”
But everything in moderation: “If a person drinks, excessively, wine or other intoxicating liquor, all his blood is dissipated and runs inordinately in all directions. It is so diffused in his veins, the person’s whole understanding and sensibility is jumbled; just as a river, from too great an inundation of rain, overflows and floods with headlong speed.”
Hildegard’s Causes and Cures. Translated from the Latin by Pricilla Throop, 2008
In Return to Harmony, Alfreda Walkowska describes St. Hildegard’s parsley wine.
She says that while it both strengthens the body and improves well-being, it is also enjoyed as an evening aperitif. She adds that,”Dr. Hertzka produced this parsley drink, the first ever Hildegard medicine in such large quantities, in his pharmacy in Constance, Germany. Since then the drink has enjoyed broad popularity around the world because of its beneficial influence on the heart and blood.”
Parsley Wine: 1 quart of good wine 10 stems of parsley Honey to taste
Bring the wine and parsley to a boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes Add honey and simmer for 5 more minutes.
Drink about 4 teaspoons after each meal.
Alfreda Walkowska details more benefits of wine “when drunk in moderation, thanks to its high content of bioflavonoids and tannins, relieves oxygen deficiency caused by stress and protects the heart and blood vessels from damage.” In France, she says, where red wine drinkers are the highest, they have fewer heart attacks than any other European country. And a tip from elderly Frenchmen: drink red wine while eating a handfuls of chestnuts. It protects your liver from the alcohol.
St. Hildegard also recommended a small amount of chestnut honey for the same purpose.
There are some notable places related to St. Benedict and St. Hildegard to purchase wine and beer.
You can buy beer directly from the Abbazia di San Benedetto in Monte above the town of Nursia, where St. Benedict was born. I’ve tried it here in California and it’s delicious. The Single Extra tastes like Guinness to me (a favorite). This isn’t an ad, just a personal pick. I hope to place an order soon. Drinking beer made by monks must certainly be heavenly for the body and soul.
And at The Abbey of St Hildegard, is a monastery above Rüdesheim and the Rhine river. The monastery’s winery goes back to the Middle Ages, and St. Hildegard of Bingen. Back then the sisters practiced viticulture and the sisters of today are carrying on that tradition. However, you have to visit the abbey to purchase. So far they don’t ship to the U.S.
Drinking With The Saintsis a fun and informational book with drink ideas. It’s “The Sinner’s Guide to a Holy Happy Hour.”
Note: Always use your best discretion when drinking wine or beer. All of this is for informational purposes only.
Father Angelus Echeverry is a Roman Catholic Benedictine Priest-Monk from St Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, California.
Angelus is Choir Master, Cantor, and Organist at the monastery and performs his works locally. Some of his compositional influences are: Hildegard of Bingen, Victoria, Bach, Messiaen, Part, Penderecki, among others. His website features his ethereal and sacred concert music.
Sit back, close your eyes and listen to one of his featured songs; and you’ll think you’re surrounded by heavenly angels, a blessed spiritual atmosphere indeed, “sung prayer”.
When I heard he was holding an upcoming retreat on St. Hildegard and her music, I reached out.
In the interview below, he kindly describes what drew him to her and more about his own musical background. I learned it’s not just his music that is heavenly.
He sees Hildegard as a spiritual mother but also a sister in the consecrated life, as both are “children of St. Benedict.”
My interview with Fr. Angelus Echeverry.
Please enjoy the mystical insights and music of Angelus Echeverry.
Your website states,“His music is oriented toward and inspired by the sacred mysteries of God.” You mention that one of your compositional influences is Hildegard of Bingen. What first drew you St. Hildegard and/or her music?
My initial attraction to St. Hildegard was through her music. I came across her work during my undergraduate studies. Upon hearing it, I was instantaneously mesmerized. It did what it does for so many — it seemed to still time, lifting the soul, mind and heart toward the transcendental. It did so organically and effortlessly all the while eliciting in the listener a great and profound peace, even if they did not know what the texts were saying. This all indicated to me that these chants possessed qualities different from other musical styles. The entire topic was mysterious, fascinating and most appealing.
Hildegard’s music, moreover, always felt authentic as it is functional music, having a liturgical end. The more I listened, the more I realized its goal was not to make the listener ‘feel’ anything particularly. It was not ‘emotional’ or ‘sentimental’. It did not try to sound sad or happy, anxious or excited, but rather invited the listener to something deeper than feelings alone.
Eventually, it dawned on me why: it was and is music for prayer. This music, directed to God and seemingly inspired by Him, is beyond feelings and time — ‘eternal’ in its quality. It is able to ‘slow down’ the text, if you will, through the use of modal motifs and lines which linger upon the sacred words.
Yet, another draw for me to her music was that meditating upon and worshipping God was the sole reason she composed. Like Bach, every note written was for God’s glory. This was the aim of her music, and it was born from the fruit of her spiritual life and heart.
All of these elements combined resonated deeply with me, not only as a composer, but particularly because in the years to come, I would be discerning monastic life, the same life that Hildegard herself lived.
You were listening to St. Hildegard’s music when you were discerning your monastic vocation. Can you describe that?
My monastic call came in a moment of profound prayer in 2002, a moment later described to me by a priest as having been a “mystical experience in the depths of contemplation.”
It doesn’t surprise me now, in retrospect, that during that experience I happened to be listening to Hildegard’s music.
Her music in that prayer experience is significant for a number of reasons. It is as if God was using sacred music to lead me into his will for my life.
In other words, this music which seeks God in contemplation, was a sort of icon symbolizing what God was calling me to; to live as a monk, as one whose primary purpose is the seeking of God in contemplation.
By God’s grace, now a monk for 15 years, I can see even more connections to St. Hildegard than her music alone.
As a composer, myself, there is that obvious link, but more than that, she was a Benedictine nun. How auspicious that that should be the very monastic order to which God was calling me. This is why St. Hildegard is both a spiritual mother with whom I not only share a deep love of sacred music, but also a sister in the consecrated life; both of us children of St Benedict.
Not only then, but now, when I listen to chant, especially her treatment of it, it helps to elevate my heart and mind to God. Hildegard’s music assisted me and continues to do so in this pursuit.
The closeness I feel toward the Saint is further amplified by our shared experience in the mystical life, as well as our desire to be instruments of healing, myself serving in this capacity through my priesthood, spiritual direction and deliverance ministry.
Though my vocation did not spring directly from an experience of her music, her music helped me to see that I was in fact being called by God to the hidden life. I feel Hildegard’s music is like this. While sound is indeed present and points to the Truth, it nevertheless remains ‘hidden,’ ‘disappearing,’ that only God may be its reason for being; its center and purpose.
You have studied and performed all types of music, including singing for the progressive rock band, Themes. How did that shape your music to now sounding so heavenly? I assume St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo is a great spiritual setting for inspiring your music, also.
Like all of life, our past experiences can’t help but influence our current reality in one way or another; and it’s the same with music. For me, the unifying thread, throughout my writing in these different styles, was simply about making good music. So, whether I was writing for my three-piece progressive rock band, creating electronic music, or composing sacred choral music, the driving goal was about writing something meaningful.
Sometimes people ask me “What is your main instrument?” My response is always the same, ‘the pen’. It’s always been about writing music for me; this is the composer’s heart — creating.
However, after my religious experience, my music took a significant turn. Prior to that, it had been just that, my music; written by me and for me and for some imagined audience. But afterward, everything became about God. This created in me a new outlook, one of including God in the creative process. Now, everything I write is for God’s glory and is something I am doing with the Lord.
I will often use religious icons to gaze upon while I compose. Icons inspire me and help ignite the creative fire. As an icon is a visual window to what it represents, so I desire my music to be a type of window into the Divine. The icon seems to ‘tell’ me how the music should go. Its subject, whether it be Christ, Mary, or the Saints, I see as interceding to God for this work, who sends his Spirit to assist me.
This is not a ‘formula’ for composition, nor a belief that I am ‘taking dictation’ from God. Rather, it is a reminder that I am no longer alone in the writing process, but cooperating with God in this creative moment. I do all this to keep the ear of my heart open to God’s inspiration.
When the music is finished I like to think that the best bits are his, and the others are mine, but in the end, it is a collaboration of sorts. Composing with God allows me the freedom to go where I may not have otherwise gone compositionally. This prayerful mode of writing often leads me to something less flashy and more essential.
Finally, while being at the Abbey can indeed be inspirational, I am to the point where the need for feeling inspiration is less important, than simply praying to and trusting in God to accompany me in this process of creating sacred music. His presence is all the inspiration I need.
Can you describe the healing we can receive from St. Hildegard’s music specifically, but also with music in general?
Although many styles of music can create well-being, healing and states of joy or hopefulness, chant and sacred polyphony, particularly for believers is preeminent because it is filled with and drivenby the Word of God.
Chant, being primarily scriptural, beyond the fact of its beautifully structured melodies and the ebbing and flowing of its natural rhythm, is essentially sung prayer. All prayer to the Holy Trinity is healing, because prayer connects us to the Divine One.
In a music conference at the monastery, I once gave the example of a sung minor third interval. If we were to sing it on a random vowel it can be very beautiful, but if it is sung, let us say on the word “Jesus” or “Amen”, its meaning is made even richer, more beautiful, and therefore, by its very nature, more healing. Those two notes become ‘charged’ with spiritual meaning and healing. Of course, one needs to be disposed to receive healing. One’s heart should be open.
This is the beauty of music, the healing happens in its listening. “Music calms the savage beast” we have heard, but when? In real time, as we hear it. This is the key, making time and space for the music, allowing it to touch us deeply and to affect us in the moment through its beauty and message.
The humble posture of Hildegard’s music becomes a means toward contemplation; toward inner silence. In other words, her music is like a place where the listener may go, to release their worries, even if for a moment, allowing the sound of prayer to inspire the mind and soul in remembering the reality of God and heaven; where the believer will be perfectly healed in Christ.
Is there’s anything else you’d like to add about yourself, your monastery, music, or St. Hildegard?
Hildegard’s music, it is important to remember, was influenced by a number of factors: from her lifelong monastic practice, the hearing and chanting of the psalms day in and day out, to her life of prayer and her mystical experiences with the Lord through her various visions and inspirations.
In the end, St Hildegard’s music is not so much about her, but about God.
I would also like to express my gratitude to my Abbot, Most Rev. Damien ToiloloO.S.B. for giving me permission to do this interview.
Finally, I would just like to include a few links to my:
Thank you, Fr. Angelus for giving us so much to contemplate! Hildegard’s music was inspired by God and through her very holy practices in living her monastic life. The glory goes to God. And that her music is a means to contemplation. Music for prayer. Creating an inner silence to take us to a place where we too can find God, as she did. And as your music does also; and your words that are so anointed. I say, thank you to your Abbot as well!
I created this graphic as part of a class I took with Kate Farrell on The Heroine’s Journey.
In classic fairytales, the princess gets the prince and they live happily ever after. We’ve been watching movies and reading books for years on that premise. The boy gets the girl. The girl gets the boy. If relationships were automatic and everything fell into place perfectly, then that storyline would also always happen in real life. But it doesn’t.
There is a Hero’s Journey and a Heroine’s Journey. I don’t believe the Heroine’s Journey is necessarily a feminist take on the Hero’s Journey, just a different route. To learn more about the differences, please take Kate Farrell‘s class as she can explain it better than I can.
Oh, the many choices we can have in life!
Hildegard was a very gifted child who had visions early on. The best place for her in the 12th Century was to be sent to a monastery. She could be best educated there and use her talents for God. St. Hildegard’s path was not to marry a nobleman.
Why do women of the 21st Century still pursue religious vocations? In this time of so many modern advancements in the home, more equality in the workplace, and the still strong call to motherhood, why choose to be a nun or a sister?
“The charism of the SSS is firmly rooted in the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit at work within each sister as she engages with the larger community in making decisions that take us into places and situations where we are being led…Many SSS have engaged in the field of social work in various manifestations – from legislative work, community organizing, and one on one social services.”
Redwoods Monastery, is a small Northern California community of Roman Catholic women monastics founded in 1962 from the Cistercian Monastery of Nazareth in Belgium. They say,
“Our life is a pattern of prayer, study, meditation, and manual labor that is woven into the fabric of community, centered on Christ as our Lord and brother. We meet Him daily in the Eucharist, in lectio divina, and the “everydayness” of our monastic vocation.”
There are so many religious orders to choose from that offer different vocations in different locations. There’s nothing antiquated nor boring in that, especially when the Holy Spirit inspires it.
But back to Vasilisa: As mentioned above, I created the featured graphic as part of a class I took on The Heroine’s Journey. Kate introduced the class to the story of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Beautiful. As more of a memoirist than a fiction writer, class assignments led me to compare my personal story with Vasilisa’s.
My life’s path didn’t end in getting the “prince”, at least not the one in fairytales. Instead, my life has led me to come to know Jesus, the Prince of Peace. I’m a single woman, but I don’t have a religious vocation. I still have too much of a feminist spirit to choose one vocation. Or I’m just too much of a free spirit. (But neither of those makes me right necessarily.) As a writer, I explore different worlds and I want to walk down more paths. But I do so with Jesus and my Catholic faith.
Women are single for many reasons, and not always permanent ones. Life changes so whatever state in life a woman is in, she is okay. Single doesn’t mean wrong. Single is a moment in time or it’s a lifetime. It just depends on so many variables. In today’s upside down world, how does anyone find anyone anyway?
I really like this inspirational video about women who are alone with no husband.
A Woman Who Walks Alone With No Husband | Billy Graham
What are the Benedictines up to today – their sisters and nuns? Who is carrying on the spirit? Here I introduce you to one of them.
Sr. Nodelyn was my spiritual director a few years ago, and she has kept me in the loop with her community ever since. Back then, I didn’t even know she was Benedictine. I didn’t know to ask, as I was newly back to the church. So in this interview, I’m learning along with you.
Bio: “Nodelyn Abayan, a member of the Sisters of Social Service of Los Angeles, is a spiritual director and the vocation contact person for her community. Recently, she earned her doctorate in educational leadership and social justice from San Francisco State University. Her passion lies in early childhood education and supporting families. She is an adjunct professor at City College of San Francisco, where she teaches in the Child and Family Studies Department.”
Here’s my interview with Sr. Nodelyn Abayan about Contemporary Benedictine Spirituality.
From our audio interview (held on-site) on December 5, 2024.
Me: I’ll give you a rough idea of what I want to ask you about: the basics of Benedictine spirituality, about St. Hildegard, and about the interesting article I read that states that Hildegard was progressive, and Teresa of Avila was conservative. I had never thought of our faith as being conservative or progressive. I never heard those political terms…
Nodelyn: Used in the religious sense.
Me: Yes. But it also said that both were reformers of the church. So if you want to talk about that, because I think there’s a divide between people. I call myself traditional, but it doesn’t mean that I identify with… Obviously, I’m considered a cat lady, so I don’t identify with trad wives.
Nodelyn: With what? With who?
Me: Trad wives.
Nodelyn: I don’t know what that…
Me: It’s a very…
Nodelyn: The 50s kind of thing? The 1950s?
Me: Yes. I say traditional, but I’m not that kind of traditional. So there are many beliefs within our Catholic faith.
Nodelyn: One thing that I want to tell you is we follow the Benedictine spirituality. We’re not as immersed as the nuns. The Sisters of Social Service follow the spirituality of the Benedictine spirituality. That’s one thing that you have to be clear about.
Me: But you’re not Benedictine?
Nodelyn: We are Benedictine, but we follow the spirituality. But if you say, are you a Benedictine nun? No, I’m not a Benedictine nun. I’m a Sister of Social Service who follows the spirituality of St. Benedict, Benedictine spirituality. When you interview somebody, say, oh, she’s a Benedictine nun. That’s different from us. The nuns, some of them, they tend to follow the rules strictly. If they have to wake up, because there’s about eight times they have to pray.
Me: Is that the rule? The Rule of St. Benedict.
Nodelyn: That’s part of the rule. Which, for us, we don’t. We pray, but we don’t follow it as strictly. That’s why I say we follow the spirituality of it. We know the importance and significance of prayer in our lives, but we don’t wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning or 3 o’clock in the morning, and all of us pray together. I believe in the past they did that, but we kind of modified it. It depends on our ministry, whatever is the call of the ministry. So it would be interesting for you, to find a real Benedictine nun. Because we follow the contemporary Benedictine spirituality.
Me: Yes.
Nodelyn: The basics of Benedictine spirituality is always seeing the positive or the good in everything. That God is present in everything. And in the good, there’s always the beauty. There’s a big emphasis, like Hildegard is very, very big on beauty.
Me: Yes, and joy.
Nodelyn: And joy. And so that’s part, as Benedictine, as sisters who follow the Benedictine spirituality, we’re very big on beauty and a positive outlook on life. That there is always a reason and God is always present. We try to experience God in every single thing we do and make it palpable in our lives.
And we know the importance of prayer. We do the Liturgy of the Hours, which the nuns also do. We follow the breviary of the church so we pray.
At least for me personally, and I know in my community as well, we’re big on the role of silence in our lives, which is very Benedictine. Because it is in silence. It’s a silence prayer. I know there are different levels of prayer, but personally that’s where I find I can attune to God’s presence more, in silence. Because silence is the language of God.
Me: Do you have a certain type of prayer? For instance, Teresa of Avila did mental prayer.
Nodelyn: For me it’s following my breath, or sometimes I use the mantra, Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus. Sister Celeste, she also does her own quiet prayer. Sometimes we meet there (pointing to another room), but it’s not intentional. It’s our personal prayer in silence.
Every morning when I wake up, that’s the first thing I do. I meet God in silence. That’s one thing as Benedictines, we really, really take silence seriously. In our prayer, during the day, and for me, I’ve been practicing at least to have two days of silence, or one day of silence a month. Because that’s when I grow roots. It’s like when I go deeper. Because the world is offering us so many narrow things, just a lot of false, false, false things. The truth is when, in silence, I encounter truth. It is in silence in front of God, that this is who I am. I mean, not physically, but this is who I am. Accept me for who I am. And that’s when I feel God’s presence the most in silence.
Silence, beauty, joy, and the role of hospitality, those are very Benedictine. If you study the Benedictines, the Rule of Saint Benedict, it started in Norcia, Italy.
Me: Do you do your chores, or daily duties during your day of silence?
Nodelyn: At the beginning of the month, or even a day before, I already have scheduled a protected day. It’s a protected day for my silence. When I do my silence, I need to get out of the house, to be out of my routine. Sometimes I go spend overnight in a retreat center. Or I go and spend a whole day by the ocean, but I bring my lunch. I can hear a different sound, and I can listen to God more, if I’m not in my usual…It helps, at least for me, if I’m in a different location. I don’t normally do the normal things when it’s my day of silence.
Me: It’s kind of like fasting.
Nodelyn: Fasting from the usual, if you want to look at it that way, from your usual work. It’s like a Sabbath. But I find it so nourishing to my soul. And it’s not just my own thing, but I feel like it’s also that God wants to have that time with me. It’s an invitation from the Holy Spirit, to say, “Hey, let’s go and have a picnic together.” And I take it seriously.
Me: Do you read there?
Nodelyn: Sometimes I read, but sometimes there are months that I just don’t do anything. I just walk and listen to the waves. Last month or two months ago, I went to the Berkeley Marina, by the water there. So beautiful! And I just listened to the waves, and I had my food. But I do write, though. Because I have to write down whatever is going on. Or sometimes I listen to God and what God is telling me.
Me: Journal?
Nodelyn: Yeah. I do journaling. And this I just started recently, about six months ago.
Because when I was studying to become a sister, once a month, on weekends, we’d have to have silence. After I finished my doctorate, I had so much noise in my head with all of that. And I feel like God is calling me now to be quiet again. And so when I graduated I went back to the silence again. Or having silence as part of my month. I try to do it daily, too. I have 20 minutes of silence in the morning.
Nodelyn’s cat, Julian
Julian will come to me. Either I sit on my cushion or sit on a chair and Julian will be on my lap. And I don’t do anything. I listen to my breath because I know my breath is God’s breath. And that was given to us in the Genesis story (Genesis 2:7). It’s the same breath that every time you breathe, you’re breathing God. And it’s your life. God has given us the life.
And another thing about Benedictines is hospitality. These are the words of Saint Benedict, that you treat each stranger, or your visitor, or your guest as if they are Christ. That’s why we’re big on hospitality.
You have experienced that when you come here for our dinners and celebrations.
Me: Yes.
Nodelyn: Hospitality is when you welcome. You’re really welcoming Christ through the people, or through strangers. And my community specifically, and it’s very Benedictine also, is the family-oriented-ness. We care for our families and our sisters, my community, is my family. But my blood family is very much connected to the community, which is part of the hospitality because they welcome my family.
Me: Do you have local family?
Nodelyn: My blood family? No, they’re all in the Philippines. But it’s not like other communities, where you forget about your family once you become a nun. Not for us. We value that family spirit. That’s how we connect with each other. Maybe it’s Benedictine because it’s part of the hospitality. You welcome those people the sister loves.
Me: It’s not a monastic life, then?
Nodelyn: It’s not like a monastic life where you’re going to cut yourself off from your biological family. There’s an element of monasticism in our lives; silence is very monastic. Finding beauty and joy, it’s very monastic. But you can also take that in your own everyday life if you want. It doesn’t have to be in a convent.
Another thing is our liturgical spirit, that we follow the calendar. You can see our chapel is decorated in Advent. That’s very Benedictine. We follow the church calendar in our prayer. You can see how we preserve the beauty even in our house. And even the way we speak. We value beauty just because our work is so hard.
Sister Frederica Horvath, she is the foundress of the Sisters of Social Service in Los Angeles. There’s one also who founded in Buffalo. She said it’s really important that we keep up our houses. If you visit different houses of the Sisters of Social Service, they’re well-maintained and beautiful. Because as social workers, she said, we work so hard and we encounter so much ugliness in life. Our community house is our sanctuary. It’s our refuge. We have that sense of beauty in order for us to be nourished once again. And so that we can go back to our ministry.
Me: It reminds me that I read a little bit about St. Benedict introducing spas and healing baths. So is there anything that you practice that is like self-care? Based on what he..
Nodelyn: Self-care? He was a sensible monk. He was very big on balance. Like the balance of work and prayer. The balance of also pleasure and leisure. Leisure and work. You don’t just work and work. Benedict understood how important it is to be human. To be fully human, you have to take care of your body, yourself.
Me: In recent years a mainstream term has been Work Life Balance. They got it from him it seems.
Nodelyn: And Hildegard is very big on that too.
Hildegard, she was progressive during her time. Because of the words that she used, she had had visions, and the role of women during that time. That’s why we consider her as progressive during that time. She was a doctor. She had so many gifts and talents. And she was a musician. She composed songs.
Me: Cosmology.
Nodelyn: Also, she was big on cosmology. She used herbs and put medicines together, and loving your body.
Me: Because Hildegard’s monastery was also the local clinic. They served the women and men. That’s self-care too; they kept the community healthy.
Nodelyn: I balance work, and also my prayer and also my wellbeing. I’m a walker. I walk more than 10,000 a day in nature. And I also dance Zumba. As a sister we study that this body is a gift from God to you. This material body is what you use to carry on the work of God. If you’re not taking care of it and you’re abusing it, you’re disregarding the gift. And then you’re not able to do the work that God wants you to do. If I take care of my body, I feel more joyful. Because I have more energy because I eat well, I sleep well, and I dance. But if you abuse your body, it’s hard to be joyful.
Me: Because it’s all connected. Our body is connected to our brain. And if we don’t feel good, then we’re not going to have joy. We’re going to be depressed. And then we can’t help people.
Nodelyn: And we can’t help people. Although some people who have experienced depression, understand, right? I’ve been there. But of course, you’re able to help more if you have a joyful spirit.
Me: If you have blockages of pain in your body, then not everything is circulating. That’s kind of Eastern medicine, where they have the chi. But, we have that too. It’s just different, we don’t follow the Eastern…
Nodelyn: No, you can get some beauty from the Eastern, you can use it on your own, but we don’t follow it. If you’re going to have an equivalent of the chi, which is in the Eastern tradition, it’s the energy. And in our Catholic tradition, it is the Holy Spirit. It’s the energy of God. And so you don’t want to block the Holy Spirit.
Me: Yes.
Nodelyn: And that’s why our community, the Sisters of Social Service has a dedication. We dedicate ourselves to the Holy Spirit. We have a devotion to the Holy Spirit. For one thing, you cannot contain the Holy Spirit. It’s very fluid. And it’s because the kind of work that we do, we are out there. And you cannot contain us. You cannot contain the energy and the joy of God.
Me: Is it graces also? That the graces you have when you’re helping, people around you get some of your graces. Or not yours, but they get graces?
Nodelyn: Each one of us has grace. But once you meet with someone, it kind of rekindles. You unleash it. By the virtue of creation, the spark of the divine is in each one of us. And now the work of the people who dedicate themselves to God fully is to help people rediscover it. It’s in you. It’s not like I give it to you because you have nothing. No, that’s not true.
God has a spark of divine in each one of us. And the task of the people who follow God, disciples of Christ, is to help people rediscover that in themselves. Or empower them. And discover it. Rekindle it. It’s in you. You just have to open up a little bit. And discovering what are the things that block it in order for the Holy Spirit to be alive again in your life. It’s always there. Sometimes it’s dormant. Now our task is to figure out in life, what is it that keeps it, dormant or not unleashing it, what is in me?
Me: And you teach. So how does your teaching affect when you teach kids? Because you deal with babies too, right?
Nodelyn: Oh, I deal mainly with the parents, but they bring their babies. And so how does that affect them?
Me: Yes.
Nodelyn: Well, it’s up to them to discover it, but I just know that when they leave my place, there’s always joy in their faces, their sense of happiness and satisfaction. It’s not my doing. I believe it’s the work of the Holy Spirit. For one thing, I value each person who comes into my classroom or into my space, that they are created in the image and likeness of whoever they are. Whatever faith, because I don’t work in a parish setting or a church setting. I work with the greater church, these are all people of God, regardless of their religion, and God loves all of them.
I value each one of them who come, and I build relationship with them, a positive relationship. And if they need help in terms of parenting or anything about child development, then I’m always willing to offer my advice or my knowledge and my experiences.
I don’t want to dismiss your question (I asked off audio) about how people need to be accepting of who you are, but I kind of answered it already. You don’t have a hold of what’s in the mind of people. And I think one thing that I feel, at least for me, is I’m very much secure that who I am in front of God, and so then I’m not as much affected by what people think. They will say whatever they want to say.
Me: For me, it’s different. You have an EDD. You have Sister Celeste and your community. You have people that vouch for you, that you’re very credible, you’re very legitimate, you’re titled. But somebody like me, who people can question, see?
Nodelyn: They still question me, Christine. Those titles, I think you’re looking at it differently. I still get questioned. No, don’t even put me up there. I have to tell you the truth, those titles are all just illusions, and the securities are illusions. I think what you’re saying is that I have the security, but I don’t. The way we live as sisters, do you think the church is accepting of whatever we say? We have experienced that too. It’s a community. But the thing is, it’s nothing like, me better than you. It’s just that sense that what I’m doing is I feel God wants me to do, and I have that faith and I have that trust. And you hold on to that faith and you hold on to that trust. And the trust that God loves me no matter what. And that’s what I’m holding onto. Titles, nothing, securities are less.
Me: Hildegard was accepted by politicians and the Pope and everybody, do you think sisters and nuns are different?
Nodelyn: In some ways.
Me: Do you think sisters or nuns are listened to, are valued enough in the church?
Nodelyn: It depends on the context. But I don’t know if you heard a lot about the Synodality that’s happening in the church lately. The last result of that, it seems the nuns and the sisters are not being heard as much as we want to. But my feeling with that is that it’s probably not the time yet. It might come. But we have struggled a lot as women in the church for the longest time.
Me: I think parishioners too. Women parishioners too.
Nodelyn: Yes.
Nuns are considered lay people. We’re not considered ordained. The priests are considered ordained. We’re considered among the lay because we’re not ordained. We’re not men.
Me: Am I lay?
Nodelyn: You’re lay.
Me: You’re considered a lay person? But you have a vocation, a religious vocation.
Nodelyn: We have a religious vocation, yes.
Me: I don’t, right? I don’t.
Nodelyn: Yes, but if you’re going to be technical about the terms in the church, the nuns and sisters are considered lay people.
Me: That’s crazy! You devote your lives to the church?!
Nodelyn: Because we’re not ordained. See, they are ordained. The men, the priests are ordained ministers. Ordination is different from our profession as sisters. It’s still looked at as, it seems to me, still higher compared to our profession, which I think in the eyes of God is the same.
And then there are some lay people who secretly have given their lives to God, and that’s between that person and God, not that it has to be, ordained or a religious sister.
Me: They have a private monastic life.
Nodelyn: And at the end of the day, it really is, between you and God. But it’s also, no matter what you want to do, God’s life, God’s love will never change. God will continuously love you. God loves. There’s this poem that I read yesterday morning. It’s just so beautiful. Because if God doesn’t love, then he won’t be God anymore. It’s just God’s nature. It’s God’s nature. God loves. God is love. So if God doesn’t love, who is God? I don’t know. It’s my belief.
Me: And I believe it too. I like the good news. That’s the good news.
Nodelyn: That’s the good news.
Me: And that’s why I don’t believe we should be miserable.
Nodelyn: That’s the Benedictine spirituality of joy and beauty. I think we are created to enjoy the life that’s given to us, but each person has different ways of concept, of enjoyment, because you can be joyful even if you don’t really have anything.
Me: There are a lot of people, poor and they’re very happy. In the Philippines (and those in the U.S.), they’re very joyful people, right? They’re always happy. And they don’t have to be high-powered executives. They’re just people working, hard-working people, and they’re very happy, right?
Nodelyn: But a lot of Filipinos have deep faith too.
Me: They’re Catholic.
Nodelyn: Yeah. That deep faith. And that we’re very gracious people. We know that everything that God has given to us are graces and we want to share it. And that when you share, you feel more joyful.
Me: It comes with God. Right? It comes with Him.
Sr. Nodelyn is also a writer and her latest article can be found here.
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