Sister Miriam Schnoebelen, OSB
I grew up in a small rural community in Northwest Oklahoma and know for sure that the seeds for living, according to the Rule of Benedict, were planted, nurtured and modeled by my family. As a high school student, the experience of World War II created a dilemna and launched questions within me like, "How can I help make the world a better place to live in?" That question really pulsated when, in peer gab sessions, I heard my friends hoping to be married soon after high school graduation. I thought, "I, too, want to be married and have a family but I know there is something bigger out there for me to do first." Be a nun? You've got to be kidding! While running the other direction during a whole semester at college I discovered that, for a young woman in my known-world, this was probably my only choice if I really want to do that something-bigger which I dreamed about.

So enter the Benedictine Community I did - feeling much like the Prophet Habakkuk whose story went something like this, when I first heard it as a child. "Habakkuk had a hard time believing what God was asking of him so God picked Habakkuk up by the hairs of his head and plopped this 'fella' down where God wanted him to be."

It is a surprise to me, too, that 55 years later I am still here. Other than just knowing that I have been 'plopped' down in the right places at the right times, I 'stay at the table' because I know that I could never have done that something-bigger alone. The gifts I have to offer and my passion for a just-peace are affirmed in a daily way by the charism and mission of this Benedictine Community and by the women who vigorously share the same vision of wholeness for the community, for the world and for all those with whom and to whom we minister.