Upon This Tradition

Acknowledgements

To prepare this edition of the Upon This Tradition documents, the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses appointed me as editor in late 1999. To obtain background information on the composition of the original documents, I sent a questionnaire to the members of the writing committees of the five documents. They were also asked for their assessment of the completed document. I am grateful for their generous responses to my request. Some of their comments, which may be helpful in understanding the creation process and the effect of the documents, are included in the prologue to each document. In each prologue, I also attempted to provide the historical context and rationale which guided the original composition.

Four authors from the original writing committees responded to my request to write an update to follow each document. There are two questions underlying the content of each update: 1) How has this document been implemented since it was published? 2) What remains to be accomplished in the area addressed by the document? I authored the update to the first document, Upon This Tradition. The other four updates were authored as follows: Of Time Made Holy by Sister Cecilia Dwyer, of St. Benedict Monastery, Bristow, Virginia; Of All Good Gifts by Sister Mary Elizabeth Mason of Annunciation Monastery, Bismarck, North Dakota; Toward Full Discipleship by Sister Margaret Michaud of St. Bede Monastery, Eau Claire, Wisconsin; With A Listening Heart by Sister Dolores Dowling, of Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Clyde, Missouri.

To proofread the first draft as well as the final draft of this edition, I requested the help of my neighbor Sister Mary Elizabeth Mason of Bismarck. She accepted this daunting task with eagerness and exactitude. Three more readers, chosen from the writers of the original documents, provided further assistance: Sister Evangeline Anderson of Sacred Heart Monastery, Yankton, South Dakota; Sister Pia Rottinghaus of Immaculata Convent, Norfolk, Nebraska; and Sister Bede Luetkemeyer of Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Clyde, Missouri.

Guidelines, encouragement, and support for this project were offered by the current leadership of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses: Sister Judith Ann Heble of Sacred Heart Monastery, Lisle, Illinois, president of the Conference; Sister Mary Jane Romero of Clyde, Missouri, prioress general of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration; Sister Colleen Haggerty of Saint Benedict's Monastery, Saint Joseph, Minnesota, president of the Federation of Saint Benedict; Sister Esther Fangman of Mount Saint Scholastica Monastery, Atchison, Kansas, president of the Federation of Saint Scholastica; and Sister Kathryn Huber of Monastery Immaculate Conception, Ferdinand, Indiana, president of the Federation of Saint Gertrude. These sisters also undertook the task of proofreading the manuscript.

Appendix A contains reflection guides for personal use or group dialogue. These are adapted from study guides submitted by Saint Benedict's Monastery of Saint Joseph, Minnesota; Saint Scholastica Monastery of Fort Smith, Arkansas; and the Federation of Saint Scholastica. Appendix B contains the names of the original committee members and update authors. Appendix C is a diagram of the North American monasteries of Benedictine women. This is adapted from a diagram in the first Upon This Tradition, compiled by Sister Consilia Meyer of Mount Saint Scholastica Monastery, Atchison, Kansas; updated by Sister JoAnn Schmidt of Our Lady of Peace Monastery, Columbia, Missouri; and reprinted by postulant Dorene King of Sacred Heart Monastery, Richardton, North Dakota. [Note: This diagram is not included in this on-line version of Upon This Tradtion due to its size.] The five original booklets were given their attractive design by Benet Press of Erie, Pennsylvania, and I have adapted their covers for this edition.

The historical information in the Introduction and the five prologues was gleaned from past issues of CONFERENCE CALL, the newsletter of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses, and from minutes of the Conference meetings. I was assisted in locating these by Sister Mary Louise Krenner, of Mount Saint Scholastica, Atchison, Kansas, who is the archivist for the Conference. These resources may be found in the Conference archives at Atchison. These documents may also be found in the archives of most monasteries of American Benedictine women.

As editor, I wish to express my gratitude to those sisters who composed the five original documents and to the prioresses who perfected and promulgated them. I am indebted to those sisters who responded to my questionnaire of June 10, 2000, whose comments were of great assistance. Many sisters thus participated in producing this edition. I am especially grateful to the Conference of Prioresses for their recent decision to republish these documents and for the trust they placed in me as editor.