Mission and Values - Duluth Benedictines

Mission Statement

We, the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery, Duluth, Minnesota, are monastic women who seek God in community through a life of prayer and work. Living in accordance with the Gospel, the Rule of St. Benedict, and the General and Specific Norms of the Monastic Congregation of St. Benedict, we respond to the needs of the Church and the world through our ministries.

Vision Statement

In light of our Benedictine values, wherever we live and minister we seek to be:

a center of prayer, worship, and praise,
a wellspring of spiritual growth,
a place of welcome, inclusion, compassion, and hope.

We commit to be of service individually, communally, and through our ministry of sponsorship. We will minister to the body, mind, and spirit of those whom we encounter, especially the poor and the powerless. We will care for the earth, our common home. We will support and encourage those who seek vowed religious life and will nurture alternate forms of Benedictine life.

Our days are centered on communal and personal prayer and on the meditative reading of scripture. As we grow ever closer to Christ, our eyes and ears are opened to others around us, and we hear God’s calling to become Christ in our human relationships. Thus our prayer leads directly to ministry and work.

Work is key to Benedictine spirituality. It is through creative and productive work that we become co-creators of God’s world. In St. Benedict’s time, only slaves and the poor had to work. St. Benedict, on the other hand, saw work as redemptive and creative, a way to pray while using one’s God-given talents. We encourage each other to develop our individual talents and rejoice in the sharing of these gifts through our variety of ministries.