Our Charism, Mission and Core Values

Our Charism:

We are Benedictine women of Yankton, SD, sharing our gift of seeking God through prayer, work, study and community life.

Our Mission:

Rooted in our rural heritage and growing in relationship with God and one another in monastic community, we live a life of prayer, work, and lectio by which we serve God and God’s people in our time and place.

Our Core Values:

As we seek God, we consider these three values as central to our lives. Flowing from our mission statement, the Gospel, and the Rule of St. Benedict, they are values which we invite others to share with us.

AWARENESS OF GOD

• Seeking God in our prayer together and savoring the word of Scripture;
• Listening for the Divine voice in the stillness of our own hearts;
• Regarding the ordinary with reverence: our work and prayer, people, places, material things, events.

COMMUNITY

• Building trustful and loving relationships with God, with one another, with planet earth, and with our deepest selves;
• Striving to give and to receive in balance and honesty for the good of the world;
• Practicing collaboration and cooperation;
• Learning the daily arts of forgiveness and peacemaking.

HOSPITALITY

• Warmly welcoming others as Christ—those with whom we live as well as guests and strangers;
• Opening our hearts and our doors to those pushed to the edges of life: the sick, the needy, the elderly;
• Sharing communal and personal gifts in compassionate service to others.

The charism entrusted to Benedictines is the call to seek God in cenobitic (monastic) community, to praise God through prayer and ministry, and to listen with eagerness to the Spirit’s call into the un-known future. The charism is both flexible and stable. It is an on-going task and an ever-present gift, calling for a faithful response each day.