Sisters of St. Benedict - Our Lady of Grace Monastery

06/13/2026

It is with heavy hearts we inform you of the sudden death of Sr. Mary Seghers. Sr. Mary was a kind and loving person who was a devoted teacher throughout her career. She will be missed greatly. We humbly ask that you keep Sr. Mary, our Benedictine Community and her family in your prayers. Funeral arrangements are pending.

06/12/2026

Today we celebrate the wonderful life of Sr. Mary Carol Messmer who has reached the milestone of 103 years old today! She has had a wonderful life as a member of the Sisters of St. Benedict. Her teaching career began in 1946 and she was an educator in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, the Diocese of Evansville and in Florissant, Missouri. After leaving the classroom she was the Pastoral Associate at St. John Church in Starlight, Indiana until her retirement in 2005. For nearly 60 years, Sr. Mary Carol touched the lives of thousands of people. Her ready smile and loving heart certainly made an impression to all she met.

We are so very happy to be able to celebrate with her today and we invite you to remember her in a special way today.

05/17/2026

Today we welcomed three new members to our Oblate Community. Kae Evenensen,Seana Zoderer and Scott Swiontek, promised in front of our community, family members and friends to follow the Rule of St. Benedict in their every day lives. We are blessed to have these wonderful people join our Oblate Community.

Benedictine Oblates are men and women who live the Benedictine values in their home setting. For more information about becoming a Benedictine Oblate, please follow the lnk below.

https://www.olgmoblates.org/

05/16/2026

The new Monastery truly became our "home" today as we welcomed Archbishop Thompson for the Blessing of our Chapel and Dedication of our Altar. We held our first Mass in our Chapel and it was a joyous occasion. As prayer is central to our Monastic life, the Chapel is central to our community. To be able to come together in this beautiful space will only help to enhance our daily communal prayer. We are excited to be able to come together in this area as a community to praise God together. This awaited blessing and dedication has been the highlight of our move and we are approaching our future with much joy and anticipation.

For more photos, please follow the link below:
https://www.benedictine.com/dedication-and-blessing

05/14/2026

The dream is becoming a reality day after day. So many exciting things have been happening at the new Monastery and we are all settling into our new surroundings. If you have missed some of our posts about our progress or want to share our excitement with someone who may not be on Facebook, you can find all of the updates and pictures by following the link below.

Our Annual Angels of Grace Luncheon will be held on August 22, 2026. This event honors three women for their community service.  All proceeds benefit the Sisters of St. Benedict at Our Lady of Grace Monastery. 

05/13/2026

Many things are still happening at the new Monastery. Offices are being set-up and everything in the former Monastery has been moved into our new home. It is quite exciting and we are amazed each and every day how things are falling into place. The Chapel is coming along and our new Altar, Ambo and Tabernacle have been installed. They are all absolutely beautiful. Our statue of Mary that greets our many guests in front of the Monastery was replaced with a new statue on Tuesday. We are so grateful to our generous donor for this magnificent gift. Our blessings seem to be multiplying as our dream continues to come into focus. God is good!

05/10/2026

Today we celebrate all mothers ~ those who are with us and those who are enjoying the promise of Eternal Life. We all feel blessed to have had wonderful mothers and mother figures in our lives, and are grateful for their example and guidance. We wish each of you a Happy Mother's Day ~ may you be blessed abundantly for your many selfless acts.

05/07/2026

The excitement continues as we adjust to our new Monastery. Each day we are amazed at our beautiful surroundings. On Wednesday, another new venture came our way.

Our monastery pipe organ, originally built in 1982 has been given a new life by Goulding & Wood Pipe Organ Builders! It was featured at an Open House at their shop in downtown Indianapolis.

Our community wanted to continue to have a pipe organ in our new chapel because Benedictines have a long history and commitment to music and communal singing in their daily communal prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. Their liturgies have been accompanied by the organ since at least the 9th century because it is such a suitable instrument for these and all their liturgies. We have found this to be true, so we wanted to keep with this tradition.

Our organ pipes and windchests and other parts were still in good condition, so we wanted to practice good stewardship and reuse these. But the console (where the organist sits to play) needed to be replaced because of a lack of replacement parts as it aged, and the wiring was no longer up to code. So, the skilled craftsmen of Goulding & Wood designed and built us a beautiful brand new console and refurbished and reconfigured our organ pipes, windchests and other parts to serve us in our new monastery chapel. It is like having a brand new organ! We are looking forward to seeing and hearing it play in our new chapel!

Our hearts are filled with gratitude for our organ builders and for the very generous donor who made this possible.

05/03/2026

On Sunday, May 3rd the Sisters gathered outside the new Chapel as Fr. Jim Farrell, our Chaplain and our Prioress, Sr. Julie Sewell blessed the Monastery. It was a wonderful moment as we each realized we were officially in our new home. Joy filled our hearts and this new chapter of our community has begun. We held our first Eucharistic Liturgy in our temporary Chapel and dined together for our Sunday meal. It certainly was an important day for us and we look forward to other exciting events in our future.

05/02/2026

It was a rather quiet Saturday at the Monastery today. However, with all that has happened this past week, the Sisters were quite happy to have some down time. The day was spent mostly getting more boxes emptied and getting used to our new surroundings. But of course the quiet didn't last all day because we had to have a Derby Party this evening. Not much can keep us from having a party ~ not even a major move. We gathered in the meeting room to watch the Kentucky Derby with hats and special snacks and drinks. It was a very nice departure from unpacking. It has been a wonderful day in our new home.