Invitation To A Placid Life

IT MAY BE the ultimate career change: Women in midlife are finding a new purpose at St. Placid's Priory, an aptly named community of Benedictine sisters in Lacey.

LACEY, Thurston County - Not far from the roar of Interstate 5 and the jangle of quick-service businesses on Martin Way is a monastic retreat so serene that its name seems a perfect fit - St. Placid Priory.

That this home to 30 Catholic sisters of the Order of St. Benedict was actually named for Placid, a boy monk who, by legend, was miraculously saved from drowning, takes nothing away from the enchantment of this wooded spot, one of the best-kept secrets in Western Washington.

From 8 a.m., when the first community prayers of the day are said, to 6:45 p.m., when evening praise commences, the religious women here combine a contemplative way of life with an active ministry that reaches as far back as Washington's pioneer days.

The first Benedictine Sisters arrived in 1892 to teach at Holy Rosary Grade School in Tacoma. Today, members of the Lacey-based community can be found teaching chemistry at the University of Portland, working on child-care policy for the Department of Social and Health Services in Olympia, doing jail ministry for local counties and even providing management analysis to the Washington State Patrol.

If your image of religious women comes only from the Hollywood screen, pick Sister Helen Prejean, featured in the movie "Dead Man Walking," over the nuns in the "Sound of Music" for a truer picture of the lives and works of Catholic sisters today.

Over the weekend, the St. Placid Priory, or monastery, opened its doors to women interested in the monastic way of life. In the past seven years, seven women have joined the community and are proceeding through the five stages of formation that lead to a Benedictine life.

This year, five women registered for the "Monastic Experience Weekend," which began Friday night.

The Sisters of St. Benedict are one of 43 communities of women religious in the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, covering Western Washington. It is not a cloistered community, like the Carmelite Nuns living in solitude in North Seattle. Nor is it an apostolic community, like the Sisters of Providence or the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, known so well for their health-care and peace and justice ministries, respectively.

The hallmark of the monastic Benedictine Sisters is their focus on prayer and community. Their ministry grows from that.

In an airy chapel looking out on a stand of Douglas fir, alder and maple, the sisters gather for the Liturgy of the Hours - Psalms, canticles, spiritual readings and songs - at 8 a.m., 11:50 a.m. and 6:45 p.m., and for Mass at 5 p.m. Guests at the adjoining Priory Spirituality Center, as well as friends and neighbors in the surrounding area, are welcome to join the worship.

Prayer, said Sister Lucy Wynkoop, a member of the community, serves "to constantly remind us of who we are and what we are about. . . . It brings a tranquility and peace, which flows into our relationships and our work."

If you are true to Jesus Christ, added Sister Sharon McDonald, St. Placid's prioress, you cannot help but have service and charity as part of who you are.

"The reign of God is within. . . .The first word in the Rule of Benedict is `listen,' " McDonald said. It was Benedict, the 6th-century abbot who renounced paganism to live in solitude in a cave outside Rome, who spoke of listening with the "ear of the heart," the Benedictine Sisters noted.

The other hallmark of this religious community is its hospitality. The public is invited to join the Benedictine Sisters for prayer and meals, and many do.

For Sister Laura Swan, the monastic life has proven to be anything but isolating.

"What happens socially is that we grow to be more expansive in terms of whom we let in our lives," said Swan, who works at the Spirituality Center, with its 10 dormitory-style guest rooms and conference facilities available for rent. Friends and family remain, but you embrace so many other people as well, she said.

Swan, who made her final profession to the Benedictine way of life on St. Patrick's Day this year, typifies the women who have recently been joining the community. They are making midlife changes. Swan is a former claims representative who worked for several different insurance companies. She owned a home in Bellevue. She hadn't gone looking for a religious life.

But in 1985, a friend took her to a Benedictine monks' retreat in Mt. Angel, Ore. "I didn't realize there were monasteries in this country. I thought they were medieval museum pieces found in Europe," she said.

Swan fell in love with Benedictine spirituality, with its liturgy, chants and appreciation of the arts, education and libraries.

Swan, who is 41, said the business world was not her first love, and that owning a house had become more of a task than a joy. After learning about St. Placid Priory in 1988, Swan began coming for monthly retreats, then in the fall of 1989 became an affiliate, the first stage of formation in becoming a religious sister. She has sold her house and almost all her possessions, and now lives in the community.

Many of the sisters joined the community out of high school. But among the newer members are two formerly married women with grown sons. Another is a former business executive. Sister Maureen O'Larey, who first introduced Shaw to the Benedictines in 1985, was working in the computer industry.

"People who come to us are looking for something more from life than materialism or success in a career," said Sister Monika Ellis, the sub-prioress and director of vocations at St. Placid.

In turn, she said, the Benedictine community asks only one question: What do you seek?

"St. Benedict says listen to whether the candidate says, `I seek God,' " Ellis said.

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St. Placid Priory

The priory is at 500 College St. N.E., Lacey. For more information, call 1-360-438-1771.