Black Hills Benedictine

Want More?

Like many of us today, St. Benedict, who lived about 1500 years ago, was looking for something more. As a student in Rome, he wanted more than an education. His heart yearned for a deeper relationship with God. He left Rome and lived in a remote cave where he could seek the God who was seeking him. Those days of intense prayer changed Benedict into a mature, compassionate man to whom God entrusted many followers who were also looking for more. Together they formed a community in which they could support one another in their search for fufillment in God.

God seeks each of us in a unique way. Each of us Benedictine Sisters at St. Martin Monastery has her own special vocation story, but the focus of each is a heart looking for more.

What is your special story?

Have you found the "more" of your heart's desire?

Times have changed, but our hearts still yearn for more...more faith, more love, more challenges, more oppourtunities to serve. We who follow Benedict's rule of life today are asked the same questions that were asked many years ago:

Do you really want more of God?

Does your heart long for deeper prayer?

Do you have energy to spend in the service of others?

Finding More... you do it in stages:

Spend a weekend. Contact a vocation director and get acquainted.

Become an affiliate when you're ready to begin discernment of a future with us. Meet and correspond with the vocation director and spend time with us occasionally.

Move to the monastery. As a postulant, discover what day-to-day life on the "inside" is like. You may have a job or continue your education during these nine to twelve months.

Listen, trust, and grow in the way of St. Benedict as you pray, reflect, study and work with us during a year of novitiate. Check out the "more" of monastic life and see if it feels right for you.

Give your heart, all that you have and are, to the Lord through your temporary monastic profession. Then through your ministry find ways to share the "more" that God has revealed to you.

Say it's for life when you make your perpetual monastic profession after three or more years of temporary commitment.

Benedictine Camp-In
Annual summer camp for young women. Call for schedule.

Benedictine Experience
A week-long live-in to experience our prayer, our work, our life.
Call for schedule.

Vocation Discernment Weekend
Scheduled upon request.