WELCOME TO NORTH / story from Chitwood Media on Vimeo.
Since December of 2014, we have been convening a group of women and men who are discerning their calls to co-found a Resident Visitation Lay Community alongside us in north Minneapolis.
Some of the questions we are wrestling with include:
What is the call of the laity? What does it mean to be community? How do we “live+Jesus”, as our founders said, in north Minneapolis? How are stability and freedom, the Spirit and one-ness part of our calls to be present in this economically and culturally diverse place?
On Sunday, May 31, 2015, S. Mary Margaret creatively launched our discerning-community-gathering with a prayer using two videos. These short, award-winning films, playing here, were produced by our friends Morgan and Josh Chitwood. We invite you to watch them and hold us -and our discerning friends- in prayer.
Together, may we rise up to meet the joyful challenges of founding this new community and living responsively to the call of the Spirit and the union of beloved community that Jesus calls us all to in his name.
Will you join us in prayer?
THE LAST PRAYER / story from Chitwood Media on Vimeo.
Posted in Salesian Spirituality, Urban Monastery, Visitation Engagment Programs Tagged Chitwood Media, Discernment, Feast of the Visitation, Josh Chitwood, Morgan Chitwood, North Minneapolis, Prayer, Resident Lay Community, Resident Visitation lay community, The Last Prayer, Urban Monastery, Vimeo, Welcome to North!

To honor the 25th anniversary of our founding, and to celebrate and thank the many people who have made our presence here possible, the Visitation Sisters of Minneapolis invite you to join us and our Master of Ceremonies, Father Michael O’Connell, for an evening of hospitality, prayer & sharing dreams.
Saturday, October 4, 2014 5:30-7:30 pm
Program begins at 5:30
Capri Theatre
2017 West Broadway Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55411
Please RSVP by Monday, September 29
612-529-8215 or maryfranreis@aol.com
www.visitationmonasteryminneapolis.org
Posted in Calendar/ Events, Snapshots from the Sisters, Urban Monastery Tagged 25th Anniversary, 25th Anniversary Year, Photos by Jennifer Larson, S Mary Frances Reis, S. Karen Mohan, S. Katherine Mullin, S. Mary Virginia Schmidt, S. Suzanne Homeyer, School of Visitation, St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal, Urban Monastery, VHM

Mark your calendars!
A message from S. Mary Frances Reis, VHM:
Hello all!
Neighborhood Night of Peace is coming up! This is the North Minneapolis Visitation Monastery’s effort —
partnering with Basilica, the Mosque, Ascension and neighbors — to get Northside families together for
a peace-filled evening of fun, food and DOOR PRIZES.
It would be wonderful if you could participate by donating any items such as household goods, school supplies, pots & pans, sheets, bath towels, gift cards from Cub, Walgreens or Target. OR, if you would like to make a monetary donation, we are happy to shop for you.
Help us spread the word….please join us at the event!
Door prizes can be dropped off at 1619 Girard Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55411…..preferably
before August 1st so we can organize. Kristi Klukas and Mary Pat Gallivan are managing this part of the event
as well as prizes for the children’s games so we are grateful for any and all donations of $$ or goods.
Checks should be made payable to Visitation Monastery
and mailed to:
Sr. Mary Frances Reis
1619 Girard Av No.
Minneapolis MN 55411
Thanks for your support!!
Posted in Calendar/ Events, Uncategorized, Urban Monastery, Visitation Engagment Programs Tagged Basilica of St. Mary's, Church of the Ascension, Mosque, Neighborhood Night of Peace, NNOP, Urban Monastery
The following article comes from our Winter 2014 Newsletter: Number 75.

“What will our future community look like?”
What will our future community look like?
We are aware that more and more lay people are deeply committed to the values and virtues of Visitation/ Salesian Spirituality but not necessarily to the vows.
For 25 years we have lived, deepened, evolved by continued reflection and discernment where we find the will of God. Our first endeavor to meet the above mentioned awareness we called The Visitation Neighbors, a group of men and women, living in community in our neighborhood and participating in our life as far as possible. That group evolved into The Visitation Companions, a broader based group of people now numbering about twenty, not necessarily residing in the neighborhood, but connected to the Monastery.
The “engagements” that were added two years ago now include: The Monastic Immersion Experience, when women can come to live the monastic life with the Sisters for up to one year; The Visitation Internship Program when women or men can volunteer for one year to live and serve in the neighborhood.
Now we envision a Visitation community of laity alongside the monastic community of vowed religious who would embrace the will of God by living Jesus in the midst of our immediate neighborhood. They would have a life of prayer; would extend hospitality, embrace diversity, become self-sufficient, practice mutuality in

leadership as they minister and serve; all done in LOVE. This group would enter into the ministry and activities the Sisters now have, join in the monastic prayer at times and share in the mission to be a prayerful presence in North Minneapolis.
The members could be single men or women, married, families with children, living in north Minneapolis, building on relationships established by the sisters the past 25 years.
So what will our community look like in the future?
By Mary Virginia Schmidt, originally from the St. Louis Visitation Monastery, is one of the founding members of the Minneapolis Monastery.
Posted in Monastic Immersion Experience, Newsletter, Salesian Spirituality, Uncategorized, Urban Monastery, Visitation Companions, Visitation Engagment Programs, Visitation Interns Tagged 25th Anniversary Year, Laity, Monastic Immersion Experience, News from the Northside, Photos by Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde, S. Mary Virginia Schmidt, St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal, Urban Monastery, VIP, Visitation Companions, Visitation engagement, Visitation Internship Program, Visitation Minneapolis, Visitation Monastery Minneapolis, Vowed Life
And Lent begins….
We welcome your creative captioning on any one of the following images taken at our Fremont House and our Ash Wednesday commencement services. Please enter your proposed title(s) in the Comments section below. Thanks!


Posted in Snapshots from the Sisters, Uncategorized, Urban Monastery Tagged Ash Wednesday, Ashes, Carrying the Cross, Cross, Fremont House, Lent Begins, Lenten Journey, North Minneapolis, Photo by Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde, Urban Monastery, Visitation Monastery Minneapolis
The following post is from our Newsletter Archives. It first appeared in our Winter 1994 Newsletter.*
by S. Mary Margaret McKenzie, VHM
Homelessness happens: tenants have to move because a landlord can’t meet the mortgage payment; a single parent needs more space for growing children; a family of nine cannot stay indefinitely with already crowded relatives, but what the law requires for housing seven children is not affordable; a person in recovery from chemical abuse slips, loses his job and therefore, his apartment; a young woman volunteering her time and talent for the enrichment of children no longer has a place when the outreach is cut back; a young mother involved in some “activity” has to move before she is evicted or reported; another mother away from her abusive husband with two small children knows the quickest eviction of all from a catastrophic fire. Theres are our neighbors, our friends, and their options are few.
“..until we could enter into our own suffering, we would not be able to support others in theirs.”
The man in recovery sleeps on a shelter floor for the first time. The large family is dreading the shelter, but if they go, they will get emergency help from subsidizing housing which has a two year waiting list. Without newspaper, phone or car the long search for a “place to stay” begins. We have never heard the homeless talk about a place to “live.“
It did not occur to me as a child, even though I grew up during the Depression, that homelessness could happen. Children in North Minneapolis know that it does. The young boy whose name means, “heart of the valley” came home from school one day to find that he was moving that afternoon. His mother told him to come with his little sister to say “goodbye” to us. They appeared at the door during Evening Prayer in too much shock and pain to talk, just looking at us out of a numbness that was holding on to everything. They left with many embraces and a care package. Each time they turned to wave, another one of us began to cry.
“Prayer does bond us in our mutual suffering.”
Archbishop Roach warned us that it would be “hard, very difficult, terrible, awful” to stand with such pain and be helpless. We were not expecting it to come in the homelessness that seems to have plagued the neighborhood this winter. We have often recalled the counsel of Bishop Carlson that until we could enter into our own suffering, we would not be able to support others in theirs.
“Windsock time” with the children has prepared us for “phone time” with some who use our phone to make real estate appointments. While they wait for calls to be returned, we pray with them or they join us for one of Hours of the Office. One woman brought her sister-in-law along just for the prayer. Prayer does bond us in our mutual suffering, and once prayer brought a friend willing to make his properties affordable to to any reliable tenants we could recommend. Also, there is that amazing grace that flows in and through and around us when the homeless stand by us, too, in our helplessness in helping them and we learn that the “heart of the valley” is not the terrain of hopelessness.
***
Original article: Homelessness by SMM Winter Newsletter 1994
Posted in Contemplative Posts, Uncategorized, Urban Monastery Tagged Archbishop Roach, Archives, Bishop Carlson, Children, da homeless mother and child, Homelessness, Minneapolis, Newsletter, North Minneapolis, S. Mary Margaret McKenzie, Suffering, the artofgriffin, Urban Monastery, Visitation Monastery north MInneapolis, Windsock Time

Join us at St. Jane House for this Zen Arts Weaving Meditation experience!
by Brian Mogren, St. Jane House Director and Visitation Companion
February 14-18, 2014
St. Jane House, 1403 Emerson Ave. N., Minneapolis
For five days in February, the St. Jane House will become a Pop-Up SAORI Weaving Studio! The fun begins with a special Valentine’s Date Night event on February 14th, and includes a Zen meditation retreat as well as opportunities for parents and children to create unique works of art together.
Certified SAORI weavers Chiaki and Dan O’Brien will lead sessions in this contemporary Japanese style of weaving that celebrates self-expression, sees beauty in “imperfection”, facilitates healing, and reveals the uniqueness and dignity of each person.
Nine looms and a variety of threads and textures will be made available. If you wish, you are invited to bring your own materials as well to incorporate into your creation: cut up strips of worn clothing/fabrics, unraveled yarn, heirloom jewelry, shells, twigs…anything you might like to work into your piece to make it your own.
All workshops and retreats are donation-based, “pay what you can” (with exception of the Valentine’s Day fundraising event). A portion of the proceeds from all sessions will support the acquisition of a SAORI loom for the St. Jane House.
Some of the events include:*
Feb. 14th: Valentine’s Date Night Dinner Event
Feb. 15th: Two Mothers and YO MAMA Art of Mothering retreats
Feb. 16th: Zen Meditation Weaving Retreat
Feb. 17th: Family Weaving Workshops
Feb. 18th: “Be Who You Are” Open Weaving Workshop
Space is limited. Click to learn about each of the 9 sessions being offered and to register.
Personal SAORI Weaving Retreats at the St. Jane House
If you are unable to attend any of these events, but would like to contribute to the cause, a tax-deductible donation can be made to help acquire a loom for the St. Jane House. As an expression of our gratitude, those who contribute $50 or more will have an opportunity to enjoy a personal weaving retreat at the St. Jane House during 2014.
Check out photos and get updates on Facebook event page.
*SELECT EVENT INFO:
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Share the Love” Valentine Date Night Event
Friday, February 14, 6pm – 9:30pm
St. Jane House
1403 Emerson Ave. N., Minneapolis’
The popular Zen Box Izakaya Pub and Kitchen is teaming up with the St. Jane House and SAORI Studio Fun to create the “Share the Love” Valentine’s Date Night Event on February 14, 2014, from 6pm – 9:30pm. Enjoy drinks and a candle-lit dinner for two, complements of this local Asian restaurant, followed by a 2-hour couples weaving session with certified SAORI weavers Chiaki & Dan O’Brien. Leave with a beautiful work of art you and your sweetheart create together. Wine, beer and other beverages included. $125 donation per couple. The proceeds from this fundraising event will help acquire a SAORI loom for the St. Jane House. Space is limited. RSVP today. |
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Zen Meditation Weaving Retreat
Sunday, February 16, 10am-3pm
St. Jane House
1403 Emerson Ave. N., Minneapolis
Certified SAORI instructor and meditation teacher Dan O’Brien will lead this retreat that incorporates weaving with awareness, as well as breaks for meditation and discussion. People of all spiritual traditions will find this a welcoming, ecumenical experience. Lunch provided. Participants will create a unique piece of woven art. In the Zen tradition, people donate based on their means. Space is limited. Reserve your spot today. |
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“Be Who You Are” Open Weaving Workshops
Sunday, February 16, 5pm – 8pm
Tuesday, February 18, 9am – noon
St. Jane House, 1403 Emerson Ave. N. MinneapolisEnjoy three hours of “weaving with a happy heart” with SAORI instructor Chiaki O’Brien. In this free-style form of weaving, there are no mistakes and beauty is seen in imperfection. Participants will create a unique piece of woven art that is an expression of their deepest self.Light snacks and beverages provided. OptionalCentering Prayer session at 8am precedes Tuesday morning workshop. Space is limited.Reserve your spot today. |
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Family Weaving Workshops
Monday, February 17, 10am – 1pm, 2pm – 5pm
St. Jane House 1403 Emerson Ave. N., Minneapolis
These two special sessions on President’s Day provide an opportunity for parents and their children to weave together a variety of colors, threads and textures to create a unique piece of art that will become a family keepsake. Consider bringing meaningful textiles, fabrics, jewelry, etc. from your family’s history to incorporate into your creation. Also open to mentors and the young people in their lives. Space is limited. Sign up today. |
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Posted in Calendar/ Events, St. Jane House, Uncategorized Tagged Brian Mogren, Chiaki O'Brien, Dan O'Brien, Director, Family Ministry, Mary Johnson, Meditation, Prayer, SAORI Studio Fun, St. Jane House, Urban Monastery, Zen Box Izakaya Pub and Kitchen, Zen Weaving
By S. Mary Margaret McKenzie in collaboration with Brian Mogren

You are invited to the FIFTH Anniversary Celebration of the St. Jane House Sunday, June 9, 2013 1403 Emerson Ave North Open House: 1-4 pm Program with special guests: 2 pm RSVP by June 1 to vmonastery@aol.com or to 612-521-9282 (St. Jane House phone number)
Five years ago in our long range planning we envisioned a third house. This was inspired by our need to respond to many persons who were drawn to enter into our neighborhood ministry more than into our monastic lifestyle. This would be their house more than ours and could accommodate both men and women for overnight retreats or hospitality. It would be called the St. Jane House.
Where would it be, and how could we maintain and direct it? Clearly this would have to be God’s “make-over.”
When Brian Mogren heard what we were mulling and that we were looking to rent rather than buy, he offered his newly built, beautiful home on Emerson—his commitment to the neighborhood. He had given up his job as graphic designer for Target to give his time and talent full time to the Northside. Plus, his instincts had already directed him to and steeped him in Salesian spirituality.
Under Brian’s direction and gift of making dynamic connections we find ourselves sponsoring and at times participating in outreach ministry that embraces:
• The practice of centering prayer
• Support in living discerning lives
• Bringing together for dialogue those who need a neutral space
• Healing for those suffering because of violence and killing
• Openness to forgiveness and reconciliation
• Offering retreats to a variety of groups and individuals
• The home-base for Vis Companions
• Discussion groups around inspiring books and films
• Encouraging and developing lay leadership
• A safe place for teens to be developed as leaders
• Urban immersion for college and high school groups
• A safe place for people to connect across differences to discover our common humanity
All of this is fertile ground for the growth of Salesian spirtuality and holy ground for contemplative presence and hospitality.
As we ready ourselves to celebrate the 5th anniversary of St. Jane House, we are anticipating a new portrait of St. Jane by our dear brother and friend Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS. We also see more clearly what God has created out of our visioning—a very specifically focused Salesian Spirituality Center. The primary sources and resources offered are persons relating and inter-relating—our gift to neighboring that has even gone global with the heartfelt use of social media to Live Jesus.
Posted in St. Jane House, Uncategorized, Urban Monastery Tagged Brian Mogren, Bridging, Hospitality, Neighboring, North Minneapolis, Retreats, Salesian Spirituality, Salesian Spirituality Center, Spirituality Center, Sr. Mary Margaret McKenzie vhm, St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal, St. Jane House, Urban Ministry, Urban Monastery

Smoke Signals: Cardinals are Voting to Elect a New Pope
by Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde, Visitation Companion
What does the future hold? What does the life of a religious look like moving into this next year, decade, century? What roles do the laity play in fashioning or supporting the presence of a monastic community in the inner city? In the larger world? How is the Holy Spirit leading us all in this season of change and growth?
These are some of my questions as I sit down to pray and reflect this day.
In Rome, the cardinals are discerning the start of their next conclave to elect a new pope for the Catholic church. These religious men are meeting and talking and praying. They are listening to their hearts, tuning into the needs of the church, and leaning into the Holy Spirit, as She calls them to whatever is next. They are prayerfully discerning what and who will be part of their — OUR — future as Catholics.
And I wonder how this is similar to us, here, in Minneapolis, as we prepare for our next prayerful meeting on Wednesday evening reflecting on our future. While we are not electing a new leader to the Visitation Sisters of north Minneapolis — the convening of our sisters, vocation partners, and companions with questions of our next steps –feels connected to the discerning papal energy in Italy, and the palpable energy that must be the Spirit among us.
“What’s next?”
Last week, in Pope Benedict XVI’s final speech to the College of Cardinals, he offered the following words that inspired me. Quoting Romano Guardini, the Pope said:
Guardini says: “The Church is not an institution devised and built at table, but a living reality. She lives along the course of time by transforming Herself, like any living being, yet Her nature remains the same. At Her heart is Christ.”
Pope Benedict goes on to apply this to his peers:
This was our experience yesterday, I think, in the square. We could see that the Church is a living body, animated by the Holy Spirit, and truly lives by the power of God, She is in the world but not of the world. She is of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, as we saw yesterday. This is why another eloquent expression of Guardini’s is also true: “The Church is awakening in souls.” The Church lives, grows and awakens in those souls which like the Virgin Mary accept and conceive the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. They offer to God their flesh and in their own poverty and humility become capable of giving birth to Christ in the world today. Through the Church the mystery of the Incarnation remains present forever. Christ continues to walk through all times in all places.
These words from the Holy Father take me to some recently written by the head of the Visitation Community –Sr. Mary Frances Reis, vhm. In a recent email about our Visitation newsletters, Sr. Mary Frances expressed this aliveness of our community and its change and growth since our founding on the northside 20+ years ago. She wrote: “We have been publishing our monastic newsletter for 23 years now. As [our Jesuit friend] Jim Radde has commented and continues to comment, ‘Go back and read the letters from the beginning, and you will discover how the Spirit’s work among us has evolved.’” She continues, “I personally believe that this has been a wonderful way to keep folks that do not ‘come and see’ to be apprised of the Spirit’s work here. If you go back to look at about the last 5 newsletters (published on the website) you will see many articles by the laity to inform our many constituents, friends and benefactors of our ‘ever expanding community.'”
And so it goes. And so it shall be. The Holy Spirit will guide us and animate our beings as we respond to the call of our founders, St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal, “living Jesus!” as holy men and women in our present circumstances envisioning our diverse monastic community in north Minneapolis. Please keep us in prayer as we convene and discern!
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged College of Cardinals, Future, Holy Spirit, Papal Conclave, Pope Benedict XVI, Religious Life, Sr. Mary Frances Reis VHM, Urban Monastery, Visitation Companions, Visitation Engagement Programs
Photo by Sr. Katherine Mullin, vhm

Care to provide a creative caption? Share one in the comment section below!
This past weekend our neighborhood kids were taken by Visitation School students to Holidazzle! They all came back to the monastery for cocoa, cookies and Christmas carols around the fire. Some entertained, some were entertained. All had fun! –SK2
To see more photos from our Advent gatherings, visit us on Facebook.
Posted in Snapshots from the Sisters, Urban Monastery Tagged advent, Advent Celebrations, Facebook, Holidazzle, Photos, Photos by Sr. Katherine Mullin, Sr. Katherine Mullin, Urban Monastery, Visitation Monastery north MInneapolis, Visitation School and Convent, Visitation Students