During her second year of teaching after graduating from Mount Marty College, S. Penny Bingham says. "I had a sense of wanting something more—more than my life as a single woman and teacher. "I wanted more support and guidance in seeking God." In hindsight she thinks, "It was probably God wanting more of me." What he wanted was apparently an answer to his call to become a member of Sacred Heart Monastery.

 What keeps her at the monastery? The same things that attracted her: a commitment to seek God in community through prayer and work; and sharing the support and challenge of others committed to living gospel values. "God's grace, experienced in the people and events of each day, keeps me here and keeps me going."

For 12 years S. Penny experienced living in a variety of places, as her family moved according to the requirements of her father's work with the Corps of Engineers—from Massachusetts, to Alaska, to Hawaii, and to Lake Andes, South Dakota. Here S. Penny became rooted in the prairie soil. Here she learned to appreciate the rural environment.

Since completing an M.A. in Pastoral Ministry at St. John's University, Collegeville, MN, S. Penny has resided ten months of the year at what she calls "the mission monastery on Broadway" in Centerville, where she serves as parish minister at Good Shepherd Parish there and at St. Teresa Parish in Beresford.

Prior ministries include 10 years as elementary teacher in Lincoln, NE, and Sioux Falls, SD, and eight years as assistant to the elderly at the monastery. 

"Parish ministry, S. Penny says, "allows for all kinds of experiences. Ba­sically, we share life, its laughter and tears."

Activities in the parish are many and varied. They include teaching Confirmation students; supporting CCD teach­ers; helping with Vaca­tion Bible School; provid­ing for adult classes; training for liturgical roles; conducting services at nursing homes; sitting with the dying; and being part of parish life in all its aspects.

S. Penny sees being available and present as a key way of spreading gospel and Benedictine values.  “Often, this don by way of the ‘ministry of the coffee cup.’ ”

Her love of the small town sense of community is evident in her ongoing work in promoting rural commitment in the monastery.  “I appreciate the rootedness of the land because we are an agriculture-based economy.  People offer me the privilege of sharing in the tough and the tender moments of their lives.”

S. Penny is the daughter of Rita and the late Leonard Bingham.  She has two sisters and one brother.

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