The Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, SD

Sister Jodelle Seeks God Through Monastic and Family Roots

In 1982 Jodelle Zimmerman knocked on the door of Scared Heart Monastery, and was asked the question “What do you seek?” To which she answered, “God”; and her answer remains the same today. S. Jodelle, daughter of Barney and Valerie Zimmerman of Westphalia, IA, met the Yankton Benedictine Sisters while at UNL. During her first years in the monastery, she continued her study and search of God through the Holy Rule and Scripture; and made final profession in 1989.

In 1985 S. Jodelle continued her “seeking of God” as she accepted ministry challenges at O’Gorman High School in Sioux Falls, SD, where she taught biology and chemistry; as well as at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln, NE, where she taught Religion and was Director of Religious Education.

In 1994 S. Jodelle began a new ministry at Avera St. Benedict’s Hospital in Parkston, SD. She is presently the Chaplain of the Avera St. Benedict’s Hospital, Nursing Home, and Assisted Living complex. As a certified Chaplain, S. Jodelle visits and prays with patients and residents; and brings Communion to them on a regular basis. When speaking of her ministry, S. Jodelle states, “I enter a patent's or resident's room with a great sense of privilege. The people, especially the elderly, share so beautifully their life story-hard times and good times. They seem always to remember with a great sense of gratitude, and an ongoing sense of hope.” The people S. Jodelle visits often share with her their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. As part of the Care Planning Team, she is able to bring these needs to the attention of the team. “This,” S. Jodelle states, “helps me to do something concrete about a certain ‘sense of helplessness’ one feels when ministering to the sick.” “It is not difficult to seek God among the elderly and those in pain; they share their ‘God Story’, often without even knowing it.”

This past summer S. Jodelle participated in a Benedictine program of study called “Deepening our Monastic Roots” in Rome, Italy. Sisters from the US, Australia, and Mexico gathered to study the Rule and their common heritage, share experiences, and visit places near and dear to the heart of a Benedictine. The sisters went far below the present Rome to see the excavations that have revealed “house churches” from the first century. These churches were private homes; and it is there that early Christianity grew and flourished. “St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel left me with a sense that I reached across time to previous centuries and encountered people who had left their mark on Christianity and the world,” says S. Jodelle. “We walked where Benedict and Scholastica walked” S. Jodelle shares, “in Nursia, their birth city, and in Rome, where Benedict studied and discerned his vocation.” “We visited and prayed at Subiaco in the cave of Benedict; and in Monte Cassino where he founded a monastery. The Rule of Benedict came alive for me,” says S. Jodelle.

After completing the program in Rome, S. Jodelle traveled to Maria Rickenbach in Switzerland, the founding monastic community of Sacred Heart Monastery. She also connected with her family roots in Austria and Germany, where she visited family, churches, cemeteries, and homes of relatives. To seek God is a lifetime endeavor-to seek God through monastic roots and family roots is the lifetime endeavor of this Benedictine Sister.