Altar Bread Ministry Helps People Receive Jesus

The newest ministry at Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand – the distribution of altar bread, or communion hosts, to parishes in the Louisville area – is about as appropriate as could be for a religious community.

The previous distributor, the Carmelite Monastery in Louisville, certainly knew that when they went looking for someone to take over the business when they realized they could no longer keep up with it themselves. Sister Carol Curtis asked the Ferdinand Benedictines if they were interested, and Sister Barbara Lynn Schmitz, prioress, agreed, saying, “What we were really excited about is (that) this is something our senior sisters can do. It’s a real community-building venture for our sisters, and a real way they help in ministry.”

Since last October, around 10-14 senior Sisters of St. Benedict, including some from the Hildegard Health Center, have been sorting and packaging the communion hosts, which are sent out from the Monastery Gift Shop. Sisters Mary Leah Baehl and Beata Mehling coordinate the sorting and packaging, while Angi Seffernick, co-director of Monastery Goods and Services, manages the business end.

For Sister Mary Leah, who recently returned to Ferdinand after ministering for the sisters’ monastery in Peru since 1977, it’s a perfect assignment. “I love it, I really do, because it brings me old memories when we sit around the table with the other sisters and we talk,” she says. “It’s fun. It isn’t work. It gives me something to do, and I feel like I’m helping somebody. I come here and I leave all my concerns behind. And it’s a family project, it’s not just mine or Sister Beata’s, it’s the community’s. That’s the reason I love it.”

Sister Beata points to the spiritual aspect of the ministry. “I think of all the people being able to receive Jesus, just because we’re providing it to them by sending hosts to their parishes. And I especially think of all the little children who are receiving Jesus at their first communion, and how we’re helping make that possible.

“I also feel that working with the hosts is enriching for us sisters, because we feel like we’re doing something worthwhile.”

Sister Mary Leah wants to create a prayer that the sisters can recite before they begin working on the altar bread. She wants to pray for the people who are going to receive communion, particularly for the ones not really prepared, and for those who are sick. “I want the sisters that are here to know that they’re working for a cause, and that it’s for the good of someone,” she says softly, passionately. “I don’t want us to just do it because it’s a job, but we’re doing it because someone is going to receive Jesus.”

Sisters Beata and Mary Leah were picked to coordinate the new ministry because they’ve managed other operations in their careers and have a gift for bringing other people on board and working with them. 

Sister Carol, who coordinated the distribution before it transferred to Ferdinand, traveled to the monastery to explain the operation to the sisters. “Working with the sisters those few days, it was a joy to see how ‘at home’ the altar bread work was among them,” she said. “They are quick learners, with good ideas on how to adapt it to their situation, such as getting gloves and hairnets from the kitchen to wear while handling hosts. We are grateful the work is being continued as a ministry and will help support a religious community.”