Sister Rosann Ocken lives by Proverbs 3:5, leaning not on her own understanding but trusting in the Lord to lead her to where she’s being called.
Right now, His call is drawing her away from her role as prioress at Immaculata Monastery in Norfolk. In a matter of weeks, she will be in Rome, Italy, where she will serve as mother general for the entire international monastic community of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. Last month, she was elected by a gathering of delegates from throughout the congregation to serve the six-year leadership term.
“It’s kind of like a blur,” Sister Rosann said of her election. “I had to stand up and say if I was willing to accept, but you hardly know what to say. You just trust God and trust in the discernment of the (monastic) body and move forward.”
The Missionary Benedictine Sisters consists of about 1,200 sisters in 16 countries, 12 priories and 128 stations. Every six years, a team representing the whole congregation gathers to elect a new superior general – or mother general. The mother general then works with her council to coordinate the activities that take place throughout the international congregation.
Sister Rosann is not a stranger to leadership. In 2007, she was called to serve as prioress at the remote Benedictine mission of St. Scholastica Peramiho Priory in Tanzania, Africa. While there, she led renovation projects, oversaw the construction of a new orphanage and a new convent, as well as the work on a nearby primary school. From there, she was called to serve in leadership at Jinja, Uganda, before returning to serve as prioress at Immaculata in 2018.
Upon gathering with the delegates from the international community last month, Sister Rosann considered the possibility of being chosen as the next mother general as only a remote chance.
“Always there’s, ‘Maybe you’ll be elected.’ There’s kind of rumors around,” she said. “But I dismissed it because of my age.”
Sister Rosann will turn 74 around the same time that she is installed as mother general of the congregation in mid-January. She’s expressed gratefulness for her good health.
Her home base will now be in Rome, where she will serve in the official role as the congregation’s representative to the Vatican. The responsibilities of her new role will include coordination of the spiritual life and missionary work of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters around the globe, as well as working with local leadership of the various priories and stations to advance the purpose of their mission.
The various stations and priories around the world have their own unique challenges that she will help them address.
“Some are facing tremendous government opposition in terms of their schools or even their presence in the country. The African communities have multiple new members, and their challenges are keeping these young sisters and getting them trained in the spirit of the congregation. Their challenges are much different than our challenges right now (at Immaculata),” she said.
But the similarities between the international community makes them strong: “Certainly our commitment to Christ and our mission,” she said. “Our commitment is to live in community. We focus on service and community, growing with God together in community.”
Sister Rosann said the community, at its recent meeting, took a step toward Pope Francis’ current focus on synodality or listening and discerning the will of God and moving within that will. It’s a process the monastery in Norfolk has been using for some time.
“The role I have is going to be to dialogue with the sisters and try to discern together how God is calling us to move forward to make decisions. That, to me, is really exciting – the synodal process,” she said.
The process of discernment, she said, includes a lot of silence, prayer and trusting God to speak not only within herself but within the group.
“It’s kind of like putting a puzzle together. I might say my part of the puzzle is black or dark and you’ve got the sunlight as your part of the puzzle. If we just stand alone with our pieces, we don’t have a full picture,” she said. “If we trust that we are given the picture – and if we trust that if we listen together – we’ll put this together and we’ll see together the direction that God is taking us.”
There are many things to accomplish prior to her departure for Rome in early January. In addition to personal appointments, she would like to visit her family in Colorado.
She also has been delegated to run the election to install a new prioress at Immaculata. There is an ongoing discernment process for the new prioress from which names of candidates will surface. The list will then be evaluated at an administrative level before an election at the monastery on Nov. 30. The next leader does not have to currently reside at Immaculata.
“Leadership can come not only from the sisters in this priory but from any of our priories,” Sister Rosann said. “I wasn’t in Peramiho when I got elected there.”
Sister Rosann said she’s grateful for the experiences and support she’s had from the community at the Norfolk priory. She is looking forward to working with the new council in Rome and helping the congregation meet the challenges being faced where they are.
“I have a wonderful council. I mean perfect as far as representing our different countries. I get the sense that we will be a very good working team,” she said. “I can trust whatever gifts I have are the gifts that are meant for the congregation at this time. What my gifts are – that must be what God wants. That’s what I trust. I’ve had enough experience to trust God’s hand.”
