News Archives » Sr. Maxine Pohlman
Teamwork & Service: Mount Mary Students Lend a Hand at Lavista Ecological Learning Center March 31st, 2025
(Contributed by Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director La Vista Ecological Learning Center)
On March 6 and 7 La Vista hosted four young women from Mount Mary University, a School Sister of Notre Dame sponsored university in Milwaukee, WI. They spilled out of their car ready to work, and work they did! I was amazed at their enthusiasm and willingness to do hard, dirty tasks.
They dug and tugged, and succeeded in pulling out several tires that had been tossed into the Oblates’ Nature Preserve and buried for years in the soil. They weeded and mulched a garden and cleared a stone wall of debris. Then they cleaned out a storage area that had been neglected for years. When I asked if they needed a rest, together they said, “No, we want to work!”
Beyond the significant amount of work they did, what was even better was what they learned about themselves. “I didn’t know I am strong!” “I never get my hands dirty, but this feels great!”
I was also impressed with how they became a team as they addressed challenges, collaborated on solutions, and succeeded in their tasks.
Working with them was a learning experience and a true pleasure for them and for me.
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Reflection on February’s Ecological Conversion Field Trip with OMI Novices March 4th, 2025
Contributed by Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director, La Vista Ecological Learning Center
(L to R: Christine Ilewski-Huelsmann, Alfred Lungu, Gary Huelsmann, Eliakim Mbenda, Edwin Silwimba, Mike Katona)
“Cry of the earth, cry of the poor” is a central theme in Laudato Si and was also the theme for our February field trip. The encyclical reminds us: “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.” Our field trip introduced us to two Oblates, Padre Lorenzo Rosebaugh and Father Darrell Rupiper, whose lives expanded in remarkable ways as they responded to both cries.
Recife, Brazil, and considered that to be “perhaps the greatest grace of my life.” Lorenzo was known to scavenge street vendor stalls, using a cart to pick up discarded vegetables which he cooked over and open fire to feed the poor. Once, accused of stealing the cart, he was thrown in jail, beaten and starved for days. He wrote, “I am asked what good did it do for me to live on the streets? I answer: witnessing me follow my conscience drew others to seek their own values and make important decisions to serve the less fortunate.”
In the afternoon our focus shifted to the life of Darrell Rupiper, OMI, who considered himself an ecological missionary toward the end of his life. He passionately conducted parish eco-missions, initiating teams to carry on the work of Earth care in the parish. Father Darrell evolved into his ecological vocation after serving the poor in Brazil and speaking out against the death penalty, racism and nuclear weapons. He wrote about his own unfolding: “In the midst of this enlarged perspective I have been assigned to a new ministry. This involves my inviting others to COME HOME to Earth.” Father Séamus Finn, OMI, joined us by Zoom, sharing stories about his good friend and colleague in caring for our common home. Father Salvador Gonzalez, one of the formators at the Novitiate, also joined us since Father Darrell was his novice master years ago. Father Sal shared precious memories of Father Darrell’s impact on his own life.Nature’s Soul April 8th, 2024
By Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director, La Vista Ecological Learning Center
A few weeks ago, OMI Novices and I took a field trip to Treehouse Wildlife Center where the “intrinsic value” of creatures is honored, “independent of their usefulness” as Laudato Si’ states in paragraph 140. One of the permanent residents is a turkey vulture named Einstein, later discovered to be female. She was found as a chick and raised by a family. Since Einstein was human imprinted, she coud not be released back into the wild because, seeing herself more human than vulture, she would have trouble surviving. She is a resident for life, living in a glass enclosure inside the TreeHouse Center.
This is a photo of a painting which hangs near her enclosure. It shows Einstein looking in a mirror and seeing herself human-like. The artist poignantly captured Einstein’s perspective, and the human face is haunting, so much so that I was disturbed by the image.
Upon reflection, I find the painting holds implications for us humans who also seem to have an issue with self-identity. We, too, often live in a self-constructed world and fai to see reality, having been disconnected from the natural world for so long. We feel fundamentally unrelated to sun and moon, wind, rain, birds and all the many living beings we often don’t even notice as we live our daily lives.
Richard Rohr describes our situation as having “lost our souls”, and so we cannot see soul anywhere else. He writes, “Without a visceral connection to the soul of nature, we will not know how to love or respect our own soul…While everything has a soul, in many people it seems to be dormant, disconnected, and ungrounded. They are not aware of the inherent truth, goodness, and beauty shining through everything.” Rohr believes “…we can’t access our full intelligence and wisdom without some real connection to nature.”
Maybe that is one reason our wonderful world is suffering so much at our hands and why we are suffering too. We are like the vulture whose life is limited, enclosed, and out-of-touch with the magnificence of the natural world that is now beyond her reach; however, we have a choice! We can re-claim our soul within the Great Soul that is the Mystical Body holding all.
It seems that fitting conclusion to this reflection would be to listen to Heather Houston’s “Re-Wild My Soul”.
All-surrounding Grace March 14th, 2024
By Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND, Director, La Vista Ecological Learning Ctr
Especially on a sunny day one can stand atop the bluffs at La Vista and feel linked to eagles, hawks, or
vultures riding thermals rising from those bluffs. When birds find these warm currents of air, they are literally lifted up by them. It seems that there is enough lift from the rising air that birds can stop flapping their wings, holding them still, extended sideways, as in this photo taken from the lodge.
I often think how much fun they are having, being birds on the wing in this gorgeous place! What must it be like to be so supported that flying effortlessly is the way to go? Visitors to La Vista never tire of the sight, nor do I. We are mesmerized. In her poignant, brief poem The Avowal, Denise Levertov artfully offers two images from nature which help me explore this allurement: swimmers lying back while “water bears them”; hawks resting while “air sustains them”.
In a final revealing metaphor, she shares her deeply human wish:
“to attain freefall, and float into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace, knowing no effort earns that all-surrounding grace”.
Maybe that is the draw when we witness or experience this kind of support. We identify the images with our own effortless experiences of the Spirit’s gratuitous embrace. When have you rested in this awareness?
May March provide you with ample opportunities to be present to Spirit in such an alluring way!
(Image by Yinan Chen from Pixabay) (Image by Veronika Andrews from Pixabay)
World Wide Technology Employees Engage in Corporate Volunteering at La Vista November 27th, 2023
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By Sr. Maxine Pohlman, SSND
La Vista Ecological Learning Center’s usual monthly workday in the Missionary Oblates Woods Nature Preserve became unusual when seven young people from World Wide Technology joined our efforts. This company grants employees one day a year to do service, and this group, wanting to do something ecological, chose La Vista.
For the hours we were together in our important pursuit of restoring health to the forest by removing invasive bush honeysuckle, we felt a wonderful sense of belonging. We belonged to a group of volunteers, for sure, but in a broader sense we felt our belonging to the larger Earth community so in need of healing.
We extend our gratitude to World Wide Technology for supporting outreach in the broader community!
