Mondy Musing

Later today, I will travel to Duluth, Minnesota to attend the funeral mass for my dear friend, Sister Renata Liegey, OSB. Sister Renata and I met in 1968 when I was a young boy and she was a young sister helping run an ecumenical retreat house in Winton, Minnesota called the “House of Peace.” I took guitar lessons there and would visit Renata after my lesson. Renata had many talents, including being a gifted artist.

Sister Renata and I reconnected when I returned to Northern Minnesota in 2013. At the funeral lunch for another Benedictine sister, I sought her out and said, “Sister Renata, you probably do not remember me, but we met at the House of Peace.” Renata looked at me, paused for a second, still having a twinkle in her eye, said, “No I suppose I don’t. Tell me your name.” I told her my name, and I could see her vaguely recalling those days from the past.

I started visiting Renata, and on one visit she showed me what was to become my favorite piece of her art. Sitting in her chair, facing me, she threw her arm over her shoulder pointing to a print on the wall behind her. From my chair, I could see an image of a small boy. I got up to get a closer look. The boy’s eyes were penetrating as he looked out into space, beyond the frame of the picture. Renata said the boy was a child she recalled from when she used to attend the bullfights while living in Arizona in the 1950s. Outside the stadium there were always very poor children selling chicklet gum, but in reality, they were really begging for food.

I was mesmerized by the print and asked, “Is it a wood cut?” Renata said, “No. I had some old x-ray film from when I was an x-ray technician in Phoenix. I took the film, etched into the film the image of the boy, in reverse of course. I was able to get two prints made, this is one and I have no idea where the other one is.”

In a very ironic twist, x-ray film helps medical professionals see inside the body, but Renata has used that same film to help me see something outside of mine. The title of the work is “Soñar el Pensar” or in English, “To Dream is to Think.” I wonder what ever happened to the boy. Were his dreams fulfilled? Today, before I drive to her funeral mass, I gaze at the print now hanging in the living room of my new home. Even in her passing, she is helping me see. Especially see poverty, both physical and spiritual, and she still encourages me to embrace the Gospel by loving all God’s children and do all I can to help them fulfill their dreams.

Rest in Peace, Renata.

Image: Sister Renata Liegey