Who We Are

Sister Lillian Englert

For Sister Lillian Englert, Benedictine hospitality is more than cordial greetings and an invitation to eat. As a retreat facilitator on the Spirituality Ministry team until her retirement in 2025, she saw her call to hospitality as something much deeper. She not only welcomed people to the building that is Spirit Center, “I also welcome people to a deeper place, God’s space.”

Along with the Spirit Center team, she facilitated individual retreats, the two annual “Come to the Quiet” retreats in January and June, and the Advent retreat. Silence is important, she said, because it is where “we can really listen to God. Silence invites us to be in our most sacred space.”

For many, however, the surrender to silence is anything but peaceful. That’s why Sister Lillian served as a guide. She and the retreatant initially met for spiritual direction and then set a schedule that  provided the best support. “Many fear silence,” said Sister Lillian, “so we allow for options to talk. It helps to share what is happening.” She also added that in the “Come to the Quiet” retreats, people appreciated the opportunity to experience shared silence as “supportive and powerful.”

Sister Lillian also had a long career as a classroom teacher. After her monastic profession in 1963, she taught a wide range of ages and subjects, including religion, but eventually settled in for 18 years as English teacher at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise. In addition to her B.A. in Education, she earned a master’s degree in theology and spirituality. Sister Lillian was called home from Boise to be formation director in 1989. During those seven years, she also began retreat work.

“I was a tough teacher,” she said with a sly smile, referring to her focus on developing “grammar and good taste”. “But I love teaching. There is no difference in where I am now. I am still teaching wherever I am.”

Born in Montana, she eventually entered college at Mt. Angel in Oregon, where the idea of religious life began to take root. Sister Lillian affirmed that religious life was a natural fit for her, even though it wasn’t always obvious. “Oh, I was going to get married and have six boys,” she laughed. But after some encouragement from two aunts who were Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, she tentatively entered St. Gertrude’s after college, sight unseen.

Instead of raising six boys, Sister Lillian sees her creativity in terms of the numerous students who left her classroom with a good deal more “grammar and good taste” and the growing number of retreatants she has been able to shepherd into silence so that they may emerge more alive and at peace.

Even in retirement Sister Lillian understands, “Silence provides an opportunity to meet God face-to-face.”  That she loved retreat work and welcoming people into that space is more than evident!