Sisters ride zip line, embrace Super Bowl and all it brings

Benedictine Sisters Jennifer Mechtild Horner, left, and Sheila Fitzpatrick pose under the 800-foot zip line they rode on Jan. 26 that was built over Capitol Avenue in Indianapolis in the middle of the Super Bowl Village next to St. John the Evangelist Church. Both sisters are members of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, which is hosting the workers that constructed and are operating the zip line. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

In her many years as a member of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Benedictine Sister Mary Luke Jones had visited St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis on various occasions.

On Jan. 26, however, she “flew by it” for the first time.

She and two of her fellow community members, Benedictine Sisters Jennifer Mechtild Horner and Sheila Fitzpatrick, came to the Super Bowl Village in downtown Indianapolis that day to ride the 800-foot zip line that began at a height of 95 feet and ended just beyond the entrance to St. John Church.

“It was thrilling. Lots of fun,” Sister Mary Luke said. “It wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be.”

“I was nervous when I was on the steps ready to start,” Sister Jennifer said. “But once you take off, it’s just like flying. It was a lot of fun.”

The sisters were also happy to ride the zip line because their community has been playing host to employees of the Whistler, British Columbia-based Ziptrek Ecotours that constructed and are operating the zip line.

Their group and other workers in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl have been living at the Benedict Inn and Retreat Center in Beech Grove.

Sister Sheila said that hosting the workers in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl flowed from her community’s Benedictine charism of hospitality.

“That’s something that just comes naturally to us,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to provide a nice, quiet space for the people who are working [here].”

Dave Vest is one of the Ziptrek Ecotours’ employees in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl. He and fellow employees are working as many as 13 hours a day in shuttling as many as 1,200 people per day on the zip line.

He appreciates the welcome given to him and his fellow workers by the sisters. The peacefulness of the Benedict Inn is a definite contrast to the noise of the Super Bowl Village, he said.

“It’s great. You come home and it’s really nice and quiet,” Vest said. “The sisters will get anything you need. They’re up before us every morning making us a full buffet breakfast. They’ve been very hospitable.”

Sister Mary Luke said she was happy that her community could participate in this history-making moment for Indianapolis.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the city,” she said. “We’re just happy to play a part. It’s been fun being a part of it all. It’s very exciting.”

Although the Super Bowl Village with its zip line is a secular event, Sister Jennifer saw spiritual meaning in taking a leap to fly over Capitol Avenue. For her, it was much like discerning a vocation to religious life and deciding to give it a try.

“I’m always talking to people about how you can only know so much before you make a decision,” said Sister Jennifer, her community’s vocations director. “But then there’s a leap, and you can’t know what it feels like until you do it. You’ll never know unless you try it.”

In fact, the day before she rode the zip line, Sister Jennifer was visiting downtown Indianapolis with a woman discerning a possible Benedictine vocation. They even walked by the zip line.

“We were looking at it,” Sister Jennifer said. “She’s discerning. And I was saying, ‘Until you jump down,’ you won’t know.”

(For more information on Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, log on to www.benedictine.com.) †