K
ami Pohl has been faithfully serving St. Paul’s Monastery as a Spiritual Director in the Benedictine Center since 2017. She expanded her role in 2021 to serve as Co-Director of Oblate Initial Formation program. Kami attended the School of Lectio Divina at the Benedictine Center in 2019 and worked with Sister Virginia Matter, who served as her listening companion during that watershed five-day retreat. Kami received her training in Spiritual Direction from the Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and was mentored by former Prioress Sister Carol Rennie during her training process. Kami has also more recently completed advanced training in BioSpiritual Focusing from the BioSpiritual Institute. She earned her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas and her Master’s degree in Human Resources Development from the University of Minnesota. She currently serves as the Co-Director of the Oblate Initial Formation program at St. Paul’s Monastery, where she works on the Oblate Leadership team with Oblates Jeff Dols and Ann Siverling.
Spiritual Direction as Key
Kami’s approach to spiritual direction starts with deep listening that facilitates spiritual growth and development. She has special interests in BioSpiritual Focusing and Benedictine Spirituality as pathways to spiritual growth.
Kami describes her own experience with spiritual direction. “It is like having a mirror held up as I am speaking, so that I might hear and notice God speaking to me through my own voice.” She often finds herself surprised by what she says in spiritual direction. “These ah-ha moments feel like a gift dropped in my lap. While transformation and freedom have not happened overnight, month-by-month I continue my intention to be open to moving deeper with God… Over the years, I have found spiritual direction to be a key monthly spiritual practice along with centering prayer, lectio divina, worship and service. Having an attentive companion listen carefully to me, ask thoughtful questions, and help me notice God at work in my life has been a rich gift that I am delighted to share with others.”
Kami writes in her bio for the Benedictine Center: “My personal experiences continue to shape me as a spiritual director. Becoming a Benedictine Oblate has strongly influenced my daily rhythm. My years working at a church allow me to accompany others who work in churches or seminaries with deeper understanding. I also find a strong connection with those I meet with who might be finding their way back to faith after a long absence. I believe we are all spiritual people, but it may look different because of varied life experiences. We have much to learn from each other. Finally, my time as a full-time wife and mom helped me discover for myself that all of life is part of the spiritual journey if we pause, notice and reflect…I consider it a sacred honor to remind each person I meet with that they are beloved, called and chosen by God. Letting that good news wash over us is a way we might accept the invitation to a life of vitality and abundance with God.”
BioSpiritual Focusing as a Complement to Centering Prayer
Kami was first introduced to BioSpiritual Focusing by Sister Virginia Matter, and then continued her study of the discipline in her ongoing work with Oblate Teri Rose and her program on Benedictine Wellness. Kami’s current spiritual director also practices BioSpiritual Focusing, which has been very impactful, giving her further opportunities to benefit from it. She has taken additional training for spiritual directors and is currently co-teaching a Level III BioSpiritual Focusing class online with her mentors. “It is such a nice complement to Centering Prayer, because it helps you be with what is real in your body. By being with that, you can move through things with the help of the Spirit, instead of just putting it aside.” Kami states that BioSpiritual Focusing has transformed her personally, but has also changed how she sits with other people for spiritual direction. She has felt called to share this practice with others, as she did recently in a packed day-long session at the Benedictine Center on January 23, 2026. She will lead a Level II training session in June at the Benedictine Center with Sister Virginia.
The Benedictine Center program catalogue describes this exciting practice: BioSpiritual Focusing is a way of opening the whole of ourselves—mind, body, and spirit—to a deeper connectedness with the self, others and the Divine. Learn more about how gently being with what is real and present within your embodied self can open the door to a deeper story—and to a greater sense of wholeness.This contemplative prayer practice is simple yet profound. All that is required is showing up and a willingness to listen to what it feels like to experience a specific body sensation with the Holy One. Then, the potential for transformation and growth unfolds in the process.
BioSpiritual Focusing is somewhat similar to the Welcoming Prayer, in which we welcome all thoughts, feelings, situations, persons and conditions as they arise (rather than resisting and avoiding them, which causes stress). The issue you are facing may not change, but how you carry it changes. “Instead of asking God to remove a negative feeling, such as fear,” Kami suggested, “we can let God be with us, as we are facing it. We can carry it in a different way.” Kami’s dream is to someday host a BioSpiritual Focusing weekend retreat at the Benedictine Center.
“I Feel Called to Listen”
BioSpiritual Focusing has greatly enhanced Kami’s vocation as a Spiritual Director. Kami meets in person with 1/3 of her directees at the Monastery and others online or at her home. “There is the sense that I am just a witness to the people I sit with and their interactions with God. It is a true treasure and a true gift; one I never take for granted. At the core of who I am, I feel called to listen and sit with others on their journey.” Kami currently serves as the Co-Director of the Oblate Initial Formation program. “It continues to amaze me the groups of people that God brings together. We are so blessed by Mutual Blessings and our new connections with Hill-Murray. There is a place to gather for the monthly Evenings of Contemplative Fellowship, where we can invite prospective Oblates to come to get a sense of what it is like to be in community with a group of others who are seeking Benedictine spirituality and how that might impact them. There is something so enticing about Benedictine spirituality. You bring together interesting people who want to have these spiritual conversations… They get to pray with the Sisters and have Oblate companions. There continues to be good energy…Being an Oblate has given me so many wonderful people to have these conversations with and figure out what it looks like to live out Benedictine spirituality in my everyday life.”
Remembering Sister Mary Lou Dummer, OSB; Mentor and Friend of Oblates
Kami describes some highlights of working in the Oblate Formation program over the past several years: “I was so honored to be asked by Sister Mary Lou in 2021 to help. I didn’t grow up Catholic, so I didn’t know there was something bigger going on… I thought it was just a temporary assignment. A real highlight was being mentored by her and meeting so many people…Our Oblate class was during the COVID year of 2020 so we didn’t get to sit through all of the formation sessions in person. I laugh now and think I must have needed to sit through those sessions many, many times. So much of it has been about the people and growing into the relationships and community.” Kami states that she enjoyed working with Oblate classmate Mary Elizabeth Ilg as Co-Directors of the Formation Program that first inaugural year when Sister Mary Lou decided to step back: “We had a blast!” Presently, Kami is expertly assisted by Tod Twist, OblSB, and serves on the Oblate Leadership team with Jeff Dols and Ann Siverling. “We don’t do this on our own. This has always been a team effort. It’s not just about me. It’s about the community, all of us working together.”
Kami recalls her friend and mentor Sister Mary Lou Dummer, longtime Director of the Oblate Program, who passed away one year ago this February. “I think she would be so proud of us and delighted that things continue to grow and change,” Kami says. “I visited her in the hospital. She was telling the nurses about the Oblate program. She so loved it. So many Oblates came to serve that day at her Funeral Mass. What a legacy! They wanted to show up and offer that Benedictine hospitality Sister Mary Lou had offered to so many people. We could see and experience that day how her life had impacted so many others.”
Leaving a Legacy
Kami describes her current goals for the new year and beyond. “On a real basic level, the three callings I have are to listen, to love, and to connect. The core of who I am professionally and personally is to listen, to love and to connect.
I hope one of my legacies at St. Paul’s Monastery will be that this was a time when we really came together as Oblates to form a Community. We don’t have forever with the Sisters, but we can have each other. It is really learning to look to each other, and not just the Sisters. This is one of the legacies I hope to leave.
I am who I am today because I was mentored by the Sisters. They saw gifts in me and called out those gifts so I can serve others here as an Oblate and in Community. We are just called to be ourselves. We are all seeking and searching here at St Paul’s Monastery. We just want companions on the journey.”
