Around the Abbey

Easter Vigil This year for our Easter Vigil we went to New Melleray Abbey to celebrate the feast with our brother monks. The lighting of the Easter fire was done in the Chapter Room. Individual candles were lit from the newly lit Paschal Candle, representing the light of Christ. We then processed into the church… Read more

Sr. Madeleine renews her vows On Holy Saturday Sr. Madeleine renewed her vows for one year. The junior professed do this yearly until solemn profession when they make a life long commitment. Read more

Recent Events Our new Archbishop of Dubuque came for a first visit; celebrating Mass and then joining us for brunch. Archbishop Thomas Zinkula, however, is no stranger to us. He was a diocesan priest before being appointed Bishop of Davenport, Iowa. When he was a diocesan priest he visited the abbey often , especially coming… Read more

Christmas 2023 This year the novitiate decorated our Christmas tree. They chose to use red, white and green ornaments. Our tree is placed in the center of our refectory and remains there the entire Christmas season. We have several more days to enjoy it. It will come down on January 9th, the day after the… Read more

Christmas at the Abbey At the Abbey we are very much into the Advent season until Christmas Eve. We begin to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve in the evening. We have a special Compline in the refectory on Christmas Eve that includes the blessing of the tree by the abbess and the first lighting of… Read more

59th Anniversary of Foundation Last Saturday, November 4th we celebrated our 59th anniversary of foundation. We always reminisce and listen to stories on that day. We have two foundresses at OLM, M.Gail and Sr. Joan. It is fun to compare their memories of that day. Sr. Kathleen prepared a power point presentation on life here… Read more

Stocking the Pond We have a lovely pond that we swim in and fish. A few days ago we restocked the pond as needs to be done periodically to keep it healthy. We added 150 ‘red ear’ sunfish to keep the snail population down. The ‘red ear”sunfish love to eat snails. Two pounds of minnows… Read more

A Beautiful Autumn We had a beautiful autumn this year. The colors were so vibrant and the sky so blue. Most of the maples have dropped their leaves but the oak trees are still golden yellow. Read more

We have had a very good harvest this year with many surprises.  In spite of the drought both our garden and orchards did very well.  We had a good tomato and potato harvest, along with many other vegetables.We put up lots of tomato sauce, pickled beets, sauerkraut and salsa.  We also canned plums and pears… Read more

Sr. Kathy’s Golden Jubilee On June 22nd our Sr. Kathy celebrated her Golden Jubilee of 50 years of profession as a Cistercian nun.  Kathy is one of two sisters who are from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kathy renewed her vows at Mass with Mother Rebecca  and Dom Brendan present.  Her two sisters were here, along with… Read more

Fr. Steven Greg Last week we had several classes with Fr. Steven Gregg.  He is a monk of Our Lady of Dallas in Dallas, Texas.  He teaches at their middle school, high school, and college.  His area of expertise is medieval literature.  He talked to us about the Charter of Charity, a founding document of… Read more

Community Retreat Last week we had our yearly retreat. Our retreat director was Sr. Sarah from our Irish house Glencairn.  Glencairn is our grandmother house.  They founded Wrentham Abbey in Massachusetts who founded us. Sr. Sarah used Celtic spirituality as the topic for the retreat.  We learned a lot and were inspired by the history… Read more

Easter Vigil at New Melleray Abbey All of the sisters went to New Melleray Abbey, our brother house for the Easter Vigil.  It was very special for both of our communities as we have never done this before.  The vigil began at 4:30 AM in the New Melleray Chapter Room with the lighting of the… Read more

Sr. Madeleine Renews Her Vows This morning at chapter our Sr. Madeleine renewed her vows for another year.  It was a perfect day to do this as the gospel for today was of Mary Magdalene mistaking Jesus for a gardener and then recognized him when he spoke her name.  Mary Magdalene is Sr. Madeleine’s patroness… Read more