Around the Abbey

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

Lent in the Monastery Let each one deny herself and look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing. Lent in the monastery is completely governed by Chapter 49 in the Rule of St. Benedict: On the Observance of Lent.  The entire life of the sisters can be seen through a Lenten lens, but… Read more

Abbot General’s Visit to OLM Last week our new Abbot General, Dom Bernardus Peeters and his secretary, Fr. Raphael came for a four day visit.  Dom Bernardus is the former abbot of Tilberg Abbey in the Netherlands.  He was elected Abbot General last February at the General Chapter in Assisi, Italy.  We each met with… Read more

All Hands on Deck This past week and next week are the busiest 2 weeks in our year.  All the candy we have made needs to be boxed sealed and shipped to go out to our customers.  It is a huge job and everyone drops what they usually do and go over to the shipping… Read more

Leucistic Red Bellied Woodpecker A few weeks ago we noticed a bird flying around and coming to the bird feeders.  It appeared to be all white with a red cap. We don’t have all white birds so we started to investigate.  We determined the bird to be a leucistic red bellied woodpecker. This is a definition… Read more

Making Apple Cider This past Saturday we pulled out the apple press and pressed our apples for cider.  You take turns pressing as it takes a lot of physical strength.  There are several steps.  First washing and cutting up the apples.  Then cutting up the apples more with the cutting machine and finally pressing the… Read more