Our Blog

Remembering belovedness – August 29, 2026 – The Church celebrates the same seasons and observes the same feasts year after year, but the repetition is far from empty. Our recent guest lecturer, Fr. Dennis MacManus, pointed out that time marks change. Liturgical timekeeping, thus, honors the wonderful fact that our relationship with the Lord changes,… Read more

Creatures & Charisms – August 8, 2026 – The church lives out “enclosure” in a variety of ways. Some “enclosed” monks and nuns are extremely separated from the outside world, not even showing their faces to visitors. Others, while visible, remain physically separated, respecting boundaries demarcated by gate-like barriers traditionally called “grilles”. At Trappist monasteries… Read more

“Beautiful, Christ-centered, Kingdom-shaped” – July 16, 2026 – Here in the Midwest, it’s not uncommon at this time of year to hear the hum of tractors and balers, cutting, harvesting, and baling hay. But if you’ve been in our neck of the woods lately, you’ve not only heard the sounds of farm equipment, for the… Read more

A Heart Given, A Heart Received – June 2026 – Our life here is ordinary, but every once in a while something extraordinary happens, and the recent feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saturday June 13, was one of those times. On that day, our community celebrated a moment of great grace and great… Read more

The Fire Within the Flame – June 6, 2026 – Well, after this month-and-half-long hiatus, our regular readers might have deduced that we’ve had our hands full – and happily, we have! For starters, there have been some comings and goings. One of our sisters, for instance, was summonsed to our grandmother house in Ireland… Read more

Tornadoes & Tranquility – April 19, 2026 – In this corner of the world, the liturgical calendar and the seasonal cycles tend to compliment one another well, and sometimes rather emphatically! This year, as Lent tumbled into Passion Week, then the Triduum into Eastertide, snow and chill alternated with warmth and bursts of light –… Read more

March Much-ness As winter wanes and Lent leans toward Passiontide, we’re keeping busy with much goings-on, outside and in. Cool temps are speckled with warm splashes of sunshine – Seedlings are sprouting in our greenhouse and garage –(And we’re covertly beginning to bake Easter cookies!) But first, we want to slow down, quiet down, and… Read more

“It smells like Friday!” After a hard morning’s work of deep cleaning our Stone House, we maneuvered ourselves, laden with supplies, through the Abbey backdoor, when right away, the aroma of fresh-baking bread enveloped us. A sister spontaneously exclaimed, “It smells like Friday!” Here at the Abbey, we want to enter into the sacred season… Read more

Consecrated Life “You really whoop it up for the Presentation around here!”-Our smiling celebrant, at the end of Mass on Monday evening, February 2 And it’s true – We do! We love the Feast of Presentation of the Lord – its procession, its candles, its celebration of a life spent watching and waiting for –… Read more

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity The annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18 – 25, holds a special place in our community’s heart. Throughout the week – from the hymns we sing, to the liturgical readings we hear, the intercessions we voice, and even our mealtime blessings – we join the international… Read more

Pilgrim Ponderings: January Is it just us, or does Hope seem to be springing up everywhere these days? In Scripture, in song, in spiritual reading –in the resilience of children, in the gentleness of elders, in the humdrum miracles of everyday encounters –in the wintry-waiting Earth –There’s a renewed sense of sureness, of waiting for,… Read more

O Antiphon Reflections 2025 As Advent culminates, our expectation of the Christ Child’s coming reaches its fullness! Together with the whole Church, we celebrate this crescendo with a series of special O Antiphons, traditionally sung as bookends to the Magnificat during Vespers, from December 17 through December 23. Each antiphon, one per day, beckons God’s… Read more

Pilgrim Ponderings: December Upon being asked for her reflection on Advent Hope, one of our eldest sisters is kindly sharing a couple of remarks from two of her beloved contemporary Church fathers, as well as a photo of a painting which (in a few weeks) will accompany our Chapter Room creche. This sister has cycled… Read more

“Shipping Season” There’s fall and there’s winter, and there’s spring and there’s summer, but around here, there’s also a season called “shipping”. Most of us work in the Candy House year ’round, a couple of mornings each week. But come November, the holiday orders really start rolling in, so we lay aside other work and… Read more

Right Here is Beautiful While some religious are called to a great deal of movement in the world, Trappist Cistercians usually begin and end their monastic lives in one single monastery. An exception, though, is when a community sends a group of its own sisters to found a new monastery elsewhere. Another exception is when… Read more