August 8, 2016
Summertime at Santa Rita Abbey
What a lovely summertime we are having, overflowing with life! Two chaplains, newborn fawns, young ravens, fresh tomatoes, rain and more rain, visits from friends of the monastery, and two new volunteer helpers just arrived …
Fr. Francis Michael receiving the bread and wine from Sisters Cathy & Kate at Mass
There’s a dragonfly stitched on it!
Fr. Francis Michael, a monk of Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, Georgia, has been with us for seven weeks as chaplain. We are grateful to his abbot and community for lending him to us. When not celebrating Mass with us, he spent many enjoyable hours bird watching and hunting for damselflies and dragonflies. We had never before considered that hot and dry Arizona could support a significant dragonfly and damselfly population, but wherever there was water, Fr. Francis Michael found them. He also thrilled Mother Vicki by taking her up our neighboring Gardener Canyon to hear and then to see the Elegant Trogon, a large colorful tropical bird only seen in mountain canyons, quite rare in Arizona. At Father’s farewell party on July 30, we presented him with a “dragonfly” baseball cap.
The evening of July 19, mother doe and newborn fawns in the back yard
The afternoon of July 31, doe and twins under the monks pepper tree in the front yard
A few weeks ago, on her way to Vespers late in the afternoon, our Sister Cathy noticed a deer lying alone in the corner of the hedge in our backyard. After Compline, an hour later, Cathy checked on the deer … she was no longer alone, but had newborn twins! So small, and yet with such long wobbly legs and large ears, they crept about close around their mother as she gave each one a thorough bath. It was nearly dark when a young male deer cautiously approached from the far side of the yard. Was this the father of the twins, or their elder brother who was a fawn last summer? Mother doe only let him get within a few feet and then leaped up to defend her tender newborns. Three weeks later, the doe and twins are still nearby. We are surrounded by Forest Service lands where deer are hunted in season, so these little ones mustn’t grow up thinking humans are safe. But clearly, their mother (and other does in the area) knows her babies are safer near our monastery buildings than they are elsewhere. We watch from a distance and enjoy the antics of the little ones.
The mimosa tree in the backyard is in full bloom. There’s a fawn underneath it.
The summer rainy season, the Arizona Monsoons, got off the a great start in the last week of June, but then dried up for a while. The grass which had greened up with such enthusiasm began to die back. Happily, the rain returned in full force at the end of July. We’ve actually had nearly 4 inches of rain last week, and more is falling as we compose this journal entry! The grasses and native trees are looking much better. We pray for more good rains for our area this summer and for other places in need of rain this summer–remembering especially the areas with wildfires.
Those of you who have visited our monastery in person may remember a tall oak on the side of a hill, right on the edge of Fish Canyon Road and within sight of our front gate. Sadly it has been severely damaged in the stormy weather. First one large branch came tumbling down, pulling the electric line with it, and blocking the road. The electric company restored our power and someone cut up the branch and got it out of the road. Then a couple of days later, the other half of the tree canopy came down as well. This time, it stayed away from the power lines. We are sad to see a beautiful living landmark reduced to a bare and broken trunk.
In the summertime, a number of our altar bread customer parishes put their regular orders on hold–especially here in the southwest where winter visitors have returned to their homes in the north, and families go on vacation. This gives us a little more time to do other things, like extra cleaning. The altar bread baking machine, mixer, and the cutting equipment all got thorough cleanings last week. Now that school has started up again out here in the west, parishes will start resuming their orders. We are ready! Here’s a few photos from a “priests’ hosts day” back in June. Our altar bread work is an important part of our monastic life, giving us a connection to the people of God at the parishes where our breads are used at the Eucharist, as well as being our main source of income. We Sisters like to think that our life of prayer adds an extra special “ingredient” to our breads. For more photographs of our altar bread department, here’s a link to the slide show tour on our altar bread page, https://santaritaabbey.org/altar-bread-tour/
The computerized cutter has a special program for each of our altar bread sizes. Here it is cutting the 2-1/2″ breads, which we call “priests”
Sister Pam shakes the cut breads into a bin to separate them from the scraps
Srs. Jacqui and Cathy with Lupita stack the cut priests into boxes for drying.
Clay and Sr. Esther look up from their work at the router table
Marcia at the woodworking table on the porch
Recently our friends Clayton and Marcia Landwehr were here on retreat. Clay generously shared his woodworking expertise with our Sister Esther, helping her improve her skills with the band saw and router. They were able to cut and prepare a number of mesquite wood crosses. Most of these will become crucifixes after Sr. Esther fires the clay corpuses she sculpts for them. Marcia lent a hand as well, peeling bark off mesquite wood logs so they could be cut into boards. Another good friend, Dennis Cozzetti, donated his time to patch and reseal the roof of the Sisters’ hermitage. Thank you, Clay, Marcia, and Dennis! In the meantime, two new women have arrived just this past weekend to participate in our residential Volunteer Helpers program. Donna and Janey are lending a hand in the kitchen, at altar breads, and with general cleaning and maintenance. See our Volunteer page for more information about this program, https://santaritaabbey.org/monastic-volunteer-program/
Mother Vicki created this beautiful tomato salad for a special feast day
Summertime is also gardening time! We are enjoying our Sister Esther’s and Cathy’s tomatoes homegrown tomatoes, eggplant, and green peppers. We’ve also had an abundance of gorgeous gladiola blossoms this year, which have graced the sanctuary at Mass every day. Fr. Casimir, a monk of Holy Trinity Abbey in Utah, is now with us once again, providing chaplain services us for the month of August.