September 13, 2016

September 13, 2016

Sister Clare on the Feast of St. Clare

Here at Santa Rita Abbey we celebrate a Sister’s feast day, that is, the feast of her patron saint, more than we do her birthday. In August we have two feast days: Sr. Clare’s on August 11 (the feast of St. Clare of Assisi), and Sr. Esther’s on August 15 (the feast of the Assumption of Mary.) The feast day Sister has the privilege of choosing her entire dinner menu, and most especially the dessert. Sister Clare requested angel food cake for her special day, and Sister Esther asked for Mother Vicki’s wonderful homemade creme puffs.  Yum!

Fr. Casimir of Holy Trinity Abbey in Utah was our chaplain for the month of August.  We Sisters appreciate his insights into Scripture, gleaned from his many years of devoted study.  Although he had visited Santa Rita many times over the years, until last summer Fr. Cas had never before been here when the grass was green.  He enjoyed the green once again this year.  On September 3, we said goodbye for now.  We hope to have him here again for Advent and Christmas.  Thank you to Fr. Brendan and all our Utah brothers for lending him to us!

 

Sr. Pam, Anna, Sr. Rita, and Janie

We held our second Monastic Experience Weekend (MEW) the first weekend of September 2016. These weekends are for women who are discerning their vocation to religious life. Two women participated, Anna and Janie (who has also been one of our volunteers). Each day they joined the Sisters for the Eucharist and for the Hours of the Divine Office, beginning with the Night Office (Vigils) at 3:10 a.m. and all through the day to Compline at 6:00 p.m. Our Sisters Rita and Pam gave them talks on monastic life with plenty of time for questions and sharing. After Midday Prayer, Anna and Janie joined the community in the monastic refectory for dinner. Please keep them in prayer as they continue to seek God’s will for their lives.

Cistercian Altar Breads: Volunteer Janie and Sr. Kate sorting freshly cut 1-3/8″ people’s hosts in our bakery. On a typical morning, we cut, sort, dry and bag 75, 000 of these, which requires a crew of at least five Sisters and helpers.

Our wonderful volunteers have been a big help this summer. We are grateful to Donna and Janie for their generosity, flexibility and dependability. They did everything from sorting altar breads to washing retreat house floors, from moving library books to sweeping out the garage. Our volunteers, in turn, have enjoyed the experience of living, praying, and working in a monastic environment. Donna wrote to us after she returned home: I really would like to thank you and the sisters for allowing me to participate in the life of the monastery as a volunteer. As Sr. Kate reminded me in the kitchen the first day on the job–all is grace–which sums up my experience while at Santa Rita Abbey. I felt the experience was balanced in both work and prayer … The quiet of the day-to-day rhythm is something that I hope to continue to foster in my own life back in “the world”.

 

Sr. Esther in the sacristy garden

Sr. Nettie in the circle garden

We had abundant rain the first two weeks of August, keeping our gardeners busy cutting and pulling weeds!  Then it dried up a bit.  Just last week, however, we had 2.57″ in one 24-hour period, the leftovers from a hurricane down south.  Both Gardener Canyon and Fish Canyon roads were a muddy mess, and by late in the afternoon the big dip in the road on Gardener was full of water.  Our friend Jim Reindl helped a couple of our Sisters get safely across–thank you, Jim!  Meanwhile, the doe and her fawns haven’t been hanging around close to the monastery now that the little ones are growing up–how fast they do grow!  They are still in the neighborhood and occasionally a Sister will see the twins running around out back.  The photo is from mid-August when they were still close to the house.