May 2019 at Santa Rita Abbey
Laudato Si’ Care for Creation Mass
Our friend Msgr. Tom Cahalane, along with several members of the Care for Creation Committee at his parish of Our Mother of Sorrows in Tucson, celebrated a Mass for Creation here on Saturday, May 4th. They invited us, too, along with a few of our local friends. We all gathered on the spacious porch of our family guest house for the celebration of the Eucharist. A perfect setting for such an event.
Cistercian Altar Breads
Sr. Hildgard has been learning to bake altar breads and enjoys it. She’s also helping to “score” our 5-1/2″ scored concelebration hosts. Baking takes place two or three days a week, while we cut and package our breads four days a week. The 1-3/8″ bread is our most popular “people’s” host. We cut and score “concels” on Fridays. Our community has been baking whole wheat altar breads and selling them to parishes across the U.S. for almost forty years. Do you know where your parish buys their altar breads?
Local Friends & Volunteer Helpers 2019
Our new local friends, Dennis & Colleen Carver, recently volunteered their time and energy to repair Sr. Esther’s dilapidated garden enclosure. The weight of the snow from the February storm damaged the “roof”. Dennis engineered an entirely new support system for both walls and roof, and he and Colleen installed it. They also worked with Sr. Esther cover the enclosure with a new layer of fencing to keep out all the wild critters who would love to help themselves from the garden. Sr. Esther has since planted tomatoes, green peppers, egg plant, cucumbers and beets inside the renewed space where they are flourishing. Dennis & Colleen were baptized and received into the Church this Easter!
Our resident volunteer program is now in its fourth summer. Volunteer Angela arrived in mid-May, and is already a practiced hand at Cistercian Altar Breads. She also helps clean the retreat house, prepare dinner for the sisters, and has become an expert at taking down outdoor light fixtures, spider webs and all, cleaning them to a sparkle, and putting them back up again. In addition she has skills in communications and marketing which she generously offered to us. She has lots of ideas!