Monastery News
Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey
Dubuque, Iowa
Volume 2 Issue 2
May 2001
Easter greetings to all our friends! We hope these days of the Easter season are bringing
each of you much joy in the Risen Lord. Our monastic liturgy is so rich at this time of year - we
wish you could be with us as we sing all the wonderful Easter hymns and antiphons with their
repeated Alleluias. Of course, in the truest sense you are with us, as we carry you in our hearts
and prayers.
We began this year with three sisters named Ann Marie in our community, and by Easter
were down to one. Sr Ann Marie Lortscher, Sr Anne Marie Sweet, and Sr Ann Marie Remington
went by Ann Marie, Annie, and Ann in community, but for our friends and candy customers it
was quite confusing! When Sr Anne Marie Sweet became a permanent member of Mississippi
Abbey in January she returned to her baptismal name, Anne Elizabeth; and on Easter Sunday Sr
Ann Remington, a junior professed, changed her name to Sr Grace. Now if only we can do
something about Srs Kathy, Kathleen, and Kate - to say nothing of Srs Sherry and Sheryl...
Sr Anne Elizabeth Sweet, Transfer of Stability
Sr Anne Elizabeth=s final commitment to our community took place on January 26, the
feast of our Cistercian founders, Sts Robert, Alberic and Stephen, who in 1098 left their
Benedictine monastery to found a new one which came closer to their understanding of the Rule
of St. Benedict. Sr Anne Elizabeth shares their Benedictine roots, having spent nearly 25 years
as a Benedictine of Mt St Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas. We were delighted to welcome nine
of her Atchison sisters to our celebration, including the prioress, Mary Collins OSB, as well as
Sister=s mother, Jeanne Sweet, who has become a dear friend of ours.
All who follow the Rule make vows of conversion of life, stability, and obedience. Since
Sr Anne Elizabeth had already made these vows at Mt St Scholastica, her commitment to
Mississippi was a question of transferring her stability, the vow which binds a person to a
particular place and group of people.
Sr Anne Elizabeth Sweet is a native of Mobile, Alabama and gentle traces of the South
remain in her voice. Some of you may have heard it, as Sister runs the sales department of our
candy business (and no, she did NOT change her last name to get this job!), and often speaks
with customers on the phone. Thanks to all the free advertising we received last fall, our candy
sales even now in the Aoff@ season are up 30% over last year, so we keep her busy.
Of course, the candy business, a blessing though it is for us financially, is not the whole
of our life, and Sr Anne Elizabeth has many other skills, including a masters degree in theology
from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Notre Dame, and
teaching experience from her days at Benedictine College in Atchison. She continues to write
and publish, and to give classes within our community. We are happy to have her as a permanent
member of Mississippi Abbey.
Holy Saturday
Since we celebrate the Paschal Vigil at 3:30 AM on Easter Sunday, Holy Saturday here is
a very quiet day between the storms of Good Friday and the glory of Easter. This year it began
quite auspiciously. Despite the floods suffered by many along the river we are so high that we
will not be flooded short of Armageddon, and by Holy Saturday our fields were dry enough for
Sr Sherry to plant the 13 acres of this year=s oat crop.
But in mid-morning our abbess, Sr Gail, went to the hospital, still very tired after an
episode on Holy Thursday. Much to her chagrin and ours, she was kept overnight while her heart
was monitored. Despite our disappointment at our abbess=s absence and our anxiety for her
health, our Easter Vigil was a marvelous celebration of the Lord Jesus and his Resurrection.
Imagine our joy when Sr Gail was discharged in time to join us for Easter Vespers and a supper
party! We are delighted to tell you that subsequent tests revealed her heart to be in tip-top shape.
She is getting plenty of rest now and we hope will soon be in great form again.
Associates of the Iowa Cistercians
Another source of joy for us this Eastertide came the Saturday after Easter, when a large
group of the Associates of the Iowa Cistercians (AIC) made their first promises. The AIC is part
of a new phenomenon in our Order=s 900-year history. In the last 15 years the Holy Spirit has
called men and women in all corners of the world to live the Cistercian charism in a lay form.
There are now Cistercian Aoblates@ or Aassociates@ (different groups use different terms) in
France, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Nigeria, the Philippines, Morocco, Chile, and the United States.
Each group is attached to a particular monastery - sharing the charism of Astability@! - and has its
own distinct character.
Our own associates are attached to two monasteries - Mississippi and New Melleray. In
1995 we and our brothers started working with dedicated lay friends to form a group which has
become the AIC. A monthly meeting soon evolved, with members joining the monks for the
Office and spending time in Scripture reading, silent adoration, study and discussion. Several
monks and nuns participate regularly and teach Cistercian ways of prayer and of living.
While most of our associates are Catholic (in fact 5 entered the Church this Easter), the
AIC is ecumenical in nature and several are from other Christian communions - Episcopalian,
United Church of Christ. Our group has experienced remarkable growth, and about 40 people
now attend the meetings, some coming from as far as 7 hours away. And more people are
inquiring about membership. We are not sure how we will fit them in the physical space
available, but are confident God will show us the way forward.
For the growth has not only been numerical. After several years the members began to
realize the meetings were only a small part of their spiritual journey, and how they live and pray
the remainder of the month is even more important. It is a great joy for us monastics to see our
associates gradually coming to deeper faith in Christ, learning to spend substantial time in prayer,
and becoming increasingly eager to simplify their lives and goods.
After 15 months of intense preparation, a core group of 19 associates committed
themselves to Christ via the AIC in a ceremony at New Melleray. Surrounded by monks, nuns,
and other associates, they stood before the sanctuary and pronounced their promises. Each was
given a medal inscribed with the AIC logo designed by our Sr Suzanne, and all present said a
blessing over them. Please pray for our associates as they strive to live the Gospel with the help
of the Rule of St Benedict and the wisdom of the Cistercian tradition.
Building News
Great news on the building front: we are preparing to break ground! After many months
of working with our architect, we will begin the first phase of our Iowa building project - a new
candy house. The second phase will include a retreat center with dining facilities and a room
where large groups can meet - retreat groups for example, busloads of tourists or schoolchildren,
and of course our very own Associates, who at present, to our pain, can meet only at New
Melleray as we have no adequate facilities.
We had hoped to make retreat facilities our very first building project. However, the
retreat center will be located at the site of the present candy house, which we can=t vacate until a
new candy house is built. So the candy house must come first. At this point we have enough
funds just to build the candy house and make a major start on the monastery in Norway.
Our new candy house will be located in the only place in the upper part of our property
(where the monastery buildings are) with a large enough flat area for semi=s to turn around. We
are looking forward to the day we have a functioning loading dock and no longer have to do our
water-bucket-brigade method of unloading shipments of boxes and ingredients. Some of our
adventures wheeling heavy dollies over a hundred feet of ice this past winter were a little more
fraught with excitement than we could have wished!
We expect to break ground in early fall, and hope to move into the new candy house in
spring. We can hardly believe it=s all starting to happen, and that this fall will be, God willing,
the last Acandy season@ in our present building.
We wish each of you a most blessed Paschaltide and Pentecost, and a summer filled with
the love and presence of God.