Monastery News
Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey
Dubuque, Iowa
Volume 6 Issue 3
September 2005
Dear Friends,
Once again we are delighted to bring you news of the solemn profession of one of our sisters! On
June 11 our Sr Grace (née Ann Remington) made her life-time vows of obedience, stability, and
conversion of life, in a public ceremony in our church. Very public - Sr Grace is an Iowa native
(the fourth in our community), and we were blessed with a large crowd of Iowan supporters, as
well as family and friends from out of state.
After receiving a bachelor=s degree in biology from Grinnell College, Ann worked for several
years in nursing homes while considering her life=s path. When she decided to become a doctor,
she envisaged it as a commitment so total as to exclude marriage and family. >For me it=s
always all or nothing,= she says. Ann was accepted at the University of Iowa=s medical school,
and moved by a deepening of her faith in Christ, began looking into medical missionary orders to
see if she could put her eventual degree at the service of the Church.
To Ann=s surprise, she found herself less attracted to religious congregations where an MD
would be useful than to more contemplative congregations. Although she had her orientation
materials for school, and an apartment picked out, it became clear that God had other plans. More
and more Jesus was calling her to serve him simply in prayer and love. Ann visited our
monastery, then lived with us for a month as an >observer=, the first serious step toward entering
our community. After this, while she could still imagine following Jesus by doctoring his people,
she could no longer imagine not spending her life praising God and praying that his healing love
might be known in the places no doctor=s hands can reach. On New Year=s day, 1997, Ann
began her new life as a Cistercian postulant.
At present Sr Grace is in charge of our large vegetable garden, helps maintain the machinery in
our candy factory, and is on the committee which runs the candy business. A gifted artist, her
pictures have adorned several of our community Christmas cards in recent years. Not least of the
gifts Sr Grace brings to us is a talent and passion for study, often directed at our Cistercian
spiritual heritage.
Just before midnight on Saturday the 4th, a week before the profession, a tremendous storm
awoke us. Of course, the great weather threat in the Midwest is tornados, and like all rural folks
the only warning we have at night is the sound of the tornado about to hit. The noise from this
storm was so great most of us expected at any moment to hear a signal to go to the basement; but
before that decision was reached, the worst was over. None of our buildings were damaged,
although two or three trees fell on them. Other falling trees severed the main power line and
knocked out two transformers. The aerial dish for our internet connection was twisted over - the
steel column supporting it simply snapped in half. Of course, in comparison with the damage
recently inflicted much further down our great river by Hurricane Katrina, this storm hardly
deserves a mention, but it was certainly a reminder to us of how vulnerable our lives are, and
how dependent on the protection of God.
In recent months we have been working together to reduce the sense of >busyness= that so often
pervades our life - even here in the monastery! We are here for God, for prayer, and to bear
witness to his people of the hope of the life to come. Rushing from job to job, as we sometimes
find ourselves doing, is contrary to the spirit of constant prayer.
So in a series of community dialogues we have come up with practical ways to foster a calm,
unhurried environment. This past Lent, Sr Gail suggested that we try to arrive in plenty of time
for the Divine Office, to give us a few moments to put ourselves in the presence of God. In many
monasteries this is taken for granted, but it is not our strongest suit. Now we have agreed to end
activities 15 minutes before any liturgy, so we can arrive in good time.
In 1980, trying to enable sisters to have longer periods for prayer and reading, we agreed that if
our work allowed, we could start and end it when we liked as long as we worked a certain
number of hours. After 25 years the result was that, apart from the Office and the Great Silence,
there was a sense of continual work - and a lot of working overtime, as there is always more to
do. So we have gone back to the old monastic practice of quiet periods interspersed with fixed
work periods, with all of us trying to begin and end work on time.
Finally, we are revisiting many old practices of monastic decorum, especially in the church - e.g.,
the way we enter or bow. Most of these small rituals have as their goal precisely what we are
aiming at - decreasing distractions, and fostering silence and prayerfulness.
We wish you a blessed fall, and ask your prayers that our little efforts in these seemingly small
matters may bear great fruit for the Kingdom of God.
The sisters of Mississippi Abbey
Our Sr Anne Elizabeth, a Scripture scholar, spent the summer teaching in our monasteries in
Nigeria. Here she describes her experience.
Of all that I have ever done, this experience ranks near the top of the list. I absolutely loved
teaching Scripture in the monastic context. I spent three weeks in each of four monasteries: Mt
Calvary Monastery, Awhum (80 monks); Holy Cross Monastery, Illah (20 monks); Our Lady of
the Angels Monastery, Nsugbe (20 monks); St Justina=s Monastery, Abakaliki (35-40 nuns).
There is a great need in Africa for formation and education. Some told me that this was the first
time they had a community course on Scripture. It was such a joy when a monk or nun would
come with bright and shining eyes and tell me how grateful they were for the insight they had
received, and how eager now to read Scripture. This made it all worth it - >it= being the cultural
adaptations. Electricity is sporadic in Nigeria: sometimes it does not come through for days on
end. When there is power, you know it canBand willBgo off at some point with no warning. Hot
water simply does not exist in Nigeria unless you boil it, so cold showers were a given for those
three months. Then there were the lizards: big ones outside that with beautiful bright colors; and
in my bedroom, little ones I absolutely detested, even if they did eat the mosquitos.
It is hard to express how moving it was to experience the same monastic life in another culture. I
had a real sense of being >at home=. As a foreigner, and in the men=s monasteries as the only
woman, I was totally dependent on them for just about everything, and appreciated their many
small kindnesses that meant so much. In talking with these brothers and sisters, I saw how true it
is that >the community of believers undergoes the same sufferings throughout the world= - that
is, the challenges of monastic life. At the same time there was much joy, especially the laughter
we so often shared. It was simply good to be together.
TRAPPIST >SNACK= RECIPE. Although we don=t normally eat between meals, we have a
favorite >snack= food which can of course be eaten WITH meals. It is low-fat, high-fiber, glutenfree, cheap, easy to make - and utterly delicious!
Gather seeds from a pumpkin (or any other winter squash) and place in a colander. Rinse off the
pulp. Boil the seeds for 5 minutes. Drain well. Oil a baking sheet and spread out the seeds in a
single layer on the sheet. Sprinkle the seeds with oil and tamari sauce. Bake at 350 for 20 - 30
minutes. Stir the seeds after 15 minutes to bake evenly.