Thanksgiving

Flower arrangement under the altar.

Thanksgiving decorations for the refectory.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who view our blog!  One aspect of being a Cistercian with a vow of poverty is the need to be creative.  Sr. Myra grew the above gourds in her garden.  She carved out these and added a votive candle and shellacked them for our Thanksgiving table.  We celebrate Thanksgiving the way most Americans do with a few additions.  We had a beautiful feast day Mass and then went to work at candy ( a tradition of ours) followed by a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  In the afternoon we do something together as a community.  After Vespers we gather in the kitchen and pull out the leftovers and start eating again!  We then go back to Church and have Compline in the sanctuary.  We hope you had a great day too!

The Fall Harvest

Combiner cuts down the corn and removes the corn from the cob

Corn is poured into wagons

Harvested corn

Fields yet to be harvested

The weather in Iowa is cold and windy.  A perfect day to harvest the corn in our fields.  The crop this year is bountiful which is a real blessing as last years crop was very scant because of the drought.  It is beautiful to watch as the corn stalks disappear and the golden corn pours out into the wagons.  The deer are not far behind , gleaning any corn they can find.

Sr. Myra's popcorn

A much smaller harvest from our vegetable garden is popcorn.  The kernels are removed from the cob and are ready to pop!  It's great popcorn.

49th Anniversary of Foundation!

Srs. Mary Ann, Regina and Gail

Today, November 4th is the 49th anniversary of the foundation of Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey.  Srs. Mary Ann, Regina , and Joan are the remaining foundresses at OLM.  Srs. Rosemary and Marjo have gone to our foundation in Norway.  Srs. Columba and Augustine have already gone home to God.  Srs. Lillian and Genevieve live as hermits off the property.  We are grateful to our foundresses for their love and perseverance over the last 49 years.  Today at dinner stories will be shared and planning will be done on how we will celebrate our 50th!

Today, on All Souls Day after Mass we processed out to our cemetery as the Church bell tolls.  We go there to pray, to remember our sisters who have passed into the New Life of Christ; our Srs. Columba and Augustine.  In our cloister we place pictures of our beloved deceased, our parents, siblings and friends and pray for them throughout the day.