We had the great pleasure of a visit from our Archbishop,
Archbishop Michael Jackels.
He has been
our archbishop for just over a year now.
He was the celebrant for our Sunday Eucharist.
He gave a heartfelt homily about the primacy
of Jesus in our Christian life.
He
encouraged us and our guests to strive to know Jesus more and more, saying that
you can’t love what you don’t know and to truly follow Jesus.
It is clear that this is the standard for our
archbishop.
After the Eucharist we had a brunch with Archbishop
Jackels. It was a delight getting to
know him better. We were free to ask him
any questions we wanted. Sr. Christine,
who will be going to Italy soon, with a stop in Siena, asked him about his
devotion to Catherine of Siena. He told
us how he was introduced to her and how he has read all her writings and how
her wisdom was so pertinent to our own times in guiding the Church today.
We also had a lot of fun with teasing back and forth and
good humor all around.
After brunch he
joined us for Midday prayer.
He left
with a very monastic gift, vegetables from our garden.
We look forward to our next visit from him.
Fr. Michael Casey, from Tarrawarra Abbey in Australia is here giving us classes on the 4th Chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict, The Tools for Good Living. Fr. Michael is a gifted teacher and writer. He says it as it is with lots of good humor. The tools for good living are tools to live a life based on the Gospels. They are relevant to all Christians seeking to follow Jesus is an authentic way. His new book, Seventy-Four Tools For Good Living, has just been published.
Recently we have been working on the pump house over on the
south farm. It is very interesting
building. In the back there is a spring
fed well that you walk down a set of stairs to get to. The water collects in this well. The room is
very cool and was used for refrigeration.
Upstairs, the hand pump is
located in the center room. This was the
water source which supplied water to the farm house. In the end room a deep concrete square basin
is located which served as a root cellar for the winter. It was also used in the summer to go and sit
to cool off from the summer’s heat.
Once or twice a year the Associates of Iowa Cistercian come to our abbey for their monthly meeting. The lay group, affiliated with both our abbey and New Melleray Abbey, strive to live the Cistercian values in the world. The meeting usually takes place at New Melleray Abbey because of the larger space. The group comes to Sext and None with Sr. Chris, our choir director, leading the group.
