Employee and Volunteer Brunch

 After our Sunday Eucharist last week we invited our employees and volunteers and their families to have bunch with us.  This is a yearly affair to thank our volunteers and employees for their wonderful service to us.  It was a beautiful day with the crab apple trees in full bloom and warm and sunny.  We are very blessed to have such good and faithful people helping in our work.

Early Arbor Day

We have lost several trees around the house this past year.  The tall pine in front of the Abbey took a direct hit from lightning last fall and utterly destroyed it.  A few other trees took hit and an oak was cut down because it was diseased.  So on Friday several trees were planted around the            house, most of them decorative.  They are pretty tall so they should grow fast.

Sr. Esther's Designs

Sr. Esther and Dale Mueller at the new ambo.

1991 Sr. Esther from Santa Rita Abbey in Arizona came to help us with a renovation of our church.  Sr. Esther was a church designer in Italy before she entered the Cistercian order.  She did the designs for us but never saw the work in its completed form.  We asked her to return to help us design a new ambo as ours was too low and not at a good angle for reading. So a few weeks ago Sr. Esther came and did design and made the changes to the ambo and also raised the altar, put arms on the presiders chair(previously we couldn't use it as some of our chaplains needed arms).  She also designed a new holder for our icon.  She worked very hard and had assistance from a stone mason and our farm manager Dale Mueller.  We love what she did and are grateful to her and her community.

Before

After

Ambo

Ambo

Presiders Chair

Icon Stand

Raised Altar and Ambo

Stand detail