Our Lady of Guadalupe

 On December 12th we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  We decorate for it as it is a very special feast for the America's.  We pull out our statue of Juan Diego who saw the apparitions at Tepeyac and whose tilma now hangs in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe outside of Mexico City.  The tilma has on it the miraculous image of Our Lady.  We have a print of Our Lady of Guadalupe hanging in our cloister

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception.  A few years ago our Sr. Grace was preparing a Chapter talk for this feast.  In order to prepare for it she did this drawing which she shared with us when she gave the talk.  Someone suggested it become our next Christmas card; which it did.  

An article appeared in the Tablet by Richard John Neuhaus; the recently deceased theologian.  He had received the Christmas card.  He  commented that he had never seen Mary and Eve together and was quite taken by the drawing.  The Christmas card also contained a poem written by our Sr. Columba:

Her poem was noticed by the composer Frank La Rocca in California and he wrote asking permission to put the poem to music.  The piece was first performed in Glasgow, Scotland.  Listen:  http://www.franklarocca.com/rec/oeve3w.mp3
We started selling the cards as Christmas cards and blank cards as their was a large request for them.  We even started making available matted prints because so many people asked for them.
The drawing and the poem fill us with hope, Advent hope.  It must be why it's so popular.

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!