November 2023 Santa Rita Abbey Update
November 5 – 11: National Vocation Awareness Week
In honor of this year’s National Vocation Awareness Week, we are putting the spotlight on the three nonagenarians in our monastery. There they are in the photo below, left to right: Sr. Clare, Sr. Miriam and Sr. Jacqueline. They want you to notice their colorful socks, lest you think that being in one’s 90’s is dull!
Sr. Clare Renquin is our eldest, turning 96 at the end of this month. She entered our Order in 1950. Sr. Jacqueline Moor, age 91, entered our Order in 1955. Sr. Miriam Pollard, who turned 90 this past summer, entered our Order in 1956.
If you do some arithmetic, these three Sisters represent almost 210 years of religious sisterhood! There must be something worthwhile about being a woman consecrated to God, or else why dedicate one’s life to that endeavor? We asked our Sisters if they had anything they wanted to say.
Sr. Clare on hoping to live to age 100, “I want to find out what happens next!”
Sr. Jacqui on being a nun, “I’ve loved every minute of it, every minute of it!”
Sr. Miri on having served in three different monasteries over the years, “I’m grateful for each of the communities where I have lived, grateful to each one!”
In comparison to these three wise senior nuns, our Sr. Pam has nothing to boast about. She’s only been a nun since 1987! But we were thrilled when the Diocese of Tucson reached out to feature her vocation story.
Listen to Sr. Pam’s vocation story
Retreat House Update
At long last … we hope to be re-opening our Retreat House in early 2024!
Thanks to the generosity of so many of our past retreatants, last fall’s fundraising was a great success. This is what has been accomplished as of mid-November 2023:
• Late December 2022: new HVAC units were successfully installed in three different areas
• April-May 2023: a new roof was installed on the entire building, and the tile roofing over the porches was repaired
• Early November 2023: interior repairs to water-damaged drywall in the library/kitchen and utility room have been completed and both areas painted
However, drywall repairs and painting of the retreat house chapel have not yet begun. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough contractors and skilled workers in the various trades. Those we do have here in Southern Arizona are working 6-7 days a week trying to get projects done for their customers. Please pray for these hardworking people.
Once the work in the chapel is completed, we will reopen! Stay tuned …
The Eucharist on Thursdays at 7:30 a.m.
Much of the year we do not have a monk of our Order to serve as chaplain. So when the new priest at St. Theresa’s Parish in Patagonia, Fr. Simon Ityo, VC, called up to say that he’d like to come once a week to offer Mass in our chapel, we were thrilled.
Fr. Simon offers the Eucharist for us every Thursday at 7:30 a.m.
Fr. Simon is a native of Nigeria. He belongs to the Via Christi Society which sends missionaries to the Diocese of Tucson among other locations. In fact, there are 18 Nigerian priests serving the people of our diocese! Thank you, Fr. Simon, and all the Via Christi Society missionaries, for your generosity to the people of God in Tucson!
If you look closely, you can see a basket at the foot of our altar. It contains the hundreds of prayer intentions gathered at the Diocese of Tucson’s Rosary Celebration in mid-October. They have been entrusted to our prayerful intercession. May all the men, women and children represented here, know our Lord’s loving presence and our Blessed Mother Mary’s tender care in their lives!
We wish you and your loved ones a blessed Thanksgiving Day!
In the midst of the grave problems throughout the world today, it might be difficult to feel thankful. But let us not forget that God lovingly holds each and every person, and indeed all of Creation, in the palm of his hand, even in the midst of the horrors of war and other violence, of natural disasters, of illness of all kinds, of the diminishments of old age, etc. Yes, even in the midst of all that! We wish God would just fix it, but instead he goes through it with us. May you find the presence of Emmanuel, God-with-us, in the midst of whatever difficulties you are facing.
Let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:15-17