Autumn has turned out to be a time of many moods! It splashed the hillsides with yellow and dazzled us with the bluest of blue skies and dancing white clouds – just to make us smile. Then came the winds that blew in a gully-drencher of a rainstorm. Our arroyos were raging with water in a way they haven’t in

The grass on the Santa Rita foothills is still green at the roots, but otherwise it has that gone-to-seed autumn look.  The “Gold Fields” are blooming all over, adding splashes of golden color everywhere.  On the roadsides and on the edges of the dry river beds, tall sunflowers adding their own shades of gold, brown and green. We have wonderful dark skies and

All good things must come to an end, so we bid adieu to Fr. John and Sr. Eleanor with a supper party.  It’s been a joy to share in Sr. Eleanor’s warm Irish humor and good spirits this summer.  We wish her all the best in her studies.  We are grateful to the abbot and community of the Genesee for lending

August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the patronal feast of our Cistercian order, so we always celebrate it with special joy. But this year our joy was doubled as we celebrated our Sister Kate’s Golden Jubilee of vows. Three members of Kate’s family traveled from Pennsylvania for the occasion. Our good friend Fr.

Monsoon season is here and the hills and valleys around us are turning a glorious green.   The season began with a bang, quite literally, when lightning struck one of the electric poles on our property, and fried the transformer for our water system. Only a few hours after the electric company fixed this problem, a furious storm knocked out

On May 5, our good friend Fr. Miguel Mariano, pastor of St. Odilia’s Parish in Tucson, brought a group of nearly 50 parishioners for a visit in honor of the Year of Consecrated Life.  Sr. Pam was asked to give them a brief talk about our Cistercian way of life, and then she and Sr. Nettie gave them a special

On April 18th Grand Knight Dean Moulis and five other Knights of Columbus from Council #6842, at Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Green Valley, came for a volunteer work day, along with District Deputy Doug Cook from Rio Rico. They were a great help to us with various outdoor jobs–mowing, weed whacking, tree trimming, and cleaning the garage.  Thank

Hello there!  We have some catching up to do, so here is the first installment: To begin, we’ll back up all the way to the first weekend of March and the Diocese of Tucson’s Catholic Conference, Co-workers of the Vineyard, Thursday March 5 – Saturday March 7.  Bishop Kicanas called the conference for the purpose of fostering the faith growth

Nature is putting on her nicest finery in leaf and bloom in celebration of the Paschal Season.  Everything speaks of joy!  This past week our joy was overflowing with the visit of our  Mary-Ellen of Wrentham on Easter Monday and the arrival of Nettie on Tuesday.  So we had abundant celebration with a wonderful supper together and much reminiscing of