First Sunday of Advent Here we are again, standing at the threshold of another Advent. In this season of the year when darkness steps to the fore and pushes aside our daylight, we take a step into the liturgy of Advent where we illumine the darkness with the light of a candle in an ever-increasing crescendo of light and presence.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends! We hope that your day was blessed and full of family, friends and celebration. And probably a football game, too?? Ours was a happy time of relaxing with one another and our two brother monks of Erlac around a table laden with a delicious din ner provided for us by our good friend and dentist, Dr.

Happy Autumn, dear Friends! We enjoyed our annual community retreat the week of October 18-24.  This year our retreat director was Fr. James Palmigiano of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, MA.  This is the third time over the years that he has been our retreat director and, as always, it was fabulous.  The weather cooperated to provide nice days for

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