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

Happy Easter! All of us here send our love and prayers for a most blessed and joyous season to all. Spring has definitely come to the high desert here in Sonoita. Banks of purple and yellow iris wave greetings in the sonoran winds that come at this time of the year. Almost all the trees have greened out, except for the

Hello, friends! Since our last entry we have been visited by many angels and we’d like to share our joy with you. The first angel to visit us was our dear Pastor Bill of St. Theresa’s Parish and Our Lady of the Angels Mission. We celebrated at two tables!       The next angel to drop by was our

Our Christmas Chronicle Here we are approaching the last day of the Christmas Season, and we want to share with you our Christmas Chronicle in a little different format this time: in pictures!  It all started with Christmas tree decorating … and moved on to the refectory …         Meanwhile in the kitchen, cooks were busy creating