Thanksgiving & Advent at Santa Rita Abbey
Christmas is just a week away! We plan to publish a Christmas photo journal sometime afterward. In the meantime, however, here’s a little update on the last several weeks. Thanksgiving Day was the lovely feast it always is, celebrating God’s wonderful gifts to us throughout the year.
On the first Sunday of Advent, our Sr. Clare celebrated her 89th birthday. She had been looking forward to the day with great enthusiasm. The eldest in her family of five children, her younger brother and sisters have been watching closely to see if she would make it past their parents’ life span of 88 years. And she did! (In fact, she’s shooting for 105, God willing!) She wanted a cake with 89 candles. Not wanting to start a fire in the refectory, however, our creative cake decorators made them out of icing.
It has long been part of our Advent tradition (we got it from our mother house, Mt. St. Mary’s Abbey in Massachusetts) for our superior to light the Advent wreath each Saturday evening just before Vespers, lighting one more candle each week, and then give a short Advent Candle talk at the lectern. Last year, for the first time, we published Mother Vicki’s Advent Wreath talks each week on our Journal page. This year we are publishing them as part of the Gospel Reflections page. If you haven’t already been following them, check them out by going to the Gospel Reflections page (the first option in the Journal page drop down menu) and scrolling down to the list of entries. The most recent talk is at the top of the list.
Our annual Christmas Newsletter has just been sent out via email and USPS mail to those who have signed up for it. We’ve also posted it here on our website. You can see the online, full-color, edition by going to the Annual Newsletter page (the second option on the Journal page drop down menu.)
Our Christmas preparations are in full swing. Our Sr. Esther has been very busy in her sculpture studio with various commissions that needed to be done “in time for Christmas”, including a beautiful creche for a Franciscan community back East. At Cistercian Altar Breads, Sr. Rita has her hands full boxing up all the extra altar bread orders for our parish customers who are expecting the annual Christmas crowds to fill their churches, while our altar bread crew has been busy baking and cutting more breads to keep up with the demand. In the monastery kitchen, Mother Vicki, and Sisters Margarita, Nettie, and Esther are taking turns baking various Christmas delicacies–the aromas are so tempting! Our friend Mary Ricker, who was just here for her annual Advent retreat, also did some Christmas baking for us. This weekend we are putting up our Christmas trees: one in the chapter room, decorated by Mother Vicki and Sisters Clare and Marg; and one in the refectory, decorated by Sisters Kate and Jacqui. We wait until Christmas Eve to officially light the trees, after Fr. Casimir blesses the chapter room tree. Sr. Pam is putting up the outdoor Christmas lights, and these too will brighten our nights during this happy season. But of course all of these preparations are not the most important kind. The long winter nights help us turn our focus inward and take a few minutes of extra quiet time to prepare our hearts to welcome Jesus, our newborn Savior, with great love and longing. Come, Lord Jesus! Come, O Emmanuel!
Advent is a time when so many of our friends shower us with gifts of one kind or another. We are so grateful to each one. We pray abundant blessings upon them and upon all who are generous to others in the Lord’s name at this time of year. May God bless everyone as we all continue our Christmas preparations.