Dear friends,

Happy feast of St. Dominic! As we celebrate today the memory of our founder, we hope that you are well and enjoying the summer. These past few months in our community have been quiet but not idle, and we have abundant news to share. Our summer newsletter is ready and available either online or through the post. It contains a reflection on St. Dominic, new arrivals, a first profession, and an interview with Sr. Mary Magdalen about her recent carving of St. Dominic for the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, Texas.

If you don’t already receive our newsletter, you can sign up here and in the meantime read the digital version below:

Since the newsletter went to print, work has continued on our new workshop building. In July, a team of sisters suited up and pulled the electrical cable from our micro hydroelectricity project, over Pilchuk Creek, under our chaplain’s house, through a bit of forest, and right to the new building’s electrical room. Now the workshop building is fully powered by our own sustainable energy (and the construction team can hook up their power tools inside the shop itself rather than needing extension cords!). Next came the installation of the water, and last week sisters began to move their work areas from the main monastery building down to the new shops. It is only once a work area is packed and ready that we realize how much we’ve been able to fit into a small makeshift space for so many years! Thank-you for your continued support of this project; we could not do it without you, and are deeply grateful.

The garden is also doing well, with baskets of kale and other vegetables arriving regularly in the kitchen. At the beginning of August, we harvested the garlic, and spent a community recreation brushing and tying the heads for dry storage.

Finally, we’ve been blessed with an abundance of wild animal spottings over the past month. The beavers that live in the wetlands skirting our monastery are routinely seen in the late afternoon and evenings. Although the iron-rich creek at low water looks more like strong tea than anything one would want to swim in, these Castor canadensis seem perfectly content, with up to five spotted at one time.

A few days ago, the sound of a distant squeegee-like squeaking could be heard from our monastic cells at just past five in the morning. In the profound silence of early dawn, this proved a puzzle, until sister photographer realized the true source of the disturbance and rushed down to our fields. A rogue car wash? An errant squeaky toy? None of the above! A herd of our valley’s resident Roosevent elk had spent the early morning, and the squeaks were the calls of the calves as they galloped and played around. Although the arrival of sister photographer unfortunately interrupted their game, the herd was kind enough to pause for a picture before disappearing silently into the woods.

We wish you a blessed feast, and joyful remainder of the summer (or winter, for our friends in the southern hemisphere).
St. Dominic, pray for us!

God bless,
your sisters of Queen of Peace Monastery