Blessed Advent
 
 

Dear friends,

A blessed First Sunday of Advent to you all! The prologue of St. John’s Gospel includes the encouraging message, "The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall never overcome it” (Jn 1:5). This verse comes easily to mind this time of year, as the days grow shorter and snow begins to fall. As we enter into this beautiful season, we want to share with you a bit of the news from around our monastery.

After a few weeks of hard frost (below), we received our first bit of snow on the feast of St. Andrew. This means that the garden is officially put to bed for the winter, with the last harvest of kale coming up to the kitchen on December 1.

 
 
 
 

Our winter newsletter will be heading out to friends near and far beginning this week. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up for a print or digital edition here. In the meantime, you can read it online in both French and English. This has meant a lot of recreations of sticking, folding and sealing—and, as ever, our monastery’s rabbit Dominic tries his very best to help.

 
 

Construction continues on our new workshop building. The candle shop was completed in mid-September, the paper making and packing rooms are almost finished, and work continues on the soap department. The increased space, light and ventilation are very much appreciated by all the sisters in the work areas, and we are very grateful for your support for this project. The new shops are safer, quieter and much more conducive to prayer and recollection. Thank-you!

 

Candle shop, and some finished altar candles.

Construction on the soap shop.

Drying racks for curing soap.

 

As they await their new workspace, the soap sisters have been busy creating a new “Winter Collection” inspired by the snow and forest around our monastery. Containing a bar each of our Mint Swirl, Log Cabin, Pumpkin Spice and Mint & Eucalyptus blends, each box is $25 (and shipping is free on Canadian orders of $100+). You can find out more and place an order through our online store, or pick up a box in our monastery’s gift shop.

 

During what can be a busy season for many, we just want to remind you that our chapel is open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. most days of the week (Sunday opening 7:00 a.m., Mondays closing 7:30 p.m.). You are welcome to join us for the liturgy at the scheduled hours, or simply to enjoy the atmosphere of silence and recollection. Mondays this Advent will be hermit days of solitude for our community, with no public liturgy apart from Mass.

May God bless you and those you love as we prepare to celebrate our dear Saviour’s birth!

 
Sr. Marie Thomas Lawrie
Solemn Profession of Sr. Marie Thomas
 
 

On October 9, the memorial of St. John Henry Newman, it was our great joy to celebrate the solemn profession of Sr. Marie Thomas of the Divine Word. Our Dominican Provincial of Canada fr. Yves Bériault celebrated the Eucharist, and fr. Don Goergen O.P. preached the homily. Many of sister’s friends and family came from across Western Canada, including her parents and siblings, her university chaplain Fr. Dean Henderson, and the abbot of our local Westminster Abbey, Fr. Alban Riley OSB. This day was also Canadian Thanksgiving, and there were certainly many reasons to give thanks!

 

Originally from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Sr. Marie Thomas attended high school just up the road from us in Whistler. She discovered our community during university when a Google search of “nuns, BC” brought her to our website. Captivated by pictures of our liturgy, the glaciers, and a nun skiing in full habit, she made contact with our community just a few months after our Squamish monastery was opened and blessed in August of 2012. Her profession marks a significant step in our foundation’s development, as she is the first solemn professed sister to complete the entire monastic formation program “in house.”

As St. John Henry Newman wrote, however, “Holiness is the great end. There must be a struggle and a trial here.” In this case, shortly after Sr. Marie Thomas went on retreat in our hermitage, six sisters and our monastery’s chaplain fell ill with COVID. Thankfully, no one was gravely ill, and our novice mistress and liturgist returned from quarantine just in time for a final choir practice and rehearsal! The quarantined sisters who were well enough donned parkas and participated in both the Mass and reception by staying outside behind glass (see the sisters on the roof in photo above). As one sister quipped, “The prayers of hermits and those who suffer are highly efficacious; quarantine combines both!” Well supported by these prayers and the joy of the Lord, we thank God and sister’s family for her gift of life. Ad multos annos!

 

“What’s solemn vows?” asked Dominic the monastic rabbit. “Are they tasty? Can I eat them? Are they like carrots?”
“True love is even better than carrots, Dominic,” replied the newly solemn professed. “God is just that good.”

 
 
Sr. Marie Thomas Lawrie
Happy Feast of St. Dominic

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.

 

A new carving of St. Dominic by our Sr. Mary Magdalen.

 

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.

 

Although the community’s rabbit Dominic is not allowed to nibble the garlic stalks (much to his chagrin!), he joined us for the recreation in his outdoor pen.

 

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

Sr. Marie Thomas Lawrie