ABBEY NEWS
Moving Ahead
We’re in the home stretch now. On Friday the contractors poured the cement sidewalk to the Church 
entrance, probably the final cement work for the whole of the renovation project. After a few days of curing we should be able to open the walk.
The only major jobs remaining are connecting the sidewalks radiant heating network to the heating system, finishing the stone pillars on the front of the building and repaving the asphalt parking lot and landscaping.
Guest Speaker
This past week we had four informative conferences on Religious Orders and Church Adaption Throughout History by Sr. Patricia Wittberg, SD, PhD. Sister Patricia is a Sister of Charity and a Research Associate at CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate). Website” https://cara.georgetown.edu/
She holds a 
Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, and has written extensively about Catholic religious institutes and Catholic parishes. Sr. Patricia is recently retired from the Sociology department at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where she taught sociology of religion, formal organizations, urban sociology, and the sociology of communities.
Among the topics treated were looking at some of the many challenges facing religious communities today due in great measure to the rapid changes in generations as they come along while remaining faithful to the Trappist Cistercian charism and at the same time responding to needs and expectations of potential candidates. No small task.
Sr. Patricia is well informed about generational differences and their impact on religious life. She concluded by providing some helpful recommendations to make our particular way of life more known to potential candidates.
Lectio Notebook
Christian prayer is God-centered rather than self-centered. Consistent with the spirit of the first commandment, the very opening address of the Lord’s Prayer escapes from the normal gravitational pull of self-absorption in order to focus on the Creator.
The context is decidedly Trinitarian. It is offered to God the Father, through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our unique and indispensable window on God. His words and actions are like so many panes of glass in the window of his humanity.
When viewed with the eyes of faith in the light of the Holy Spirit they reveal who Jesus is as the Son of God. As Jesus stated: I am the way, and the truth, and life; no one comes to the Father but by me’ (John 1:6).
Prayer in Practice
Fr. Pat Collins, C.M.
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