HOLY
TRINITY
MONASTERY
Spring 2011
Greetings!
NEWS
VOLUME 36 / NUMBER 1
prayerful guidance in their discernment. Added to this,
there is a very small Monastery in Turvey, England,
that has been made a ‘cell’ of Holy Trinity Monastery
for which I have been put in charge of overseeing. As
you might expect, I’m not making that trip on a regular
basis! With the Internet, Fr. John and I can keep in
touch. However, because he is interested in the fact
that Fr. Louis’ vision of having monks, religious
women, and lay oblates living together in community
is a reality here, he will be visiting Holy Trinity in
March. We are looking forward to his visit.
As you can see, it may be just the beginning, but
it promises to be a busy year. In that regard, may I ask
for your prayers that, as Julian of Norwich contended,
‘all will be well, all will be well, and all manner of
things will be well.’
We’re more than a month into
2011; just the same, I want to wish
you and yours a belated Happy
New Year. As the 2010 calendar
was being replaced with the 2011
one, the Holy Hoboes began rolling
into Monte Casino RV Park. What a
Father Henri
welcome sight they always are, for
Capdeville, O.S.B.
they bring the expertise, combined
with the energy and good will, to
tackle projects that are more than the Community can
accomplish, but that definitely need doing. You’ll get
an idea of what I mean as you read the articles on the
following pages. Suffice it to say, we at Holy Trinity
Monastery are very grateful for all they do.
On a personal note, my own calendar has been
full – what with having to oversee the Benedictine
Monastery in Pecos, New Mexico, in the absence of
an abbot. It means flying up there to give them
In Prayer,
Fr. Henri Capdeville, O.S.B.
Fr. Henri Capdeville, O.S.B.
Bread, the Staff of Life
The winter months at HTM find the RV men busy
repairing roofs, building fences, dredging ponds, laying
pipe, operating the pecan cleaning machine, and any
number of other tasks. Many of the women concentrate on
doing the nitty-gritty business of preparing the pecans for
sale or use in the kitchen and bakery. Others volunteer in
the gift shop or Benedict’s Closet, the thrift store, and
some will be found in Benedict’s Bakery where they
will be baking their specialties for the Bake Sales that
are held every Friday during February and March.
Come twelve o’clock, however, the work they are
doing is put aside and they head for the chapel where Fr.
Henri celebrates Mass – a focal point of the RVers’ day.
This is followed by dinner in St. Benedict’s Hall. What
(continued on page 2)
1
Kathleen and Elayne baking bread
I
Pond Restoration
t’s unlikely that the world would have the beloved poem, Trees, by
Joyce Kilmer, had she lived in the southwest. That is, unless she chanced
upon the land that would become the site of Holy Trinity Monastery.
Trees, at least the vast majority of them, need water – and plenty of it –
to thrive. Interestingly, in pockets along the San Pedro River near St. David,
AZ, there are artesian wells, a tree’s best friend. One has only to drive in –
or by – the Monastery grounds, to know this land has been blessed with an
abundant supply of underground water. In addition to about one hundred
pecan trees, there are willows and palms, cypress and cedar, as well as
immense old cottonwoods, mesquite and palo verde.
But there is more evidence of underground water; there are several
spring-fed ponds. The most apparent is the focal point of the meditation
garden with the arched bridge that passes over it, and benches along its banks.
It provides a place for quiet reflection and contemplation. There is another
pond behind the cloister called, ‘Spirit Lake,’ another behind Our Lady of
Guadalupe chapel, and still another on the back side of the property, not far
from St. Hildegard, one of the guest houses.
Over time, silt and plant life – primarily cattails and lily pads – have invaded the ponds, causing them to shrink in
terms of the amount of open water. (Sadly, two dried up entirely.) Last year, the “Three Amigos” – RVers, Vern and
Lyle, and Leon, an oblate who lives nearby, restored the dry pond by St. Hildegard. They scraped the clay surface so
it would hold water and then, this done, directed water from one of the underground wells to fill the pond.
This winter they are laying pipe to redirect water from two other wells to increase the flow into the pond. It has
already gone from being a dried up hole to a sanctuary for ducks. But this is not all that is keeping them busy these
days. In preparation for next winter, they are draining Spirit Lake. Over the years cattails have encroached, their roots
virtually plugging the pipe from which the well water flows. Next winter, with the lake empty, the three will fire up
the bulldozers and backhoe and restore this pond to new life.
The work these volunteers are doing takes time. However, it is work that needs to be done – work that will allow
not only wildlife a place of refuge, but also a place for guests to sit and reflect by ‘restful waters.’
2010 Fall Festival
SWEEPSTAKES
WINNERS
Bread, the Staff of Life
(continued from page 1)
a treat it is for those who have spent the morning
hard at work to find a basket of freshly baked
bread on the table!
Just as the Eucharist has nourished their souls
in the chapel, now in joining together at table, the
Eucharist continues as they break bread for the
body. Sometimes it is the traditional Benedictine
Bread, but more recently Kathleen and Elayne,
who are in the bakery early every morning, have
added tasty artisan breads – assiago cheese, as well
as pesto and rosemary/garlic and baguettes to their
list of accomplishments.
When the meal is ended, their stomachs are full,
the breadbaskets are empty; and it’s time to return to
work and look forward to another day, and another
basket of freshly baked bread.
Grand Prize Winner of a one-week stay at a
time-share apartment in Orlando, FL:
Joseph Foy, San Pedro, CA
$500
$250
$50
$50
$50
$50
$50
2
Janice Goodman, St. David, AZ
Dave Arens, Tucson, AZ
Alfonso Rodriguez, Maywood, IL
Darryl Olson, Sierra Vista, AZ
Dennis Marquez, Oracle, AZ
Julia Duarte, Sierra Vista, AZ
Aida Torres, Hercules, CA
Nuts, Nuts, Nuts!
Interior Renovation
This time of year at HTM it could well be said
that the RVers go absolutely nutty! The reason:
Brother Gary harvested the pecans in December,
filling two wagons and waiting the arrival of the
Holy Hoboes. Most every morning and/or afternoon, if you’re in the area, the clank, clank, clank
of the cleaning machine can be heard. Not only are
small branches and twigs removed, but also nuts
that have not broken free of their hulls are tossed
aside, too. Once this is done, the nuts go to the
‘crack house’, where they are put through a cracking machine before being taken to the ‘nut house’,
where the meat is removed from the shell. Thelma
and her cohorts do “quality control” to make sure
there are no shells left to possibly chip a tooth. This
done, the nuts are bagged before being taken to the
Book/Gift Store to be sold, or to the bakery.
Labor intensive? You bet! But the final result is
worth the work as the pecans are featured items
every Friday in February and March at our
Benedict’s Bakery Bake Sales. If you are in the
area, do come by! You’ll find caramel pecan rolls,
pecan pies, pecan tarts, pecan bars, chocolate chip
pecan cookies and candied pecans, as well as
pecans in the Benedictine bread and quick bread.
There’s so much to choose from you may, well,
you may go nutty, too!
Pond restoration is one project being undertaken
this winter, but it certainly isn’t the only one. There
is work being done in the cloister where what had
originally been the library, only to be transformed into
a kitchen, is now being returned to its original form
and purpose: a library.
The Bishop’s House
The impetus behind this project came from a need
to find a place for the extensive library that belonged
to Bishop Pat Ziemann. After his death last year, Fr.
Henri determined that the house he had been living in
would become a guesthouse named in his honor, “The
Bishop’s House.” However, before the renovation
could take place, there was the question, “What should
we do with all Bishop Pat’s books?”
In addition to filling every bit of spare space in
his house, any of the guesthouses that had bookcases
were filled with Bishop Pat’s books, too! How many
there are, has not yet been determined, but there
are MANY!
What has been decided is that the appropriate
place for the collection is under one roof, that of the
cloister. At the present time, bookcases are being built
to accommodate it. Once these are in place, the books
will be cataloged and counted. It will be interesting to
find out just how many books our well-read Bishop
had. We’ll let you know when we get the final count!
Cleaning
Pecans
Pecan Grove after pruning
3
Cheers for the Dough-Dough Sisterhood!
“Dough-Dough Sisterhood”, you ask, “what’s
that?”
It’s what evolved over eight weeks last winter
when the women from the RV park combined their
talents and their energy together to form a community
in service to the Monastery.
It all came together – the site, the workplace, the
workers, and the idea that had been mulling in the
minds of many to make use of the lovely courtyard
outside Benedict Hall. With Father Henri’s go-ahead,
the women met and formulated a plan: each of us
will bake our specialty – no mixes allowed! We’ll
distribute flyers at RV parks in the area and set up
shop from 10 - 2 every Friday in February and March.
With a new bakery to work in, and a lovely courtyard
for customers to enjoy a fresh almost-home baked
treat, it seemed a shoo-in, but would Benedict’s
Bakery really fly?
The night before the opening day there was more
than anticipation, there was apprehension. “What if
nobody comes?” we wondered. Optimists said, “Oh,
don’t worry, retirees like sweets, they’ll come!!” Out
of these disparate viewpoints came the idea, “Let’s
have a pool. Everybody put a quarter in the pot, make
a guess as to how many paying customers we’ll have
and the one who has the closest guess wins.” The
numbers ranged from four to fifty-three, which, on
hearing a number beyond her wildest dreams, the
chairman sighed, “Don’t we wish!”
The day dawned clear, the customers came and
when the figures were tallied Benedict’s Bakery had
served 57 paying customers and taken in $440!
Unbelievable! By the end of the eight weeks the total
amount taken in was $5300 and cleared some
$4800…talk about unbelievable!
As for the bakers themselves? They had worked
hard, but had had a wonderful time in the process.
A wonderful spirit of camaraderie and an affection
for one another that comes from working together to
realize a purposeful dream had resulted. As one said –
and it stuck…“We can call ourselves the DoughDough Sisterhood!”
And so, once again, the ovens are heating up,
the aprons are on, and the word is out, “follow the
aroma to Benedict’s Bakery where every batch is
made from scratch!”
JOIN US FOR OUR
Fiesta de la Primavera
May 7 & 8, 2011
•
Saturday 10am - 5pm
•
Sunday 10am - 4pm
RAFFLE $2,000 in prize money
MASSES: Saturday at 5pm • Sunday at 10:30am & Noon
Directions to Holy Trinity Monastery: 2 miles south of St. David on Highway 80 between Benson and Tombstone,
just beyond milepost 302. For information, call 520-720-4642.
HOW TO REACH US
(520) 720-4642 Ext. 10
[email protected]
(520) 720-4642
www.holytrinitymonastery.org
Mass Requests
(520) 720-4016
[email protected]
Vocations
Holy Trinity Monastery
Guest Office & Book Store/Gift Shop
(520) 720-4642
[email protected]
4
Check website,
www. hol ytri ni tymonastery. org
to read the monthly
“Chronicles” of activities
at the monastery as well as up-dated
information and Oblate news.