HOLLANDALE — As the Cistercian Nuns of Valley of Our Lady Monastery get closer to fully moving into their new home, it was Moving Day for one of their most important pieces.
With the help of technicians who flew in from France, the Sisters’ altar bread baking machines were disassembled at their current monastery near Prairie du Sac, taken to their new and nearly finished monastery near Hollandale, and reassembled.
“This once-in-a-cloistered-lifetime relocation has [the Sisters] both excited to begin our vocations anew at the new monastery and saddened to leave the old monastery where we have so many memories and have encountered God and made our Solemn Profession of Vows,” said Sr. Christina Marie, O.Cist., monastery altar bread manager.
”It’s an honor that the humble ‘work of our hands’ becomes the very Body of Christ. The work brings us together as a community, and its repetitive nature allows for private prayer,” she added.
Moving the machines
Relocating the altar bread baking machines was not as easy as just loading everything up in a moving van and driving to the new home.
The two Coremat brand altar bread bakers were installed more than a decade ago. They replaced one large baker that was aging, in need of extensive repairs, and was difficult for the Sisters to maintain. The new machines have allowed them to incorporate designs onto their breads, and they’ve been able to do most of the maintenance and repairs themselves.
Philippe Christian and Alfred Freddy from Coremat came to Wisconsin from France to help the Sisters move the bakers.
Christian had been to the monastery before both to install the machines and to replace some plates on them. Freddy, an electrician, was making his first visit to the monastery.
A Cistercian monk from Quebec, Canada, Fr. Joseph Watson, O.Cist, was on hand as a French translator, repeating a role he previously served in for the Sisters.
“I’m surprised at how well the baking machines have been maintained; they are like new. The Sisters are very well organized with their work,” said Christian.
“The two technicians worked well together and with us,” said Sr. Christina Marie.
“We spent two days disassembling the two bakers,” she recalled.
“On day three, we moved the pieces to the new location and began reassembly. Four more days of repairs and reassembly followed. Then three days of test-baking. Only at the very end of day three [of test-baking] were the two bakers functioning well enough for the two technicians to fly back to France.”
“The importance of our altar bread work resides in the fact that this bread will become the Body of Christ,” said Mother Anne Marie, O.Cist., prioress.
“We are able to live our vocation of ora et labora especially well with this work. The work is ongoing day by day and it is done in silence, allowing us to be in communion with God in prayer as we work.”
The new monastery
The Sisters are hoping to complete their move in early March.
After years of prayerful discernment, the Nuns began a capital campaign in earnest in 2018 to build a much-needed new monastery.
“We are looking forward to a new monastery with more beauty, healthier buildings, and space for more members, built with the traditional monastic floor plan that will allow us to enter more deeply in our life of prayer and separation from the world,” said Sister Christina Marie.
“I’m looking forward to having the work of moving and of the whole project behind us, so we can again live a more focused monastic life with the day-by-day prayer and silence that so deeply marks our lives,” said Mother Anne Marie.
She continued that the Sisters have had to deal with “acceptance of all the challenges, struggles, disappointment, and acceptance of our own weaknesses as we struggle together in this difficult time.”
“We will miss our beautiful bluffs and creek and farmland,” said Sister Christina Marie.
“Cistercians are known for being lovers of the place. While we’re sure we will come to love our new building and land, it is still hard to leave the old ones behind”.
Yet, through all the changes, Mother Anne Marie sees the experience as “An opportunity to live a deeper trust in Divine Providence [and] an opportunity to grow in authentic humility.”
For more information on the new monastery, go to build.valleyofourlady.org