It was the third week of March, our newspaper and website were filled with stories about COVID-19 and I naively thought a sweet story about a pedal car in Lancaster could serve as a distraction from the spreading coronavirus, cancellations and growing restrictions.
The scope of what was happening had not fully set in, even though Major League Baseball shut spring training down four days after we returned from a family trip to see the Milwaukee Brewers in Arizona.
Schools, businesses and other events were beginning to restrict access or closing altogether. But I still thought a trip to southwestern Wisconsin to provide our readers with something that didnât revolve around the virus was doable. And this is when I realized that virtually nothing was going to be immune.
In a rare move, Catholic nuns set out to build a new monastery
Rarer still, millennial recruits are necessitating the move to larger quarters. External rendering of the chapel entrance. RNS courtesy photo from Katelyn Ferral
December 15, 2020
(RNS) Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Sister Mary Bede was no stranger to quarantine life.
Sister Bede and 22 other Cistercian nuns who live with her at Valley of Our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, are cloistered in silence according to the rule of their ancient monastic Catholic religious order.
Dedicated to constant prayer, the sisters live simply, supporting themselves by baking Communion bread for churches in Wisconsin and as far away as Australia.