On November 26, 1995, our new Monastery on Crisp Road in Whitesville, KY, was blessed.
It all began in 1989 when we engaged two professionals to plan the renovation of our chapel on Benita Avenue in Owensboro, and the construction of a small retreat house separate from the monastery area. Nothing was further from our minds than a relocation of the monastery!
Our goal was to fulfill the Church’s desire that “religious communities for their part, [and] contemplative institutes in particular...should offer to men and women of our day helpful opportunities for prayer and spiritual life, thus meeting a need for meditation and a deepening of faith which is acutely felt at present. They should also offer suitable opportunities and facilities for sharing in their own liturgical celebrations….” (Directives for Mutual Relations Between Bishops and Religious in the Church, April 23, 1978)
During the planning process, a shared vision began to take shape:
we came to a deeper desire for a chapel that would facilitate guest participation in our liturgies;
we became more and more convinced that city encroachment on the silence and solitude of our monastery was a growing threat;
we had new awareness of the value of the retreats we had offered at our monastery until 1968.
in discussing our need for vocations, we came to realize that many of us had entered the community as a result of making a retreat at the monastery.
Although the planning process stirred a new vision in our hearts, it resulted in a verdict we were unprepared to hear: we had an “architectural dilemma!” Try as we may, it just wasn’t possible to carry out this vision on our four-acre plot in Owensboro.
Then our first miracle happened - a movement of the Holy Spirit surprising us all! Without it being on anyone’s agenda, we came to a unanimous decision that we needed to relocate the monastery. And a miracle this truly was, for 18 women who rarely had unanimous agreement on anything!
Our bishop (surely more than a trifle worried about our small community with its big ideas) showed cautious openness to the project, responding with kind benevolence: “If you wait until you have the money, you will never do anything for the Kingdom of God.”
And so, with just the strong call burning in our hearts and total trust that “nothing is impossible for God”, we launched forth, after deciding against investing in a $20,000 feasibility study that might have proven us insane! Convinced that if God wanted it, nothing would stop it, we began to take one small step at a time. If God didn’t want it, He would show us. The entire project was placed daily in the care of St. Joseph, to whom we had always entrusted the temporal concerns of our monastery. We began to spread the relocation prayer and to enlist the help of relatives and friends.
Obviously, the first thing was to find land. From the outset, St. Joseph sent us generous helpers who believed in the value of Passionist contemplative life. Some offered to donate land. Others gave generously of themselves, escorting us all over the county to inspect prospective sites. We ended up with five possible locations, but the Nuns were sharply divided on every one of them! Meeting this impasse, we enlisted professionals to walk us through a decision-making process which resulted, not in a choice of land, but in our throwing out all five sites! Being back to square one, and weary after our four-month search, we were advised to rest for a while. God had other plans.
That very evening Vernon Wathen called about land for sale on Crisp Road in Whitesville. The next day, Sept. 24, 1991, the feast of St. Vincent Strambi, Passionist, two of us inspected the site, finding it very much to our liking. However, knowing that the community would have to reach an agreement on the purchase, we laughingly decided not to get too enthused until the rest of the Nuns saw the property themselves.
A few days later, three carloads of Passionist Nuns visited the site. You should have heard the excited, happy and grateful unanimity exploding that day! At last, God had shown us our promised land. The site met all criteria: a rural location, enough land to protect our monastic silence and solitude into the future, great natural beauty to lift the heart to God, and sufficient space not only for a larger chapel and monastery, but also for a small retreat house. A couple of the younger members thought that the best part was the three and a half acre lake stocked with fish!!
From that day on, the miracles of God gained momentum. The Catholic property owner gave us a large reduction on the price. With a generous grant from our long-time friends of the V.J. Steele Foundation, the land was purchased, and plans for the new monastery could begin.
On the first day of winter, Dec. 21, 1995, with a cold breeze sweeping off the lake and snow flakes brushing against our faces, 18 Passionist Nuns accompanied by an army of volunteers moved a whole monastery from Benita Avenue in Owensboro to 8564 Crisp Road in Whitesville! This was the day of the big move and we could hardly believe it!
In a joyous celebration, the new monastery had been blessed by our bishop a few weeks before, while the unfinished chapel would not be completed for several more months.
With no hot water or floor coverings in many areas yet, we had a formidable challenge before us as winter began. There was, however, more than enough work to keep our minds off these inconveniences. It was enough for us that God was calling us to celebrate Christmas on Crisp Road.
The trucks were quickly loaded and began the fourteen mile drive to Whitesville. Fr. Leonard Reisz had enlisted several St. Vincent de Paul men with their truck to assist in moving the heavier items, and the Durchholz brothers from Southern Indiana drove huge semi-trucks over to assist in the move. Tony Lanham and his son Brandon, plus countless others impossible to list, set to work with vigor to help in this arduous move.
Excitement filled the air, as the array of trucks, jammed to capacity with furniture and all manner of items, pulled up by the statue of St. Joseph at the front monastery entrance. The Durchholz brothers, most of whom are about six foot five, often stopped us in our tracks as they lifted heavy furniture with incredible ease. Had it not been for all these helpers, we probably would have had a few broken backs!
Smaller trucks and cars were everywhere, as all available vehicles of relatives and friends had also been enlisted. A monastery is not just where we live. A monastery is a little city of God, where we work, where we welcome visitors, and most especially where we gather in chapel seven times a day to worship God and intercede for the Church and the world. It would be like trying to move your home furnishings, your work place, and your church all in one day!!
Soon, the empty refectory (monastic dining area) and recreation room were nearly piled to the ceiling with furniture and boxes, all carefully marked for their destination. Just getting them to Crisp Road was only the first step. Then all had to be directed to its assigned room. The process had only begun.
That evening, we ate in the retreat house, hardly believing that we were actually at Crisp Road! Tired and weary, yet happy chatter filled the room as each one marveled at the outpouring of generous help from relatives and friends that had made possible not only that day’s big move, but the entire relocation itself.
Early the next morning, Dec. 22, our first Mass was celebrated in what is now the retreat house library. Jesus, the Living Bread come down from heaven, had taken possession of His new home! Since that day, the celebration of the Eucharist, and Our Lord’s Real Presence with us in the Blessed Sacrament, has remained at the center of our Passionist contemplative life, strengthening us in times of suffering and trial as well as times of joy.
Our first Christmas on Crisp Road—amid mountains of unpacked boxes and furniture—volunteers managed to put up a Christmas tree. One of the Nuns found a crib set buried amid the hundreds of boxes piled everywhere. Yes, it truly was “Christmas”—for new life in Christ was being born in our hearts for the sake of God’s people everywhere. The vision was slowly being fulfilled.
The journey was not all joy, of course, and we didn’t expect it to be. Passionists know that new life in the Church comes forth only by a profound sharing in the Passion. Our relocation journey is a treasured memory of a communal experience of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our hearts burn within us as we ponder these things, remembering them with you.