This year the feast of All Saints brought great joy to our community with the Solemn Profession of Sr. Gertrude Feick, OCSO.  Friends and family from her hometown in Indiana came to Redwoods to celebrate with the Redwood's community.  Dom Peter McCarthy, OSCO, Father Immediate of Our Lady of the Redwoods Abbey and Abbot of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Carlton, OR, officiated at the profession.  He was accompanied at the altar by Abbot Paul Mark,OCSO and Dom Thomas, OCSO, Abbot Emeritus.  Both Dom Paul Mark and Dom Thomas are from Our Lady of New Clairvaux Abbey in Vina CA.  

Sr. Kathy DeVico offered a profoundly moving evocation addressed to Sr. Gertrude.

Dear Gertrude,

You have been ‘running’, not running away but running towards.  ‘Running’, a striking symbol for the monastic journey and for the spiritual pilgrimage in general: running to learn…running to love…running to learn how to love.  There are four passages just in the Prologue of the Rule alone where St. Benedict uses the image of ‘running’, for St. Benedict knows that God delights in the one who ‘runs’, in the one who responds not with sluggishness of spirit, not with resistance, but with desire and longing, desire and longing to be God’s incarnate vessel of love and mercy.