Sacred Heart Monastery in Cullman, Alabama.

So I picked up the display from the Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking, it was breath taking. They only finished a day before I was leaving so I did not spend much time with the guys that built it. I didn’t have time. I took notes and they helped me pack it into the back of the Subaru, they back extra tools and bolts, I texted myself all the things that they said. I went with Father Lew to the engraving room and we engraved “THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT” as well as the Woodworking logo. I was so excited for it!

I went back to the shop and finished packing, making sure the scroll was in there, would be just like me to forget the main attraction. Got everything together and made my way to St. Paul to pick up Rachael Jost, my wingman. We headed out about 10am on Friday and were making great time!

We got used to not seeing out the rear window and used our trusty atlas to work on memorizing the state capitals and mapping out the best route. We decided to grab dinner in St. Louis, we found Little Italy on The Hill and dined at a really post old school Italian place called Charlie Giottos, good wine and amazing pasta. We made our way to Mount Vernon, Illinois which we figured would be about 10 hours in to our 15 hours drive, then we could have an easy drive day on Saturday.

Pulling into the Monastery was nice, I knew it was going to be hard labor bringing in all 9 4X6 tables and setting it all up . The Sisters were so kind and so happy that we were there. Setting up was BRUTAL! We got 90% of the way and realized that the scroll was facing the wrong direction so we had to undo the tables and basically start over. It was brutal, but finally after almost 4 hours, it was all set up and looked incredible in that space.

Next morning we decided to join to the Sisters for mass, I have not been to mass in many many years but I like a good church. Rachael and I got there and found our seats, right behind us was a very vocal southern woman who was hilarious. I forgot how much standing and sitting there is at a catholic mass. It was nice, then we all went down for breakfast, there are Sisters here from Korea, the Phillipines, Australia, Italy, France, GReat Britain, and beyond. They were all every excited to meet us.

I am doing a talk later this evening and we got all of our video and PowerPoint stuff all checked out and then we took off for a nap. So far, Alabama is cool, well it’s really hot but it is lovely.