Conception Abbey and Clyde Convent

I'm a real stickler about homeschooling my youngest two like I did the oldest two. No slacking on the classical curriculum and well-rounded calendar of enrichment. So I have been looking forward to the field trip today for many months! (I believe I took Meggar and Dorito both before and sometime after the twins were born...) Today I took Winger and Polar Bear to Conception Abbey and Clyde Convent with the Catholic homeschool group's field trip.

We had a chatty monk lead our tour group at the Abbey, and he was wonderful. He knew all the history and significance and talked so fast that it was very interesting. He helped my students try to translate the Latin on the icons. We stayed for 11:45 mass, which was attended by 30 of the monks. The murals are so beautiful, the chant echoed peacefully through the high-arches of the ceiling. (I won't even mention the remodeling in 1999 which took out the high altars, side altars, communion rail, and statues. sigh*)

Then we stayed for their hospitality and a lunch buffet before driving to the nearby convent in Clyde.

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration have an INCREDIBLE chapel with mosaic murals and carvings and statues everywhere. (They no longer practice perpetual adoration, however.) But they are famous for their collection of relics (amassed between World War I and II) from hundreds of friends and benefactors. We looked for our patron saints and noted which reliquary held the most bone fragments. Then I explained the origin of the phrase "red tape" and we browsed the gift shop. This field trip certainly was the best way to reinforce our recent theology lesson of "oral Tradition" with a capital T.