A Sweet Alternative

Sisters will capture the wind to make their noted confections

By MARCIA GREEN, Valley Breeze Editor

WRENTHAM, Mass. - Don't be fooled by the meadow of sheep or the charming bell that calls the nuns to prayer.

A contemplative life, it seems, is also a sophisticated one for the 46 nuns of Mount Saint Mary's Abbey on the Wrentham-Franklin border.

Bid packages go out later this month for the $5.5 million expansion of their worldwide candy-making enterprise.

Consider Sister Mariann Garrity. She's got a 130-foot-tall wind turbine on order to power the new candy-making center.

Or Sister Pamela Clinton who plans geothermal heating of the new candy house and solar panels for hot water.

Or Sister Janice O'Neill who's got a brand-new gift shop in the works to capitalize on the increased production possible with the new machinery.

Located just a stone's throw from the Big Apple farm stand, on 600 acres of old dairy farm, the abbey was established by Boston's Cardinal Cushing in 1949 as the first Cistercian abbey of nuns in the United States. The candy, called Trappistine Quality Candy, came along five years later as a means of support.

This month, despite a shortfall in fund-raising - they've raised $2.5 million of the $5.5 million needed - and after several construction changes that delayed them, they're moving forward with certainty that support will flow and continue to finance the operation that sustains them.

On tap is not only a new candy house, but a gift shop and new business office. They're looking at a nine-month construction period that could start as soon as this fall.

"This project is absolutely necessary for our future," Sister Clinton told The Valley Breeze last week.

The nuns say their green approach to new construction says a lot about their values.

Said Sister Garrity, "I would say one would hope a group of nuns trying to live simply would try to be pace-setters and model something we want the world to do differently.

"We pray seven times a day saying 'all you winds bless the Lord.' I would hope we would practice what we preach."

Said Sister O'Neill, "Everything in nature is a blessing, it's the presence of God."

While these nuns may be known for their famous Munch bars, the real business of this abbey at 300 Arnold St. is prayer and praising God. Chocolate pays the bills and unites them in a task that continues a 1,000-year-old Cistercian tradition of living off the fruits of their labor.

A half-century of that labor put them at a crossroads several years ago when the shed that's their candy house was declared no longer suitable. The sisters plunged ahead with a plan to modernize using planet-preserving alternative energy as much as possible.

They've been sharing their story with area newspapers in hopes of attracting donations to the project and boosting candy sales at their abbey gift shop.

They soon may be talking to northern Rhode Island Roman Catholic parishes, too. The Providence Diocese has approved a request to cross the border on Sunday mornings in search of donors.

Money to date has come from the sale of 11 acres of land to a builder, gifts from the Dr. Scholl Foundation, other foundations and individuals.

Last Friday about a dozen of the nuns were stirring up temptation in the long shed that's serving its last season as the candy house.

Stainless steel equipment, some brand-new to fill the candy house that's been delayed, includes machines for melting and mixing, wrapping and packaging.

Their new equipment is so much more powerful that not all can be operated at the same time.

Some new wiring and the new wind turbine will fix that immediately, in time for the busy Christmas season that will begin for them in September.

The nuns indicated sales of their confections, like many of the luxury items of life, have been dimmed by the economy. Still, last year saw them sell some 25,000 boxes of the sweet stuff to outlets around the world thanks in part to their Web site and mail order business.

This is a place where the call to prayer comes seven times a day, starting at 3:30 a.m. and ending with vespers at 7 p.m.

Most of the services are open to the public and they do have company in their chapel that seats about 120 guests.

Visitors this month may see nuns dressed in trousers while painting the alcove that serves as the abbey's store. The spruce-up will increase shelf space and "be a little more user-friendly," suggests Sister Clinton.

It's Sister Garrity who's responsible for the wind turbine that's on its way in September. A former abbess was visiting Portsmouth Abbey when she spotted the wind mill and set Sister Garrity to work.

A feasibility study found "we have a great location" for a turbine, she said.

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative is providing $225,000 of the total $525,000 cost in design and construction.

Being assembled now in Vermont along with some destined for Alaska, the 100 kilowatt model is due on site in late September. The turbine is expected to meet 90 percent of the abbey's electrical needs. On windy nights, the abbey will be selling excess electricity back to the National Grid.

The permits she secured included one from Franklin because the windmill will be actually located in that town, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration that analyzed its height in terms of flight patterns.

The nuns' quest for alternative energy has also led them to plan to heat the candy house through a geothermal system of one to three wells and they'll be installing solar panels for hot water. Temperature control is critical to the candy process, they point out. The goal is 40 percent humidity and 65 to 68 degrees.

They also collect rainwater for irrigation.

Candy flavors here include Belgium milk chocolate and dark chocolate almond barks, chocolate fudge, maple walnut penuche and the best-selling Butter Nut Munch.

Says the pamphlet tucked inside the boxes, "Our monastic life has a single simple goal - union with God. It is a life of prayer and praises with a strong emphasis community focus and deeply veined with joy.

"Work is part of our prayer and self-gift. While making candy or baking bread or caring for our sheep, we carry the whole world to God that it may be recreated in love. This love is our bond with all peoples and situations."

Nuns here have an old tradition of silence - "because of its relationship to prayer" says Mother Maureen McCabe - that was happily replaced following Vatican II in the 1960s with more spoken communication.

They have retained a simple habit worn when not in work clothes that's similar to the garb of Cistercian monks - a white tunic-styled dress covered by a black scapula or apron. Footwear is more personal - many of the nuns sport sneakers or sandals.

Sister O'Neill says the monks and nuns are part of a single order with 170 monasteries worldwide. Each house is autonomous but every two years leaders meet to discuss shared concerns. There are about five monasteries in the U.S. for women and 12 for men.

Best known by Cumberland area residents are the Cistercian monks in Spencer who were located at the Monastery Grounds off Diamond Hill Road before a massive fire in 1950 - and the desire for a more rural setting - drove them to Massachusetts.

Each Cistercian abbey is self-supporting like Wrentham's. In Iowa they make caramels, in Virginia it's cheese. California Trappists make honey and in Arizona they make communion hosts. In Spencer, the monks make jams and jellies that are sold in area shops, including the Wrentham gift shop.

Do they eat a lot of candy?

"Noooo," says Sister Bonitas Choi.

"We are very austere people here. Very strict."

They give into temptation, they say, only on religious feast days.

Sister Bonitas, who came from South Korea seven years ago to continue a religious life that began right out of school, has taken charge of the candy-making operation this year.

"Our labor is so important to us. It is our solidarity. Our labor is very sacred to us."

The gift shop is open Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and after Masses on Sunday. Candy is also for sale on the abbey's Web site, www.msmabbey.org .

The gift shop sells religious items, such as books, rosaries, greeting cards and Mass cards, as well as the goods of other Cistercian orders.

By the way, the nuns are on Facebook and do tweet on Twitter.

- Mount St. Mary's Abbey, 300 Arnold St., Wrentham, can be found easily. From north Cumberland, follow Route 121 past Mercymount Country Day School north into Wrentham. A few miles down the road, you'll find the signs for the Big Apple orchard. Take the left turn to Big Apple. The abbey sign and driveway are just a few hundred yards beyond the popular orchard.