- Author archive
Joy Jensen SL

Editor’s note: We are featuring interviews of Loretto Community elders. We are grateful to the sisters and to Joy Jensen for sharing wonderful snapshots of our beloved Community members. The…
Read MoreIn March 2020, life changed for us residents of the infirmary. In medieval England anchorites and anchoresses lived alone in stone cells attached to a church and had the mission…
Read MoreIf you drive to Bardstown, Ky., on Route 49 from Loretto, you will see a high, cone-shaped hill rising from the surrounding trees near the hamlet of Holy Cross. Everyone…
Read MoreA few years ago a juvenile red-tailed hawk was injured while flying into an electrical line. It died of starvation. I searched and found it under a tree. I stroked…
Read MoreDid you know that our Loretto Motherhouse farm is an ecosystem? Remember that an ecosystem is made up of living and non-living things that interact and exchange energy. A farm…
Read MoreBLittle Loretto (the first Loretto Motherhouse, located near St. Charles, Ky.) is an example of Upland South folk architecture in early 19th century Kentucky. Folk architecture is architecture built for…
Read MoreLittle Loretto occupies a sacred place in Loretto’s history and memory. The landscape of Little Loretto evokes what is precious in Loretto spirituality. Little Loretto is an example of landscape…
Read MoreA bird feeder hangs outside on my Infirmary window. A Chipping sparrow visits it daily and is occasionally joined by a Harris’s sparrow. After eating they fly to the Japanese…
Read MoreEditor’s Note: This is the last of the four-part series. The Loretto Motherhouse is situated in the Ohio River Basin. The basin is an area that drains into the Ohio…
Read MoreDid you ever spot a Kentucky Warbler or a Yellow-breasted Chat? They fly freely in the Loretto Motherhouse forests. They are neotropical migratory birds that are protected under the Migratory…
Read MoreEditor’s note: Joy has written a series of four articles to inform us about the ecosystem at the Motherhouse. In this issue, we will present the first two. Look for…
Read MoreWe have read about ecosystems. But what are ecosystem services? The notion was popularized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report in 2005, and it is often used in forest management…
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