Sister Cathleen Marie demonstrates the hot process of soapmaking

On Monday, Sister Cathleen Marie and Sister Judy, the force behind Monastery Scents, hosted a group interested in learning about the soapmaking process.

The group of nine men, women and one child arrived with Betsy Keenan and Brian Terrell, oblates and friends of the Clyde, Missouri, community, who have been hosting a craft retreat at their Catholic Worker community in Iowa.

Sister Cathleen Marie, who uses industrial vats and mixers for her own soapmaking, demonstrated the process on a lesser scale in order to show how retreatants can copy the methods on their own by using common household appliances.

They spent the day learning the differences between cold and hot process soapmaking, types of fragrances and ingredients that are used, how Sister Cathleen Marie began making handcrafted soap 10 years ago and the story behind her addition of holy water to each batch.

Sister Judy demonstrated how she makes the shea butter lotion.

Betsy Keenan remarked how excited the retreatants were to learn about the process of making handcrafted soap. She asked them, “Are you empowered to make your own soap?” Several nodded “yes” with excitement. They left with samples of lotions and soaps, hopefully inspired to create their own in the near future. We had such a great time sharing this ministry!

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