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Sister Mary-Grace Alles receives the habit at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Walburga
- Emily Woodham
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
By Emily Woodham
Staff Writer
Sister Mary-Grace Alles, parishioner of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, entered the novitiate at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Walburga in Virginia Dale, Colorado, on March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, this year.
Entering the novitiate includes the “clothing ceremony,” in which novices are clothed in their habits and the mother abbess cuts their hair. St. Walburga’s Abbey is cloistered and limits communication between its nuns and the outside world.
Before entering the novitiate, Sister Mary-Grace interviewed with Denver Catholic.
“My whole life, I’ve been closely surrounded by the loving care, the interest, the joy and the formation of a family and community dedicated to a lively and full living of the faith and the liturgical year,” she told the Catholic diocesan magazine. “This is something I’ve been immersed in—the experience and the example of those around me formed in me a love for God and a desire to pursue him. Living this life here [at the abbey] feels in part like an act of gratitude for all these people and all they’ve done for me.”
Following her entrance to the novitiate, Idaho Catholic Register interviewed her parents, Doug and Jennifer Alles, about their daughter’s journey to St. Walburga’s.
Sister Mary-Grace is the fifth of seven children. She is the second of their children to enter religious life. Their oldest son, Father Anthony Joseph Alles (baptized “Nathaniel Joseph”), is a monk and priest at the Maronite Monastery of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Castle Rock, Washington. In the growing shortage of vocations to the priesthood and Religious life, their family stands out.
Doug, retired executive director of Catholic Charities, and Jennifer are both converts to the Catholic faith. Doug was raised without religious beliefs, and Jennifer was raised in the Baptist Church. They entered the Orthodox Church before becoming Catholic. All seven of their children were born in Portland, Oregon, where Doug worked in the Archdiocese of Portland. In 2014, they moved to Boise when Doug accepted the position as executive director for Catholic Charities of Idaho. He retired in 2024.
“It seems like we did not specifically talk a lot about Religious vocations when the kids were growing up,” Jennifer said. “It was just a natural part of our life, mostly because we ourselves loved the monastic ways.”
The Alleses homeschooled their children and incorporated Catholic materials into their lessons.
“As converts, we didn’t really know how to raise Catholic kids,” Jennifer said. “We kind of took to heart the Eastern Orthodox saying, ‘Every home a little monastery,’ and celebrated many of the saints’ days with particular foods, decorated the windows for the great feasts like Pentecost and All Saints, made crafts for various liturgical seasons, and decked the hearth with purple ribbons during Advent and Lent. The kids drew the Stations of the Cross every year and we would put them up in order around the house and we’d say the stations by candlelight during Lent. We decked the house with flower garlands for all of Easter season.”
They also had family prayers each night. “Early on it was the rosary, and later we had other prayers,” Doug said. “Sometimes we did a better job at this, and sometimes we kind of faltered. But overall, we kept going with nightly family prayers.”
Doug frequently went to a Trappist monastery near their home for retreats and spiritual direction. He brought home books and artwork from the monastery, which eventually became a place of quiet prayer for the family.
“I do believe that kids are observing parents more than you realize. What parents do, how we spend our time, what we prioritize matters,” he said. “Also, it was common for us to have priests come to visit us at home for dinner, house blessings and for family events. It made their vocations and way of life more accessible to, and real for, our kids.”
Their son, Father Anthony Joseph, used to pretend to be a priest when he was little.
“I made a little chasuble for Father Anthony when he was small,” Jennifer said. “He (and his younger brothers, in their turn) used to ‘play Mass’ and have doll baptisms.”
The Alles family was involved with different religious communities in Oregon. Their home parish was staffed by at least five Dominican priests at any given time who lived in a priory next to the church. Also, when Mary-Grace was growing up, the Alles family attended the Easter Vigil Mass at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon every single year. This meant leaving the house at 3:15 in the morning to arrive in time for what was then a 4:30 a.m. service early on Easter morning.
“Seeing and hearing the singing of the monks in the candlelit darkness no doubt had an impact on her,” Doug said.
In her teen years, their family also became acquainted with the Saint John Society, a dynamic young order of priests based in Argentina that staffs the Portland State University Newman Center.
The Alles family moved out to the countryside of Oregon when Mary-Grace was 1 and Nathaniel was 12.
“This meant our kids got to participate in 4-H. They got to raise animals, including chickens. They built treehouses and roamed more freely,” Jennifer explained. “Keeping the world at arm’s length was something we tried intentionally to do, but without being weird or fearful about it.”
After graduating from high school, Mary-Grace went to Hillsdale College. She then taught at a classical school in Austin, Texas, for two years. She accepted a position at St. Paul’s School in Nampa in 2021. Jennifer flew to Austin to accompany Mary-Grace on the 26-hour drive back to Boise.
“I was vaguely familiar with St. Walburga’s in Colorado because we have friends who are great fans of the abbey,” Jennifer said. She had also read an article about the unusual “rancher nuns.” She called the abbey to see about staying there overnight on their way back to Boise.
“It was the perfect stopping place for the long trip, being 10 hours from Boise,” Jennifer recalled. “We got there in time for Vespers and Compline. We walked the abbey road as the sun set and drank in the stillness and beauty. We each got our own charming guest room with a handmade quilt on the bed. After morning Mass, we left.”
Although the stay was brief, Mary-Grace took her time at the abbey to heart. “Mary-Grace is warm and personable, but she tends to keep her cards close to her chest, as they say,” Doug said. “She was not one to share her discernment process with everyone.”
In late August 2024, Mary-Grace surprised her family with the announcement that she was going to drive the 700 miles to St. Walburga’s for a weeklong visit at the abbey.
“A bit after her return, she told us that she was going to go back to the abbey and was going to stay for three months this time. And she wouldn’t be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas,” Doug recalls.
Jennifer said she realized how serious Mary-Grace’s discernment was when Mary-Grace left for the airport for her three-month stay at the abbey.
“When Doug drove her to the airport at 3:30 in the morning, I cried in my bed, beginning to have an inkling of the loss I would feel if she entered. We did not really know what she was thinking or feeling about her visit, but we didn’t pry or pressure her for details.”
When Mary-Grace returned from the abbey in January 2025, she shared that she had asked the abbess, Mother Maria-Michael, for permission to enter St. Walburga’s as a postulant.
“We were filled with wonder, awe and lots of feelings,” Jennifer said. “I cried a lot during this time. Whenever I thought about myself, I cried; whenever I thought about her, I was happy and at peace.”
Mary-Grace wanted to enter as soon as she could get her life in order. Before her decision, she had paid off her college loans from Hillsdale College by paying it down regularly, beginning with her very first paycheck. After January, she set about getting rid of all her things.
“She gave away clothes and books to her sisters and her friends. She threw away papers and things from college. It occurred to us that if she, God forbid, had died, then we would be tasked with getting rid of her things in just this manner. But here, before our eyes, she was doing it for herself,” Doug said. “It was a bit painful to watch her doing this, but she just kept going until almost nothing was left.”
Mary-Grace kept three or four favorite items of clothing in her closet in case she might discern during her postulant year that she was not called to Religious life. Everything else was gone.
In February, she stood as godmother to her new nephew. Then at First Vespers of the feast of St. Joseph, March 18, 2025, she entered the postulancy. She entered the novitiate on March 19, 2026, the Solemnity of St. Joseph.
“Mary-Grace made one weekend visit to the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist when she was in college, but she really didn’t visit or contact any other places while discerning her vocation,” Doug said. “We’re sure that having a brother enter monastic life was a positive influence.”
Having two children in cloistered communities can be difficult.
“We cannot see them or even communicate with them very easily,” Doug explained. “They won’t be coming home anymore, although Sister Mary-Grace will make a required two-week visit to us sometime this year. Our son’s vocation came very slowly over time, as his community was just being formed at the start of his journey to Religious life. We had time to adjust to his cloistered life. Sister Mary-Grace’s vocation as a Benedictine honestly fits her personality really well, but the Benedictine vow of stability (staying for one’s whole life in the same monastery and not leaving), especially for Jen, that was hard.”
Although it can be difficult to surrender to a child’s vocation to the priesthood or Religious life, frequenting the sacraments does help, Jennifer said.
“I think we parents should habitually be reading the lives of the saints. Through their stories, which are so varied, fascinating and inspiring, the idea of Religious vocations for our kids becomes beautiful, natural, desirable and even heroic.”
In the Benedictine order, formation lasts from eight to 12 years. Simple vows will be said after two years in the novitiate. Final vows are not said for at least another five years after that.
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