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SEPTEMBER 2009
Wednesday
2 – Our farm team is ploughing the Trappistines’ big field. The sisters are all very
happy about it. It feels to them as though their farm has come back to life. Nonetheless
the harvest will be for our cows.
The Abbot announced a little experiment with the schedule, in order to have a slot
for the Abbot’s chapter talks in the morning after Lauds. The experiment will begin 13 September
at Compline.
Friday 4 – Brother Henry had an appointment in Moncton.
Father Graham drove him.
Saturday 5 – A group of old friends
from Miramichi came to see Brother Henry. So the hermit was dragged out of his solitude!
Sunday 6 – 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Father Innocent replaced Father Clovis this week
for Mass at the sisters’. This evening we begin our annual retreat, preached by Father Georges Madore,
a De Montfort Father, well-known in Quebec.
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| Work has begun on the cranberry development in Rogersville |
Monday 7 – We are
very happy with our retreat-giver. He is very lively and his lines of argument are easy to follow.
The theme is “My personal story with God in the light of the Prophets.”
Tuesday 8 – Sean Tobin, from Moncton, is with us. He is one of our associates or
external oblates.
Wednesday 9 – Our retreat continues.
Thursday 10 – Our stalwart cooks have deep-frozen a huge quantity
of French beans and maize. We actually sold a surplus of beans.
Friday 11 – Our retreat-preacher succeeds in keeping us attentive and communicates an attractive teaching
besides. He is a born actor as well.
Saturday 12 – Father
Madore brought the retreat to a close by celebrating our community Mass, and gave a fine homily.Early this
morning Father Graham left for Wales to attend a course for formators.
Sunday 13 – Father Innocent was the principal celebrant at our Mass and the Abbot went to say Mass for
the nuns, which he will do until Father Clovis comes back later in the week.
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| Starlings on the chicken barn roof ready to leave for the winter |
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| Apples again! |
Monday 14 –
Feast of the Holy Cross. We inaugurated our experimental timetable and had Chapter after Lauds.
Tuesday 15 – Feast of Our Lady of Calvary, patronal feast of our community. We had
a solemn Mass with a homily by the Abbot and a festive meal with fish! We put the tables together and had
a good exchange at the meal.
Wednesday 16 – Br. Stephan
and I had appointments in Miramichi, him with the dentist and me with the eye specialist about my cataracts.
Thursday 17 – Thursday evenings we still have our video slot. These last few weeks
it has been “Planet Earth” produced by BBC America. It is very interesting.
Friday 18 – Father Clovis was back with us this morning to take up his role again of celebrating Mass
for the sisters across the street. He also got straight back into his work in the orchard.
He is very energetic at this work.
Saturday 19 – We
have lived through our first week with the new schedule. It seems satisfactory, but some of us have had
difficulty in remembering where we were supposed to be at a given moment. We will get into it.Today we
got everything ready for the apple-picking; we picked up the windfalls and prepared the store where the apples can be kept
until we are ready to turn them into juice.
Sunday 20 – 25th
Sunday of Ordinary Time. Brother Henry was 70 today.
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| The lone apple-picker |
Monday 21 – The migrant Canada geese are back in the
region again. They enjoy taking a break on our lake.
Tuesday
22 – Brother Stephan has decided to give peat-moss a try as bedding for our cows. A big truck
load was delivered today. We had little alternative. All the sawmills in the region
have closed down, so it is becoming impossible to get sawdust or shavings. There is a company producing
peat-moss not very far away, just at the other side of Rogersville.
Wednesday 23 – Feast of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.In chapter the Abbot announced two significant pieces of news. The Pope has appointed the
current Nuncio in Canada, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, Nuncio in Paris. The Pope has also announced the next
International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in 2012.Then the Abbot spoke about Saint
Symeon the New Theologian, basing himself on a recent Wednesday audience catechesis of the Pope’s.
Thursday 24 – This morning Brother Stephan arrived in
the barn to find the place underwater due to a burst pipe.Roger
Gallant, one of our farm workers, is back on the job after a break caused by an over-excitable cow.
Friday 25 – Late
this evening, Father Graham came back from his formation workshop in Wales. Saturday 26 – We had a few guests this week. Unusually, they seemed to turn up later
in the week.
Sunday 27 – 26th Sunday in
Ordinary Time. There were a lot of people at the Mass, including a large number of children.
Tuesday 29 – The Abbot went to take part
in a meeting of the Bishops and Major Religious Superiors of the French-speaking region of Atlantic Canada.
Wednesday 30 – In chapter this morning, Father Graham
gave us a report on the formators’ workshop he had attended in Wales. This meeting was open to various
contemplative Orders and Religious Congregations. There were four Trappists present.
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