Friday 1st. Some farm equipment was remade at a shop in the area. For such an out of the way place, our part of the province has some fine services to draw on.

Saturday 2^nd. Monks seemed to be tidying up, today. Outside, temperatures just above normal are producing a mild and lovely late summer.  

Sunday 3^rd. Dom Innocent is on his way back to us.

Monday 4^th. A small tour of the monastery was arranged, for a mother, her daughter, and her daughter’s daughter. Dom Innocent is now back at the altar with us, after a successful, but long, voyage.

Tuesday 5^th. This morning, an old friend of the monastery, who’s the nephew of an even older friend of the monastery, dropped by. At the Foyer Assomption, Brother Leo today was interested in news of the community. In conversation / reflection, he marveled at the drama inherent in each life, all over the world.

Wednesday 6^th. We began a new refectory book, published just this year, “The New Book of Christian Martyrs: The Heroes of Our Faith from the 1st Century to the 21st Century.”

Thursday 7^th. Our summer grounds work employee dropped by to bid us adieu, as his studies resume.

Friday 8^th. A hermitage which had stood unoccupied for years was towed out of our forest, so that it can be repurposed. No longer ensconced by trees, it looks smaller, and more ordinary.

Saturday 9^th. Brother Paul has been studying the waterfowl on our lake, making their annual pre-departure appearance. Though we often call them ‘geese’, he says they seem too small to be geese; they are certainly not Canada geese, which congregate near his New York State abbey.

Sunday 10^th. Covid has made its first appearance within the community, but those affected are making their way through.

Monday 11^th. We received a thank-you, good-bye message from a couple who spend the summer only in Canada, in Rogersville; with wishes for a good winter, and the hope they can get to summer Masses here once again.

Tuesday 12^th. Last week marked seventy years since Brother Leo entered the monastery. He recently received the visit of a close friend from his home town, Memramcook.

Wednesday 13^th. As we nestle in, waiting out the community health situation, all is quiet, and the week is going well.

Thursday 14^th. Equipment continues to be transferred from the old carpentry shop to a newer area.

Friday 15^th. Our patronal feast day, Our Lady of Sorrows / Our Lady of Calvary. This year, the day was more one of quiet thanksgiving. Our stalwart cleaning person got in, and the guesthouse has a new shine for the return of guests, soon.

Saturday 16^th. Tropical storm Lee made its way to us, with its wind and rain. By evening, an eagle was gliding over the lake, in unworried circles.

Sunday 17^th. The occasional car glides by the monastery door to see if we’re back to regular operations, but this has not yet happened.

Monday 18^th. We lost only a few tree branches in the storm. The highway south, which has been looking abandoned and overgrown in some spots, got a roadside trim from wind.

Tuesday 19^th. Dom Innocent had a regular update on Brother Leo at Foyer Assomption; steady as she goes. Brother Leo has been in his bright room there for three months now.

Wednesday 20^th. Invitations were received to attend the installation of Moncton’s seventh Archbishop, Most Reverend Guy Desrochers, CSsR.

Thursday 21^st. Brother Paul Richards set out to visit his home monastery of Genessee, in New York State, happy with the past nine months with us.

Friday 22^nd. Our greenhouse, which has lain empty for a few seasons, received an attentive initial spruce-up.

Saturday 23^rd. A return to choir was a fresh breath this evening, and owing to the season we returned to wearing our cowls.

Sunday 24^th. At lunch, we listened to the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.

Monday 25^th. Our guesthouse received the first small group in a while, and they conducted their own retreat together.  

Tuesday 26^th. We discussed preparations for winter’s snow season, and slower season in terms of visitor traffic. Dom Innocent recounted the success of his recent visit to family. It went very well, except for travel delays returning. 

Wednesday 27^th. The New Book of Christian Martyrs which we are listening to at lunch, is ably wending it’s through the earliest martyrs, and casting its net to some more obscure historical sources, along with standard ones. Given the subject, we have paused the daily readings from the Roman martyrology.  

Thursday 28^th. As expected, the apples this year turned out fairly tiny, and less than robust. Other apple producers experienced the same thing, this year.

Friday 29^th. We jumped back in, to the occasional sung Mass today. We had paused sung Masses the last few weeks, for health reasons, then to give the monks a chance to rebound.

Saturday 30^th. Families are making the most of the beautiful early autumn, sometimes staging formal photo sessions on and around the long monastery entranceway.