We had a quiet October this year: post-Covid life has gone smoothly and well in general, with one notable change. Bede did not return to presiding Mass when we started back, owing to mobility issues. He still concelebrates, happily, and on other fronts, such as the laundry, is just as active. He got in to see Brother Léo at Foyer Assomption this month, and at the same time, encountered many friends from years past.

     Counting Bede, we are four in house presently, all Priests.

     Dom Innocent was able to attend the installation of Moncton’s new Archbishop, Msgr. Guy Desrochers.

     We raised the price of our honey from seven dollars, to eight the bottle.

     Father Roger gave the large laundry room a tidy-up, including the mysterious corner which, for some reason, had non-laundry items such as fishing rods in it.

     A friend gave us lobster for lunch one day.

     We learned of the passing of Bella Caissie, beloved niece of Calvaire’s Dom Alphonse Arsenault. Prior to Alphonse’s death, nearly thirty years ago, Bella was of great support to him, but they had always been close.

     Late in the month, one of the ‘petits oblats’ of the Calvaire juniorate of long ago, returned with great excitement to a place where he spent a golden part of his childhood. In his late nineties now, he says he can still dance, three hours at a go. It had been quite a while since one of the petits oblats returned here, and a familiar picture from the past emerged, of monks well-suited to dealing with children: monks with deep piety, marked good nature; a gentle sense of humor and proportion.