DECEMBER 2019

Sunday 1st. Father Bede found a 90-minute choral music for Advent mix on You Tube to play for us at lunch, beginning with a swashbuckling number, ‘Wake, Awake, For Night is Flying’. Monday 2nd. At noon meals, we have put aside for a bit martyrolgy readings, as the sort of postlude to the main book,…

Friday 1st. Father Stephen presided Mass and gave a good homily, also pitching in Saturday. Despite a bit of wind remaining from yesterday, Father Stephen got out for a walk this afternoon, in temperatures in between warm and cold. 12 miles from the Mississippi, the monastery he will soon be returning to has already received…

Tuesday 1st. Dom Innocent facilitated a retreat in the north of the province today. Our mail lady recounted her successful moose hunt this morning, as she left our mail. Hunting is part of life still, around here; and family life, at that. Students and faculty, and even some family of faculty from the Emmanuel Baptist…

Sunday 1st. Brother Stephan helped out a departing guest who had tire trouble. Monday 2nd. The translator of this chronicle projects a visit soon, and that will be nice. Brother Stephan fixed the fooderator food service unit in the refectory this morning, so that food will be kept hot all along it. Steve has also…

Thursday 1st. Today, Brother Stephen hauled a fallen tree uphill out of the grotto. A guest was struck at how evocative their return to the guesthouse was, different details of the surroundings clearly evoking moments passed here years ago. Outside, the latest wave of cats is turning out better hunters than we’ve seen in a…

Monday 1st. Overcast morning twilight is now highlighted by security lighting out front; the trees look splendid. I thought the racoons would shy away from this light but they seem to enjoy extended hours of grazing. On the side of the monastery, the new lighting is just above eye-level, giving a Hogan’s Heroes-esque feel to…

Saturday, June 1st. Our bird feeder draws some songbirds, but the sisters’ feeders draw a greater variety of birds. Sunday, June 2nd. A new floodlight debuted, lighting the area in front of the guesthouse through the night. The light happens to fall in a nice way on the statue of the Blessed Virgin there. At…

Wednesday 1st. With a new month ahead of us, monks select dates ahead of time on the vehicle sign out sheet. Father Innocent will be going to Quebec in May. Other monks have medical appointments. Victoria and Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant is the new refectory book. It is quite detailed,…

Monday 1st. April having arrived, the worst of winter having more or less ended, we see faces we have not seen in a while in the guesthouse. As one catches up with them, the positive dimensions of life—things having gone good for them—are often striking.  Tuesday, 2nd. The mighty Ford Lariat returned from the Miramichi…

Friday 1st. The first reading at Mass was Ben Sirach, with highly-developed advice on human relations. With some outside Mass goers also in attendance, the mood changed a bit, just then. The silence seemed more alive, more personal. It reminded me of a Baptist friend who’d tried different Churches down south in the US, even…