APRIL 2018

Sunday 1st. It is a unique feeling to see neighbours rolling in, very early in the day, for the blessing of the Easter Fire leading up to Eucharist. Everyone in assistance seems more present; more implicated then. Father Bede presided, and for the homily, read Saint John Chrysostom’s Easter Homily: “Let no one mourn that…

Thursday 1st. In the night, clouds slightly obscured the moon which, this night, will be full. On a clear night, the full moon can provide quite a lovely vista here, a little like in a storybook. Medical wrappings were removed from the cows’ treated hooves this afternoon. ‘Sede vacante’ went into effect today, and we…

Thursday 1st. We’ve learned of the passing of someone who had helped Father Clovis produce apple juice over many seasons. The world she closed her eyes on was the better for having known one so gentle. Friday 2nd. In the night, a bit of ice slid down the steep barn roof. The moon was barely…

  Monday 1st. Some funny looking cheeses appeared on a cheese board in the refectory for breakfast: a treat -we must be into a new year! In Chapter, we each greete d all the other monks for the first time this year, and out came the calendars. The Abbot shows us the different calendars we’ve…

Friday 1st. This afternoon, mild and very humid out, it smelled like spring. The humidity was hurting our youngest full-time farmer’s arthritis. Our refectory book is getting into the nitty gritty of proceedings just before the fourth of July 1776 in the USA. It’s been said, and not as a criticism, that Americans differ from…

Wednesday 1st. Feast of All Saints – 115th anniversary of our foundation. Dom Bede gave a nice homily at Mass which, with only a few attending, had an intimate feel. During Mass, you could just hear the skid steer moving about on the farm; leaves having fallen, farm life acoustics are better than ever! Thursday 2nd.…

Sunday 1st. This morning, sunlight was touching the scaffolding on the south, front side of the future repair shop. Pigeons and starlings can be seen there sometimes, other times no. Crows and pigeons seem to be more numerous now that the barn swallows have more or less disappeared. Brother Glic says the Generalate in Rome…

Monday 4th. Father Roger made some tomato juice from garden tomatoes today. I asked a guest how she’d enjoyed her long weekend here. ‘Not long enough’, she said. Others stopping by, or staying: gentlemen of the road; New Englanders reconnecting with Canadian roots; people from Northern NB returning to rediscover a monastery from their childhood.…

Tuesday 1st. For the moment we’re fewer than usual. Brother Stephan has left the organ to sing Lauds and Vespers with us for a bit. Having him solo on hymns is a bit of a refresher course on ways to interpret a given melody, as he wrote the music to a lot of the hymns.…

Saturday 1st. The mosquitoes assembled for a Canada Day fly-by as the calves were being fed this morning. Stirring. Dom Bede for his part was one province west this Canada Day, on the first leg of his journey to the Lac Saint Jean region of Québec. Sunday 2nd. This afternoon, some folks could be heard…