Holiday Weekend

It's been a very cold, rainy and damp month of May for us, so to have a warm and sunny Memorial Day weekend has been a welcome holiday indeed. We've been able to eat outside on the patio, actually go to prayer without wearing sweaters and just generally be thrilled to feel the warmer air and see the sunshine all day.

So here's some beauty for the first unofficial day of summer, at least here in the four-seasons northeast.



A unique shot of the roof of the walkway that connects our two residential wings. It must have been taken from one of the patios---obviously after a rainstorm.








Photo by Bernadette Sullivan, OSB

As Sunday was the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), here is an excerpt from a contemporary reading that we used in the Vigil of Sunday prayer Saturday evening.

If bread could talk,
it would tell us about silver stalks
pushing up in the dark, blind soil,
searching for sun, light and air.

If bread could talk, it would tell us about leavening--
yeast and dough and ferment.

If bread could talk,
it would tell us about a wife's breadboard--
scarred, dented, warmed by loaves lifted from the oven and left on wood to cool.

If bread could talk
it would tell us the source of tears,
of anguish and love,
of mourning and joy.

If bread could talk,
it would tell us that this earth is honey for all beings
and all beings are honey for this earth.

If bread could talk,
it would sing us forward into forgiveness
and back into the very heart of God.

Nathan Mitchell



The doors to our cloister walk that connects the chapel with the dining room. I think Stephanie caught it in just the right light.








Photo by Stephanie Schmidt, OSB